Showing posts with label kanye west. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kanye west. Show all posts
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Straight Dope: September 9th


Boy, there’s just so much to talk about this week. Football is back, DMX has been wielding his penis in a threatening manner, R. Kelly’s got a release date for his new album (it’s November 11th), 2 Chainz is releasing a goddamn cookbook, and Lil Wayne sits down with Katie Couric again later this afternoon on daytime TV.

 RE: Lil Wayne and Miss Katie, I must confess to some seriously hardcore ambivalence. I think if you see Lil Wayne during the day you should get some kind of prize, or at least a handshake from a supportive father figure to remind you that life is tricky and it does get better. For a long time, I wasn't sure he actually existed. I thought of him as a type of ghost story a bunch of rappers would recite to each other as a cautionary tale with each emcee adding their own personal embellishments to try and scare the shit out of everyone in the room. Like, if the Scooby Doo gang were chasing Lil Wayne, they’d pull the rubber mask off and it’d have been Kanye the whole time.

 I eventually found out how wrong I was and had to come to terms with the concept of filthy rich adult men mixing prescription cough syrup with Sprite for recreational purposes. Remember when people would just get drunk as hell? On a more positive note, this is not the CBS Evening News’ Katie Couric of years ago. As her star continues to fall, we inch that much closer to these two eventually dropping a single together. Matt Lauer diss track? Matt Lauer diss track.

 Alright, let’s listen to some rap.

 Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - “Deeper”

 Freddie Gibbs really is the best rapper from Gary, Indiana. Deeper (the album) is the third collaboration between Mr. Gibbs and his presumptive BFF Madlib, and here you have a title track to pass through the canal of your ear directly into your brain. What happens next is up to you.

 Deeper (the album) comes out 9/14. Their next collaborative effort, Cocaine Piñata, is expected 2/14/14 with guest spots by everyone good.

 But really. A cocaine piñata. I just… Man.

Eminem - “Berzerk”

 And then Eminem came back on some vintage Slim Shady shit. I’m not saying it’s good or bad, but it does make me feel like it’s 1999. I could do without the extended Kevin Federline diss, but Em more than makes up for it by insulting both Khloe Kardashian and her disturbed husband Lamar Odom. I know the song was recorded before Lamar Odom’s awesome drug use was made public, so yeah, I guess, suck it nerd. Shady got yo’ ass with that perfect timing.

 I never thought Khloe looked exceptionally terrible; however I learned a valuable lesson about how the public feels about her appearance when I told an ex-girlfriend I thought she kind of looked like her. I get that she’s clearly the Kardashian sister still in beta, by which I mean that someone did not work the bugs out before they released the software, but goddamn. Apparently she’s the Jack’s Links Beef Jerky Sasquatch and I had no idea.

 MMLP2 is out 10/5.


You only get two songs this week, because when I go on hiatus apparently so does the entire rap industry. You don’t want to hear Eddie Murphy’s new single with Snoop Lion, Weezy’s 29 song Dedication 5 mixtape, or Meek Mill’s soft as hell Kendrick Lamar diss track. During a national survey, 9 out of 10 Charmin bears chose Meek Mill’s track as their preferred toilet tissue over other leading brands.

By the way, did you hear about Kim Kardashian wanting to pose for Playboy again? Kanye West is reportedly enthusiastic about the prospect, and I don’t even have a punchline for this joke. I just really want his ego to lead him to take over the shoot, eventually throw out all the pictures of Kim, and become the first male entertainer with an issue of Playboy showcasing his nude body on every page.

You're next, Hov.

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Scattered Thoughts On The VMAs


Lady Gaga's disembodied head sings a song, and it's time for the party to begin.

All award shows are basically about the spectacle more than the awards, but that's never more true than with the MTV Video Music Awards. No one remembers who won anything at the 2003 VMAs, but everyone remembers Madonna kissing Britney. This show is just about watching famous people do crazy shit. And the 2013 edition did not disappoint.

First off, let's talk about the absolute trainwreck that was Miley Cyrus. She awkwardly twerked, and super-awkwardly pretended to masturbate with a foam finger. It was at this point that Robin Thicke came out and sang a snippet of "Blurred Lines." Once this happened, 2 Chainz and Kendrick Lamar came out, but it was far too late to salvage the performance. Miley's failed attempt at both singing and dancing were so pathetic that she retroactively let Britney Spears circa 2007 off the hook.

