"I Said If You Could Be Where I’m At, You’d Wanna Be You Too"

Man what is with bonus tracks on this weeks' album releases? Between the track below and Nicki Minaj's Girls Fall Like Dominos, it seems like the thing to do now is to end albums with an exclamation point. The album I'm speaking of is Lloyd Banks's new release Hunger For More 2, which also dropped this week on iTunes.

What's cool about @lloydbanks's collaboration with Slim Shady on Where I'm At is the "I will survive no matter what" style positive message delivered on the track. Like any other @eminem (he follows NO ONE!) track or verse, the journey to the positive message is a raw, Rated R, expletive laden, brutal slice of imagery pie that leaves you chuckling at times at the creativity ("ships sink and you know its love as soon as you fall in it cause shit stinks"). It really is awe inspiring and cool that so many people can wade through the rawness and vulgarity of Eminem's characteristically brash lyrical descriptions and extract the positive message.

Maybe I'm generalizing more than I should and overstating my own personal view toward his music, but at this point of Eminem's career, it's pretty clear just how inspirational his music has become to fans of Hip Hop and I'd argue that there has never been as emotionally charged of an artist ever in Hip Hop history as Marshall Mathers. Now more than ever, consumers of Hip Hop music want real, even if it can be construed as vulnerable...we want music with lyrical depth that is delivered with creative wordplay and value an artist who shows he's human by describing when he was hurt or felt pain, especially with love.

The track below is a perfect case in point and with @boi1da behind the boards, it's done over a soft, but upbeat and harmonic enough to fit perfectly with the positive message delivered on the hook (below)...

"Cause I’m moving on, don’t worry about me
Cause I’m gon be aight without you, you’ll see
There aint no-one on this Earth I’d much rather be
Cause God-dammit I’m glad that I’m me"

Taking a quick look at the tracklist for Hunger For More 2, I now see 4 above average aingles on the album with the classic Beamer, Benz, Bentley, Any Girl, Start It Up and Where I'm At. Pretty solid for a G-Unit outcast and definitely puts Tony Yayo and Young Buck to shame as far as putting out the best non-50 solo album.

Enjoy and be safe tonight on Thanksgiving eve y'all...

Lloyd Banks feat Eminem - Where I'm At (prod by Boi-1da)
|Download

"Diamonds Spinning Round the Bezel Thats Tornado Watch"

"I met this Milf at the All-Star getting action

A cougar with more rings than Phil Jackson"

It's safe to say that Lloyd Banks has been reaping the benefits lately of all these @kanyewest aided collabos. It definitely turned my head when I saw Kanye pronounce on Twitter:

"Yo man Loyd Banks prolly the most underrated MC in the game...Man he deserve to be top 5 at least!" (Sept 8th)

While I'm more than hesitant to give @lloydbanks that much credit, I will concede he's dropped a few verses over the years that have turned my head (think here). The track below is going to be on his Hunger For More 2 album due out on November 23rd, which will be released by his new record company EMI since he was released by Interscope last year. Bet the folks over at Interscope are kicking themselves now after this career rejuvenation provided by a couple singles Beamer, Benz, Bentley and Any Girl.

You better believe the unsung hero of the track below is ya man @RYANLESLIE. You wanna talk about subtly killin' the beat, but barely being mentioned (even on blogs) on the production credits. That's some bullshit in my opinion, dude works wonders on a keyboard and this is no exception. I'm hands down giving best verse award to Kanye who parallel parks on this track, no hands style on his verse, only to be followed up by a strong to quite strong verse by @MYFABOLOUSLIFE. Pretty hard to critique this one with the bubbly synthesizers, bangin' beat and top notch verses.

Give you weekend playlist a shot of steriods...Kenny Powers style...(shouts out to Lil' Wyte on that background highlight clip)

Lloyd_Banks feat. Kanye West Swizz Beatz Ryan Leslie & Fabolous - Start It Up (Prod by Ryan Leslie)
|Download