Is Jersey Club making a comeback? A few weeks back Marshmello paid homage to Bmore Club with his Mask Off remix and now we've got a DJ Sliink sighting this week. Saint Laurent is as energetic and chopped up as you'd expect from a Jersey Club track. It fits the stop and go, bass heavy vibe of many previous Skrillex tracks. I love that the beat reminded Wale of DC's Go-go style, building a bridge to his vocal contribution on the track. If you're used to the "usual" EDM sound, you'll enjoy the novelty of this one. Credit to the three superstars getting together to do something fresh that you wouldn't expect from any of the individually...#SaintLaurent
This week was a special week in that it brought with it a clear candidate for video. Unsurprisingly, Lil Dicky was the mastermind behind the near 11 minute short movie that ended up being the crown jewel of this week's top five. I can't even really do justice trying to describe it, but I will warn that the first minute or so has a bit of nudity, so be mindful of the NSFW tag. Let's just say the video is a slow paced, non-linear train of thought style conversation that will take your imagination and sense of humor on a roller coaster of emotion. There's literally too much comedy gold in there, so feel free and reference the lyric Genius link as you watch.
On a whole different top four list, there was a slew of new music videos that were worthy of note. Let by Travis Scott and Kendrick Lamar's haunting, CGI infused video for Goosebumps and Wale and G-Eazy's new spiffy visuals for Fashion week, Hip Hop ruled the roost on the music tip. An honorable mention goes to Major Lazer, Nicki Minaj, and PARTYNEXTDOOR for their house party with FaceTime themed video for Run Up. Closing out this week's top five was The Chainsmokers who made their SNL debut last weekend. Playing a small, quaint venue like Studio 8H isn't exactly what they're used to, but they found a way to deliver a solid performance. They won't be mistaken as rock stars stage presence wise, but Drew especially is coming into his own vocally, which is fun to watch. I for one am stoked to see them live in a few weeks when they come to Bill Graham. I'll see y'all there...#MemoriesDoNotOpen
It's been a minute since Wale came through with a track that made me do a double take. To put things into perspective, his first two albums were absolute fire, but since then his last two albums have caused we'll call it a "reduction in minutes" if you're speaking NBA terms. Not quite on the DNP-CD level, but he hasn't even been getting backup minutes. Know what I'm sayin'?
But in the world of music, you're always one song away from being back in everyone's good graces. Enlisting the help of Bay Area's own G-Eazy, he was able to conjure up some of the magic from previous years. Fashion week is an ode to the baddest of the bad women out there. Trading playful barbs back and forth Wale and G-Eazy make show off their lustful, braggadocio sides with lyrical gymnastics over a bubbly beat on Fashion Week. It'll be surfacing on Wale's upcoming Shine album that is slated for a 2017 release. Cheers to hoping this is the start of a win streak for Olubowale...#FashionWeek
Listening to Wale's remix of Ed Sheeran's new one makes me nostalgic. About a decade ago, you could count on at least one well known rapper to go in on every single catchy pop single. Now that EDM is eating up all the remix usage, hearing a hot 16 over an Ed Sheeran joint is a novelty.
One word of caution before pressing play below, it's basically the original track after Wale's verse. In other words, the remix basically ends at the 1:05, so feel free and carry on if you're not in the mood to hear Ed's infectious vocals. As a bonus here's his performance of the track at The Grammys last weekend. Needless to say he killed it when he built the beat from scratch and rocked it solo...#ShapeOfYou
It's probably been well over a year since I posted a Wale track. Much of that has been due to both of our musical tastes changing at the same time. For him, it was a Maybach Music leap that led to a lot of loud Hip Hop that lacked the vigor and depth of message that first few albums had. For me, it was a gradually increasing disinterest in Hip Hop as the quality in my eyes has continued to decrease each year. People will point toward Kanye albums, but other than Kendrick Lamar's debut album, have there been any great Hip Hop albums over the past few years?
