Beyonce

By Gary Lee

If someone stopped you on the street and asked you "Who do you think is the Greatest Female Artist in the world right now?" Hands down, I would say Beyonce, wouldn't you? In my eyes Beyonce has earned the name of G.O.A.T, late Dec 12, without any promotion, Beyonce released her 5th studio album that sold 80k in 3 hours and 400k in the first 24 hours, the fact that some artist never do those type of  numbers in there career only proves my point. The self titled album also serves as a visual album due to every song having its own video.

The two stand out tacks to me are currently the only full length videos out right now and that's the Jay-Z featured" Drunk in Love" and the Drizzy Drake feature on a track called "Mine" with more to come in the near future.

Hov and Drake aren't the only feature. There is a song called "Super Power" that features Frank Ocean. another song called "Flawless" featuring Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and production by Timbaland, Hit-Boy, Key Wayne and other hit producers.

The Hottest To Ever Do It And The Hottest Doing it, Jay-z And Kendrick Lamar

By Gary Lee

The picture above speaks a thousand words, A picture that shows us what it would look like if a living legend like Michael Jordan was to be in the same game with one of the best that's doing it today, Kobe Bryant. At first glance you can see the look of wisdom on Jordan's face and the willingness to learn on Bryant's. If you were to convert this picture to the hip-hop world these athletes would be the greatest of all time Jay-Z and the best out today, Kendrick Lamar. That's why this picture is perfect for the B*tch' Don't Kill My Vibe Remix featuring none other than Hov himself.

Kendrick Lamar has really taken off in the hip-hop industry, I feel he's a rapper for the people, not rapping for the fame but to put his thoughts in our ears and inspire, and what better way to do it with than the god Mc, Jay-Z.




Kendrick open's the remix with the same lines from the original but then reminds us that his album went gold in a week with a Trinidad James metaphor and now its platinum:

"Look inside of my soul and you can find gold and maybe get rich, hol' up Trinidad Jame$ in four weeks But now my album platinum and shit"

Kendrick goes on to slay the Sounwave produced beat as he did in the original and other songs like Hol' Up and Micheal Jordan.

Jay-z comes in after a smooth hook and shows us why he is considered one of the best, rapping the lines:

"Up in the clouds, me and my spouse Rumors on the ground gettin' too loud Please turn them shits down, can't hear myself think Turbulence, shit, almost spilled my drink In the White House with a mink Running through that bitch like it's my house All up in the hall like a mall Told you motherfuckers, all I do is ball"

This beat has a warm feel to it and Jay-z did it justice with his cold lyrics and says he doesn't know how many years he has left but until he dies he will be the best, he ends his verse with a warning:

 "Don't waste my breath I don't know how many moons a nigga got left Back to this joint, smokin' this shit like I'm tryna' prove a point I'm the highest, the highest title, numero uno Kill my vibe, that's your motherf*ckin' funeral"

This is arguably the best Jay-Z feature in recent years, his 3 Kings verse would have to come next. But Kendrick has done something that is rare, which is have a better verse than Jay-Z on a track. He took the song back in the third verse and at one point you can hear the voice of Compton in Kendrick's words

"So many washed up with detergent But I don't dry tears, I just aim at them on purpose Like bluck, Mini-14 like bluck Empty out another magazine like bluck Hit a young nigga, get back I kill 'em all when they try to kill my vibe"

  and truly kills the song and firmly plants his foot through the door's of rap greatness by saying 

" I am the bad, the good God, the last the hood got The last that would try to pass a good job If Shawn's a black Beatle then I need a 10 second drum solo Bitch see you at Woodstock"

If Jay-Z was a black Beatle, Kendrick would be one as well. Kendrick has really given the rap game new life, being named the hottest MC in the game, having a classic album and a Jay-Z feature, I cant help but wait until the next track to come from Kendrick.




While in a New York studio listening to ScHoolboy Q's new album Kendrick was surprised by Top Dawg, CEO of TDE with Jay-Z's verse.You can watch the video below:            

Dont be afraid to leave your comments below, Do you like the Jay-z feature? Would you rather see someone else on the remix? Let us know!

Joey Bada$$

By Gary Lee
I think it's been proven that New York can produce some good rappers, like Smoke DZA, ASAP Rocky and even legends like Jay-z and Nas. The next to add to the list is 17 year-old Joey Bada$$.

