Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Monday, December 30, 2013

Drake-Trophies

Drakes new single "Trophies", produced by Hit-Boy, HAGLER, Noah "40" Shebib, officially drops

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Run The Jewels-Pew Pew Pew (feat. Q-Bert)

New single from Run The Jewels' European release of their self-titled album. Get it on Big Dada 1/13/14.

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Seinabo Sey-Younger (Kygo Remix)


Kygo releases another awesome track, this time with a chill remix of Seinabo Sey's "Younger"

Wallpaper-Hesher (Kairo Kingdom & ThankYouKid Remix)

Kairo Kingdom and ThankYouKid team up to create this heavy trap remix of Wallpaper's "Hesher"

Monday, December 23, 2013

Mack Wilds-Henny (Video)

Up & comer Mack Wilds (Michael Lee from The Wire) released a pretty weak video for "Henny" today, but don't let that scare you. Mack's project New York: A Love Story was one of the best R&B albums of the year and is nominated for a Grammy.

Ellie Goulding-Burn (Ricky Cervantes Lounge Mix)


Chi-town producer Ricky Cervantes drops a smooth remix of Ellie Goulding's "Burn"

Vic Mensa-Crazy


As the year comes to a close, Vic Mensa dropped a $35 #FreeWifi holiday package which includes a hat, shirt, an autographed sticker, a URL grinder, and this unreleased song above.

Orkestrated & Fries & Shine-Melbourne Bounce feat. Big Nab (Deorro Remix)


I realized that my range on this blog has gotten a little limited recently. I don't want this blog to be all hip-hop/rap, I want it to have a variety of music because I definitely don't just listen to rap. Anyway, I've recently been getting into trap music a lot. Trap is a subgenre of electronic that has some of the same drums and bass techniques as dubstep, but it's a little less intense and has more of a dance sound. Right now, this is probably my favorite trap track, but I'll try to post more of the genre in the future.

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Run The Jewels-A Christmas Fucking Miracle

A timely release of a hilarious video for "A Christmas Fucking Miracle" from Run The Jewels' self-titled album

Friday, December 20, 2013

Alex Wiley-Suck It (Revolution) (Video)

Yeah, the song's pretty good, but I posted this one for the video. Windy City's own Alex Wiley drops the 3rd video from his "Suck It (Revolution)" series.

Club Wiley Download: http://www.closedsessions.com/releases/club-wiley/

Will Brennan & Madeaux-Wait One Second


Producer Madeaux teams up with Will Brennan to make a sick track, and while Brennan's rapping is great, it's Madeaux's beats that make "Wait One Second" memorable. Definitely check out Madeaux's Soundcloud.

Kendrick Lamar-Sing About Me Pt. 1 (Video)

Kendrick Lamar just released the video for the first verse of the 12-minute song "Sing About Me, I'm Dying of Thirst", maybe my favorite song off good kid, m.A.A.d. city. I don't quite understand the video, but I suspect it's a setup for the next part. Nevertheless, the lyrics and the song are so beautiful the visuals still seem great.

Monday, December 16, 2013

KiD CuDi-Satelite Flight

KiD CuDi releases his first single off his upcoming project KiD CuDi Presents: Satellite Flight: The Journey to Mother Moon EP.

Tinie Tempah ft. Labrinth-Lover Not A Fighter (Video)

The UK rapper gets production help and a strong chorus from Labrinth on this awesome new single

Friday, December 13, 2013

Bad Suns-Salt

Newcomers Bad Suns release their second single from their upcoming EP

Lorde-No Better

The 17 year old New Zealand singer/songwriter releases a new single only 2 months after her debut album.

