Things Are Picking Up...Finally

OK, so more news.

Firstly, as previously mentioned, Lupe Fiasco is releasing 'Everywhere' from the LupEND trilogy in June. Well, apparently the second disc, 'Nowhere', will arrive sometime later this year too, near Christmas. Nice.

He also addressed CRS, (the collaboration between himself, Pharrell and Kanye, which has thus far spawned only 2 songs) implying that at the moment it's not really on the agenda, but could easily be kicked off again.

Another release date, this time for Lil' Wayne. 'The Carter 3: Rebirth' is coming in April, to be specific April 7th. Not sure whether this is going to be still called TC3: Rebirth, or just Rebirth, but either way it is going to be a 'rock' album with no remakes/same songs as The Carter 3. Apparently, the reason this isn't The Carter 4 is ''cause some people are not gonna like this. We want Carter IV to be what everybody wants it to be."

The first single is called 'Prom Queen' and is certainly different. It's decent, and will probably grow on me. Sceptical about 'Autotune Rock'? It seems to work to be honest, and it's definitely rock, not some half-baked r'n'b effort with a few guitars laced in there. For that reason, I can see this successfully reaching a whole new audience for Wayne.

Another Kanye-related news item: He recently announced plans for a collaborative sneaker range with Louis Vutton. They are due to be released in June, and a few images can be found below:

And The Top Albums of 2008 are...

A little later than promised-sorry! However, I've built up a decent stash of news to post on here in the coming days, so keep it locked over the next week when I can get back to updating daily.

Unlike the previous list, this list will contain 15 albums. This is solely because 2008 has been nothing but music for me, most of it being old stuff that I had never heard and classics that I had skipped across.

As seems the case with a lot of older albums, they tend to be more consistent as a 'block' of music, as opposed to having one or two blindingly outstanding tracks, this being the reason that I could keep the best songs list down to 10.

The same rules apply to this list as the previous one:

-Albums that you only heard this year, the release date DOES NOT have to be 2008.
-Any genre!

Once again, please get involved, it's always good getting some interesting discussion going on.

It doesn't matter if you have or haven't commented before. You don't need to know me/any of the other regular people who comment to get involved!

Here goes, and again in no particular order:

Quietdrive, Deliverance
Nas, Illmatic
Kid Cudi, A Kid Named Cudi Mixtape
Lil' Wayne, The Leak EP/Mixtape
Lloyd, Lessons In Love
The-Dream, Love Hate
Eric B. and Rakim, Paid In Full
Jay-Z, Reasonable Doubt
Wale, Hate is the New Love Mixtape
N.E.R.D., Seeing Sounds
Sway, The Signature LP
Lloyd, Street Love
Sean Garrett, Turbo 919
Kanye West, 808s and Heartbreak
Fall Out Boy, Folie a Deux

By request, I will be posting up a list of my favourite 'songs to hear in a club' of 2008. If there are any other "top 10/15's" that you would like to see on here, let me know.

Madonna (That's Right!) Featuring Pharrell and Kanye West

Yeah, a bit of a guilty pleasure.

It is a pretty funky tune, with a catchy beat and Kanye's verse is good. This song has been around for quite a while, glad to see they made it into a single.

The video is quite conceptual: Madonna isn't even in it! Anyway, it's a track you will inevitably be hearing in clubs and such, so catch a glimpse below.