Rap Radar’s Elliott Wilson is back with another episode of “The Truth” and this time he breaks down Lil’ Wayne’s new album “I am not a Human Being II” which dropped today. He discusses all the recent medical complications and releasing the album at a bad time. Here’s what he thought…
It doesn’t happen very often that I go out of my way to buy an album, like an actual CD in a store. With this album things were a little different and I drove to Target right after the office, especially to get those two bonus tracks that only came if you purchased the CD at Target (great marketing strategy by the way). It was pretty insane walking into Target, you could just feel that everyone was there to get their hands on “The 20/20 Experience”. That point was proven when I got in line and saw that every person in front of me had their copy in hand. So yeah, he’s actually selling an experience.
Getting the album from Target was well worth it because both “Body Count” and “Dress On” are amazing tracks. “Body Count” really takes you back to the Timbo/JT era that we know and love. “Dress On” is more a seductive track that could still slap in the clubs, the breakdown in that one is incredible. Overall most of the tracks are longer than usual become of amazing harmonizing and super creative breakdowns. Normally I’d complain about a song be too long but these tracks are worth every second, don’t skip through them.
Now there’s the obvious tracks that we’ve already gotten familiar with like “Suit & Tie” and “Mirrors” which both are epic songs. I’ll actually be attending the JT/Jay-Z concert in Vancouver and can’t wait to hear both of them live. If you’re ever having a bad day and need some motivation throw on “Mirrors”, the pace and melody of that song is sure to get you going. There’s not much to say about “Suit & Tie” that song alone has changed the wardrobe of many men out there. Throwing Jay-Z on there was a genius move also, plus I’ve heard that they’ve got a lot more music together because Beyonce made the mistake of giving JT and Jay-Z a studio next to hers.
Two songs that seem to be getting slept on at the moment are “Don’t Hold the Wall” and “Tunnel Vision”, aside from Mirrors, “Don’t Hold the Wall” is probably my favorite song. “Dance, don’t hold the wall”, you already know what this song is about. Timbo is clearly present on this track, having them two working together again in 2013 is a blessing for the music industry. Just at a time when some hip-hop/pop/r&b genres are getting out of hand, JT brings back quality music. “Tunnel Vision” almost has a “Cry me a River” feel to it too, most of the songs take a small piece of the old Justin and blend it with the news.
I could keep going and break down all of the other songs, but frankly there’s a lot of work to do around here and I want everyone to “Experience” the album for themselves. Like I mentioned before, JT is truly selling an actual experience with this project, trust me… you’ll feel it. Overall this album is a masterpiece and I’m not surprised that it’s predicted to go Gold in the first week (500,000 copies). Really looking forward to seeing JT and Jay-Z on tour, the last time JT went on tour he grossed $70,000,000… this one will probably do double that with only 12 stops.
McDonald’s, like all other fast food restaurants, is starting to take a healthier approach when it comes to improving their food. On April 22nd Micky D’s will be replacing their classic Egg McMuffin with a Egg “White Delight” McMuffin. According to The Daily Meal “The egg whites are cooked free-form on the griddle with a spatula, and will join a slice of American cheese and Canadian bacon on a whole-grain English muffin. Egg whites will also be made available on all the other breakfast sandwiches the company offers.” The sandwich is 250 calories which is 50 less than the original.
There’s no looking over Drake’s new track “5 AM in in Toronto”, he takes a lot of shots at a lot of people. So it’s time for Rap Radar’s Elliott Wilson to do his thing and tell us what he thinks of the track. He’s another dope episode of “The Truth”.
It was a big day for A$AP Rocky and the entire A$AP mob with their front man releasing his very highly anticipated album “Long.Live.A$AP”. The album leaked about a month ago which somewhat dwindled the hype, but the true A$AP fans still went out and purchased Pretty Flacko’s first major label debut.
The obvious stand out track on the album is “Fuckin Problems” with Drake, 2 Chainz, and Kendrick Lamar. It’s pretty rare for a brand new artist to get all three of the biggest names in the game on one track, but with the respect of his industry peers Rocky pulled it off and made one HUGE banger. The song is played on every radio station in the U.S. and is also the ultimate “turn up” track when you’re in the club.
Even though Rocky found major success with “Fuckin Problems”, when it comes to albums fans also want to hear the deeper side of an artist. They want to know what they went through finding major success and what’s up next. You can find these deeper meanings in both “Phoenix” and “Suddenly”. “Phoenix” even mentions suicidal thoughts which Rocky explained is something most people in their mid-20′s go through and he wanted to convey that message to his fans. The track shows a more emotional side of Rocky and lets us know that even with all the fame he is still human and goes through the every day struggle of questioning life and our purpose in this world. “Suddenly” is also a deeper track speaking more so on suddenly becoming famous and how your friends turn to enemies and old enemies turn to friends. Both of these tracks really stood out to me having very powerful messages and speaking to the core fans.
