I haven’t peeped an issue of Time Magazine in a while, but I will say that Drake deserves to be on their cover for the Entertainer of the Year award. Hey look, honestly, the “hood guy” in me is tired of hearing his voice every time I turn on the radio or on TV.
It seems like there’s always another Drake video premiering, he’s on the NBA 2K12 commercials, his upcoming shows, etc. The entertainment executive in me though is excited to watch this kid continue to do his thing. I remember back in ’07-08 when Drake’s team was trying to get him a deal. What he was doing musically just wasn’t excepted norm …. yet. But then “Best I Ever Had” dropped and the rest is recent history. I know a bunch of A&R’s who got it wrong and lost their jobs. Now they can’t get rid of this kid.
Drake’s all over the place…Drizzy, Salute to you.
Drake dropped another new track with Nicki Minaj this week “Make Me Proud.” These Young Money superstars are quietly becoming the new era Roc-a-Fella with their consistently hot records and star power to boot. Of course this track will be huge on the radio. Nicki’s wordplay is simply Van Gogh over this T Minus beat. She was darling of afternoon TV this week when two young girls recited her lyrics to “Super Bass” on The Ellen Degeneres Show. Anything that Drake touches turns to gold…and then platinum.
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Riot music has always been a sub genre in the hip-hop culture. From M.O.P. to Rage Against the Machine, Limp Bizkit, Lil Jon and Wocka Flacka Flame; these artists and their music have always been synonymous with moshing and tearing the club up.
However, with emergence of Machine Gun Kelly, a new chapter in Raging style hip-hop is born. When Kelly’s new track “S.T.F.U.” surfaced this week, I realized that this kid is the voice of a new breed of artist. He’s not from the hood, Kelly’s from Middle America. His style of music combined with the new social media networks have been the basis of his flash mob complaints. “STFU” is an acronym for Shut The F*ck Up.
Just like Lil Jon before him it seems like Kelly has mastermined a way for his music to become the soundtrack for a rawkus culture of “rejects” that many young kids are feeing apart of.
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Salaam Remi and Nas have been making hit records for years. So it came as no surprise this week when a new track, “It’s a Tower Heist,” by Godson (Nas) and Remi surfaced. The surprise was it features Ricky Ross and it appears to be the lead single from the new Eddie Murphy/Ben Stiller comedy Tower Heist.
When I was younger, soundtracks really meant something. The hottest artists often did special songs themed towards whatever the movie was about. When you saw that movie, you heard snippets of most of these songs. Nowadays does anybody even care about a soundtrack? This record with Rozay and Nas is dope and yet so simple, almost like a the track that will play during the closing credits of a movie.
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If you’re grown and sexy you might have heard of the R&B crooner Carl Thomas. He was the silky, smooth, soulful voice of the late ’90s era Bad Boy Records movement. Thomas blessed his fans with a new leak this week, “Don’t Kiss Me” which features production by Rico Love.
Some of today’s soul singers, and you know who I’m speaking about, have turned modern ballads into what the RZA once called R&B, or Rap and Bullshit. It’s so true. Rappers should stick to rhyming and singers should sing, unless your name is Drake. Carl Thomas’s “Don”t Kiss Me” reminds us how special it is to have the talent to truly sing.
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Love him or can’t stand him but respect his bars … that’s what they about Jay Electronica. I have been a fan of his for the last 2 years now. His stage presence at shows would make Rakim and Doug E Fresh proud. He can really rock a crowd (with no sneakers on too). His rhymes and voice were so dope when he first appeared that it galvanized some of hip-hop’s most talented and expensive producers to work on spec.
Jay Elec’s wordplay is sicker then the flu. This week a track of his, “Call of Duty” with Mobb Deep, hit the blogs. Without even a listen I knew it was flame. Upon listening I heard the shots he fired at Cole World and Roc Nation….stay tuned. Until we read again.
Producer, A&R, Promoter
Holla at him @tnt718
