"You Can't Take Me Out My Swagger"

You can call it opportunism, I call it a creative marketing. Not gonna lie the picture above should evoke plenty of emotion after last night's complete asswhooping dismantling of the helpless Cavs by the hot girl that left plain old Cleveland for greener (pun intended) pasture$. Lord knows we don't have to keep belaboring how Bron Bron was laughin' it up with his former teammates on court who looked more like they wanted to reel in a lost autograph opportunity as they stayed true to their much stronger allegiance to their former teammate, while at the same time disregarding a city who would like nothing more than for him to tear an ACL as they lick their $250 million dollar wounds caused by his departure. Sure Lebron came off as a dick for how he left Cleveland and when he did it, but we're only villainizing him because he cares about his image and wants to be well liked. He's like the nice guys who has been consistently nice for so long that the first time he does something for himself, it's so out of character that he comes off as even more of a self centered ass than...well a self centered ass would have. Cleveland try going title-less for 100 years like a Cubs fan (RIP Ron Santo), maybe you were lucky to have a taste of glory for a half decade? Either way, I was happy no incidents came out of his return to Cleveland because all it would have taken was one Coors light to be dumped on his head and the whole Ron Artest thing could have happened...#JustSayin

I digress...solid marketing by @TROYAVE, using the whole Bron image above as a segway to his new mixtape Bricks in My Backpack, which ties together the whole powder/bricks reference. Couple interesting notes about about Troy Ave, who hails from BK. First off I had never seen a domain name ceased by Homeland Security, like www.troyave.com did. Who knows how all that happened, but he is in fact signed by Voicez/Universal Def Jam and if you're looking to become familiar with some of his music, give a listen to his freestyle to Kanye's Runaway or click below to check his XXL Famous Factory interview where he talks about selling 40K mixtapes out of his trunk...

Fact @TROYAVE is not lacking in confidence after rising out of the concrete jungle of BK and it always seems like cats outta NY have an ultra competitive edge to their swagger, which makes it even more surprising there haven't been more artists come out of NY in the past 10 years. Maybe he'll keep this internet buzz going with more tracks like the one below that R Les hooked him up with. Isn't the flashiest of beats by @RYANLESLIE, but nonetheless, it's a bouncy, head nod worthy effort that comes off as noteworthy when you listen to his verses. Anybody else feel like his ad libs sound like @50CENT? Real similar in flow after a couple listens, which isn't necessarily a bad thing for a dude on the come up....check it out...

Troy Ave - Swagger (prod by Ryan Leslie)

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