Finally back with some loose ends from some major artists, including The Game up above. It’s a nice track with a mellow beat that takes a backseat to Game’s lyrics. Down below, check out the latest from Jay-Z with a track that is produced by Kanye West. I’m not really feelin’ it but I know a lot of you will so be sure 2 check that one out right under this. There’s also some more trax featuring a couple nice ones from up and comers Jay Electronica and B.o.B. as well as some other names like Jamie Foxx, Baby Bash, & Colin Munroe! And of course there’s a couple videos featuring Common & Immortal Technique to be viewed below as well. Enjoy!
FULL, CDQ, Track off upcoming album, Universal Mind Control *Tibs Fav.™
NEW Common, comin’ w/ intelligent lyrics and a clear message (as u should expect), over an instrumental that I can see in a Nintendo game. I like a lot about this track, including the nice outro naming many influential figures throughout history and ending with a snippet from Obama’s victory speech. Speaking of “History”, Jay-Z dropped a NEW track inspired by Obama as well and the latest, full radio rip can be downloaded below along with a NEW, FULL version of the Jay Electronica / Just Blaze track that recently earned the top spot as well. In addition, peep a controversial Lupe Fiasco interview, some Kanye West live performances, and a couple video premieres featuring 50 Cent and Jim Jones! Enjoy!
Thanks for bearin’ w/ me the past day or so w/ NEW trax that I got for ya here, starting off with a nice lyrical track from Jay Electronica and producer Just Blaze! They compliment each other really nicely as the beat does not overshadow Jay Electronica’s voice and lyrics, but rather enhances the power of them. Obama and social issues are quite the discussion in many of the trax in the post, including Jay’s up above, as well as the trax from Nas, Q-Tip, Busta, Jake One, Mikkey Halsted, & R&B’s Ray Lavender. In addition, Ne-Yo comes thru w/ a nice slow jam called “Piano” and Young Jeezy & Nas perform “My President Is Black” on Carson Daly! Still so excited about last nite and it’s starting 2 set in! For more Obama, including the updated FULL video of his victory speech last nite, CLICK HERE! Anyway, enjoy!
Old School Sundays: Kanye West & Jamie Foxx’s 2005 VMA Performance
Lil’ Wayne’s VMA Rehearsal
Fast forward 2 5:10 for a lil’ LQ version of a NEW track by Kanye West called “Heartless” and tune in 2 the VMAs 2nite for what a performance by Kanye where he may perform that track “Heartless” or more likely the other NEW track “Love LockDown”. I’m in VMA mood as well w/ a lil’ Old School performance by Kanye West & Jamie Foxx from 2005 that I always liked. And Lil’ Wayne checks in from 2nite’s VMAs above as well. Don’t sleep on the R&B trax below from Ryan Leslie, Joe, & a hot, uptempo, Danja-produced track by Casely and a hip hop track from FNF’s Bishop G! There’s also a couple videos at the bottom w/ the video premiere 2 one of my fav. R-Les trax, “Addiction” f/ Cassie & Fabolous and a Jay Electronica interview! I’ll be checkin’ in asap after the VMAs or early 2morrow afternoon! Enjoy!
FULL, CDQ, Track off upcoming album, First Love*Tibs Fav.™
Large update, starting with another nice track from up and comer R&B singer Karina Pasian! It’s a slow jam that should be on her upcoming album of the same name, in stores August 19th! More trax below feature a pretty sick beat by The Underdogs, a nice Chris Brown feature, & Mikkey Halsted ripping thru one of my all-time favorite beats (Mobb Deep - “Shook Ones Pt. 2″). Finally, a ton of videos for u 2 look at, including behind the scenes looks at music videos from CRS, Lupe Fiasco, & T.I., and a bunch of Rock The Bells interviews with all the various artists on the bill. Enjoy!
