Month: June 2017

I started following Calvin Harris after I heard You Used to Hold Me in 2010. Bounce and Feel So Close, which came out in 2011, were already EDM classics by 2012. Over the next few years he continued to get bigger and is now a driving force in the sound that governs pop radio. I had always pigeon holed him as an EDM only artist, however as the line blurs I now find myself reviewing his album as a hip hop release. I wish he had come around earlier, I saw him in 2016 at Coachella, however now that I think about it he did release Open Wide with Big Sean back in 2014. Based on the title and sound of Slide its pretty clear that this album is going to be full of funky summer jams, hoping that the rest of the album stacks up to the singles thus far.

1. Slide – This song has been everywhere and for good reason, its a great song. The album version sounds a little more crisp, I love the baseline.
2. Cash Out – This is true with all of the songs on this album but this song in particular is very funky. This is the ScHoolboy Q you didn’t know you needed, love how he sounds on an upbeat track like this. PARTYNEXTDOOR sounds great on the chorus, DRAM doesn’t bring a whole lot to the table.
3. Heatstroke – Pharrell on the chorus with Ariana Grande, Young Thug on the verses. I always like some Young Thug but I think the chorus is where the song really shines.
4. Rollin – I’m big into Future but I don’t think he adds much to this track. This came out a few weeks ago if I remember correctly.
5. Prayers Up – A little bit slower than the other songs thus far. Travis kind of reminds me of 3 Wayz here. I don’t know what bird that is that’s sampled in the instrumental (Occurs at 2:53 and throughout) but I love it and it adds to the tropical vibe of the album.
6. Holiday – Classic Snoop Dogg, John Legend and the highly coveted solo Takeoff verse. Which was… just okay. Underwhelmed by this song. 
7. Skrt On Me – Nicki Minaj pulling out the islander style vocals over a dancehall type beat. This is a good song but might get overshadowed by the bigger radio hits on the project.
8. Feels – I love Katy Perry on this song. The instrumental is basically a ska song (which is great), though it changes up and sounds more stripped down once Medium Sean comes in for his verse. Pharrell sounds great on this song, in addition to his earlier appearance on the album.
9. Faking It – The song has a brief build up, Khelani sounds great on the chorus and in her verse. Lil Yachty comes in and is going strong for a while but crashes near the end of his verse rapping about putting pepperoni on his girlfriend.
10. Hard to Love – Slow track with Jessie Reyez on vocals. It sounds nice but not really my thing.

Overall this is a great project, will definitely get a lot of radio play and be a big part of the sound this summer.

 

In addition to the Calvin Harris, Tyler finally dropped some new music today. See the music video with A$AP Rocky below.

Listened to the Denzel Curry EP, wasn’t a big fan. I’ve been following Denzel since Nostalgic 64 in late 2014. I love his 2016 project Imperial, only 4 features and 10 tracks long it is a great cohesive body of work where Denzel raps about many societal issues in southern Florida among other subjects such as relationships and childhood nostalgia. Almost all of these songs I still listen to occasionally, if you haven’t already definitely check it http://www.hotnewhiphop.com/m/116308/script/<noscript><a href=’http://www.hotnewhiphop.com/denzel-curry-imperial-new-mixtape.116308.html&#8217; target=’_blank’>Denzel Curry – Imperial</a></noscript>” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>out.

Denzel Curry – 13

 

Disappointing there are only 5 songs and they are all pretty short, total run time is only 12 minutes and a handful of these songs have already come out.

1. Bloodshed – Denzel spits on the verses but the chorus is mediocre. Not a huge fan.
2. Hate Government – Denzel “on his hate government shit”, song is only a minute and 30 seconds and the beat is super stripped down, the abrasiveness sounds almost as if it could be a Danny Brown track.
3. Equalizer – Beat sounds similar to Hate Government, at the beginning the transition is very smooth. Ronny J raps on this, he’s a dope producer originally from New Jersey but lives in south Florida and is responsible for a lot of the sounds coming out of the area right now, including XXXtentacion and Lil Pump. This track is decent.
4. Heartless – Another similar beat, Denzel raps with distorted vocals in a cadence he often uses.
5. Zeltron 6 Billion – Lil Ugly Mane feature, for me this is probably the stand out track on the project. Quality lyricism, beat switches up from the abrasive/industrial theme of the last few songs, great flow. The feature also works well.

