Tag: Music

Is Kanye West’s Yandhi Going to Be the Greatest Album in the History of Music? This Video Makes Me Think Yes

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I have absolutely zero idea what is going on here, but I am all about it. Kanye has been recording his upcoming album Yandhi, which was supposed to be released at the end of 2018 but got pushed back.

Now Kanye had a lot of bad press last year with his Trump tirade and received mixed reviews on his two projects Kids See Ghosts and Ye. I enjoyed both, but they each felt like a mixtape more than individual completed albums. So maybe he’s doubling down his efforts to put together something special. The guy is no stranger to tweaking his work until the last second, most notably when he essentially crowdsourced Life of Pablo and changed some songs on the albums AFTER it had already been released.

So while I have no idea what in the hell is going on in that above Kanye video, it looks like it JAMS. If Yandhi is anything like his previous christ-like self titled album, Yeezus, then we are in for a trip. Yeezus was yet another example of Kanye releasing music that was ahead of its time that seemed to be bizarre, out there, and borderline manic, but quickly implanted itself in your brain and became unforgettable.

Either way, Kanye is cooking up something.

#RushHourRap – J. Cole – Middle Child (Video)

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I know we’ve been doing a lot of J. Cole lately, but hey the guy is on fire right now. Yesterday he dropped the visuals for his latest single, Middle Child, and it is a trip. J. Cole, so hot right now. J. Cole.

I’ll let HotNewHipHop break it down for you below:

The visuals start out on a dark note with a group of figures behind the rapper as he sings for the camera. Things brighten up when he sits passenger side in the whip, ending up in a lavish cabin by the fireplace. A woman bounces her booty back and forth in the corner of the room with Cole paying little attention to her. The most lighting in this video comes when Jermaine rolls through the supermarket, casually flowing through the juice aisle with so much swag. This is one of the best videos of 2019 and it may remain in that category at the end of the year.

#RushHourRap – Gang Starr – Work

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This song dropped in 1998, but in true white bro fashion I first heard it in 2004 in an episode of Entourage.

That is the true definition of a who with no middle ground; you either love Entourage or you hate it with the passion of a thousand suns. Where do I stand on it? Well Big Z and I have an episode of The 300s Podcast devoted entirely to Entourage in the works.

Aiyyo I’m gonna be on ti-dop, that’s all my eyes can see
Victory is mine, yeah surprisingly
I’ve been laying, waiting for your next mistake
I put in work, and watch my status escalate

#RushHourRap Video Series Coming Soon

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I’ve known Jimmy Lips for over a decade and I can’t think of anyone I randomly talk, text, and tweet to about rap more than this guy. The dude I took a car to a bus to a boat with to go see Lupe Fiasco on a goddamn island in New York City. This is who we’re going to be launching the #RushHourRap video series with and I’m pretty stoked about it. Keep an eye out for more details coming soon…

#RushHourRap – Kanye West – The College Dropout is Now 15 Years Old

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15 years? Preposterous. The College Dropout, Kanye’s debut album, dropped on Feb. 10, 2004 when I was all of 15 so Yeezy has been in my ear for about half of my life. I still remember seeing the video for Through the Wire on MTV and immediately thinking two things: 1.) This is incredible and 2.) Who is this guy because it seems like he’s already a force behind the scenes.

If you’ve never seen some of the behind the scenes footage, this is a good place to start the YouTube rabbit hole. A then unknown Kanye just blowing Jay-Z’s mind with the beat that would later become Lucifer on HOV’s 2003 classic, The Black Album.

All Falls Down is still one of my favorite tracks and the video itself was just Kanye’s POV of a day in the life dropping his girl off at the airport. A pretty uninspiring concept when you say it out loud, but that shot of him rapping in the mirror of the airport bathroom is stilled burned into my brain for some reason. Having Stacey Dash in your video never hurts either.

It seems we living the american dream
But the people highest up got the lowest self esteem
The prettiest people do the ugliest things
For the road to riches and diamond rings

Say what you want about him now, but you can’t deny the guy changed the game as the ultimate standout. You could just as easily call him a contrarian for his self described “pink-ass polos with a fuckin’ backpack. But everybody know you brought real rap back.” In an era when EVERY rapper was rocking baggy jeans and throwback jerseys, Kanye was trying to make it cool to dress dorky. And it worked.

Just read this excerpt from an excellent piece about The College Dropout that I found on Sabotage Times:

He might be a superstar now, but he represented the underdog in the beginning. Back in early 2004, when 50 Cent was hip-hop’s undisputed king, street credibility was a prerequisite to success. The son of a photojournalist and an English professor, Kanye had a middle-class upbringing and didn’t fit into that mould. Sure, people loved his production work, but no one was convinced about him as a rapper. Where would this goofy dude fit in? What did he have to rap about?

…He got his record deal at Roc-A-Fella, Jay Z’s label, because co-founder Dame Dash wanted to use his beats for a compilation, not because they believed in him as a rapper. Unbeknownst to anyone at the company, he instead worked on College Dropout, an album that would transform the genre and dispense with those narrow preconceptions about rappers entirely.

So here’s to 15 years of The College Dropout.

Drake’s So Far Gone Mixtape Turns 10 Today. Lets Go Down the Nostalgia Rabbit Hole

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One of the most influential mixtapes in hip hop history, So Far Gone, turned 10-years-old today. That mixtape turned Aubrey Graham, a TV actor that only teenage girls were moderately aware of, into Drizzy Drake, one of the hottest rappers in the world that lit the charts on fire before ultimately joining forces with Lil Wayne.

This may have been one of those instances where an album hits you at just the right time. At 19 years old, experiencing living on your own, meeting new people, drinking a bit too much, beginning and ending relationships, Drake struck a chord with me as a college kid.