Childish Gambino-because the internet. Review

   
     The first time I saw Donald Glover was in 2006 as part of the comedy group Derrick Comedy from Collegehumor. I would watch their videos religiously and loved every one of them. Needless to say, when I saw that Glover was on a new show called Community on NBC, I knew I had to watch it. In 2011, my friend played "Heartbeat" and "Bonfire" in the car and told me they were by some guy named Childish Gambino. As soon as I got home, I looked up some of the songs on Youtube and saw that it was none other than Donald Glover. Immediately, I downloaded his debut album Camp. I liked the album, but I never listened to it seriously. It was impossible to take a guy seriously only 5 years after he was raping bros. Also, I couldn't really tell how serious Glover wanted to be with his music, songs like "Bonfire" had hilarious wordplay but also proved he could actually spit. Irregardless, I would always refer to him as Donald Glover and think of him as an actor. It probably wasn't until I he released "Centipede" and announced he was leaving Community, starting a music-based TV Show on FX called Atlanta, and releasing another album. After all that, I started looking back at Gambino interviews and freestyles and began to see him as Childish Gambino, not Donald Glover. Every time he released a new song I realized this wasn't a joke to him, he was a rapper who wanted to be taken seriously and leave the "Bro Rape" chapter of his life behind him. With because the internet, not only can Childish Gambino be taken seriously, he can be considered one of the best rappers musicians in the game at the moment. 
     The album art on iTunes is just a picture of Gambino staring at the camera solemnly, but the real cover is a .gif. It's perfect for this album, it shows "The Boy" (more on that later) starting at the camera, no smile. Solemn and dark, with a trippy vibe. The album opens with the eerie "Library", a five second intro that leads you into the hair-raising "Crawl." In this track, Gambino shows off his impressive rap skills and shows newcomers that he's not the same person he was on Camp. The hook is catchy as well and the production is unique and works great with the aggressive tone of the lyrics. Songs like "Worldstar" go along with the theme of the internet and his obsession of becoming a world star, or getting on worldstarhiphop.com. "The Worst Guys" definitely disappointed me at first because the feature from Chance The Rapper wasn't even a verse, but the Gambino's wordplay and flow is good enough to make this a solid track. However, some of the best tracks on the album have no rap at all. Songs like "Flight of The Navigator" only have 'Bino singing, and it's incredible. Specifically with that track, the combination of the guitar lick and his vocals make it a beautiful piece of the album. The production on because the internet. needs to be mentioned, too. The range in beats is just as dynamic as Childish Gambino himself, going from the hard, almost dubstep, like beat on "No Exit", to the upbeat sounds of "Pink Toes", to the dancy production of "Earth: The Oldest Computer." 
     One thing you may have noticed about the album was the roman numerals next to the songs. Well, back in August Gambino released a short film called "Clapping for the Wrong Reasons." It was pretty mysterious and followed Gambino and some of his friends (Chance, Trinidad James, Flying Lotus) in a huge mansion. The interesting part about this video was that he released it under his Childish Gambino pseudonym, previously only used for his music. But this video didn't seem to have any link to an album or separate project. As it turns out, "Clapping for the Wrong Reasons" was a prequel to because the internet., and not just the album. There's a screenplay that goes along with this album. It's an incredibly well done project that goes along with the album, and I recommend reading the entire thing. It's obvious he put so much thought and effort into combining the mood and story of the play through his music.
     The reason I love this album is because it's so obvious it's not just another album. It's a project that changes everyone's view of who Donald Glover really is, a truly gifted artist. He's skilled in so many different ways and it shows in this project. It's hard to believe this is the same guy who released Camp two years ago.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Big Data-Dangerous

The lead single off the New York pop duo's debut EP 1.0, "Dangerous"brilliantly combines synthesizers with some great instrumental work.

YC The CYNIC-GNK

Talented Bronx emcee YC The CYNIC released his album earlier this year and it went a little under the radar. His sharp lyricism and the great production on the album (courtesy of Frank Drake) definitely make it worth a listen.


Sunday, December 8, 2013

Justin Bieber-Confident (ft. Chance The Rapper)

I Definitely never thought I would be posting about Justin Bieber, and there is only possibility in which I would, and now that is a reality. It seems Chance The Rapper has decided to do a guest verse on a Justin Bieber song, and there's a rumor that there may be another collab on the way. A lot of people said that Chance is selling out, but that's bullshit. He's still an independent artist and doing a feature with Justin Bieber is a great way to get publicity. In fact, as I'm posting this, the midnight the song was released, Chance is now featured in the #6 song in the iTunes Top Singles Chart. Not bad for a guy who only has two mixtapes under his belt. And as much as I hate to admit it, Bieber has recently been releasing some quality music, veering away from his old pop sound to a more R&B vibe. Add that to the fact that Chance murders his verse and I definitely fuck with "Confident."

Noname Gypsy-Samaritan ft. Mick Jenkins

The Chicago native drops another chill track with Mike Jenkins

Thursday, December 5, 2013

A$AP Nast-Trillmatic (feat. Method Man)

The A$AP Mob gets together for the video of their single off the Lords, out in March 2014.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Cannibal Ox-Gotham

In May of 2001, Cannibal Ox released their debut album The Cold Vein. Later, the album would be called one of the best albums of the decade. To this day, that is their only full length album. They've released instrumentals and a few B-side tracks, but that's it. Today, they released their compilation album Gotham. The album includes songs that were exclusive to their vinyl, some unreleased freestyles, and a few collaborations. The album is pretty good, it's clearly a Cannibal Ox project thanks to Vast Aire and Vordul Mega's unique flows and El-P's groundbreaking production that has to be listened to with headphones. The most exciting part about all this is that it seems as if, at long last, Cannibal Ox is back. The duo announced that they would release their second album, Harlem Knights, next year. I'm already counting the days.
     

Monday, December 2, 2013

Childish Gambino-Earth: The Oldest Computer (The Last Night) (ft. Azealia Banks)

The second track to leak from because the internet today, the other having a feature from Chance the Rapper but no verse from him.

Logic-Like Me ft. Casey Veggies

Logic's back with his new self-produced single "Like Me" with a verse from Casey Veggies. Logic just finished touring and is planning to release his debut album next year.

Welcome To Forever Mixtape Download: http://www.datpiff.com/Logic-Young-Sinatra-Welcome-To-Forever-mixtape.483644.html