Overall expected more from Denzel and probably won’t be listening to this much. Hopefully this is just a teaser to tide the fans over before a major release coming soon but I have not heard anything.

 

Other updates, Ugly Godreleased  Fuck Ugly God, a funny self deprecating track (the meme here is that Ugly God is in a beef with himself) where he heats himself for various things such as “getting jumped on Halloween”  or borrowing clothes in 8th grade. It’s crazy to me that so far he is the only person capitalizing on the XXL hype with some music prepared, he also potentially has the best XXL freestyle so far. This is the meme rapper who makes videos like this

This song will apparently be on his upcoming project “The Booty Tape”.

XXXtentacion and affiliates have released a mixtape under the group “Members Only” listened to a few songs and thought it was alright, apparently they are still adding a couple tracks because it was leaked so I’ll give it a full listen when/if that happens.

 

Finally, Joe Budden and Migos almost got into a fight at the BET awards. I guess DJ Akademics couldn’t hear Takeoff and Takeoff didn’t like being asked about Bad and Boujee again after it has come up in other interviews. Joe interpreted this standoffish response from Takeoff to be an insult and cut the interview short and dropped the Mike and walked off acting tough and there was a tense moment. This is typical of Joe as he usually plays the crotchety worked up old head role and Everyday Struggle is getting a ton of publicity off of this stuff, video below.

I’ve been listening to the Young Thug project a lot, it feels more structured than previous projects. Thoroughly enjoying some of the moments on it and overall I think it is a lot better than Jeffery. I also still have the Chief Keef mixtape in rotation, although many people will write him off due to lack of lyricism. Thot Breaker has a lot of tracks with a Caribbean/dancehall feel, similar to Drake’s incorporation of this sound. I also downloaded a new mixtape by Domo Genesis, Red Corolla. With the 2 Chainz album, Big Boi album and more coming out so recently I thought this might fly under the radar so I will be reviewing it below.

I first started following Domo Genesis back in 2011 when Tyler, the Creator and the rest of Odd Future were gaining popularity. I listened to a few songs here and there and downloaded his 2016 album Genesis. The album was average, too many features and not a lot of stand out tracks with replayability.

Domo Genesis – The Red Corolla Review

1. The Red Corolla – Intro brings us in with this slowed down male vocal sample over a lo fi beat. The song is short with one continuous stream of consciousness from Domo and no chorus. Most of the lyrics are reminiscing about older days and being broke, struggling and trying to make it through life. At the end of the song Domo is trying to start the Red Corolla and yelling at his mom about the car not starting, which it eventually does. I love how this brings us into the concept of the mixtape, the sample becomes clear and it sounds like the type of song you’d imagine in an old car radio. The mixtape appears to be about driving through a day/night doing various things in the Red Corolla.
2. Vintage Doms – Chilled out ethereal beat, Domo flows over the beat for about a minute and then there is some dialogue where he calls up his homie to pick him up in the car. He continues flowing through the second verse and then picks up his friends. The vibe of the song along with the sound effects of the car and doors being opened and closed makes one think of cruising around on a summer night. The song ends with dialogue between friends in the car and a quiet “chicken nugget head ass” as the dialogue fades out over the car engine.
3. Deez Nuts – Don’t like this song as much, beat is okay and rapping is pretty run of the mill.
4. …Time Goes By – This is a smoke song but there is this eerie paranoia to the beat caused by the inclusion of bells that sound like they belong to a clock. There are some good one liners, such as “Back when my pockets was on Hector Zeroni” (that is a Holes reference. The song ends with Domo tweaking and turning down a one way street while high with his friends as they approach a party.
5. Honestly, Just Wanna Have a Good Time – I like this song, there is an upbeat King Chip feature and some high energy rhymes and then the entire track bottoms out and a slow piano comes in with a slowed down flow from Domo. Eventually the downward spiral stops and Domo says he isn’t feeling the vibe and has to get away from the party. This does a good job of capturing that moment at a party where you look around and realize you aren’t having fun and ask yourself why you’re there in the first place.
6. Overthinking – Domo is on the chorus, which is fairly average, Styles P feature for both verses. Styles P is good but this is not a standout track.
7. Self Doubt The Interlude – Trippy beat with pitched down vocals vaguely about depression and weed. Short and sets a somber mood, at the end of the song a friend calls up Domo to make some money by making music.
8. What It Means – Seems like the pursuit of money has cured Domo’s depression. Somewhat upbeat boom bap beat with a great violin(?) sample in the chorus. Outro samples Dying to Live, which was also famously sampled in 2Pac’s posthumous Runnin’ featuring a posthumous Biggie verse.
9. Slow Burn – Weed song, Domo is back on top of things, great flows.
10. Long Way Home – Another cruising in the whip song, a little somber and introspective with a long outro sounding like were tuning out of the red corolla’s radio station.