The first time I heard Joey, I heard some old Brooklyn style beats. I could have sworn it was Biggie or even some Wu-Tang, that was until someone told me it was a 17 year old kid named Joey Bada$$. I'm a music finactic and I've heard of Joey but never peeped him out, so that night I went and downloaded his mixtape "1999" 

Joey BadA$$

I can't wait to see what the future has for Joey, I can hear him on songs with Nas, Mos Def or even Jay. I'm just saying look out for Joey Bada$$, the dude is flight 

Download  "1999" 

CLICK HERE

Life Is Good

By Gary Lee
I can remember being a young kid in 2006, begging my mom to actually let me a buy a hip-hop album. The moment she did let me, I rushed to Wal-Mart and bought Nas's "Hip-hop is Dead" and listened to songs like "Money Over Bullshit", "Still Dreaming" ft Kanye West and Chrisette Michele and even "Black Republicans" ft former enemy Jay-Z. Yet the most noticeable track that struck me was the song named after his latest album, "Hip-Hop is Dead". That song itself made me open my eyes and made me ask the question is hip-hop really dead? It cant be, with artists from the past like Rakim, A Tribe Called Quest, Common, ect. Then I realized maybe it was dying when one of the most famous songs of that year was "Throw Some D's on it"  by Rich Boy, even though I liked the song as a young kid. I could still tell that it wasnt comparable to "Dead Presidents", "The World Is Yours" or even "I Used To Love H.E.R". Hip-hop was trully changing and would always be changing, it wasnt the 90's anymore. Fast forward 6 years later with great hip-hop albums down the line like "College Dropout" by Kanye West , "American Gangster" by Jay-Z and "Finding Forever" by Common but no album has reminded me of how Hip-Hop used to be like Nas's  new album "Life Is Good" 

With his Ex wife's Wedding Dress in one hand and our ears in the other Nas opens up to us about His marriage, relationship with his kids, and his overall rap career. I swear I sat down with a cup of Orange Ade and a sandwich and soaked in this album, not actually a Blunt and Henny but it still had the same effect. As I sat there I felt I was listening to something from 96, something like Jay-Z's "Reasonable Doubt" or even Nas's first album "Illmatic"

After hearing the Justice League produced intro track "No Introduction" I was told that this was going to be a classic album, with the soulful orchestra sound that the Justice league always brings to the table. Nas got off proving that he needs no introduction. I wish I could tell you my Top 3 favorite tracks but on this album it is really hard. "No Introduction" being first, the next will be "Accidental Murderers" ft The Boss Ricky Rozay. When I was listening to this song I was thinking this would have been perfect for Ross to be on and seconds later I heard the infamous Rick Ross grunt. I feel he stole the track rapping the lines "Memoirs of a rich n*gga, sweatsuits, gold chains, old drug dealer (ugh), new rims, new Benz are for show killa (whoop)" He even reminded us of his next album by saying "Pay your tides,stay alive, cant be dodging my clique( M-m-m-m Maybach Music), cut a check, use your b*tch for some bargaining chips, in a hole, sell your home, n*gga go sell your soul, this 45 and control, God Forgives' And I Don't". This has to be one of the best songs on the album. "You didn't mean to merk him, your guns a virgin". The final track I will talk about is featuring a fallen legend, the very talented and late Amy Winehouse.   

Cherry Wine is the name of the track, where Nas talks about his perfect girl and how she would be, "I want some who like the champagne I like, My a-alike, someone to talk me off the bridge any day or night, She teach me how to live, she ain’t afraid of life,Not easily impressed with the rich and famous life Cause she done been there and heard all the rumors before" and after lyrics like that the soulful Amy Winehouse sings the hook like this "Where is he?, The man who was just like me,  I heard he was hiding somewhere I can’t see,Where is he?, The man who was just like me,  I heard he was hiding somewhere I can’t see  And I’m alone, and I realize that when I get home ,I wanna go through my red and my cherry. Yes I’m alone, and I realize when I get home, I wanna go through my red and my cherry". That song itself proves we lost a great talented singer.

Those are just 3 tracks out of the 19 on the album. There are tracks like "Bye Baby" where he talks about his past marriage and the Swizz Beats produced track "Summer On Smash" where he talks about how his summers are. Nas put together a classic album here, with features like Miguel, Rick Ross, Mary J Blidge, Anthony Hamilton and more.

