As Cash Money continues to turn into a crumbling fortress of destruction with Baby and Lil Waynefeuding over millions, we've got a new bright spot emerging from Weezy's Young Money label. Enter 19 year old Austin Mahone who signed with Young Money back in August 2013. His new single Torture is about as quality as it gets for pop/R&B nowadays. He reminds me a lot of Colby O'Donis with his smooth vocal delivery. I'll admit that on first listen I thought he had to be a member of (fill in the blank boy band name), but given his affiliation and solo course to this point, I have a lot more respect for him. With YMCMB opening up doors for him, the sky is the limit for young Austin...#Torture
I've tried my best to maintain a wait and see approach with @tyga as we all patiently await his debut album, Careless World: Rise of the Last King. The album is scheduled to drop January 24th and the track below, Faded is already the fourth single to be released off the album. First it was Far Away, then Still Got It with @drake, followed by the club banger Rack City. Sounds like a hell of start to an album right? Well it gets better...
Taking a look at the confirmed tracks that will be included on the album, I see two @smokedoutluger tracks to go with @boi1da, @COOLANDDRE, @producertminus and @kanebeatz tracks. Did I mention none of the four singles above are produced by any of the five producers I just mentioned in the sentence above? Yep, that's called hype and I'm buying in on the hype because I see a lot of producers I really like that are chipping in on the album. In other words, I'm not sure if he can screw up that kind of a head start, especially when he's already cashed in four solid singles.
As an aside, I like how Tyga adopted the Young Money style of constant in your face one liners too. @liltunchi does it better than anyone and you'll notice that the verses on Faded are as unapologetic as they come. Maybe it's a way to keep people listening? Whatever it is, I find myself trying to pick out witty one liners, which keeps me listening. Sure the lines are silly, nonsensical rhetoric that sometimes tell a story that resembles an artist splattering paint on a canvas, but the fast pace and creativity is interesting to me. In other words, don't get hung up on the words...instead, appreciate the way some artists can weave together words, sounds and rhymes that neither you nor I could or would have thought of...#FoodForThought
While I wouldn't put this in @ryanleslie's Hall of Fame of productions, I still really like the new track he produced and sang the hook on with @CoryGunz. Loco is every bit a Hip Hop braggadocio staple with talk of G5 jets and living the lavish Hip Hop lifestyle. No word yet on what album this will land on, but it's definitely going to end up being a single, potentially on Cory's debut album slated for the second quarter of 2012.
As I'm listening to it, I feel like I've seen enough behind the scenes videos to appreciate all the quirky synth sounds that go int an R Les production. There's a lot going on when you take everything into account and for that reason, producers deserve just as much dap. Their work is the foundation of what you hear and there are only a few artists out that could sound good on any beat. Most need a good beat to sound hot and be relevant, so if you're a reader of my blog you probably feel the same way or at least have the same appreciation for what goes into the final product of a song. Chalk it up to another Young Money protege to watch out for in 2012...#TakinOver
Cory Gunz feat Ryan Leslie - Loco (prod by Ryan Leslie)
Couple big name videos found there way onto the internet this week, including @bobatl's new single Strange Clouds. Interesting to hear all the @drake leaving Young Money rumors swirling this week. I was happy to see he nipped that in bud before it grew legs, but on the real, why in the hell would he want to leave? Take Care is headed straight to platinum and he clearly loves where he's at with @liltunchi and @nickiminaj always by his side. Guess people need something to talk about...#InsertDavidSternDiss
B.O.B. feat Lil Wayne - Strange Clouds (Video)
Diggy Simmons feat Jeremih - Do it Like You (Video)
Pitbull feat Chris Brown - International Love (Video)
Snoop and Wiz Perform Young, Wild and Free on Jimmy Kimmel
Drake Addresses Rumors About Him Leaving Young Money
Even though @NickinMinaj may have the flamboyance and swagger to steal the show when it comes to females in Young Money, @shanell_snl was touted the Young Money Princess far before she ever came along. Seems @liltunechi, @drake and all the folks who rep YMCMB are fully aware that you probably don't know who Shanell is and see that as a problem. The track below should serve as a proper introduction because when Young Money get's together on a lead single, you better believe there will be no half steppin'.
