This One Is For The Real Hip-Hop Heads

A short post.

My recent, delayed love for Joe Budden (Padded Room to be specific) has been fully compounded by the brilliance of the new Slaughterhouse track, 'Wack MCs'.

(For those of you not in the know, Slaughterhouse is a hip-hop supergroup comprised of Budden, Royce Da 5'9", Joell Ortiz and Crooked I-four of the best lyrical rappers around.) Royce's verse is priceless, and definitely the standout on the track, although Budden doesn't disappoint with the opener either.

Look for a Padded Room review coming soon, definitely a contender for album of the year.

Also, if you get 5 minutes, check out a very, very cool interview with Asher Roth below. Expect to come away from that video with serious respect for how down-to-earth and intelligent Asher is.

"If Hip-Hop Is All Smoke and Mirrors, Then I'm The Windex and the Napkins"-Joe Budden.

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.

88-Keys Ft. Kanye West: Stay Up! (Viagra) Video

Sports fans,

Do yourself a few favours here.

-First off, watch the video embedded below, funny stuff!
-Secondly, support the artist and buy the video/song from iTunes.
-Thirdly, check out 88-Keys' album, 'The Death of Adam', again available on iTunes. A review of the album to come soon.

Mike Posner and Big Sean

Two names for the future: Big Sean and Mike Posner.

Mike Posner: A newcomer who is still a University student over in the US, but is making some moves to get his name known. He has features on the awesome Big Sean mixtape, Finally Famous (Links are below) and on tracks from Big Sean's upcoming album of the same title, namely 'Who Knows', on which he drops a smooth, likable hook.

Posner seamlessly glides across a multitude of genres, from R'n'B, Indie, Hip-Hop and Pop all at once, giving you a style of music that will definitely convince you that he has a sound that is uniquely his.

The mixtape 'A Matter of Time' (released last week) has a nice weighting between original material and covers/remixes. It's probably not even fair to call them covers or remixes, as he takes popular songs such as Beyoncé's 'Halo' and The Fray 'Over My Head' and weaves them into his own distinct sound.

I'll let you make your own judgements on him, but he's got a style that will appeal to a range of tastes, and is definitely a name to look out for. The link below is a free iTunes download of his mixtape, and should automatically take you to the iTunes store link. A full review to come in the near future.

Big Sean: The easiest way to describe Big Sean is Kid Cudi before Kid Cudi was Kid Cudi. Complicated? Exactly.

Big Sean, who is signed to Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music label, dropped Finally Famous back in 2007 and unfortunately hasn't put anything else out since. There's talk of an upcoming mixtape, 'UKNOWBIGSEAN', but with no definite release date as of yet.

Sean has a versatility and flow about him that compliments his decent lyrical ability and charisma on any given track. Sean exudes confidence on the mixtape, and shows more than a hint of potential.

The mixtape is predominantly original material, most of which comes with an uptempo flow and positive vibe. Big Sean definitely has the potential to be a big name, but the lack of any substantial follow-up material to this mixtape is definitely moving him out of the ears and eyes of any prospective audiences.

Tracks such as 'People Mover', 'We Known' and 'Dreams' show that Big Sean has a style that, much like Posner, will allow him to appeal to a multitude of tastes. Keep an eye out for the track 'Who Knows' featuring Mike Posner, which is not on this mixtape, but possibly on both the upcoming mixtape UKNOWBIGSEAN, and his debut album.

To download Mike Posner and The Brain Trust's 'A Matter of Time' via iTunes, go here: http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/new.duke.edu.1926121494

To download Big Sean's 'Finally Famous', head over to http://www.uknowbigsean.com/ which has a link to download a free copy of the Finally Famous mixtape.

A Brief Thought on Pop Rap

Is it right to criticise 'pop rap'?

I've been mulling this over recently, especially on the back of both recovering my entire library (and hence reviewing the whole thing) and upon hearing Flo Rida's next single. Stick with me here, don't get turned off.

Anyone who reads this will know I'm about the more artistic, lyrical stuff most of the time, of any genre. Hence, it's about to get controversial.

There would be no good music without pop rap, for two very good reasons.

Firstly, without music that was dumbed-down, melody-driven and as lyrically deep as a puddle of horse piss, would there be anything to compare the rest of the stuff too? If everything was up to the standards of Common, Secondhand Serenade or Lupe Fiasco, would they stand out?

"If everybody looked the same, we'd get tired of looking at each other"....wouldn't we?

Secondly, and most importantly depending on your disposition, it's bloody fun to listen and dance to. Would you really enjoy hearing something mentally challenging, or without a beat that hooks you in so much that your legs flail as if independent from the rest of your body?

For this reason, I commend people like Flo Rida for not pretending to be something they aren't. He knows he makes music for clubs, and for people whose library consists solely of anything they heard in a club or Radio 1. And he does a damn fine job too.

Keep an ear out for the next single of his, 'Sugar'. The sample used will both make you laugh, and probably impress you in its adaptability, much like 'Right Round', as well as his trademark break-neck delivery.

But sports fans, don't get me wrong here. I'm a 'hipster', 'alt&punk', 'chillout' (and about most other types of) music guy at heart, and you all know it.

I won't be praising Flo Rida as a "Hip-Hop artist" at any point soon, nor will I ever allow utter tripe such as N-Dubz to ever disgrace my ears. Let's just not forget to have fun.

That wasn't brief at all.

May 19th?

Relapse is coming on May 19th. (For those of you under a rock, that's Eminem's upcoming album, originally due last year)

Oh, this may be of interest to you too: Interscope Records announced that Slim Shady is dropping two albums this year, Relapse and Relapse 2.

Apparently, the first single/video will be premiering on radio and television simultaneously on April 7. This is in addition to Crack A Bottle, for which the video should be coming soon, although it's unclear whether that is actually one of the three artists' (Dre, Em, 50) song, or whether it's just a collaborative effort that may, or may not, feature on all of their albums.

Relapse 2 doesn't have a release date yet, but in a seperate statement Eminem said that he's currently in the studio working on that project and it will come out in the second half of this year:
"A lot of people were expecting Relapse to drop last year, I was one of them. Then Dre and I went back in the studio in September for a few days, and that turned into six months. We were on such a roll; we wound up with a ton of new music produced by Dre. Putting out Relapse 2 will let everyone get all of the best stuff."

In related news, 50 Cent confirmed that Before I Self Destruct will be coming after Relapse, no doubt due to the lack of hype generated, and resounding failure of the singles he has put out so far. (I actually think some of them we're decent, but there you go)

Also, turns out May 19th was the last date given for Lil' Wayne's rock album, Rebirth, but that has now been shifted to a 'TBA', as his label (Universal I think) are worried it's going to be largely crap.

On that note, the video for Prom Queen has been released and isn't too bad, the song grows on me by the day. I would add it here, but the links are all down at the moment.

An update: I have added the function below that allows you to email blog posts to people. For those of you who like what I'm doing, please use this and send it to anyone you think might enjoy it. Also, the comments will no longer be full-page and will instead appear in a pop-up window. Let me know if you prefer this, or if you want it back to full-page.