Speaking of amazing writers, if it’s not Shad, then Lupe gets my vote for the best writer in the game. So many messages in his bars, it’s almost a must to follow along on RapGenius. Peep this video for visuals set to a few of his songs: “Lamborghini Angels,” “ITAL (Roses),” and “Audubon Ballroom.”
“ITAL (Roses)” is still the one.
Similar to my favorite “freestyle” video of all time, Shad went in on the “Grammy Family” beat for about 7 minutes and absolutely murdered it. So many bars, so much knowledge. Best writer in the game, imo. Peep the lyrics here.
A bit late on this record, but better late than never. This is Lion Babe, a duo comprised of Jillian Hervey (Vanessa Williams’ daughter) and producer Lucas Goodman, aka Astro Raw, and this song is my ish right now.
Our scene in Seattle right now >>>>>>>>> your city’s. So proud of the town.
Shout to BeanOne on production. Slaps!
Ellie’s video for her cover of Alt-J’s “Tessellate” is great. Â Super sexy record, plus black and white stylish shots of Paris? Â Yep!
Two quick thoughts about this record:
1) AZ’s one of those MC’s that proves a dope flow should never leave you. It’s like a good jumper or riding your bike. Once you got it, you should be able to keep it forever.
2) Statik Selektah continues to murder beat after beat and while he’s getting a decent amount of props, I feel he’s heavily underrated in terms of his quality, quantity, and consistency.
I just finished checking out the new Fitz & The Tantrums album, More Than Just A Dream, and I really enjoyed it. Check out the video for “Out Of My League” above and if you’re digging the feel good music, you can stream the whole project on Hype Machine here.
I’ve been in New York this week for some ESPN day job stuff and didn’t really get a chance to do anything music related, as I’ve been so busy working and hanging with some great co-workers. Â That changed on Friday when I took the day off to explore the city a bit and visited my people at UMG and WMG. Â After a long day, I headed back to my hotel and noticed Twitter was a buzz with Kanye’s amazing rollout of his “New Slaves” video projected on to 66 walls across the world, including one in Brooklyn. Â At first, I thought it was the only NYC showing, but after checking their schedule, I noticed the last showing of the night was a few blocks from my hotel but was supposed to start 5 minutes ago.
Having worked in the industry for 13 years, I’m fully aware of hip-hop time, so 5 minutes ago really meant it was going to start in about 15.  Tossed on some clothes and jogged down to the 5th Ave Prada store (right across from Trump Tower) and sure enough, there was a crowd of about 50-75 people waiting for the showing.  Within minutes, a large black truck pulled up and crew dressed all in black hustled to pull off the tarp covering the cargo bay and unveiled the projector and speakers (seriously looked like something a Batman villain would do in Gotham City).  After a quick set up, they showed the piece, which is, of course, just as dope in its style and content as it is in its guerrilla marketing rollout.  Yeezy is back and spitting that real.
After playing it, the crew said they would run it back in about 15 minutes. They left and came back like clockwork, but after setting it up, waited a good 10 minutes before showing it a 2nd time.
Turns out, Kanye himself was on the way to watch this showing as he is in NYC for Saturday Night Live later tonight. He stood behind us with a phone up, as if he was filming like everyone else. Right after it ended, he hopped in his Maybach and drove off. And then he made us pancakes (…Chappelle Show reference).
Shout to everyone in the crowd that night. Real cool atmosphere as all us Yeezy fans were excited to see his new work and be a part of the rollout. Shout to Global Grind and XXL for picking up my video and tweets, and any other sites that have posted it.
And shout to Kanye for the realness. #YeezySeason
We’re celebrating our 8 year anniversary of SNSS tonight. That’s a lot of shows. Lots of numbers on the boards.
I’m definitely feeling pretty much anything associated with the Smash Brovaz right now. Junia-T helps out J Shiltz on this Relic produced gem, talking about the realness.
Download the song (and clean/instrumental for my DJ friends) here – http://www.hulkshare.com/8yg5rb7kzj0g