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The first of two new video releases from Drake this Easter weekend, this one for his collaboration with Lil’ Wayne. Interestingly and quite bizarrely, this video takes place at a Bar Mitzvah!? Drake keeps in touch with his heritage, as he shows us how they do things, with friends: DJ Khaled and Trey Songz in attendance. It’s quite weird to watch, but nice to see something different from a hip hop video. I’ve not yet listened to The R.E.D. Album in full, but there’s no doubt this was the best single released prior to the full album’s release. The reasoning is three-fold: the production is hypnotising, the blend of artists works (including Wayne, who doesn’t appear in the video), and Tyler (as his Wolf Haley persona) surprises listeners by coming through with what is the show-stealing verse. The video is as odd as you’d expect, taking place in a mental asylum of Arkham proportions, and allowing Game to have a little fun with the visual output. Lots of aggressive, psychotic mannerisms and expressions from Game, blending with the general lunacy well, whilst Tyler’s appearance is relatively tame by comparison as he mostly plays around with a cat. An entertaining enough video nonetheless, largely thanks to being heavily supported by a good track. Grab the audio on Game’s latest LP now. The second OVOXO release for today, and for what is probably my favourite song from Drake’s Take Care album. The bounce, energy and verve of the track is incredibly infectious, and certainly has a nice knock when turned up in the car. The video generally keeps that upbeat vibe going, with plenty of action and scene switches in Drake’s verse enhancing the audio’s dynamism. That’s then counterbalanced by a more relaxed set of scenes for Wayne’s verse, matching his more laidback deliver in what remains the highlight of the track. I’ve criticised Wayne’s work in recent times, but his verse here has a real addictive quality that is visualised well with a charismatic appearance from the New Orleans native. Tyga’s managed to creep his way onto this version too, and though I’m not a big follower of his music, he does OK with his verse, largely because it seems his voice has finally broken. Grab the track on Drake’s Take Care, available now.
This is the second line that recaps on any relevant posts. This is the third line that is often filler. This is the final line that leads you into the click below.
2 relative newcomers and 2 very established artists in this week’s episode, providing plenty of diversity for all to enjoy. Whilst we’re on that number, there are 2 related posts to catch up on from the week gone by, with a SBTRKT remix of Frank Ocean’s Thinking About You, and a track from Mike Posner’s upcoming The Layover mixtape, with the full project set to drop at some point this weekend. Click below for this week’s tasty morsels of audio replenishment.
A decent number of posts to catch up on from the week gone by: very enjoyable new visuals from Cherri Prince, an excellent blend of jazz, soul and more from the ReGeneration project, a review of Florence + The Machine’s latest album, and finally two mixtapes from Trey Songz, the first a more hip-hop styled effort, and the other the sequel to his excellent Anticipation R&B mixtape. Click below for this week’s box of healthy, nutritious musical snacks.
Credit to Drake here too, as he actually switches his flow up for the first time in months, coming with some real bounce that rides the production excellently, whilst Wayne’s contribution isn’t bad either, with his flows sounding equally refreshed. It’s no lyrical or technical masterpiece, but I’m pleasantly surprised with the upbeat, funky nature this and it’ll be hard to stop your head nodding when this one pops up in the car.
For the rest of you mainstream lovers though this is a track that you’ll enjoy for sure. Nicki kick-starts the track with the first verse of hers that I haven’t found annoying since Kanye’s Monster. With a hard-hitting beat, Lil’ Wayne has no issues with providing a verse that closes off a song that will sound good in your car. Just try and ignore the Birdman verse in the middle of the song for the good of your health.
“I’m like really half a billi ni**a, Really you got baby money / Keep it real with ni**as, Ni**as ain’t got my lady money.” Things become a little more clear: the Cash Money camp have clearly taken offence to Jay-Z’s line and have shot back. Will Jay respond? Don’t hold your breath. Will he respond through a subliminal in about 12 months that will go over most people’s heads? Probably. As Ajay joked last night: “you can quite easily imagine these two laughing about it. Whilst sipping some sort of exorbitantly priced alcohol. On a boat. Surrounded by b*tches.” Download this track and hear that line (and subsequently more antagonistic lines) by clicking right here.