I love that the NSYNC reunion lasted for about 30 seconds of what was primarily a tribute to Justin Timberlake's solo career. It's his world, and those other four gentleman are simply squirrels trying to get a nut. It was nice of JT to give them a shout out in his acceptance speech though.

I could have used a bit more crazy from Kanye. His performance of "Blood On The Leaves" was suitably intense, but I missed the special effects that marked his performance of "New Slaves" on SNL a few months back.

What made less sense, Shailene Woodley introducing Miley Cyrus, or Jared Leto introducing Kanye? I'll go with Leto, because I honestly can figure out what the hell he was even doing there.

Last night was a rather depressing reminder of how irrelevant rock is to mainstream music right now. I'm pretty sure the only guitars of the night were provided by Bruno Mars backup band. Apparently, when neither The Black Keys or the Foo Fighters make an album, that means rock is invisible.

How about that Bruno Mars light show, eh? Has he been hanging out with Wayne Coyne lately? I dug his new single, too.

Daft Punk were only on to present? Super lame. They should have picked Colbert instead.

Can we all agree that Kevin Hart talking about Lady Gaga's ass was just funny? Please?

One Direction did not have the best song of the summer by any stretch of the imagination. But they do have the most rabid fanbase, so this was to be expected.

What was with the one dude in One Direction wearing a Joy Division t-shirt? Like he has anything to be gloomy about it....

That Katy Perry finale was beyond cheesy. Not as bad as Miley, but still. Can the dudes in Survivor sue her? God I hope so.

Why did MTV insist calling "Roar" her "biggest hit ever?" It hasn't been out long enough to really be a hit yet. Plus, "I Kissed A Girl" and "California Gurls" were both way bigger. I guess they just figure that repeating something enough times will make it true.

Another fine mess, MTV! Can't wait for next year.


John Hugar
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The Kanye Question


A few weeks ago, Kanye West released his sixth studio album, Yeezus, and as you probably expected, it's amazing. As with most of his efforts, it's unlike anything he's done before; a brutal, uncompromising set of some his most audacious tunes. From the rage of "New Slaves," to the damn-straight-I-went-there "I Am A God," it's one of the best albums of the year, and continues one of music's greatest winning streaks.

 When discussing Kanye, one thing that inevitably comes up is what it means to call him a hip-hop artist. It's the genre he predominantly works in, but to some, the title seems limited and does not give  full credit to the diverse array of styles appearing in his work, particularly on 2010's My Beautiful Dark twisted Fantasy, which was one of the most ambitious albums in any genre to appear in some time.

 So, in that sense, we can see how it would be logical to say that Kanye's music goes beyond hip-hop. There iss basically no genre that he hasn't interpolated into his music at one point or another. At the same time, I can't help but wonder if the assertion does a disservice to the genre of hip-hop itself. Are we saying that it's a limited genre, and that Kanye's one of few artists to go beyond it? That might not be an accurate assertion.

 Let's be honest, saying that an artist transcends rap or hip-hop is usually what people who don't like rap say in order to explain why they like one particular artist. I'm pretty sure 5 million white people said it about Outkast between 2000 and 2003. It's not so much that Kanye doesn't utilize other genres, it's that plenty of other hip-hop artists do the same thing, and to put one guy above them - even if he is the most talented - does a disservice to their work.

 First off, it's not like there is any kind of "generic hip-hop" (except for maybe Kevin Federline). Every artist has different ideas about what they want to do within the genre. If you like the work of Kanye, Jay-Z, Drake, and Lil Wayne, you find some commonalities, but probably more differences. Hip-hop is merely the template the artist uses to make their work.

 It's not that Kanye doesn't work beyond the medium of hip-hop, it's just that plenty of other artist do the same thing, and to only make that claim about him seems like a cop-out, a way to avoid understanding the genre. Kanye may be the most talented, diverse hip-hop artist around, but it isn't like his contemporaries are just pooping out bland, generic rap. the genre of hip-hop is as exciting as its ever been, and if you think Kanye is the only one trying new things, you're missing out on a lot of fun.


