Well this is timely. A bouncy, trap banger about throwing a party released right before New Years eve. The genre bending rages on from Cashmere Cat who hooked up with a few of Hip Hop and R&B's best on Throw a Party. Featuring a swag-laden verse from 2 Chainz, a panty dropping sixteen from Tory Lanez and a repeatable hook from Starrah, there's a lot to sink your teeth into below. The slow build leading to the bass drop around the 24 second mark reminded me a lot of a Mike Will production, which isn't a bad thing at all. If you're looking for a new one to throw into the mix that has the potential to ignite your New Years party, throw this one into the mix and watch the homies geek out on it...#ThrowMyselfAParty
Cashmere Cat feat Starrah, 2 Chainz & Tory Lanez - Throw Myself a Party
The past few weeks have been relatively unbalanced in my eyes. When I say unbalanced, I mean it's either been mostly music videos or mostly funny/novelty videos. This week's top five got back to a nice 60/40 split between music and funny. Leading the way for videos was without a doubt The Weeknd's new video for Starboy. The more I listen to the track, the more impressed I am with the Daft Punk collabo's lyrically edgy, retro funk vibe. As a bonus, you get to see Abęl go to town on some expensive memorabilia with what can only be described as a crucifix glow stick.
In other musical efforts, you had a live cover of twenty-one pilots' Heathens from Bebe Rexha and Martin Garrix. It's crazy how much traction the Suicide Squad Soundtrack ended up getting and this collaboration is further proof of it's wide spread appeal. If you're looking for more trippy, Sci-fi stuff, you'll appreciate the zero gravity video put together by Flume and Tove Lo. Now I know what it would be like to walk on the sides of buildings with a space suit on.
In the world of funny and ridiculous, it doesn't get more extravagant than 2 Chainz's new season of GQ's Most Expensive $hit. In the past, we've seen him taste high end bottled water or expensive kittens, but this year he's expanding his tastes to coffee. So why not explore the Kopi Luwak civet coffee that cost $600 a pound? If you don't know what type of creature a civet is or even why I'd be mentioning an animal when talking about expensive coffee, just give it a watch and prepare to be slightly grossed out. If lavish isn't your bag, then you've got the good 'ole conventional funny from Jimmy Fallon and Sting who played everyone's favorite game, Textual Experience. Even though it might not have lived up to the awkwardness that Aziz Ansari brought to a previously posted episode, both Sting and Fallon brought their A game vocally, which made for a fun watch...#TextualExperience
The Weeknd feat Daft Punk - Starboy (Video)
2 Chainz Drinking $600 Cat Poop Coffee on GQ's Most Expensive $hit
Martin Garrix & Bebe Rexha Cover 21 Pilots Heathens on BBC 1
A little bit of this and a little bit of that is the theme of this week's top five. If novelty is the name of your game, then you might enjoy Michael Phelps pulling his best Eminem impression when he lip synced Lose Yourself on Lip Sync Battle. If you'll allow me to be critical for a minute, I was expecting a bit more raw energy. Where's that gold medal effort Phelps?!?!
If you're like me, you've done your best to tune out politics, but when Hip Hip artists want to make a statement, they know how to get peoples' attention. The black and white aesthetic with the colored flag was tastefully done in the FDT Part 2 video from Macklemore, YG and G-Eazy. If spontaneous is what you want, it doesn't get more freestyle than Donald Glover riffing on stage with Late Late Show's Reggie Watts. A little bit of funk and some harmony is all you need to get people dancing. If an actual music video is what you're looking for then enjoy some tribal dancing in exotic scenery during Major Lazer and Bieber's Cold Water video. And last, but not least, the whole gang showed up on stage when Chance the Rapper performed on Ellen. Lil Weezy and 2 Chainz joined him on stage to perform their hit No Problems with a whole lot office destruction happening in the background. Can anyone say, 352 paper pickup?...#NoProblems
Michael Phelps Lip Sync Battles Eminem's Lose Yourself
YG, Macklemore & G-Eazy - FDT (Part 2) (Video)
Donald Glover and Reggie Watts Freestyle on The Late Late Show with James Corden
Major Lazer feat Justin Bieber & Mo - Cold Water (Video)
Chance the Rapper Performs No Problems with Lil Wayne & 2 Chainz on Ellen
Given the events of the last week in Orlando, it was legitimately hard to find fun, inspiring, non-political videos. Luckily artists like Bassnectar were there to save the day with tasteful, creative visuals. His video for Reaching Out was a carnival of illusion wrapped in mellow bass. If you were to watch one video this week, it would be that one.