Overall I thought this was a really solid mixtape from Domo, I liked it a lot more than the last release I downloaded from him (Genesis). I really love the concept of a night in the car and how it connects to Domo’s experiences while giving the listener a “fly on the wall” quality. I think the concept could have been explored a little better, it felt like a couple of songs were thrown in as filler and there wasn’t really a clear direction or resolution to the trip. The production is where this mixtape shines, I can imagine Curren$y flowing over most of these beats. Left Brain produced a few of the tracks which is nice to see. Unfortunately there aren’t many stand out songs and this will likely get buried with all of the big summer hits out right now, but Domo will continue to have my ear in the future.

Love this cover.

Gained some respect for Vic today.

I was going to review Brockhampton’s Saturation and I was going to speak about the XXL Freshmen list but Fantano beat me to both. I think he raises some good points with Saturation, a 9/10 is a little high but definitely agree it was a quality project. He had to bring up the Odd Future comparison, and I agree that there are significant similarities, but Odd Future was a much less cohesive collective than Brockhampton appears to be. With regards to the XXL Freshmen I thought he had a few decent points, one glaring oversight was his dismissal of Carti. Playboi Carti, his self titled first official project, is low key amazing. Headed by the hit Magnolia with 2 Lil Uzi features and a number of other solid tracks the project has already led to a dedicated following. The same can be said for a number of the other XXL Freshmen, such as XXXtentacion and Boogie. I might have switched in Saba, NAV, or like T Grizzley or Noname Gypsy but overall thought the list was fine.

2 Chainz – Pretty Girls Like Trap Music Review

Obviously as a Wayne fan I loved Duffel Bag Boy but I didn’t really follow 2 Chainz until his rebranding from Tity Boi of the Playaz Circle in late 2011. Liked his first few releases, Mercy, Feds Watching, No Lie, etc etc, although as of late he has hit a bit of a lull for me personally. ColleGrove was a solid project but MFN Right was the only song on it that I really loved. His new album Pretty Girls Like Trap Music came out today and hopefully this is an opportunity for him to regain some momentum.

