Shock and awe
I’m baaaaack
I’ve taken an extended sabbatical from blogging, but lemme explain myself.
I have not really been feeling the latest drops from the hip hop blogs. There just hasnt been that much good stuff floating around.
And I couldn’t be happier.
I have been simply taking in the newly released (and older) albums in the past few weeks. After fearing for a long, long time that pirating had destroyed the art of the album in hip hop, this month has given me new hope.
It looks like a lot of the artists I listen to have been saving the heart of their work for what should be the real goal, a legit album. Wale even pushed his album release back just to perfect his product.
Lemme show you what I mean. *this might take a while to process*
-
“At a snails pace I won this race that y’all trail
Uh uh Blueprint’s for sale
Followin my footprints you can’t fail”
I worried about this album, and it was all for nothing. Blueprint 3 is a collection of today’s best production with passable, if not subpar, Jigga verses. You won’t find better features anywhere else, the beats are waaay ahead of their time, and there’s one definite classic on here.
I’m sure when Jay-Z put the final master on “Empire State of Mind”, he envisioned a hypnotized Brooklyn crowd everytime he goes home to perform. By the way, how retarded is the world we live in…Rihanna has numerous platinum hits on the radio and Alicia Keyes has none?
Jay-Z ft. Alicia Keyes - Empire State of Mind
Jay-Z ft. Mr. Hudson - Young Forever (<— “Future anthem” - Ben Bradbury)
Jay-Z ft. Young Jeezy - As Real as it Gets (siiiick hook)
-
“Tell a friend, it’s that symbol again, that W
comin thru, bust a shot on yo block, gimme a SUUUU
…brand new, nigga back from the slums it be the Wu”
This album will be known as a classic. No other way to describe it. The epic, thematic production of RZA featured on OB4CL I is mirrored here to a similar effect. It’s hard to really detail the album unless you listen through every song, but for all the true hip hop heads, get on this.
Raekwon ft. Ghostface and Method Man - New Wu
Raekwon ft. Jadakiss & Styles P - Broken Safety
Rakewon ft. Busta Rhymes - About Me
-
“This is what you feel are the sounds of insanity
Hopin what I hear loops itself to finish me”
If you thought Drake was too emo for your taste, keep on moving. KiD CuDi’s album has material that will be familiar to a lot of you (“Day N Nite”, “Make Her Say”), but the Cudder came out nice on the majority of his stoner anthems.
KiD CuDi - Solo Dolo (Nightmare)
KiD CuDi ft. MGMT & Ratatat - Pursuit of Happyness
KiD CuDi ft. Chip tha Ripper - Hyyerr
KiD CuDi - Up, Up, and Away (The Wake & Bake Song)
-
“I started rhymin just to be somebody, I found out that I already was/
Nobody can be free unless we all free/
There’s no me and no you, just us…”
I’m not going to lie, I haven’t listened through this album that much with all the other shit I’ve been checking, but can’t go wrong with the Brother. My favorite song is still “Us”, which I posted a while back. Here’s my other favorites
Brother Ali ft. Evidence, Toki Wright, & Bk-One - The Freshest Kids
Brother Ali - Bad Mufucker pt. 2
-
“People think I’m crazy and a little bit retarded/
so what? It doesn’t matter cuz I know just where my heart is”
Charles Hamilton’s had a rough year. He ran into some deep shit earlier for some bizarre things that went down(no point in explaining, its dumb), but basically, the hate he generated on all the hip hop blogs from the e-thugs forced his label to pull their backing off of his debut album.
His album, The Perfect Life, was leaked as is. The beats Charles made are just out of this world, and overall, the album is a little out there, but I think it’s in a good way.
Unfortunate story. Unfortunate album cover.
Charles Hamilton - Three Pound Bullet
Charles Hamilton ft. Show Tufli - Long Socks
-
I posted Madcon’s big hit “Beggin” here a while back, and I started listening to their 2007 album that featured the hit single. Here’s their other stuff I liked
-
This online album is basically a mashup of Drake’s verses with other people’s stuff (random American Gangster verse included) that I enjoyed. Some of it worked, some of it didn’t, but props to DJ Noodles for doing something productive.
Drake & John Legend - What You Want
Drake & Trey Songz & Lil’ Wayne & Jay-Z - Dead Presidents
-
The few random songs I came across recently that I like..
Black Star- Soundbombing Freestyle (good lookin sash!)
Mistah F.A.B. - Follow Me yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Fly Union ft. Willie the Kid - Great
-
Some music to pump y’all up for football season. DIME HEAT!!!
Yung Wun ft. DMX, David Banner, & Lil’ Flip - Tear it Up
Chad Hugo & Kenna - Lock it Up
-
Again, I must stress, if you’re feeling someone’s music, go buy their album. Go to one of their concerts! (speaking of which, I hope you reside near somewhere on this list right here)
Give them a reason to put in more work for their art.
I dare ya, I DOUBLE DARE YA