Rant aside, this is the first time in many moons where I listened to a Wale track and really dug its vibe. There's a stream of consciousness that he let's loose in an unfiltered way that's more therapeutic than focused. Mind the skips throughout the track and follow along with the lyrics if you will, but it's a disorganized brain dump of verbal gymnastics that has a proud tone to it. Whatever it is, I enjoyed it's vibe and it's got me looking forward to his upcoming album, Album About Nothing...#TheFollowers
Wale - The Followers (Produced by Pro Reese & Marce Reazon)
Middle eastern flavored Hip Hop? That's the interesting new angle that Wale took on his new Keep the Hustle track off the upcoming Million Dollar Arm Soundtrack. The Indian influence injected by Slumdog composer A.R. Rahman is palpable on the beat and vocals, reflecting the core theme of an Indian cricket player making it to the Major Leagues. Check the trailer below if you haven't seen it yet...
Not sure I'm totally buying in on the movie's plot, but I'll admit, I've always wondered how transferable the skills were between cricket and baseball. It's really early, but the movie is about 50/50 on Rotten Tomatoes. Not enough of a sample size for me to be convinced, but between the track below and Iggy Azalea's Million Dollar Dream song, I'd say the Million Dollar Arm soundtrack has some potential...#KeepTheHustle
Definitely a Hip Hop centric top five this week. Not sure about y'all, but I have my DVR set to record SNL this weekend with Drake hosting it. The promo for the show (below) is a bit over the top, but the whole "saddest boy in all of Toronto...no you know what Canada" bit around the 1 min mark with the heavy daytime-tv style dramatic acting was entertaining. I hope he continues to poke fun at himself for the generally accepted reputation of being a sensitive dude.
Really cool get a behind the scenes look and some reflection from K Dot as a promo for the Grammys. In a similar way, I'm excited to see more of Wale's documentary soul-searching trip to Africa. A one minute snip doesn't even begin to tell the story, but it looks interesting. From a user experience (UX) design perspective, it was cool to hear Pharrell talk about the experience he tries to create through his music. People may not realize it, but the producers that care THAT much about the opinion and perspective of the listener tend to be the best ones. Keeping with the UX lens, Bobby Ray's video for John Doe was well done with the storytelling angle he took. Even though it was a tough story to watch, it's much easier to connect with lyrics when I can see the meaning unfold in a real scenario...#JohnDoe
Drake Saturday Night Live Promo
Day in the Life: Grammy Nominee James Blake & Kendrick Lamar
Admittedly, this week was a little heavy on Hip Hop, but that's not away a bad thing. Despite the fact that Drake went on just about every major media outlet, I refrained from posting more than one video of his. I know, I'm proud of myself too. I thought his mini-skit/video for Hold on We're Going Home was well done, though. Didn't see the track evoking a ransom situation with a whole lotta guns and stuff. SPOILER ALERT: Drake ends up saving the day and getting the girl.
Aside from that I got some pop/EDM, R&B and plenty of a$$ thanks to Wale's Clappers video. Dare I say take notes Miley? Cause the Twerk Team is in fully effect...#QueensOfTwerk
Drake - Hold on We're Going Home (Video))
Zedd feat Hayley Williams - Stay the Night (Video)
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
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)
Now that Wale's album has officially hit shelves and I've had a chance to take a few laps around it, I've found myself gravitating to a favorite in Vanity. The beat's piano backbone lays the foundation for Wale's more than skin deep introspective effort. The best part about it is the re-purposed Gary JulesMad World sample (original below)...
I've always found it interesting when artists openly wax poetic about the reality of being famous. Lines in the track below like, "these broads jocking me is validating my conceit" are the introspective thoughts that give fuel to Vanity. I know to the Hip Hop outsider, you may feel like you need a big shovel to dig for meaning in most Hip Hop tracks, but if you choose to listen closely you might just find some thoughtful nuggets just below the surface. I'm gonna give a big Sample Justice thumbs up because Wale didn't even use the original sample. Instead, he flipped the sample and took it another original direction. Mad dap is in order for that and while on the topic of ordering, feel free an cop The Gifted while you're at it...#TheGifted
As someone who believes producers are a bigger predictor of track success than the artist, a good move to get my attention is to find a way to get a big name producer to fork over a beat for you. There's a good chance I'll be able to tell whether it was money or talent that enabled you to procure the beat, but I've found that more often than not, getting a producer co-sign is usually an indication of talent. So for example, when your lead single is produced by The Runners, then Danjahandz produces your remix, big huge red sirens go off in my head that force me to listen.