More from the vault as another Prolyfic-produced Lupe track hits the web above with “U Don’t Know”. Truthfully, this is nothing more than a solid track OVERALL since I’m really not feelin’ the beat and the guy screaming on the chorus, but Lupe brings it as usual and it’s worth the DL 2 hear his rhymes alone. The track I’m really feelin’ 2day is by another Chicago cat - Yung Berg - as he comes thru with a song that I feel could be a hit. It’s produced by Boogz (shouts for a few of the trax) & DJ Chase and features the lovely Amerie on the hook. While Amerie carries the song with her strong vocals, YB also follows thru with the sick, twisted Chicago flow, that I feel he lacks sometimes in other trax. I hope this song blows up (CDQ version also.. poor versions are elsewhere) and it’s definitely one worth DLing. There’s plenty more trax below with Ne-Yo’s “It’s You” deserving some words. It’s over the wonderful Usher “Will Work For Love” beat (the hidden track on Here I Stand) and while Usher’s version is better and illustrates the difference in their voices, Ne-Yo’s is still a quality one, with the lyrics standing out above all. Don’t forget 2 peep the videos as well with some interesting ones f/ Ludacris, & Jay Electronica! Enjoy!
***Added some Nas performance videos from the event below!***
From Left 2 Right: Sgt. Tibs, stic.man of Dead Prez, & Max G.
Jay Electronica & Max G.
S-Preme & Max G.
Immortal Technique
Rakim
Method Man & Redman
Redman
Mos Def
Nas
A Tribe Called Quest
The 2008 Rock The Bells tour kicked off in Chicago this past Saturday on July 19th with a bevy of artists taking stage at the First Midwest Bank Ampitheatre. Artists and legends like Kidz In The Hall, Jay Electronica, Dead Prez, Immortal Technique, Rakim, De La Soul, Method Man & Redman, and Mos Def, The Pharcyde, Nas, and A Tribe Called Quest provided a concert of live, raw hip hop lasting nearly half a day! All the artists brought their own style and entertainment to the stage so there was never really a time to drift off and take a break. Some notable highlights and characteristics from the performances were the passion and clarity of the messages from Immortal Technique, the high-octane energy Method Man & Redman came with to ignite the crowd to another level (even stage-diving), Mos Def’s incredibly slick acapellas, Nas’ entire set, especially his “One Mic” finale, & finally the best moment for me - The Pharcyde performing one of my all-time favorite jams “Runnin’”, enhanced by the live energy by all four MCs and the live drums and instruments. One critique of ours was that Nas should have closed the concert because his buzz is at the highest with his recent release of Untitled and the hip hop legend had the crowd in the biggest frenzy of the night. No disrespect to A Tribe Called Quest, who were great in their own right as well, but we noticed the crowd was not as into them as they were with Nas. Again, “One Mic” was an excellent closing song to Nas’ set and would have been a perfect cap off for the entire day of real hip hop performances. We would have also liked to see artists like Dead Prez and Kidz In The Hall later on in the bill as the crowd was still filing in well into the early evening. We had a great time chillin’ with our friends, GWHH ‘Return Of The MC’ Contest winner S-Preme, and even some of the artists who were in and out of the SanDisk VIP lounge! Much love to Ronda & SanDisk for the hookups!
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Nas LIVE @ Rock The Bells Chicago (Pt. 1)
(Check for Tibs in the gray Cubs hat snappin’ some pics around 3:45!)
Nas LIVE @ Rock The Bells Chicago (Pt. 2)
(Check for Max G. & Jay Electronica with his cane around 4:30!)
This album is what hip hop is all about! It’s hard to say if it’s his strongest album, but Nas brings it once again with the NiggerUntitled album. The first thing I noticed, along with his previous LP, Hip Hop Is Dead, is that Nas adapts his masterful lyrics over a new age sound. It’s really easy to see the difference if you put in Illmatic or It Was Written after listening to Untitled, which I did over this past weekend. It just speaks to Nas’ versatility and his music today is still relevant and appealing to today’s modern ear (as evidenced with his likely #1 Billboard spot for his first week). A perfect illustration of that is through the song “America” where Nas teams up with R&B producers, StarGate, and both parties compliment each other’s style to make a beautiful track. Nas has always been considered one of the greatest lyricists and storytellers to ever grace the mic and below are a couple examples of that, including one from the aforementioned “America”.
