Big Sean x Mr Hudson

This beat is crazy. It sounds like Kanye made it for Straight No Chaser, and I do think it would sound better with Mr H scream-singing all over it, but whatever, you take what you can get. Big Sean is really nothing to write home about these days. His verses are uninspired. There's a reason he opens for Mike Posner and not the other way around. Solid track regardless, if only for the beat and the hook.

Mmm word download.
"Way Out" - Pretty Sick

PS, Big ups to Filly for teaching me how to make videos fit. Love you bro! <3 :-)

Mr Hudson - Anyone But Him (Live Lounge)

This version of the song is so much better than the album version. Why did he use so much auto-tune on the album? He's a very capable singer. I don't mind auto-tune, but it just sucks because a lot of the reviews were like "OMG AUTO-TUNE IS RUINING MUSIC I JUST WANT TO LISTEN TO 107.5 FRANK FM CONTEMPORARY MUSIC SUCKS!!!! FUCK YOU MR HUDSON!!!" It's like Dwight Howard doing the dunk contest on an 8 foot hoop. Not necessary.
Evenways, great song, and I always love me a good reference to dim sum.
Also, sorry if the video doesn't fit right. The little one wasn't an option. I'm still on hold with blogger.com to try and get it fixed (NO I'M NOT *Andy Samberg face*).

The Celtics 'Get Bored'

It's no secret that the Celtics have been choking on fat dicks in the second halves of games this season, and apparently it's the same reason why I struggle to keep up in class. Per Pharoah Perk:

I don’t know if that’s a bad thing but it’s just like we come into games focused and we’re not trying to lose games but you can see that sometimes maybe we do get bored with the process and we can’t do that.

Indeed Kendrick--maybe you should think about fucking keeping the ball high when you get it in the post instead of fantasizing about flooding the Nile and going to Cheesecake Factory with Jono and Karen Sexton after the game. Get it together idiots!
Mmm word read.

I Hate School

I'm studying. Fart on my face.
Happy weekend hump day!

Happy Friday!

Oh shit the video fits! Do you believe in miracles?

Shakira - Give It Up to Me

I can't remember if I posted this song when it came out last semestray, but I really enjoy it and it's been bumping pretty hard in the Sebring lately. Also Shakira isn't not hot.

I generally just listen to Wayne's verse then skip it, but try watching the whole thing without ruining your trousers. Good stuff where.
Also Shakira is fucking 4'11" which is very strange to think about but explains why they have her and Wayne pretending to stand next to each other in front of a green screen, because she'd make him look like Kal King if they were actually standing side by side.

Wale - Pretty Girls Instrumental

Filly and I have been in the arduous process of constructing the perfect beach cruising playlist, and I suggested Wale's "Pretty Girls," but ultimately it was shot down because it doesn't groove hard enough. However, I would argue that the instrumental alone is an ideal beach cruising jam. This beat is BANANAS. Why did they rap over it? Would've been better as an instrumental. The rapping just covers up all the redonkulous layers that are going on everywhere. When the beat drops around 0:19 I get a 8======D

Perhaps a 324 freestyle is in order?
Mmm word download.
PS, I know it's old, but I feel like Attention: Deficit didn't get enough love. It's really very nice and good--pretty much every song is 7/10 or better. Good stuff where.

The Making of "Hard Knock Life"

The lady talking in between interviews doesn't technically speak "English," but that doesn't really stop you from comprehending everything. This is a pretty cool clip. It's amazing that 45 King bought the LP for 25 cents and then probably made 18 million times that by selling the beat which took him 8 seconds to make. Dinkin flicka.

New Lasers Song Live

Lupe is currently tearing up the continent of Australia as evidenced by this concert review. He began his world tour for Lasers recently and is beginning to unveil songs off the album. Above you can hear a high quality version of a song called Beautiful Lasers. A 30 second snippet of this song leaked a while back, but this live version sounds very different. Lupe has big upped Cudi in several instances and I think his content is starting to influence Lupe. Personal insights into Lupe's mental state have been a rarity in his music so far, but maybe Lasers will represent a shift to a more first person perspective. Judging this song off of a mere snippet and live version would be premature so I will leave it un-ranked.