Other than “Fuckin Problems”, “Wild for the Night” with Skrillex is also another great party track and a collaboration that I did not see coming. Most hip-hop artists these days tend to overdose on the whole EDM scene but Rocky incorporated just the right amount of the genre into this one. “Goldie” is also another good upbeat song on the album but also a track that we’ve heard for a while now so the wow factor wasn’t there because of its shelf life. Don’t get me wrong the Hit-Boy produced track has one of the best instrumentals out right now, but it just didn’t seem “fresh” because of how long it’s been out.
You can’t listen to this album without speaking about the ultimate posse cut, “1Train”. Somehow Rocky pulled it off once again and got some of the biggest up-n-comers in the game all on one instrumental. You’ve got Kendrick Lamar, Yelawolf, Joey Bada$$, Big K.R.I.T, Action Bronson and Danny Brown?! Come on son, nobody can pull that off. The track displays lyricism at its finest and really does feel like you’re on a train making 7 stops to hear 7 different artists at their finest.
The “Jodye” instrumental has to be my favorite on the entire album, something about that dark sound gets me every time. “Long Live A$AP” also has that Bone Thugs feeling to it which Rocky claims to be one of his biggest inspirations. Overall this was a great project and an album that I will personally have on repeat for a while. The early leak will probably hurt Rocky’s numbers in the end, but hopefully his core/cult fan base can come through and help him break 100k. Click HERE to purchase the album on iTunes.
As you know G.O.O.D. Music’s “Cruel Summer” album just came out and we all think it’s great, but we’d rather have this guy tell you. Seriously the best review on the web right now.
Yes the mixtape is out already and it’s been listened to all the way through. That’s the nice things about these short mixtapes, we can listen to them the same day they drop and give you our perspective before the music can grow on us. Now if you’re basing this mixtape off previous “Dedications”, then you might be disappointed. With Lil’ Wayne being involved in other ventures like skateboarding and his clothing line TRUKFIT, you can somewhat tell that he took a small step back from the music. He even told Rolling Stone magazine earlier this year that he’s taking a break from music and focusing more on skateboarding.
This doesn’t mean there weren’t some tracks that really stood out, surprisingly they all came one after the other. “Burn”, “I Don’t Like”, “Same Damn Tune” and “Cashed Out” were probably the four best tracks on this entire mixtape. Other than those ones there were a bunch of other remixes with features from artists that nobody knows such as Flo, Tune, and Lil’ Mouse. The track he did with J.Cole in the beginning was also pretty dope but only for the fact that J.Cole was on it. Even Tunechi said he didn’t like the beat so his bars were pretty lazy on that track. Nicki Minaj also helped out on the “Mercy” remix which made it a pretty powerful song, her and Lil’ Wayne always collaborate very well together.
“So Dedicated” featured Birdman but we didn’t really hear him on it all besides a little rant at the end mentioning something about Trukfit and having a lot of money. We were expecting a lot more Trukfit shout outs on this mixtape since the artwork for it is pretty much the company’s logo, but Weezy did a pretty good job of containing the self promotion and sticking to the music. Overall this mixtape gets a 6 out of 10, especially when comparing it to all of the other “Dedications”. The thing you expect most when Weezy drops a mixtape is him taking other peoples’ songs and making them his own, but he really didn’t do that this time around. Being huge Lil’ Wayne fans this is in no way hate towards one of the greatest rappers to ever touch the mic, we just didn’t feel like he really came with it this time. Lil’ Wayne is expected to release more mixtapes either this year or next continuing his “I’m not a Human Being” series so hopefully we get more delivery from him on those. Overall this mixtape gets a 6 out of 10, especially compared to the powerful mixtapes that came out this year from artists like Meek Mill, 2 Chainz, A$AP Rocky, Tyga and many more. In the end it’s always good to get music from Lil’ Wayne when it seems like he’s been focusing on a lot of other things lately. What brought Lil’ Wayne to the forefront of where is he is now is the music and the music only. He was once crowned as the “best rapper alive” so we would like to see a lot more of that.
If you watched the BET Awards last night then you probably already know that Kanye West spit an acapella verse from his upcoming single “God Flow”. Not sure if you remember the entire thing but he made some pretty strong statements in the 16 that was delivered. So here’s a little breakdown of some of the things he said along with footage of the entire thing. (4:56 mark is when the verse starts)
“Now Hold Up, I ain’t trying to stunt man, but these Yeezy’s jumped over the jump man” is what Kanye West starts his verse off with. Suggesting that his shoes have taken over the sneaker throne and replaced Jordan’s brand. This is a very bold statement and has sparked a lot of controversy on a lot of the hip-hop and sneaker blogs. Jordan’s shoes don’t compete with the high resale prices of Yeezy’s, but to just eliminate them like that? Not sure how we feel about that statement.
“Went from most hated to the God flow, I guess that’s the feeling only me and Lebron Know” was the follow up bar and this one was one of the coldest by far. Saying that him snatching the mic from Taylor Swift at the VMA’s and Lebron leaving Cleveland for Miami created the same amount of hate. Then they both came back to do great things making people love them again. For the most part…
“I’m living three dreams, biggie Smalls, doctor King, Rodney King…ugh, cause we can’t get along” Was the 3rd bar saying that he’s living big dreams referring to Biggie Smalls, Dr. King (I have a Dream speech), and Rodney King who just passed away. The “Ugh we can’t get along” part refers to Rodney King’s famous quote “Can’t we all get along”.
“No resolution until we drown all these haters rest in peace to Whitney Houston, Cars, money, girls and the clothes/All Money, you sold your soul”. Was next referring to his respect for Whitney Houston and the fact that she passed away recently. Then going on to the things he has, all bought with money, but some artists sell their soul. Then there’s a muffled part of the audio that gets blurred out because of the video footage.
“Picture working your whole life, and you just can’t cut through, that could mess up your whole life, like an uncle that touched you, what has the world come to, I’m from the 312, where cops don’t come through, and dreams don’t come through.” That’s when Kanye started speeding it up talking about the area that he is from in Chicago. He points out that working hard for something could never come through and it could mess up your life like an uncle that molests you. This was a pretty solid metaphor for how tough things can be for some people. Kanye also points out that his neighborhood was so dangerous that the police never came through and neither did people’s dreams.
These were some of the stand out bars we found while watching the video because they are slower and say much more. For the rest of the video Kanye also starts going faster and starts stomping so it was harder to understand. The track comes out soon so stay tuned for the official release.
First off let’s start by saying that this song is much more than just a good song. The way Kanye West delivers messages and metaphors throughout the whole thing while repeating some lyrics and still making it sound good is amazing. The beat is produced by Hit-Boy who has always been known for killing it on the production side of things. DJ Khaled does some screaming in the beginning so he’s automatically “featured” on it. The opening line (“Can’t a young ni**a get money any more, tell PETA my mink is draggin on the floor, can I have a bitch without no flaws, come to meet me without no draws”) alone makes a huge statement right there. You automatically know that Kanye is coming with it, straight rap, no weird stuff. “I’m from where shorties fucked up, double cupped up, might even kill somebody and YouTube it” gives a nice description of where Kanye West is originally from which is Chicago (considered the murder capital of the US by some). ”Only Ni**a I got respect for is Wiz, and I’ll admit I fell in love with Kim, round the same time she had fell in love with him, well thats cool baby girl do your thing, lucky I didn’t have Jay drop him from the team”. We all know what that line is talking about… Wiz Khalifa, Kim Kardashian, and Chris Humphries all in one take. He respects Wiz, admits to falling in love with Kim Kardashian, and takes a shot at Chris Humphries by saying that Jay-Z owns part of the New Jersey Nets but Kanye and Jay-Z are “La Familia” or family in common terms. Then we have “Don’t talk about style cause I’ll embarass you, shut the fuck up when you talk to me before I embarass you”, this line really lets everybody in the game know that nobody is on Kanye’s level right now when it comes to fashion, music, cars, girls, or anything. In the end Kanye concludes the song by introducing the title and says “Way too cold, I promise you need some theraflu”. I’m sure we can all relate the word cold and Theraflu, if not then the rest must be really confusing. Once again this song was a masterpiece and “Mercy” with Pusha T, Kanye West, Big Sean, and 2-Chaaaaaaaainz drops at midnight. G.O.O.D.
Nicki Minaj’s new album “Pink Friday… Roman Reloaded” just came out yesterday and we already got a chance to listen to the entire thing. There was a lot of buzz and hate going around recently saying that Nicki Minaj went way too POP and lost her hip-hop roots, she proves that wrong on this album. Along with amazing features like Nas, Rick Ross, Drake, 2-Chainz, Young Jeezy, and many more, Nicki Minaj really brought it lyrically. There are a lot of good tracks, but overall “Beez In the Trap” featuring 2-Chainz has to have the best beat. It allows for a steady “intro flow”, but when the bass drops in that song… game over. “Champion” featuring Nas, Drake, and Young Jeezy also stood out as one of the better tracks, the features on there really brought their best. “Gun Shot” featuring Beenie Man really brings out Nicki Minaj’s vocals as she sings the hook and most of the verse on there. Did not expect Beenie Man to be on this album but he was the perfect fit for that song. Another song known for both features and the beat was “I am Your Leader” featuring Rick Ross and Cam’ron, Ross went crazy with his verse (bawse bars as always). “Pound the Alarm” is definitely radio ready along with a few other songs, great club track too. You know Weezy couldn’t hold back from helping Nicki Minaj out so he made a couple appearances on both “Sex in the Lounge” and “Roman Reloaded”. Overall it seems like Nicki Minaj did a great job combining both the pop and hip-hop aspects of her music. I think both the fans that listen to her music for the instrumentals or lyrics will be pleased. Still lovin’ what Rick Ross and 2-Chainz had to say on their parts, those guys never cease to amaze me. If you’d like your own copy of the album click here.
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