“Love to sit in on the Senate
And tell the whole government
Y’all don’t treat women fair
She read about herself in the bible
Believing she the reason sin is here
You played her, with an apron
Like bring me my dinner, dear
She the nigger here
Ain’t we in the free world?
Death penalty in Texas kill young boys and girls
Barbarity, I’m in the double-R casually
Bugging how I made it out the hood, dazzle me
How far we really from third world savagery?
When the empire fall, imagine how crazy that’ll be..”
- Nas “America”
“My father was not a banker
Neither was my neighbor when it came to getting paper
Who the hell was gonna train us?
A pressure couldn’t escape us through the ages
We changed the basis of derogatory phrases
And I say its quite amazing
The use of ghetto terms developed our own language
No matter where it came from
It’s celebrated; now people are mad if they ain’t one”
- Nas “Y’all My Niggas”
As you can see, Nas has the complete lyrical package, combining intricate wordplay with relevant social commentary. The topics vary throughout on songs like “Sly Fox”, “Untitled”, & even the lead single “Hero” f/ Keri Hilson, just to name a few. He matches the top-notch lyricism with the flow of a superstar and what even further stands Nas out about the rest, is his ability to hit your ear on first listen with such captivating lyrics in the verses. It’s usually the chorus that strikes a chord on the first listen, but Nas is one of the rare artists that captures me more on his verses. That being said, it is the chorus’ in general that I feel hold the album back a little bit (along with a couple “ehhh” beats.. Ex: “Sly Fox” has grown on me negatively because of the beat..). Some of the chorus’ could be a lil’ catchier, not radio-friendly exactly since that’s not Nas’ true style, but just to the point that some songs can have a greater lasting appeal. Instead, I’ll skip a few tracks unless I have the goal of listening to the entire album all the way through or mindlessly keep the playlist on as background music at the laptop. Nas consistently brings it lyrically throughout the album and was close to a perfect 10 in the lyrics category had he blown me away like he does in the examples above for the entire album. Nas could have spit over a 3rd grader’s beats for the entire album and it would still be a MUST-BUY! Instead, Nas dipped into a variety of fresh producers including the aforementioned StarGate, Mark Ronson, stic.man of Dead Prez, & Jay Electronica to name a few. So if you haven’t yet copped Untitled and you are a hip hop fan, then stop what you’re doing and get to a store and buy the album, or simply CLICK HERE!
We had a few major mixtape drops today from two of Chicago’s up and coming MC’s. If you love Chicago, then you must check these two out! Lots of Chicago Music…
CamRon is back with hot freestyle, this is the good version from HHU! Haha these pics are of Cam’Ron getting a striptease from a chick at Sobe Live in Miami on 7/5. Lol Thanks Necole Bitchie!
On other news, Erykah Badu was insulted by all the negative comments surrounding her pregnancy (to protégé Jay Electronica). In full she wrote a post defending her choice of men, her children and her choice to have kids out of wedlock.
“WHAT IS MARRIAGE ?
WHO IS THE JUDGE?
WE ONLY UNDERSTAND THE EXAMPLES WE ARE GIVEN ( well sort of)
WOULD IT “LOOK BETTER ” TO MARRY AND DIVIORCE AND MARRY AGAIN ?
WOULD THAT BE MORALLY CORRECT ?”
Producer: J. Lack - FULL, CDQ, Here I Stand Bonus Track *Tibs Fav.
A bunch of NEW trax for the middle of the day, including more USHER! Haha, prolly the last we’re posting of his material from the latest album but if this is the quality of the BONUS track on Here I Stand, then we’re shaping up for a great album. I really like the vibe 2 the track above and its just captivating all around - beat, tempo, lyrics… judge for urself above. Below you can find a bunch of NEW trax f/ T.I., Nas, Yung Berg, and many MORE! But ya’ll should scroll a lil farther down and get that Kenna/Lupe Fiasco RMX and the first track leaked off of Common’s upcoming (Kanye-less) album, Invincible Summer. Both those songs are ridiculous and u gotta hear Common spit over a high tempo Neptunes beat. Pretty sweet and could def grow on me even more! Enjoy!
The Game “Laugh” - MORE