Aside from that, Major Lazer chipped in a fairly typical Hip Hop video with an incredibly original cash, cars, and women theme. On the other hand, it was really cool to see the 2pac biopic starting to finally come to life. There have been rumors about it for a while, but a teaser trailer should ignite that movement. In the world of late night, both Fallon and Colbert found a way to inject some mindless comedy into an otherwise harsh week. Like only Fallon can, he teamed up with The Rock for an extremely awkward promo scene, while Colbert found an entertaining way to explain Net Neutrality in layman terms. I'm not sure I was able to keep up with a lot what the guy was saying on the roller coaster, but hey, kudos for the attempt to make the topic more exciting...#NetNeutrality
Bassnectar - Reaching Out (Video)
Major Lazer feat Travis Scott, 2 Chainz, Pusha T, Mad Cobra - Night Riders (Video)
All Eyez on Me (2pac Biopic) (Teaser Trailer)
Jimmy Fallon and The Rock Are Awkward Prom Dates
Colbert Explains Net Neutrality on a Roller Coaster
This week was some kind of special awesome video wise. Not only did we have Bert and Ernie goin' in on Warren G and Nate Dogg's Regulate, we also had 2 Chainz dropping ghetto analogies to explain Super Pacs in politics. Doesn't get much more random than those two videos, but that's why they got some love in the top five.
In the music world, both Benny Benassi and Lido released visuals for their latest singles. While Benny and Chris Brown went the typical party/beach route on their video, Lido went for more of an EDM opus on his video for Crazy. I love the Blackstreet sample on the that track. Kudos to Lido for the creativity on that. And last, but certainly not least, we've got a Jimmy Fallon and Melissa McCarthy karaoke war. Some videos don't need much setup and this one falls into that category...#LipSyncBattle
Sesame Street Covers Nate Dogg & Warren G's Regulate
2 Chainz Explains How Super Pacs are Trap Queens for Presidential Campaigns
This week's top 5 trends toward music videos, but it features a solid dose of comedy for variety. Led by the talented wedding singers from Phoenix, AZ, Key & Peele opened up our imagination with the help of 2 Chainz. By open up our imagination I mean provided new lyrics and incredibly sub-par vocals, which was more train wreck entertainment than anything. On a similarly silly note, Fallon and Tom Cruise continued a trend of really entertaining Lip Sync Battles. It's tough to top Jimmy's showmanship, but Tom Cruise has been around the block a few times and knows very well how to play to a crowd.
Tough to pick a top video of the week, but seeing that Thomas Jack's new single is my current infatuation, I'll go with Rivers. Bonus points for the tropical scenery as I'm currently blogging from the Baja peninsula and soaking up similar cliff diving experiences in crystal clear water. Following close behind is The Weeknd's addictive new single that I can't seem to turn off anytime it comes on. Despite being decades behind on hits and number one singles, you can't deny he has a similar MJ-esque skill set. And in case you were curious how powerful love can be, check out the super powers that Ellie Goulding and Tarrus Riley put on display in Major Lazer's new video...#Powerful
Major Lazer feat Ellie Goulding - Powerful (Video)
The top five this week skewed heavy toward Hip Hop this week with three out of the five coming from the genre. Leading off is the third on the trilogy of Maddie Ziegler featured videos from Sia. Big Girls Cry is more of a demonstrative solo filled with plenty of provocative facial expressions and gestures. It's another stunning example of how hard it is to take your eyes of Maddie when she's performing.
In other news, Louis C.K. may have thrown a wrench in Jimmy Fallon's plan to star on the Dana Carvey's show. Hilarity ensues. Then, 2 Chainz and Diplo met up with a water sommelier who treated them to water that cost $100,000. Yes, there's so much wrong with the previous sentence that I'm not even going to touch on outlandish it is. Finally, Chuck Inglish gave us all a huge doss of bass with Damage and Yelawolf continues churn out top notch tracks that will make us forget about his last album. I absolutely can't wait to hear his album as a whole because so far it's been nothing but fire...#LoveStory
If you get hung up on the corniness of the hook, I get it, but you're missing out on speaker rattling beat. It has plenty of hard hitting bass to compliment the jumpy and unpredictable synths. When you hear the phrase "party starter", think of this track and the energy it brings to a crowd. The dynamic duo may bring different styles to the way they make music, but they both excel in their ability to incite crowds, which makes their collaborations that much more entertaining...#JackU
As much as I dislike the token Hip Hop tracks that feature everyone, their friend and their friends' momma's friend, I'll make an exception if there's some high quality production. Case in point Swizzy's recently released lead single off his upcoming Haute Living album. The reverberating percussion throughout the track is what kept my interest, but I gotta admit, other than Weezy's verse, I wasn't really impressed. Still, with all the high powered name recognition and hook that finds it's way into your brain, it's only a matter of time before this one gets eaten up by the masses. Feel free to beat them to the punch and pull a snobby music critic by letting them know the song is already too overplayed...#HandsUp
Swizz Beatz feat Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj, 2 Chainz & Lil Wayne - Hands Up (prod by Swizz Beatz)
Great week for videos with Jay Z leading the way with his "performance art film" of Picasso Baby. Despite the fact that he's ruffling feathers with every new things he does, I respect his visionary approach to Magna Carta Holy Grail. When you have the resources to do it, why not try things that nobody else has done before?