1. Saturday Night – There is a 20 second build up as this is the intro track, once the drums come in 2 Chainz begins rapping, mostly reminiscing on his days trapping. Chorus is hot, overall solid intro.
2. Riverdale Rd – Decent beat, the eerie siren-like sound can be grating and will become sufficiently annoying after a few listens. Chorus is not great and I don’t like the “I know something you don’t know” part, overall forgettable track.
3. Good Drank – Classic, if you haven’t heard this you should have by now. This was on the 2016 mixtape Hibachi for Lunch. Beat is amazing, Gucci Mane and Quavo feature, Harambe reference in the chorus, whats not to like?
4. 4 AM – Also amazing, 2 Chainz does his thing but the Travis Scott chorus is what really shines here. This single came out a week or two before the album and I have already listened to it too many times but great track, will likely be getting serious radio play.
5. Door Swangin – Potentially my favorite 2 Chainz solo track on this album, another song reminiscing about days in the trap. There are some interesting rhymes funny punchlines, solid track.
6. Realize – Very airy piano beat, 2 Chainz is spitting on his verse. Honestly might be more of a Nicki Minaj song, she is on the chorus and her verse stands out more. Not the biggest Nicki fan but I have to give props on a few lines, namely “Papoose wrote a Ether record, but I broke Aretha Record”. It seems that she is claiming Papoose, longtime battle rapper and Remy Ma’s husband, wrote Remy Ma’s diss track over the Ether beat, Shether. The second part of this line refers to Nicki beating out Aretha Franklin for most songs in the billboard top 100 for a female artist.
7. Poor Fool – This is not the Swae Lee I asked for. Not a fan of this joint. Highlight is “I’m addicted to the rice at Benihana”.
8. It’s a Vibe – Low key reminds me a lot of Issa by 21 Savage. Features from Ty Dolla Sign (Ty can’t do wrong in the rap game right now), Trey Songz, and Jhene Aiko. Based on the lineup these seems like the “ladies track”. Good song, will likely get some radio play.
9. Rolls Royce Bitch – Not a fan of the chorus, decent verses though. 2 Chainz shouts out all the other big artists on G.O.O.D., mediocre track.
10. Sleep When U Die – Based on adlibs I think thats OJ Da Juiceman in the intro skit and with a few adlibs throughout the song. 2 Chainz does his thing on the verses.
11. Blue Cheese – Migos are hot right now, this song is great. Throughout this project 2 Chainz does a good job of blending in with the sound of his featured artists, allowing him to expand the reach of his brand to other audiences.
12. OG Kush Diet – This is the other good 2 Chainz solo track. Chorus is hard, verses are impressive, beat bumps.
13. Burglar Bars – Don’t know who Monica is, track serves as a decent outro but ultimately forgettable.

Overall I’m a fan of this project, it should keep 2 Chainz in the spotlight until his next release. Occasionally he sounds like Wayne on this album, which is nice due to Wayne’s lack of presence in hip hop at the moment (hopefully those Dedication 6 rumors are true). In other news, the Big Boi album Boomiverse dropped. Gave it a first quick listen, I thought it was alright but will continue to listen and see if it grows on me at all. Loved the first single, In the South, posthumous Pimp C feature is fire. Obama Inducted Jay Z, among others, into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and then Jay Z got on twitter for the first time in years and shouted out 90+ rappers who inspired him.

Just as I’m finishing up this post it looks like Young Thug has dropped a new project on Apple Music, so I’ll be sure to check that out as well as the Rich Forever 3.

Went to the Freddie Gibbs concert in Boston Saturday night, we rolled pretty deep and had a lot of fun. Unfortunately we pregamed a little too long (as tends to happen) and missed the openers (Remy Banks and LE$, I had heard rem. by Remy but otherwise didn’t know them). Fortunately, we arrived right at 10:30pm when Freddie Gibbs went on. The venue was the Middle East in Cambridge, we were specifically in the underground section which is just about the perfect size for a show.

I first started following Freddie Gibbs after hearing How We Do upon downloading The Miseducation of Freddie Gibbs. Gangsta Gibbs has a huge body of work, ranging from mixtapes over trap beats to an album produced entirely by Madlib, a hip hop DJ and production legend who embodies the term “crate digger”. Gibbs got a lot of mainstream scrutiny following the release of Old English in 2014 and has had consistently solid critical acclaim on many of his releases since (and there have been quite a few). His most recent album, You Only Live 2wice, was released on 3/31/2017 and continues the streak with mild success. Amnesia is a banger and there are a number of more classic hip hop beats that Gibbs flows on, not dissimilar from the sound on Pinata. There are a few great one liners as well, one that particularly stands out is “I be kicking shit like Solange in the elevator“.

Back to the show, I expected a lot of the newer tracks such as those off of You Only Live 2wice to be the focus of the performance. I was pleasantly surprised when the setlist was evenly distributed with his most popular songs throughout the last 5 or so years. He came out to Still Living which set an aggressive mood to the rest of the show. There were some slower songs for people to light up to, however throughout much of the show there were small mosh pits and water bottles being sprayed. About halfway through the set Freddie stopped the show and had a moment of silence to say RIP to Big Time Watts, who passed away a few months ago. Watts was Freddie Gibbs’ Uncle, is featured in skits on some of Gibbs’ work and was often posted on Gibbs’ vine, usually very drunk. Following this brief intermission Freddie took off his shirt and began going in on some verses acapella. He finished up with a few more bangers such as Amneisa and then played BFK as the closing song (it was lit). People started to leave and head over to the merch table when Gibbs came back on with a bottle of champagne and played Minnesota, spraying the champagne everywhere throughout the song. Gibbs and the crew hung around on the stage vibing with the crowd and signing records and merchandise for about 15 minutes. The DJ continued to play some current hot songs like 4am and eventually we left and went to a bar. All in all great concert, I had a couple cool pictures but my iphone was messing up importing onto windows 10 and now all I have is this grainy close up.