P.S. MJ, Louis, Steve, Scotty, Brendan, Andrew, Sean, James, BHMD, Mac, J-Flu and anyone else who reads this blog, I have something of great importance to address. The week of April 7th and April 10th is shaping up to be the greatest of greats. Lupe/B.O.B will be performing in Boston and Cudi will be performing at UConn on those respective dates. The Lupe and B.O.B. show is on a Wednesday night and Cudi the following Saturday. I realize the Lupe show might be hard for some to make as it falls in the middle of a school week, but I will take no excuses for the Cudi concert(except for the Nutters as they will be too busy playing Division III dipping contests). Boston is a mere train ride away from my prestigious University so I expect to see the Scotty's and Sean's for that one (just read the review I linked to earlier and you will get hype as fuck), but hurricanes, flying pigs, terrorist attacks, thesis papers will not stop all of us from convening at UConn for the Cudi concert. The world has seen this occurrence once before, and it nearly exploded. This is big folks, this is big. It will take extensive planning, lots of alcohol, and a team oriented mind set. I expect the best from you all, mark your calendars.

That Week's Potential - Greatest Thing of All-Time(The Departed)

Dear Atlantic Records, Fuck You

"Lasers [is coming] soon," said the MC. "It's on my label Atlantic, so they have it, it's finished. I'm just waiting for them to give me a release date to put it out."
Why won't you just fucking PUT IT OUT IF IT'S FUCKING DONE AND IT WAS SUPPOSED TO COME OUT LAST YEAR!?!?! This is why Russell Farm Records is the best label ever. We make singles and then release them the day of their completion. If anyone wants to come to a good label, hit me up at metacricket@metacricket.metacricket
Lupe also said this:
"I think the 'Lupe Fiasco' show is almost coming to ... the middle. Everything from here on out will be the grand closing."
Here's the whole article if you want to read it. I just want some new music. I can only listen to So Far Gone and The Warm Up 600 times a day for so long.

Really?

This is a screen grab that I took from the newest Justin Bieber music video for his song "Baby," which features Ludacris. Notice anything funny?
It seems like everyone in the industry wants to ride JB's hairless dong, which is fine, because he's a good singer and he's more famous than God. Also the fact that The Dream writes all his hits definitely piques my interest. I mean, if The Dream were singing these songs instead of a 15 year old white kid then we'd all be creaming our jeans over it. Regardless, it's funny that Drake's in this video.
Also, here's the whole video if you're 45 and have a mustache:

B.o.B x Lupe Fiasco x Gnarls Barkley x STEVIE WONDER!??!!?

Apparently, according to this interview:

I don't want to be a naysayer here, but that collaboration would be sweet if it were 1966 and Stevie Wonder was still making, like, passable music. Unfortunately putting Stevie Wonder on a track these days is like trading for Shaq: he's overweight, washed up, and really won't do anything except give you 15 and 7 while clogging the lane for your stars. Don't get me wrong, Stevie is in my fave five recording artists OF ALL-TAAAHHM, but the last time I heard him on a track, all it was was a sample of a chorus he had written a long long time ago when he was, you know, thin and funky:

Meh. Doesn't make my meat loaf. It just doesn't fit.
Evenways, the good news is that B.o.B's album has been pushed FORWARD (!??!?!?!) to April 27th, which is like the first time ever in a billion years that a rap album has been pushed up. Also, B.o.B fucking loves Coldplay and MGMT, which is fine I guess, because it shows that he's got diverse taste and what not, but those bands kind of gargle my balls and B.o.B doesn't. Let's hope his album sounds more like B.o.B than Coldgay (HAHA!).
Also, did you know Rebirth came out? I didn't even realize--probably because I knew it would be the worst thing ever and it was the worst thing ever. At least Wayne went to jail on a high note.

Happy Tuesday friends!

Sean Brown - Red Button Remix

Red Button is perhaps my favorite Mike P song, as Fletcher Lincecum can attest, and I quite enjoy this remix by Sean Brown, which still keeps Mike on the infectious hook that you will never get out of your head and you will say all the time even if you're asleep.

I like it.