Not only do Drizzy and Weezy contribute verses on the track, but @COOLANDDRE chipped on the production, making it a fully star studded track from front to back. What I like best about it are the samples all over the place. They including Paul Davis's I Go Crazy (background jingles) and most recently Luther Vandross's Closer I Get To You. I love the retro samples, believe it or not I Go Crazy was a top 10 hit back in 1977 and you may remember Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway doing the original version of Closer I Get to You in 1978. That some classic, classic R&B. It doesn't get more timeless than those two slow jams...(Respect the #BMM hashtag)
No word yet on when this will surface on an album or what the title will be, but you can bet it'll get more than a few spins on Top 40 radio with the heavy names on the track. Don't sleep on Shanell man, she's got sort of an angelic Keri Hilson-type powerful voice (exhibit A). The real question should be who is the second best record company in Hip Hop? #Rhetorical
Shanell feat Drake & Lil Wayne - So Good (prod by Cool n Dre) |iTunes
It's not always a good thing to hear a different side of an artist, especially when a Hip Hop artist goes R&B. In this case though, we've already gotten R&B glimpses from @Tyga on songs like Deuces or (my personal favorite) Press 7 (below)...
Press 7 alone put Tyga on the map for me, definitely maybe because of the vindictive lyrics. Nothin' better than getting wronged by someone, then having them come crawling back and being able to press 7 at the end of the voicemail...#kickRocks
The track below is on a more sentimental tip, with the lyrics taking on more of an "I did my baby wrong" tone. With help from @imchrisrich, the harmony matches the vibe well and gives the track a shot of emotion. Being a member of YMCMB, I'll continue to be on the look out for his upcoming album Careless World. Tentatively set to drop this year at some point, it'll feature the likes of Chris Brown, Mario, Snoop Dogg, Kanye West, Game, Pharrell, J. Cole and Young Money artists like Drizzy Drake and Lil Wayne. Even better, it'll be primarily produced by @COOLANDDRE, who are the new resident beatmakers for Cash Money Records.
Still buying in the stock of Young Money if you can't tell, but can anybody give me a reason why that's a bad decision? Carter 4 is coming soon...#Beware
Call this a fast paced, dub-step remix of @JAYSEAN's new single, Hit the Lights. For all of you unfamiliar with the dubstep sound, consider this a very mild taste of the style over a Hip Hop track. I'm pretty satisfied that @corygunz is finally gettin' a shot at the big leagues with Young Money and his new reality show on MTV, Son of a Gun, should increase his notoriety considerably. Who knows maybe he'll manage to get out of the large shadow cast by his dad Peter Gunz. Check the trailer for the show below.
Shouts out to @TYGA, who has been creepin' on a come up for a while now and will hopefully continue to get notable guest spots like this one to go along with his debut album Careless World due out in the upcoming months. I'm lookin' forward to that second single, Far Away with @drakkardnoir...#PleaseDropSoon
Stay tuned for Jay Sean's upcoming album Freeze Time, due out on July 5th. If it's anything like his first effort, it'll move plenty of copies...
This track is like Drake sitting back and smiling as his cautionary words,
"Weezy on top and that n-gga aint even home...yet! Yeaah, be very afraid"
on his track Moment 4 Life with @nickiminaj, are looking like a display of sheer clairvoyance. This track has had the innernuts and bloggers alike gushing over the first single to the Carter IV, which is due for a February release.
It's interesting listening to the producer of the track @mrbangladesh, aka the master of trunk music, talk about the track and how it compares to another legendary track he did with @liltunechi, A Milli. Even more interesting, is that the track was originally for T.I....
It's not just Wayne either, @corygunz does more than hold his own on the uptempo and wittier version the track that makes the single sounds like A Milli on crack. Inviting Cory Gunz into the Young Money family and telling him to "attack beats" was a really good decision, case in point tracks like this and this.
In case you were curious like me (even though you weren't), the sample comes from Harry Belafonte's well known Banana Boat Song (below)...(fast forward to the 2:08 mark for the sample)..."Come, Mister tally man, tally me banana"
Definitely a testament to how great beats can be made from the most brief snippets of some of the most random tracks.