Oh, and in case you aren't tired of Miley's twerking ways, she played a starring role in Big Sean's new video. I probably would have given large amounts of money to be at either OVO Fest or TNGHT/Disclousure's Central Park concert. Maybe it was a coincidence that both took place in the same week, but jealous was running high this week...#GreatConcert
Big Sean feat Miley Cyrus - Fire (Video)
Jay-Z - Picasso Baby (Performance Art Film)
Jason Derulo feat 2 Chainz - Talk Dirty (Video)
Mayer Hawthorne Performs Her Favorite Song on Jimmy Kimmel
TNGHT Brings Out Mobb Deep & Perform Shook Ones II in Central Park
Sigh...I'm approaching a crossroads y'all. I've had to write this sentence a few times now, but in short, I'm not sure that I enjoy Drake's music anymore. Maybe it's because his storytelling was more engaging when he was on a come up. Maybe he used to be less about his music being judged and produced genuinely creative music that people could see eye to eye with. Whatever it is, the past four tracks he has released off his upcoming album have been so incredibly not like anything on his first two albums, that I'm left wondering if we're approaching a fork in the road. If he's gone by the way of hard core Hip Hop with dumbed down, mostly ignorant lyrics talking that played out I made it, look at me now business, then I've got a bad feeling that Nothing Was the Same may be our crossroads.
With all that being said, if you're not tired of 2 Chainz yet and have the time for a dope Big Sean verse, you may like All Me. Shout out to Key Wane on the beat and thumbs up to the Aziz AnsariFunny People clip (below)...
On the bright side, maybe his new album will be full of surprises that make September 17th the turnaround of my waning interest in my favorite artist's new musical direction...#NWTS
Drake feat 2 Chainz & Big Sean - All Me (prod by KeY Wane)
When you're an international superstar, you can afford to release singles for specific countries. Such is the case for Jason Derulo who is readying a release of his UK single Talk Dirty featuring 2 Chainz on September 16th. The release of the single just happens to be about a week before JD is schedule to let loose his upcoming album, Tattoos. As a quick side note, I found it entertaining that Jason is calling his upcoming album his "breakout" album. I guess when you've got 2.2 million followers on Twitter, you could always reach more people and have 11.5 million followers like Drake?
The most surprisingly awesome element of Talk Dirty is the beat cooked up by the Balkan Beat Box. The saxophone driven part near the hook really gets your attention and pulls you in. For a pop track, 2 Chainz definitely didn't hold back on his verse. His lyrics fit the tone of the track, but I'll put it this way, there will some editing needed for radio. Not sure when this one will hit US iTunes, but I assume it'll be sooner than September 16th since the internet has already gotten a hold of it...#TalkDirty
Jason Derulo feat 2 Chainz - Talk Dirty (prod by Balkan Beat Box)
I decided to go 100% Hip Hop on this week's video post. It seems like it's video season for Hip Hop and you can expect a lot more of that to come with Jay-Z, Kanye, and Drake having singles on the horizon. Dap is order for Juicy J who managed to avoid the strip club scene in his video for Bounce It, which is undoubtedly on repeat at your local gentleman's club. I thought the video was pretty classy and well done by Benny Boom.
I'm just as surprised as you that 2 Chainz got to a point in his career where he could demand 100k per feature. Who knew 100k would include video girls? In other news, Jay-Z took over Pace Gallery in NYC and performed Picasso Baby for six hours straight. Oh to be a fly on the wall for that marathon of a day...#PicassoBaby
Hip Hop dominated this week's videos with Flo Rida and B.O.B. releasing visuals for their new singles. The more I listen to Bobby Ray's Headband, the more the whistling embeds itself into my brain. Dap is in order for the up and coming DJ Mustard for cookin' up that beat.
Great mix of interesting and funny on this week's version of VOTW. Pretty cool to see Wale throw out the first pitch at the Nats game recently, then learn that his album debuted #1. We're now less than a week away from Magna Carta Holy Grail being released to the non-Samsung, common-folk crowd. I have little doubt that the album will be anything less than classic.