This is an album that many people were waiting for. An album that we all knew Nas could produce. In my mind Nas contradicted himself with the 2006 track "Hip-Hop is Dead" because he himself proved that it is alive with the album "Life is Good"

Please support this album by going out and purchasing it.

Life is Good

BUY HERE

Channel Orange

By Gary Lee
The man of the hour, Frank Ocean, has released his debut album via Itunes, in stores yesterday and as a fan of the Odd Future singer, I have to say it is one of his best work I've heard thus far. With only 3 features on the album (John Mayor, Andre 3000 and Earl Sweatshirt; which took me by surprise), this album manged to pull me in and keep me entertained from the first track to the last, I didn't even realize I was listening to the whole thing until the end.

After coming out of the closet, Frank Ocean made history as the first "openly" bi-sexual man in hip-hop. As a fan of hip-hop and a fan of Frank's, I supported Frank and I'm glad with the way the industry took it as well. With Frank being in Odd Future and Tyler, The Creator being the front man, billed as a homophobe, the industry looked at Tyler to see how he took the news. He said that he was proud of his brother Frank. Tyler wasn't the only one proud of Frank, so was most of hip-hop such as Beyonce, Jay-Z, Diddy, Andre 3000, Russle Simmons and many more.

Now back to the album (Tyler, The Creator voice)


The "Novocane" superstar produced a classic with this album. My favorite songs are "Super Rich Kid" featuring the returning OF member Earl Sweatshirt, "Pink Matter" featuring the always verse killing Andre 3000 and "Bad Religion" which he made his TV debut and performed on Jimmy Fallon. For 55 Min's and 48 seconds I sat and heard R&B like I haven't heard since I was young, and then I realized why people respect people like Lady Gaga or Katy Perry so much. It doesn't matter how you live your life, who you are in a relationship with or who or what gender you are in the bed with when you go to sleep; what matters is the talent you have to produce. That's all this industry should be about is the music. Frank has made a great album and i respect that, that is truly #flight.

                        BUY CHANNEL ORANGE

Dream Collaborations

By Wayne Lee

     
     With word going around that Kendrick Lamar and J.Cole are doing a collaboration album one can only dream how crazy it is going to sound. They both have lyrics that make you think and they can be very poetic at times. It makes me wonder; if two of the game's hottest rappers can join together and make an album who else can? Eminem and  Royce are getting back together and doing an album again. We already have the Drake and Ross Y.O.L.O tape coming later 2012 and Watch The Throne  killing the game late last year, with Jay-Z and Kanye West. So I decided that I would make a list of the best possible album collaborations. I have multiple choices and I'll tell you who and why.

Jay-z and Nas

     Back in the 90's these two had major beef, throwing jabs left and right with tracks like The Take Over and Ether and to this day both tracks are two of the best "beef" songs out, but that was years ago and since then we've seen both these men share the same stage and even hop in the booth together, and honestly who out there can say that Jay-z and Nas are not legends? If they did an album together it would be something legendary.

50 Cent and Game

     Anyone reading this article should know about the 50/Game beef. Former label mates, and G-unit brothers turned bitter rivals. When Game wouldn't join with the beefs that 50 was starting at the times, he kicked him out of G-unit thus starting the GGGGG G-UNOT movement. I'll pay to hear and see these two men do it again. “This Is How We Do” And “Hate It or Love It” were good songs and I know these two could do it again.

Rick Ross And Jay-z

     I think I may be the only person who would want to see this, but this would be a game changer right here. With Maybach Music and Free Mason being two crazy collaborations, I can only imagine what a whole Ross and Jay album would sound like, it would be crazy hearing Jay-Z rap after hearing a Ross Grunt or a M-m-m-m-Maybach music sound. That would be #Flight.

The Breakdown: A Strawberry Swing

By Charleco Scipio

Not many artists can mess with Coldplay's music and actually sound good. But if your Jay-Z or Frank Ocean diving stylishly into Cold waters is no problem. Jay-Z has to be the only rapper I could see doing any collaboration with Coldplay. They are a perfect match in the music realm. As for Frank Ocean, he was unexpected but amazing. Not only did he manage to not mess up a wonderful song but he also made it even more attractive to the ears.