An understated beat that allows you soak in the ridiculousness of Wayne’s lyrics supplemented by another quality Drake chorus for your ears makes this a single worth putting out.
Three interesting tracks to recap on from the week just gone, with Aloe Blacc releasing some new visuals, a brand new mixtape from upcoming UK soul singer Daley, and a new video from his fellow Brit, Cleo Sol. Click below to indulge yourself in this week’s free buffet (forks will not be provided).
Three posts to recap on from the week gone by: Yasmin offered a preview of her addictive, 90s-inspired new single, Chris Brown released a brand new 21-track mixtape, and finally a remix of Estelle’s most recent single. Click below for this week’s tasty instalment.
That makes this mixtape worth checking out in my book. Grab it by clicking here (via intro-spective.com where you can check out the tracklist) A fairly unremarkable video for one of the mainstream’s favourite songs right now. It certainly won’t blow anyone’s mind, but the arrogant, lavish essence of the audio is captured well enough with lots of extravagantly-priced items and standard carefree behaviour. The cityscapes work very well with Drake’s hook in particular, adding an atmospheric visual to the slower first half, and injecting energy into the more lively second part. Drake also appears to have been taking items from Rick Ross’ wardrobe of fashion disasters with one of his outfits, baring his chest and adorning it with some unnecessarily large jewellery. Nothing to note aside from that, purely a video that will further etch the song onto mainstream minds. Audio is here. Probably the first lesson we learn from our parents is: “Sometimes in life you have to do things you don’t want to do.” This is one of those times. As I’m holding the ‘day shift’ down, after some considerable deliberation, I’ve decided that it would be mean to keep this from some of you for too much longer. I genuinely struggle to know what to write about this. There’s a lot of the colour blue. Some girls pole dancing. Lots of strobe lighting effects. And The Mighty Boosh’s very own The Spirit Of Jazz makes an appearance. Oh, sorry, that’s Lil Wayne. We’ve got the audio kicking around here somewhere.
Probably one of Khaled’s best songs ever. Why? Not only does he refrain from screaming all over it, but everything else seems to go right. The beat is absolutely superb, with a piercing melody in the verses being supplemented in the hook by a thick percussion that will undoubtedly get your neck snapping, whilst Drake stars with a very solid verse, along with a strong hook. Ricky Ross is bearable on this too (I guarantee you’ll find yourself copying his verse-opening grunt!), though Wayne is massively disappointing on this with a lazy, boring verse. Really enjoyable effort outside of that verse though. Sorry for the delay! I hear Game has an album coming out someday? Nah… A certain writer will be going nuts over the latest visuals to Game’s seemingly lead single from R.E.D. This video has been surrounded with controversy after MTV and BET banned it and with the strong gang affiliation Game brings across here, you can kind of understand why. I, for one, don’t feel it’s any worse than most of the other stuff out there. OK, the video is plastered with the colour red but apart from that how many other rap videos do you see with guys standing on cars with groupies and baseball bats? Exactly. Game’s not exactly reinventing the wheel here is he. Regardless, the Internet once again proves its power. Who watches TV nowadays anyway? Oh. And I hate the chorus on this. Audio can be gotten from here and you can get Game’s R.E.D. album from the same shelf you’ll find Detox…
A few posts from the week gone by that will be of note: Skylar Grey’s superb live performance of Love The Way You Lie, Chris Brown’s latest set of energetic visuals, Diggy Simmons working with Bruno Mars for his mainstream single, an enormous 30-track official mixtape from T-Pain, and finally some fantastic visuals for The Foreign Exchange’s newest single. Click below to be one step closer to greatness.
Click below to fill your empty stomachs with R&B/pop/soul nourishment.
Solid material dropped throughout the week, including a not-to-be-slept-on mixtape from Mateo, Gilbere Forte dropped a superb remix of an Adele track, an interesting piece of retro dance-pop from Holy Ghost!, unusual visuals for Katy Perry and Kanye West’s collaboration, and finally a video for Chipmunk’s latest single with the lovely Keri Hilson. Click below for this week’s episode, complete with a throwback for good measure. Very solid video for the mega-star collaboration from Travis Barker’s debut album (which is out now by the way folks!). One of those songs that’s very easy to listen to in a playlist, it’s also one of the few genuinely likeable all-star tracks amidst a sea of them. The video has a sketchy, alternative cinematography that keeps things dynamic and interesting, whilst the artists come together in an old-school ‘band’ style that gives this a very organic feel. Being interspersed with shots from various street/outdoor scenes is OK and whilst the scenes themselves fit with the audio nicely, the constant switching does get a little distracting at times in taking the focus away from the more enjoyable ‘band’ scenes. Solid video content-wise though, and definitely embellishes the audio. Be sure to grab that album!
The Lil’ Wayne parts of this song I actually found myself quite liking, but can’t help but feel this song would be much better without Ross. I don’t mean any offense to the ‘Bawse’ but as I’ve said before, he needs to steer away from these Lex Luger-type beats (or Lex Luger needs to stop making these type of beats?), it’s already become tiresome in my opinion. Still, this is very worth grabbing if you like that style, or if you’re a fan of Wayne.
Catch-up: delayed visuals for Usher’s More, the video for Yasmin’s Finish Line and an official remix, very enjoyable video for Musiq and Swizzy’s single, XV’s remix of Erin Christine’s Naked, and finally Wiz Khalifa jumps on a remix with Cee-Lo. Lots of features and guest spots in this week’s episode, so get your mice at the ready and get clicking below.
As for the Lil’ Wayne feature? He provides a rip-roaring chorus, in the same vein of form as Game’s single, My Life, from his last album. This track is a winner; download below.
However, there’s been lots of pop/R&B posted in the last week that may help fill that void: new Bruno Mars visuals, Willow Smith’s latest single, the announcement of an awesome 90s hip-hop and R&B night in Camden, a strong introduction to UK upcomer CleoSol, J.Lo and Pitbull’s latest collab, and finally some new Timbaland and Brandy. Click below for the 90th instalment of the longest running weekly episodic ever. I really don’t like this song in the slightest, but can’t really complain about the video. Despite unnecessarily using Inception-style scenes at certain points, the rest of the video is actually quite funny and probably makes for one of the more watchable Wayne videos. It certainly helps that unlike most of his videos, this one actually seems well produced and remotely thought out, as opposed to the ‘quick, let’s record it on this camera phone’ style of his usual efforts. Whilst the point still stands that the song isn’t up to much, I’ve got no problems in saying that the video has made me appreciate Cory’s verse a little more, with his tongue-twisting verse being the undoubted highlight as far as the audio goes. Nice to get some new visuals from Mike, and here he goes with a more humorous approach for his slow jam remix. I can’t say I expected the song to be visualised in this way, but the outcome is definitely funny and makes for a decent watch. Various highlights throughout, including Posner’s disco wig and I’m sure many will relate to Posner’s hurried post-night out clearing up! There’s more than a hint of the ‘Lynx Effect’ in this video too, which adds a further light-hearted feel to the package. Not the greatest video of all-time by any means, but it’s not too bad and is worth a watch for something a little less intense than most videos. Audio can be picked up from here.
Using a far more mellow flow than we’re used to hearing from Weezy, with lyrics that are well on point, Wayne manages to fantastically encapsulate the whole emotional aspect of the track in his 16 bars. It’s probably the most impressive verse I’ve heard him come out with since his return, and it leaves you wanting more of him on the track. |
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