FULL, CDQ, Track off upcoming album, Yes We Can: Voices Of A Grassroots Movement*Tibs Fav.™
Big update for ya Saturdays here, starting with 2 powerful, inspiring tracks on the album inspired by perhaps the most powerful and inspiring person in the U.S.A. today - Democratic candidate, Barack Obama! Starting it off with an original track created for the Obama album above, Malik Yusef goes spoken word and delievers nothing less than an inspiring message. Adam Levine comes through on the hook and Kanye West raps (sans autotune) with the same amount of passion as Obama has for changing our country. It is a great song with a booming beat, especially at the finale of the song. Also above is John Legend’s contribution to the album with a magnificent cover of the U2 smash-hit “Pride (In The Name Of Love)”, which certainly fits the theme of the album as well.
Down below, a bunch of very solid tracks with Mark Ronson putting a nice spin on Robin Thicke’s “Magic”, along with Wale spittin’ some clever lines as well. R&B singer Joe’s album comes out on Tuesday and another track from the CD can be had as well. Def lookin’ forward to that album. I’m also feelin’ that Murs track as it contains clear and inspiring lyrics as well - from the album, Murs For President, in stores September 30th! In the midst of the videos below, you will find the official video premiere to Ne-Yo’s “She Got Her Own (Miss Indepenent Pt. 2)” f/ Jamie Foxx & Fabolous. I’m kind of surprised he didn’t include that track on the album for Year Of The Gentleman, but my guess is they recently recorded it with not enough time for the track to make the final tracklisting. Regardless, the star power above carries the nice slow jam sequel to “Miss Independent” and the nice black & white video does the song justice. Enjoy!
Sorry for the long time between updates.. between all the work, being sick, and social events I was busy with yesterday, I was flat out exhausted to do anything until now. But it’ll all be made up next week because I also used that time to conduct a very interesting interview with a professional athlete that will be hitting GWHH sometime next week! Stay tuned!
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!
Damn, how can u dislike the song above? Now that the video is out, you may like it even more, associating T.I.’s deep first-person experiences with a straight-forward video that further illustrates T.I.’s emotions in the song. The video is solid, the song is even better as the recent charges and conviction of the ATL rapper may just bring the best out of him. I hope for some more heat in the coming months as Paper Trail’s tentative release is just right around the corner (August 12th). Thankfully, there will be a boom of Nas comin’ up as his album, Untitled is due out in just a few weeks on July 15th. Nas is rightfully considered one of the all-time great lyricists and rappers overall and I’ve been impressed with all of his recent records. He’s not losing a step over time and “Fried Chicken” below is further evidence. The song was released by Mark Ronson a couple weeks ago, but it was the clean, LQ version w/ Mark having no choice but 2 shout over the track. Well 2day, the full, dirty version has leaked and u can DL it below. 2gether with another old, unreleased freestyle from Kanye West and w/ T.I.’s video above, the lyrics are at a high level and if ur in the mood 2 just sit back and listen, no better place than 2 start than right here. And 2 contrast it, take a listen 2 Ludacris’ freestyle over the Rick Ross/T-Pain hit “The Boss”. I’m a fan of Luda, but he sounds pretty weak on this, just rappin’ about his wealth and assets… same ol’ same ol’. I’ll stick 2 “Runaway Love” for my Luda fix. Anyway, enjoy!
***Boogz just dropped yet another old, unreleased track from Lupe Fiasco. Seriously, all this old Kanye & Lupe can make an album, its ridiculous, haha. But hey, can’t complain, and this Lupe track has a unique, choppy beat as Lupe goes at it pretty hard and I love the way he delivers the words in this track. Anyway, I just added it below (bout half an hour after the orig. post time), so DL and listen for urself!
“Hold your horses, like Trojan forces.”
- Lupe Fiasco “4 Real” (hah, that line just jumped out at me on 1st listen!)
Producer: Mark Ronson - FULL, Radio Rip, Track off upcoming album, Nas (rumored title)*Tibs Fav.
More NEW Nas for ya ears, but this track featuring more Mark Ronson than Nas, ugh. Remember when Mark Ronson leaked “Stronger” last summer and for a couple days, the full track was out there but with similar shoutouts and his annoying voice over a ton of the track? Well, this is like that, but I guess it’s the only way he can leak it w/o the artist’s consent (he did produce it, however). Idk, I’m not sure how those things work anyway, but I like what I hear from Nas & Busta above, what I can hear at least, and I’m sure the full, CDQ version will hit us soon. Below, check out a couple more hip hop trax f/ Yung Berg and Dem Franchise Boyz (f/ Lloyd) and a couple R&B trax I enjoy from Mario & Junior! I also suggest u get 2 know Keri Hilson a little more with the promo video at the bottom… she’s a very talented artist and writer and her debut album, In A Perfect World… is hitting stores in September! U can learn more about the upcoming album and u may be surprised 2 see where u’ve seen Keri HIlson before…! Enjoy!
NEW ‘Obama’ Tracks f/ Kanye West, John Legend, MORE