Mmm word download.
Red Button remix - Sick

Why J. Cole is the Best, Jerry, the Best (Right Now)

It's been a few minutes since I've posted anything substantive, but let's just forget all that and consider it time I've used to research pertinent blogging materials (Also when your blog blows up and you start making twelve cents a day on Google AdSense every bitch you ever meet wants to fuck you. I'll go to a party and be approached by tons of girls who are like, "Um hey are you Biff from Metacricket? Lemme finger your ass real quick." I guess the eager beaver is the collapse of the dam.)
But anyway, as I was dominating Dynasty Mode the other day on NCAA March Madness 2005 on my XBox, I was listening to J. Cole's "The Warm Up" mixtape for the 18th time, when it all became clear: J. Cole is untouchable right now (yes, even by Drake, but that's another story altogether that I will address in approximately three paragraphs). Here are the reasons Hwy:

He makes his own beats
Or as he so maturely puts it, "They say I'm like the human body/I produce my own shit." In a hip-hop/pop/R & B landscape that has become dominated by super-producers whose beats are the most recognizable element of any song (see: Neptunes, The or land, Timba), the actual art of creating a song from start to finish has fallen to the wayside. Unless the artist and the producer are very close and are working in tandem throughout the entire process (a la Drake and 40--again, we'll get to him soon enough--or Kid Cudi and Emile), what you're often left with is a stale beat (again, see Neptunes, The or land, Timba) and a rapper boasting non-sensical non-sequiturs for three and a half minutes between a hook about money, cars, clothes or hos (YUUUP). I mean, don't get me wrong, sure it's fun for Timbaland or Pharrell to cook up some stale late-90's sounding bullshit and hear Jay lambast Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly (what song am I thinking of?), but that isn't what creates lasting music. That's pop, which is short for popular, which means that one day it will be UNpopular, and it will sound stale and no one will like it because everyone is sick of it (see a, Ke$h).
But is this what I think of when I listen to the hook to "I Get Up" for the 525,600th time?

Abso-fucking-lutely NOT. This song is fucking timeless. This song is sustainable. Why? Because, for all intents and purposes, J. Cole WROTE this song. He found the sample, made the beat, and wrote the hook, all with a singular idea in mind of what this song was ultimately going to become. This organic process of song-writing is what begets quality, timeless music. Why can I still listen to "I Get Up" fifteen times a day, but after the third spin of "Tik Tok" I want to punch a baby in the head? (Don't get me wrong, "Tik Tok" is a pop masterpiece. But that's all it is. A pop masterpiece.) Why was "The College Dropout" so good? Because Kanye had saved all those beats, nay, all those songs for himself. He knew what he wanted to do musically and he executed it himself. J. Cole does the same.
Cole is as close to a songwriter as there really can be in hip-hop, and it sets his music apart from most of the other garbage to which we're subjected so often.

He's got something to say
Too often rapping today consists merely of a series of personal boasts that conveniently happen to rhyme. Lil Wayne has mastered this art, and apparently that makes him (or made him) "the best rapper alive," because he says things like "Bitch I'm me/And you are you too/But bitch I'm three." Christ jesus, he's fucking amazing huh? Suffice it to say, I think Wayne ran out of things to say a long long time ago (of course that presumes that he even had something to say in the first place, which is hard to decide).
Cole, on the other hand, isn't just barfing into a mic. He's telling us a story. Of course, that's not a new concept at all. What made "American Gangster" and both of the Cuban Linx records so good was the fact that they were telling us a story. That being said, there's only so much I can listen to about slinging dope and using burners and getting clapped up before I get bored and I also DON'T FUCKING UNDERSTAND ANY OF IT (although if you want to at least begin to understand all this street lingo, watching "The Wire" is the wisest choice you can make, because without it "Only Built For Cuban Linx II" may as well have been written in Spanish).
But J. Cole doesn't want to talk about slinging--maybe because he never did, or maybe because he recognizes that it's not as accessible or compelling as talking about, oh say, stalking the love of your life. "Dreams" is perhaps the best example of Cole's talent as an MC.