I’ll never forget back in late 2008 when I was a sophomore in college and our school sent around a questionnaire asking which artist we’d like to see perform at the spring concert. Well Drake was on that list and I vividly remember saying we need to book this guy now because he is about to blow up and that’ll be the end of liberal arts college concerts for Drake.

Naturally the school went in another direction and a few months later Drake dropped So Far Gone.

Off that mixtape Drake released the singles Best I Ever Had, which went double Platinum, and Successful, which hit No. 17 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Off a mixtape. You just didn’t see mixtape music cut into the mainstream like that in 2009. Featuring collabs with guys like Trey Songz, Lloyd, Omarion, Bun B, and of course Lil Wayne, So Far Gone put Drake on the map. Complex ranked it the fifth best mixtape of the decade.

A few months after that Drake dropped one of the biggest rap collabs of all time with Forever featuring Lil Wayne, Kanye West, and Eminem.

If So Far Gone put Drizzy on the map, Forever turned him into the biggest star on the planet. Drake wouldn’t even drop his debut album Thank Me Later until the following summer in 2010 so he’s come a looong way.

You see successful unsigned artists everywhere these days, with Chance the Rapper being the most prominent, but Drake was the first to not only crack into the mainstream, but become the biggest thing in music, all without a deal. He did this obviously with excellent music featuring some big name collabs, but the guy built a bigger buzz on the still emerging social media platforms unlike any artist had before him.

So I’ve always been bummed I missed out on seeing Drake before he became the mega star that he is today, but I did finally get to see a Drizzy show when he was at the garden in 2018.

A decade later.

#RushHourRap – Ludacris – Georgia

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Atlanta week continues here at #RushHourRap as the Patriots are down in Georgia so it’s only right that we pay homage to some of the best music to come out of the dirty south. Today we’ve got the ATL anthem “Georgia” from Ludacris, Field Mob, and Jamie Foxx. This one used to BANG on my high school iPod back in 2005.

#RushHourRap – OutKast – ATLiens

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Since the Patriots are down in Atlanta trying to take home yet another Super Bowl, it’s only right that we honor some of the truly excellent rap music to come out of the ATL over the years. Today we’re lacing em up with probably the most famous Atlanta rappers ever; OutKast.

#RushHourRap – J. Cole – Middle Child

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Any time Jermaine drops new music I am all ears and his latest track Middle Child does not disappoint. For a guy thats been putting out bangers for over a decade now (holy hell I feel old) he is still at the top of his game. I missed his most recent show in Boston, but I will never forget seeing him at the Paradise in 2014 for $1. Seriously, he was on his Dollar and a Dream tour and literally sold tickets for a dollar. He then proceed to kill it.

#RushHourRap – Lil Wayne – A Milli

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I caught some old Lil Wayne on the radio driving into work this AM and it sent me down the rabbit hole. Lil Wayne is obviously still very popular, but it’s different than how it used to be. The guy was an absolute monster with everything he touched turning to gold. Maybe it just seems that way to me because I’m washed, but seriously it’s different.

I went to the Drake vs Lil Wayne concert a couple summers ago and I was stunned at how many people didn’t know the words to LOLLIPOP. I felt like my uncle at a New Kids On the Block concert because I suddenly felt very dated. All the drunk children at that show knew nothing prior to I Am Not A Human Being and thats a shame because Lil Wayne was an absolute megastar back when I was in high school/college. I would say from 2006-2008 Lil Wayne was not only the most popular, but the most lyrically dominating artist on the planet. I think he’s tailed off hard in recent years, but you cannot deny the guy’s resume.

If you want to start even a little earlier in 2004 Weezy dropped Tha Carter with Go DJ being the main hit, followed up by a pretty legit feature on Destiny’s Child (holy shit I’m old) Solider. Then in 2005 he released The Carter II, which was the first Lil Wayne song I remember being a huge hit in Fireman, but also had Hustler Musik and of course Shooter (introducing Robin Thicke). In 2006 Wayne had the collab with Birdman Like Father Like Son, which was fine with the main single being Stuntin Like My Daddy.

BUT, thats when the guy absolutely took off appearing on anything and everything from features to mixtapes to albums. In late 2006 we got Dedication 2 and then in early 2007 Lil Wayne released, in my opinion, the best mixtape of all time with Da Drought 3.

Then the guy really got hot appearing on *all* of these songs:

“Despite no album release for two years, Lil Wayne appeared in numerous singles as a featured performer, including “Gimme That” by Chris Brown, “Make It Rain” by Fat Joe, “You” by Lloyd, and “We Takin’ Over” by DJ Khaled (also featuring Akon, T.I., Rick Ross, Fat Joe, and Birdman), “Duffle Bag Boy” by Playaz Circle, “Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill)” by Wyclef Jean (also featuring Akon), and the remix to “I’m So Hood” by DJ Khaled (also featuring T-Pain, Young Jeezy, Ludacris, Busta Rhymes, Big Boi, Fat Joe, Birdman, and Rick Ross). All these singles charted within the top 20 spots on the Billboard Hot 100..Wayne also appeared on tracks from albums Getback by Little Brother, American Gangster by Jay-Z, and Graduation by Kanye West.”

That was before he even got around to releasing his own work. Released in 2008 after a delay, Tha Carter III is still one of the best rap albums of all time. 3 Peat, Mr. Carter, A Milli, Dr. Carter, Mrs. Officer, Shoot Me Down, Lollipop — all bangers more than 10 years later.

In that time span Lil Wayne won a Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance for A Milli, Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for Swagga Like Us, Best Rap Song for Lollipop, and Best Rap Album for Tha Carter III.

Hard to top that stretch.