Funny or Die came through with a nice David Spade Catfish spoof, but the most entertaining video of the week has to be the Lumineers vs Will Ferrell playing Harry CarayHo Hey mix. What a great mashup, really made me miss the old Cubs broadcaster. Speaking of which, if you're in Chi-town this weekend holler atcha boy, I'll be in the bleachers on Friday...#GoCubsGo
Wale Throws Out First Pitch at Nationals Game
Jay-Z Previews His New Track Oceans
Lumineers vs Will Farrell Playing Harry Caray (Hey Ho Mashup)
David Spade Gets Catfished...by Selita Ebanks
The Game feat 2 Chainz & Rick Ross - Ali Bomaye (Video)
This week's top five videos run the gamut of emotion from depression to thoughtful to downright buckwild. The most real video by far come from J Cole who opened up in a very real and accessible way about depression and the impact it has had on him. Not many rappers would be caught dead keeping it that real about personal struggles, but the ones that do like Cole and Drake make the "hard" rappers look insecure. Kudos for keepin' it 100, I'm infinitely more excited for Born Sinner now that I know how rooted in emotion it will be.
I enjoyed B.O.B.'s characteristically tour clip heavy video for his hope filled track Chandelier with Lauriana Mae. Aside from the two aforementioned videos, it's all about partying and more specifically booty. Wild and Hello have a party feel to them, but the slightly NSFW video for Bubble Butt definitely wins the award for most booty per capita in a video this year. Well...at least we're back to accepting as a culture that curvy behinds are the preferred choice...#BubbleButt
Jessie J feat Big Sean & Dizzee Rascal - Wild (Video)
J.Cole - Born Sinner: From Depression To Happiness #OKNotToBeOK (Interview)
Stafford Brothers feat Lil Wayne & Christina Milian - Hello (Video)
B.O.B. feat Lauriana Mae - Chandelier (Video)
Major Lazer feat Bruno Mars, 2 Chainz, Tyga & Mystic - Bubble Butt (Video)
I dropped the ball about a month ago when Bobby Ray's newest single hit the internet while I was exploring Europe. Needless to say, the track is now on the radio, which is what reminded me to finally post it because the whistlin' Dixie style snap beat is addicting. Sure the lyrics are borderline trashy, but what did you expect with a 2 Chainz feature?
No firm release date on B.O.B.'s upcoming Underground Luxury album that is due out this summer. What I do know is that you will find the DJ Mustard produced track at your local gentleman's club. Not sure if the track below has anything to do with him calling his new album "the edgiest project to date", but if you take it for what it's worth, you won't be upset when you see some booties shakin' around you...#UndergroundLuxury
B.O.B. feat 2 Chainz - HeadBand (prod by DJ Mustard)
It's a shocker, this summer another Fast & Furious movie is being released! Surprising right? Sarcasm aside, this will be the finally one and I applaud them for getting back to what helped make the first movie awesome...an above average soundtrack. They have Def Jam to thank for putting together a top notch soundtrack to Fast and Furious 6. I'll always maintain, Pov City Anthem from the original Fast & Furious soundtrack is a classic beat and it motivated me to find a way to create ringtones on my own.
In other news, Skylar Grey continues to make slightly disturbing, emotionally charged videos. Interesting that Kendrick went to church for the BDKMV video. Anytime J Lo and Pitbull or Kanye and Ben Affleck get together, it's going to be fun. Definitely tuning into SNL for the season finale...#SNL
2 Chainz & Wiz Khalifa - We Own It (Fast & Furious Video)
This one is a little less strange than the Juicy J and Passion Pit collabo, but it's still obscure. It took me a little while to figure out what was different on the instrumental, but the Hip Hop-ness kicks in around the 30 second mark. In the past I've been pretty critical of 2 Chainz's interesting career progression through the years, but I'm beginning to tolerate him. Maybe it's because he's constantly collaborating with many of my favorite artists or maybe his verses are evolving in quality...either way I don't always skip to the next track when his verse comes on. Kudos to Fall Out Boy for going Hip Hop on the remix, good things always happen when genres collide. FOB's new album drops in less than two weeks when they finally #SaveRockAndRoll.
Fall Out Boy feat 2 Chainz - My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Remix)
The head scratching collabos continue this week with @Tyga and @2chainz on @diplo's remix of @psy_oppa's megahit Gangnam Style. It might be the first time ever I can say that a Diplo beat was confusing. At times it's slow and choppy to give the verses room to breathe, but then Diplo hits another gear when he throws his signature upbeat, trap style around the 1:16 mark.
The track below is on the new Gangnam Style [Remix Style] EP, which also features a pretty bangin', not-Gangnam-sounding-at-all remix from @djafrojack. Here's to hoping the next off the wall collabo sound more like Constant Conversations, rather than the Gangnam retread below...#Craziness