This has been a pretty crazy last 24 or so hours in the hip hop world, amidst a ton of singles coming out (SZA album singles, Young Thug remix to Pull Up Wit a Stick, Action Bronson comeback track, Big Boi single featuring Pimp C and Gucci) there have also been a slew of projects. I don’t have time to review everything I want to right now but I wanted to put some initial thoughts on a few of the projects I liked.

Vic Mensa – The Manuscript

I’ve been following Vic since Kids These Days, a Chicago music collective where he began rapping over instrumentation by fellow band members. Over time he has matured his sound, I liked 2013’s Innanetape and a number of the singles he put out after such as Down on My Luck and Feel That. I did like most of 2016’s There’s a Lot Going On, though I loved the title track. Vic signed to Roc nation and I feel that in recent years he has ‘sold out’ more and more and tried to be something he isn’t. The manuscript is a 4 song EP, which is disappointing because I was under the impression his album was around the corner. Maybe this is a play to drum up a little more hype before he releases the album but I don’t see it. The highlight from the EP is the second song, OMG, featuring Pusha T rapping about what he raps about best: Cocaine.

Chief Keef – Thot Breaker

Some people hate on Chief Keef for his lack of lyricism but I love Chief Keef. I have been following him since 3Hunna came out in 2012. Thot Breaker has been hinted at and talked about for years at this point and it finally came out, and I’m surprised by how… sober it all sounds. It is much more coherent than his last release, Two Zero One Seven. The second song, Can You Be My Friend, sounds like Chief Keef doing his rendition of Drake’s Carribbean/Dancehall sound like on Controlla or similar songs. There are definitely some peaks and valleys but overall pretty happy that decent content is still coming from Chief Keef in 2017. Not sure how much of this project he produced himself, however there are a number of “Sosa on the beat” producer tags throughout the mixtape and I know he has been working on his production for a few years now.

Brockhampton – Saturation

I downloaded Brockhampton’s debut mixtape, All American Trash, in 2016 on a whim after stumbling across it. I thought it was solid but it wasn’t something I was playing a ton, in the past few weeks/months they have released a number of singles from Saturation and I have been loving what has been coming out. My understanding of  Brockhampton is that they are a hip hop collective, similar to an Odd Future or A$AP, with a number of rappers, producers and other creative individuals that met through an online hip hop forum (I believe it was KTT). I only had a chance to listen to this once but I thought it was really good and plan to listen through a few more times to get a fully formed opinion. Expect a more formal review of this project coming soon. Definitely keep these guys on your radar going forward, particularly Kevin Abstract.

Other highlights of the last 24 hours include a surprise mixtape from Fetty Wap and Pilot Talk 3 from Curren$y.

Also XXX got knocked out by Rob $tone

I’ve been debating what recent project to review, I thought about doing the Gucci Mane album Droptopwop or Snoop’s new album but The Rich Forever way has grown on me, especially since I saw the video for New Wave, the 4th song on the project (swag ass vlone on Rich the Kid and Dex is wearing this random cool flannel I found with a bit of googling). The mixtape came out about 2 months ago, however a few of the songs had been released prior (the New Wave video came out November 2016). People have been saying this is a collection of loosies, similar to Luv is Rage 1.5 by Lil Uzi, either way I appreciate the songs all being put in one place and put out as a project.

Rich the Kid got his start as a Migos affiliate and has been releasing mixtapes steadily for a few years now. I downloaded random songs here and there from him, mostly collaborations with other artists such as Lil Yachty, Playboi Carti and 21 Savage but The Rich Forever Way is the first project I have downloaded from him. Most recently, he was featured in Diplo song with Young Thug and Justin Bieber that came out a few days ago but had Bieber removed due to exclusivity with DJ Khaled and David Guetta, according to Diplo.