Couple quotables from the track include, but are not limited to:
Weezy F
"Excuse my charisma, vodka with a spritzer
sSagger down pat, call my shit Patricia
Young Money militia, and I am the commissioner
You don’t want start Weezy, ’cause the F is for Finisher"
"Life is the bitch, and death is her sister
Sleep is the cousin, what a f-ckin’ family picture"
"Glass half empty, half full, I’ll spill ya
Try me and run into a wall, outfielda"
Cory Gunz
"Word to my mama, I’m out of my lima bean
Don’t wanna see what that drama mean, get some Dramamine
Llama scream, hotter than summer sun on a Ghana queen"
"Son of Gunz, Son of Sam, you n-ggas the son of me
Pause for this dumber speech, I glow like Buddha
Disturb me, and you’ll be all over the flow like Luda"
There are very few tracks I have heard this year that have as many witty one liners. Don't let the bad language fool you, the craziness that is spit from these two is epic. Expect this to permeate pop culture soon and be your friend's favorite song around the same time...
Lil Wayne feat Cory Gunz - 6'7" (prod by Bangladesh)
The past week or so, the track below has somehow managed to appreciate in value to me, rather than fall down the never ending escalator of tracks I go through on a daily basis. You may wonder, what does that mean? Well..I'm not sure, but it's probably listed somewhere in the dictionary as an alternate definition to the word underrated, especially when you take into account it's a mixtape track that has yet to be heard by the masses. Don't get me wrong, there's always added potential when you see the (prod by Timabland) at the end of any song, but this is what I'd consider to be low-key for Timbo beat wise. It's a solid beat that caters to well crafted (albeit auto-tuned) verses. It ends up coming off as more of a freestyle than a traditional track, but that leaves a lot of room for Gudda Gudda and Mack Maine to shine.
As sort of an FYI, both of these dudes are flying low under the horizon creepin' on a steady come up. Just like a backup quarterback to Peyton Manning (Lil Wayne), there will come a time where both will get their shot at their own solo act. As a warm up check out Mack Maine's latest mixtape The Laxative hosted by @DEEJAYILLWILL and @realdjrockstar. Likewise, last year @imguddagudda put out a mixtape Guddaville hosted by the same DJ Ill Will and DJ Rock Star. For those of you that slept on it, press play below, you'll be pleasantly surprised with his Young Money Hospital track with @liltunechi.
Speaking of which, you know I had to somehow incorporate Lil Weezy in a post the night before he's released from prison. I mean shit even Bill Clinton is elated that Lil Wayne is getting released from Rikers...hah! Not even kidding, one bit...press play below...
I digress...and not just because it rhymes with con-gress, which was over-taken by the Republicans today mind you (showing the stats of the election is about as political as I will get when writing, in case you're wondering, I'm apathetic that only 11% of my age demographic came out and voted). I dislike political ads with a passion, but to make up for it I have a passion for creative lyrics (B+ segway?...be honest, it was rough at first, but ended well...TWSS). Below are a few reasons why I think Mack Maine (pictured above with Lil Wayne on stage) stole the show on My Reality.
Quotables from @MACKMAINE's verse:
"What you need, contacts? Tell me what you don’t see
What you can’t tell, I’m everything that he won’t be
Talkin’ ’bout your boyfriend, girl you need a man friend Even when you ain’t sittin’ down you can’t stand him"
"I don’t ever kiss and tell
I’ll be your genie out the lamp or your wishing well
I’ll be your fishing pail and you can be my yacht buddy
Take you from A-Z, I’ll connect the dots hunny"
"You do me, I do you
Baby we could do us and I ain’t gotta say no more
I don’t talk too much
Thus far, phew I feel like I’ve been trying to sell a car
Is you buying?
(Lil Wayne) Haa, cause I ain’t got no time for a test drive"
There's good reason why the Young Money symbol looks like the Yankees logo...they're taking Hip Hop over. Proof's in the delicious (#BrianWilsonIsFromAnotherPlanet) pudding below...