Enter, Luke James, who is signed to Danja's NARS (New Age Rock Stars) label. Evidently he'll be opening for Beyonce this summer on some of her tour dates, which is another nice feather in his cap. In case you haven't heard the original version of I.O.U. that came out in early February, check out the lyric video below.
The original is cool and all, but the remix with Wale blows the original out of the water. On the remix Luke manages to pull a Trey Songz/Kevin Cossom and sing/rap his way to multi-dimensional success. I'm a big fan of artists than can pull off both, so you better believe I'll be keeping an eye on Luke's upcoming debut album Made to Love due out July 16th...#NARS
Luke James feat Wale - I.O.U. (Summertime Remix)(prod by Danja)
In case you've been living under a rock and haven't seen the hundreds of Samsung commercials that Jay-Z has been putting out, I should probably let you know his new Magna Carta Holy Grail album is coming out in then next week. As much as I kid, I'm pretty pumped to give the high octane, super-produced album a listen. I enjoyed Wale and Big Boi's new visuals and it was pretty cool to see some genuine excitement from Drizzy as he made his whole crew take shots out of his Grammy. If you want some shock and awe, give cute little Aaralyn's death metal a listen...#ShockValue
Jay-Z Magna Carta Holy Grail "One Too Many" Commercial Wale feat Sam Dew - LoveHate Thing (Video)
Drake Receives His Grammy...Then Takes a Shot Out of It
Big Boi - The Thickets (Video)
6-Year Old Little Girl Screaming Death Metal on America's Got Talent
If you've been a close follower of this blog you've sat front row as a witness to my love/hate relationship with Wale. Ironically, his new track LoveHate Thing epitomizes the vitality and storytelling that initially landed him in my top five favorite artists. Over the past year I've been unapologetically critical of the impact that signing with Mayback Music has had on his music. In my eyes, as soon as he started rubbing shoulders with Rick Ross, his tracks went from standing out to mainstream at best. Simply put, Wale's talents and unique style became watered down and I became less interested in his music.
With his third album, The Gifted, ready for a late June release, I'm starting to get more excited about his music. What changed? Well for starters he teamed up with Sam Dew over a Marvin Gaye's classic Inner City Blues (below)...
To their credit, they took the essence of the original and put their spin on it with a heavy dose of soulful vocals and live instrumentation. THIS is the type of upbeat, lyrically dense music that I came to appreciate from Wale. Keep it up homie, between this one and Bad, you're two for two on singles...#TheGifted
Taking more of an entertainment and novelty angle on this week's video rendition. In other words, it's not everyday you get to see a parrot performing Dubstep or a rapping animated stomach telling you to eat healthy. The most interesting video may actually be the Pirate Bay Documentary, which has just over 2 million views in the week that it's been up. If you're not familiar with the story, it's an interestin internet piracy company that keeps chugging despite the increased emphasis by the federalies.