Famous Dex is a rapper from Chicago, I’ve listened to a few of his mixtapes but nothing really stuck until hearing him on The Rich Forever Way. He was signed by Rich the Kid to his Rich Forever music label in 2016 and has been getting put on by Rich every since. Dexter is known for having bright red hair similar to Lil Yachty as well as being covered in tattoos and having ridiculous squawking ad libs.

1. Intro – Introduction to Rich Forever, catchy and bouncy beat, decent verses.
2. Like 3- The chorus of this song is “Bitch I be lucky like 3” which I guess is a reference to the number 3 traditionally being lucky? Throwing back to Shakespeare with the reference game. The verses are decent, Dex’s is a little overloaded with ad libs. Overall song is pretty forgettable.
3. In My Coupe – This song was the reason I initially downloaded the mixtape. Beat is chill as hell, love how Rich the Kid, Famous Dex, and Jay Critch all have a few bars each verse. The flows are fire even if Dex’s delivery can be a little grating.
4. New Wave – This song didn’t catch my attention at first but after watching the music video (New Wave) I circled back to it and now I like it a lot. Chilled out vibe, MadeinTYO has a solid second verse, solid hook.
5. Windmill- Chorus is hot, “Make my money flip it do gymnastics // flexin’ with that rollie but its plastic” sets a great rhyme scheme up for the rest of the song. The beat has that bounce to it, probably a top 3 song on the project.
6. Maybach – This beat sounds like the intro to a cartoon of the life of Famous Dex, which fits based on the artwork he uses often. Good novelty song, not a lot of replayability.
7. Pull Up – Jay Critch chorus, song is pretty average but I do like the way the beat builds up.
8. Soak it Up – This beat is hot, chorus is sub par but the verses are decent due to great flows.

Overall thought it was a solid project, Rich the Kid and Famous Dex both have solo projects that are supposed to drop mid-June but we’ll see if they actually come out when announced. This mixtape was a great intro to each of them, worth checking out in my opinion. You can stream and download it here.

 

9 hours before my alarm, I’m about to go to sleep and actually get a good night’s sleep for once but I got a notification on my phone from a new app I downloaded called [Fresh] by a dude on Reddit. The app notifies users when new songs reach a number of upvotes on the hip hop subreddit. This notification was for a song called Letter to Falon by Jay Electronica. Jay Electronica is a rap enigma, he disappears for long periods of time but when he does drop music its worth listening to. He first came to popularity after dropping Act 1: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge) in 2007. That was 10 years ago, Jay Elec has now been in and out of the limelight for an entire decade. A number of tracks have come out over the years a few at a time, Exhibit C is a personal favorite. In 2010 Jay Z announced Jay Electronica had signed to his label and the rumors of a debut album, Act II, began. Jay Electronica fans have been jerked around mercilessly for years, maybe this new song is just the beginning before he finally drops the album, maybe this is another track to bide us over for a few years.

The song starts off with a piano, some very ethereal noises and what sounds like a moan. Then comes in the drums and Jay begins the chorus. After the hook and some “yeahhhh”s the first verse begins, with a Star Wars reference no less. Jay accomplishes what he is known for with impressive flow and lyricism, there is also a call and response quality to the verses in this song. Most of the lyrics seem to center around overcoming hardship in the face of adversity, it almost sounds like a sports pump up song with a little Gospel thrown in. This song unfortunately won’t go off at the pregame like some new Lil Uzi Vert but its a great headphones track.

I’m not sure what the song title means, I thought at first it could be a reference to Jimmy Falon, however after searching on the internet I was unable to come up with a link between the two. According to Jay’s twitter he dropped the song as a “gift” to Kevin Durant for his performance in the NBA finals, as seen below.

The song is only available on Tidal, which makes sense because Jay Electronica is on Jay Z’s label, which has an exclusive deal with Tidal in order to compete with Apple Music and Spotify (possibly Amazon Music in the next few years too). Maybe this is indicitive of more new music coming soon, according to this blog post he is scheduled to release new music with MF DOOM via the Adult Swim singles program. Then again, maybe he’s just releasing this track for KD and the other track to get paid by Adult Swim so he doesn’t have to release any more music for a few years. Until then: