Some Videos and News To Enjoy

Kicking off with Wale: His first major single has been debuted on US radio, and as previously mentioned, will be 'Chillin' featuring Lady GaGa. (There's an unfinished version of 'Chillin' that's been around for a while, which doesn't have Lady GaGa and Wale's verses are slightly different.)

Anyway, keep an ear out for this, as hopefully it will be a big breakthrough for Wale.

A few videos below, including the video for Asher Roth's 'Lark On My Go-Kart', which is pretty funny, and a quality live performance of 'Sky Might Fall' by Kid Cudi, which proves that he can actually sing quite well. The last video is of 'Buggin' Out 2009' from a recent mixtape by J. Period, 'Tribute to Q-Tip'. (FYI, Buggin' Out is an old A Tribe Called Quest song, in case you didn't know)

The track features Consequence and Kid Cudi, and is a very good song that I've had on repeat for a while. Both Cons and Cudi drop nice verses, and the video is a fun one.

Enjoy!

A Lot of News

It's been a busy few hours.

Firstly, the artwork for Asher Roth's upcoming album, Asleep In The Bread Aisle, was released a few days back. Click the pic for a better view.

A funny picture, although according to Asher we should 'look into the picture and try and find the hidden meaning'. Maybe 'bread' is money, and he's just taking a nap in a money-filled genre/industry? Doing his own thing?

Decide for yourself. He has stated many times that the album won't just be light-hearted efforts in the vein of 'I Love College', which is given further emphasis by the above statement.

Still a great picture though.

The artwork for Asher's next single, Lark on my Go-Kart, is also light-hearted, and can be seen here: http://i.kanyelive.com/uploads/7f8739_asher-go-kart-cover.jpg. Seems as though this should be a fun track too.

Secondly, 50 Cent is following Eminem's suit and also apparently looking to release 2 albums this year. The first, Before I Self Destruct, is scheduled for June.

Thirdly, Wale's debut album has finally been given a confirmed title-Attention: Deficit.

Can't wait to hear this, as Wale has easily become one of my favourite rappers of recent times, on the strength of his mixtapes and features. The first single is also confirmed to be 'Chillin' featuring Lady GaGa. This can clearly be seen as a move to break the mainstream, and will hopefully work out for Wale.

Finally, and most importantly, Kid Cudi has 'announced' that he is 'retiring' from music after his debut album. In a long post on his blog yesterday, he announced that he was sick of the fame, and sick of people claiming he has 'changed' since becoming famous.

This may be simply an impulsive reaction, or a truthful statement. One factor was inevitably the recent altercation at a Reebok event that he was scheduled to perform at, during which he was rumoured to be arrested-all very unusual for someone who is known for being so 'normal'.

(One side of the story says it's because he was wearing Jordans when he turned up and wouldn't change, whereas Cudi claims it was because they were 'unprofessional' and the sound systems sounded like 1980's boomboxes)

Add into this recent comments by Wale on Joe Budden's YouTube channel about Cudi. Cudi and Wale's friendship is well-documented, and they are apparently quite close, however Wale feels 'it's now a different Cudi'. (The video can be seen here-watch it, just to see how funny Wale is!-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP9XORSXQNs).

It's unclear how this will all turn out, and could all be an empty, angry threat that will be (hopefully) taken back. I'll keep you posted.

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.

So...Best of 2008?

It's been a pretty quiet weekend for music/fashion news and exclusives, a trend that I expect to continue until the end of the week at the least.

So, let's do something that inevitably you will see all over TV: What are your favourite songs of this year (in any category)?

They don't necessarily have to have been released this year. My list contains songs that may have been released before 2008, but I only heard this year.

(In a day or two, I'll put up a similar post asking you for your albums. Save that for then.)

Don't be afraid to get involved. I seem to be getting a lot of visits, but only a tiny percentage of you are commenting!

Without further ado, 10 of my favourites (in no order):

-Kanye West, Welcome to Heartbreak Ft. Kid Cudi

-The-Dream, Falsetto

-Quietdrive, Rush Together

-Wale, W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E.

-Sean Garrett, Lay Up Under Me

-The Roots, Criminal Ft. Truck North and Saigon

-Saigon, Believe It Ft. Red 5ive

-GemStones, We On Ft. Lupe Fiasco

-Lil' Wayne, I'm Me

-Mayday Parade-I'd Hate To Be You When People Find Out What This Song Is About

Get involved!

Wale-Nike Boots

Hello!

Wale finally put out a video for what is my favourite original track of his!! (as is standard with mixtapes, a lot of his stuff is freestyling over other people's beats).

I've actually got the remix of this song with Lil' Wayne. Post your email address in the comments if you want me to send this over.

Find the video here.