Novelty aside, the coolest video of the week award without question goes to @maroon5's Playing for Change inspired video for Daylight. There really isn't much cooler than getting people around the world to come together to make music together...#WorldwideAwesome
Maroon 5 - Daylight (Playing for Change) Video
Wale to Drop The Album About Nothing With Jerry Seinfeld
Really random set of videos this week ranging from the newest, biggest Hip Hop video from @wale to a well constructed new EDM video to yet another rapper working the ESPN circuit. The two most unique videos have to be @MiguelUnlimited's acoustic rendition of Adorn and the new trailer to Anthony Hopkins new soon to be blockbuster movie about Alfred Hitchcock's life. Two facts make them unique and worth watching: 1) Miguel has a great voice and 2) Anthony Hopkins is a great actor. Really only one word can rightfully describe the range of videos this week...#Random
Wale feat Drake & Rick Ross - Diced Pineapples (Video)
Alesso feat Matthew Koma - Years (Video)
South Park Sessions Miguel Performing Adorn (Acoustic)
Now that the vicious scavengers have gotten to @rickyrozay's new album God Forgives, I Don't six days early, I might as well chime in on one of the more talked about tracks circulating the interwebs. It's the most talked about because it's not everyday you get @wale and @drake on the same track together. On the track Wale does his "Ambitious Girl" routine where he waxes poetic Def poetry jam style in attempt to subtly spit game with an err of reverence to his delivery. I really like it when he does that because it's a lost art that Hip Hop has somewhat lost with it's newest generation, so when he brings it back in his own way, it allows him to show off what makes him better than the next artist.
It's been a while since we've been privy to an all R&B hook from Drizzy too, which was a welcome change up. Kudos to @Cardiakflatline for the quiet piano instrumental that played well with all the pillow talk throughout the track. In case you missed it, God Forgives, I Don't lands on iTunes next Tuesday, July 31st. My bet is it takes less than three weeks to go platinum and that's probably underselling it's potential by A LOT...#GFID
Rick Ross feat Wale & Drake - Diced Pineapple (prod by Cardiak)
|iTunes
Critics have never been shy in calling @kanyewest a genius as an artist, but now I think the credit he receives should be broadened to include his general managing skills. Signing under-appreciated free agent @PUSHA_T, reinvented @2chainz and up and coming @bigsean have all proved to be positive moves so far. This week @g_o_o_d_music continued their ascension with their performance at the @bet awards. That performance combined with the much hyped, high-budget video for @davidguetta's new single featuring the gyrations of @chrisbrown were the two big highlights video wise in the past week.
If you're a fan of Hip Hop dance you'll probably enjoy @justicedanccrew's new Boom Boom video. Also, I found it really hard not smiling when watching @JordinSparks's new Celebrate video that featured the last acting ever done by Whitney Houston in Sparkle. Kudos for the music industry as a whole for doing as many tributes as humanly possibly to honor one of the most influential artists in R&B history.
David Guetta feat Chris Brown &Lil Wayne – I Can Only Imagine (Video)
G.O.O.D. Music Performs at BET Awards
Justice Crew - Boom Boom (prod by David Guetta) (Video)
It all started with an out of the blue tweet by @Wale in early March forecasting the epic collabo in the making...
This week that coming soon became a legitimate, tangible appetizer in the form of a radio rip of Let's Get Down with @Skrillex. About five months ago, the beat for the track surfaced on the internet, but evidently that was an incomplete version that was in need of some Hip Hop influence.
It's about what you'd expect with Wale spittin' bar after bar over high octane electronics waveforms that sound like Skrillex if you know what I mean. Word has it this track is going to eventually surface on Skrillex's upcoming Goats and Fire 2 EP. I'll caution that the version below isn't quite the CDQ, but it's the longer real version that you're not going to find with the radio rip circulating. It was only a matter of time before the two genres had an official collaboration with two up and coming artists. I'm anxious to see how well the track is received by fans of both genres. I'm all for progression and genre bending so you know I'm down with #EDHop...
It's been more than a minute since I've posted a solid R&B track, so I thought I'd mix it up with @sabisoundz's new one featuring @wale. The bouncy track is produced by everyone's favorite producer @thedoctorluke. Check the newly released video below produced by @timcruzlovesyou...
She's now three solid singles deep on her first solo album, which doesn't have a title or release date yet. First it was Wild Heart, then everyone's favorite featuring @cobrastarship You Make Me Feel. Safe to say there's plenty of hope for her solo career to take off and I'll have a vested interest in her debut album.
Sabi feat Wale - Where They Do That (prod by Dr.Luke) |iTunes