Again, I can listen to this song an infinite number of times. This is another perfect example of the way the beat, the lyrics, and the hook all come together to create a perfect song. Also, the lyrics are fucking UNBELIEVABLE. He's able to craft a linear, coherent story without sacrificing any flow or wordplay. Here is an example of what I'm talking about:

And maybe I'll just drive by occasionally
And if one day I happen to see her outside, she'll wave to me,
Imagine what she'll say to me
This ain't no time to be afraid no more
It's time for bravery

Rhyming occasionally/wave to me/say to me/bravery is quite impressive, and the fact that it all works together makes the song one of the best OF ALL-TIME (Kanye voice). Not only are these lyrics coherent and compelling, but they're accessible, which leads me to my next bold section...

He makes you think, but not too hard
Lupe Fiasco may be the smartest and most intellectual rapper alive today, but that doesn't mean I'd rather listen to his albums over " The Warm Up." (Maybe I would, but whateverrrrr) I'm just saying, it's nice to listen to a rap song and be impressed by the story and the lyricism, but also not have to stop every ten seconds to google what each line means or ask Mike which Langston Hughes poem he's referring to. I mean, I love Lupe to death, but there's a reason "Enemy of the State" was so good: I could listen to it and be like "Oh shit, good line BECAUSE I FUCKING GET THAT LINE."
J. Cole straddles the line (haha pun!) between lyricism and intellectualism quite nicely. Lines like "For that living large but mama I aint done yet/Sit back and watch your son rise/Kick back and know yo son set" are fucking AMAZING and exhibit the kind of wordplay that we value in an MC. They also don't make me feel like a fucking idiot for not paying attention when my family visited the Vietnam War Memorial in 1996.
PS, there is still no song that can touch "The Cool." And if there is, J. Cole hasn't released it yet. This is an example of what I'm talking about: Lupe created a story--an entire universe--that was accessible and understandable, and he constructed a narrative using rapping that we could understand ("Hustler for death/No heaven for a gangster"--I just got goosebumps writing that line). Unfortunately, Lupe can get a little carried away sometimes. He's a little too smart for his own good, which is why my white sister who graduated from Harvard likes him, but he can't quite get as mainstream as Jay-Z or Kanye, despite the fact that he's a more talented rapper.


Now, where does that leave Drake in all this? Here's the way I see it: the world is separated into categories. Most of us fit into these categories, except for the select few that are anomalies. Artists like Drake, Andre 3000, and Cee-Lo are anomalies, because they aren't quite rappers, and they aren't quite singers. They're ringpers. At this point, Drake has been doing a lot more auto-crooning than he has rapping. That doesn't mean I'm dismissing what he does; "So Far Gone" is on the same level as "The Warm Up," but it's really like comparing apples to mixtapes--they're just different.
Drake can write a song and a hook with the best of them, and his rapping is beyond passable--it's actually quite good. Just listen to this:

Like I said before, this is little more than a series of boasts about how good he is at rapping and getting pussy and wearing pea coats in Autumn, but it's still so compelling, simply because there's something about the sound of Drake's voice (just like Andre and Cee-Lo) that makes us want to listen. Give me "So Far Gone" and "The Warm Up" and I'll listen to them equally, and I guess we'll really just have to wait for their albums to drop to reach a conclusive resolution, but even that will be temporary.
I love them both, the same way I love cheesesteaks and watermelon vodka. Sometimes I want a cheesesteak, because it's satisfying and fills me up, but sometimes I want watermelon vodka, because it's sweet, fruity, delicious, and I just have a good time when I consume it. That doesn't make cheesesteaks any better than watermelon vodka, and vice versa, it just makes them different entities altogether.

Thanks for reading friends. Let's hope we can come up with more stuff like this in the future.

The Dream - Love King

This is the first single off of his The Dream's final album, "Love King," said to drop some time in May (but we all know rap/r & b albums NEVER EVER EVER FUCKING COME OUT WHEN PEOPLE SAY THEY WILL, which is the most frustrating thing ever. Hey Lupe, how's LASERS coming? Summer 2009, huh? Great!). I digress.

The more I listen to this song the more I love it. I'm still bumping "Love vs Money" and it never gets old. Dream claims that "Love King" will be his best album ever, but let's just go ahead and wait for it to come out--although this song is a promising start.

Mmm word download.
"Love King" - Soooo Sick

This Song Is Awesome

The Rain - Sooo Sick