Strawberry Swing-Music Video

The song Strawberry Swing was released on September 13 as the fifth single from Coldplay's Viva La Vida. A very upbeat song,  featuring Afro-Pop guitars thanks to Martin's time in Zimbabwe. The hand claps in the beginning are said to be Producer Brain Eno, Chris told MTV News. "If you listen very closely, you can hear him complaining about the tempo at the beginning of that song.". 'It's a bit faster..'
 A kind of joyous song, whose lyrics could mean a lot, or actually just be meaningless. It could be about freedom:

People moving all the time Inside a perfectly straight line Don't you wanna just curve away?

This could be talking about how people do what they see others do, act how they see others act, and say what they hear others say, not really thinking for themselves or forming their own opinions. The question is don't you want to be different and not like the rest of them? Don't you want to follow your own path? An interesting concept.

Now the sky could be blue, I don't mind
Without you, it's a waste of time


This could also go along with the freedom concept in the sense of "you": being freedom itself. Regardless of how nice the sky is, if you don't have freedom it doesn't matter, does it?
Or
This can naturally be seen as a lyric of love. And that's simple to see.

As for Frank Ocean's version...
He keeps the exact same tempo, the song is not being taken from besides the lyrics. No Brian Eno, the claps are faint, drums are more apparent. Ocean adds his vocals to the beginning in the perfect way. His version sounds more defined when compared to the original which sounds much more free and less edited. Ocean deals with a different concept, one some would consider very relevant to his generation; Love and the end of the world. The song is also the first actual track on his album Nostalgia, Ultra. Sno-Cheetah. It introduces the theme of Nostalgia for the album.

Yet more interesting is the concept of love and the worlds end:

The entire earth is fight, all the worlds at it's end,
Just in case, an atom bomb, comes falling on my lawn

The possibility of an atom bomb landing on any one's lawn these days are pretty likely and the mass conscious thought is that the world is ending. Yet this song is looking back with positivity:


I've loved the good times here.

But it gets lo key serious again when he says:


Say hello, then say farewell to all the places you know

This brings the thought that at any moment all the places you cherish, the same places that hold special spots in your memory could disappear due to various reasons (War, Natural Disaster, etc.) at any moment.


At any moment this could go

At the end Ocean says goodbye to his lover friend and leads smoothly into Chris Martin's lyrics.

Spaceships are lifting off, of  a dying world
Millions left behind as the sky burns
There wasn't room for you and I, only you, goodbye, goodbye

Now the sky could be blue, I don't mind...

Ocean ends the song with the sound of an alarm clock going off and him stopping it, indicating that it was all a dream.

All in all a great song. Coldplay and Frank Ocean have done amazing things with this track.

iLLiE Life

by Charleco Scipio

             

http://theillielife.com

  “They want sick, they really need the medicine.” Words of Los Angeles rapper Laze®, member of the L.A. based group Illie. They are the equivalent of a breath of fresh air in the audio world. They are the medicine. A new sound amongst the mass production of senseless, random beats heard today. The sound of guitar, keyboard and drums accompanied by intricate lyrics can make anyone tune in.

            What got me was the music. I was instantly in the flow. Song to song. The instrumental feel of Illie is Aaron Matthew Johnson on piano, Noah Andoh on guitar, Ryan Jackson on bass and Cheo on drums. Now add Rickey “Skeme” Palmer and Jeremiah "Laze®" Owens with vocals and you are bound to hit repeat. The rappers are sure not to finish a verse with out a few sick bars. The back and forth of their verses gives listeners something else to look forward to and it flows with the music well. Let’s not forget to applaud the musicians. You can’t help but nod your head to the music.

            Illie has already released their mixtape Déjà Vu. The name comes from the fact that the mixtape is a collection of songs from various artists done with a more live feel to it. Listen and you’ll get it. Songs include: Drake’s “I’m Going In”, Kid Cudi’s “Soundtrack 2 My Life”, and Jay-Z’s “Allure”.  Illie has also dropped a few singles: On, Talk, 2033, Lights Out, and D.G.A.F. The group has a habit of making each song better than the next and if they decide to do another mixtape like Déjà Vu or just their own music then some people in the game are going to have major competition.

            Illie has been on the road to success. You’re just now noticing they’ve been gone. There is a lot more to come from Illie. Check out their blog and be sure to download Déjà Vu and their other singles. Keep your eyes and ears tuned because they are only getting started. #ILLIE

http://theillielife.com/home.html 

@illielife 

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