Mack Maine feat Lil Wayne & Gudda Gudda - My Reality (prod by Timbaland)
From waaay outta left field comes the first single off Lil Wayne's upcoming EP titled I'm Not a Human Being EP featuring ya boy Drizzy Drake. Not gonna lie, I saw the radio rip last night and vowed to wait to post until the CDQ dropped...but it was tough resisting the post. Luckily, following Kane Beatz aka "Mr. Kane is in the building N****" has its perks...
A couple of noteworthy things about the track, the first being @DRAKKARDNOIR's verse that I know I've heard from somewhere...
...put it this way, if it weren't for video cameras in England taping radio freestyles like this, we'd think this was something completely new. That's not to take away from the verse, but in my eyes it was waaaay more potent delivered off the brain acapella that on this track. To his credit, it's well conceived verse, with below being my favorite part.
I got a small circle, I’m not with different crews
We walk the same path, but got on different shoes
Live in the same building, but we got different views
Another strange element of the track is the vanishing act Drake pulls after the first verse, which is very unlike him since he usually donates something to the hook or throws in a few ad libs. That, along with this track being released while @liltunechi is still up in Rikers, gives it sort of a cut and pasted feel to it, but I'll take cut and pasted any day of the week when these two get together. Sidebar: Check Funk Flex's interview with Weezy today from jail. Interesting that Wayne's releasing his new EP on his birthday, September 27, while he's still locked up and won't get out until early November (93 days left).
Call it a way for Weezy to help while in jail in an attempt to keep fueling the buzz that Thank Me Later (915,000 sold as of Sunday) created. Sidebar: Two interesting reactions below from Drake this week, the first being on his regret that he didn't put his 9 AM in Dallas Freestyle as the intro to Thank Me Later.
The second being him hyping (damn near Lebron/Brett Favre level) two verses that Weezy spit on the phone to him from jail. Check the reaction below..
Overall a nice, but I do expect a lot more on Carter IVif when @KANEBEATZ, @liltunechi and @DRAKKARDNOIR get together. 'Til then, you know I'm still showin' nothin' but love....you could say I'm still on board...YMOE!!
Lil Wayne feat Drake - Right Above It (prod by Kane Beatz)
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Producer Chase N' Cashe (Young Money, Lil Wayne) has a young squad of musicians/artists that form The Surf Club. The group consist of Hit-Boy, B. Carr, Chili Chil & Cashe , as well as the very underrated TY$L is on the hook. TY$L is so unheard of, I challenge you to go find his myspace. In face I'll take it a step further and give a little unsigned hype love with TY$L on the hook:
Back to the lecture at hand...Surf Club, they seem to be a talent bunch of cats coming together with a whole lot of great production. They are self described as a mixture between NERD and Dipset. Let me connect the dots here, I may not have made proper mention of this when I posted Lil Wayne's Drop the World track with Eminem, but in the fine print you would have noticed that song is produced by Hit Boy & Chase N Cash. Similarly, you may notice on my New Music bar on the right a certain BANGIN! track titled Pass the Dutch by Young Money feat Lil Wayne & Drake. Bet you can't guess who that is produced by?? Let me go another step further by saying both producers (Hit Boy and Chase N Cash) work under Polow Da Don's Zone 4 label, most recently known for driving the success of Keri Hilson's blossoming career, as well as Ciara and Rich Boy etc. Despite the sun not being able to get to them, it seems like anything underneath that Zone 4, Polow umbrella is pretty hot at the moment.
Seeing that songs that I like usually have the same shelf life as a banana (I'm talking when it's green and you get it from the grocery store and it's brown by the end of the week), when a song gradually grows on me like this one and I end up having a growing appreciation for the way a track is put together (i.e. that banana gets greener the longer it sits on top of the counter), that's telling. It's a gift and a curse being consistently haughty and promiscuous with music because like Jigga I'm always "On to the Next One", but having the self awareness to understand that allows me to use it for a barometer for certain songs like this one that are better than I first gave it credit for on first listen. You got me?
This track remind me of how much I enjoy Hip Hop ballads. Soft tone, strong words, smooth vibe...great ingredients. For all of you at home who care enough to know who is on what verse, 1st - Hit-Boy, 2nd - B.Carr, 3rd - Chili Chil, 4th - Chase N. Cashe. Check it out:
Surf Club feat TY$L - Cheers to the Hustler (prod by Hit Boy)HOT!!!
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