John Hugar
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buffaBLOG's Best of 2013 (so far): Part 4


Editor's note: If you missed any of this week's selections, you can check them out here.

Mac McGuire

 Album:  Phosphorescent - Muchacho

Muchacho, Phosphorecent's latest and best release to date, opens with the angelic "Sun, Arise!," itself bookended by the closing "Sun's Arising," Matthew Houck wastes no time in letting the listener know this is an album of awakening. What is found in between is Houck's journey of redemption, religion, and love, highlighted by the successful pairing of both conventional alt-country elements (mariachi horns, pedal steel slide guitar, violins) and non (synths, subtle electronics, dubby beats). Muchacho features a stunning one-two punch, maybe the best of the year, in the weary and reflective "Song for Zula" and the powerful show stopper "The Quotidian Beasts." The former, which would take top song honors if not for my selection below, features a wandering, Johnny Cash quoting narrator who feels to be "disfigured" by love and will be damned if he "opens [him]self up that way again."



Song:  The National - "Sea of Love"

Like fellow Brooklynites The Walkmen, The National seem to have mastered the art of aging gracefully. Those “Mr. November” days are long gone, while family and a potentially soon-to-be post-rock ‘n’ roll life seem to be the band’s focus these days upon the release of their latest album, Trouble Will Find Me. On the tense and building “Sea of Love,” though, the men in The National remind everyone that they aren't going soft quite yet in their most thrilling and immediate song since “Abel,” and maybe best since “Slow Show.” While rocking out is great and all, it’s the little things that make this track really stand out: the welcoming heartland harmonica, the haunting backing harmonies, and those passionate pleas to “Joe” to “don’t drag me in” during the song’s thrilling conclusion. The great music video certainly didn't hurt either.


Joe Speranza

Album:  The Lone Bellow - The Lone Bellow

Picking an album of the year is a very, very difficult thing to do and without some kind of aggregate it is impossible to do objectively. So all you loyal Daft Punk and Vampire Weekend listeners, and all you Kanye West martyrs, keep that in mind as I explain my choice.

Back in January, I wrote a gushing review of The Lone Bellow’s debut album in which I actually included the line “listening to The Lone Bellow is a potentially life-altering experience.” I wasn’t on drugs and I haven’t quit my job to follow them on tour, but it’s fair to say that my initial bewilderment with how good they are has quietly devolved into casual fandom. I’ve relaxed quite a bit since I proclaimed that “every so often, a band comes along that might just change everything.”

They haven’t exploded like I fearlessly predicted they would, but the release of their album was very important to me and it’s why I’m calling it the album of the year – so far. I previously called them a “kind-of country-sounding band,” which is – I can admit it now – inaccurate. They are very country. And I’m okay with it. And I never thought I’d type that.

The reason they appealed to me back then – and this is doing a disservice to the quality of the album from beginning to end – was that they were a Brooklyn-based band that had just recorded a country album. I grew up outside New York City, in a place where admitting you liked country music was not only frowned upon but a serious character flaw. It was wrong to like country music. So naturally, The Lone Bellow intrigued me. It was finally “okay” for me to listen to country music. And that’s great, because The Lone Bellow is just a beautiful album. The harmonies and buildups are perfect, and – if I can make an intangible tangible – you can hear how much this album meant to them. For more specific details and to read why I loved the album check out the initial review, but what you need to know is that there was a lot at stake for these guys and they really came up big.

The Lone Bellow has easily had the most profound effect on me this year; in case you care, I almost picked Indigo Meadow by The Black Angels – which was a huge return to form for them – but I already knew they were great. The Lone Bellow came out of nowhere and is the sole reason I now consider country music if not decent, tolerable. That’s a pretty big feat, so cheers to them. 



Song:  A$AP Rocky & Skrillex - "Wild for the Night"

In the same way people remember where they were and what they were doing during major, catastrophic events, I remember where I was and what I was doing the first time I heard “Wild For the Night” by A$AP Rocky and Skrillex. I was driving on that uneven stretch of road around the 219/I-90 merge where you start to think your car might just fall apart when all of a sudden, I heard the unmistakable, ghoulish voice of A$AP talking about his pistol and his morning routine. I thought okay, whatever, if my tires blow at least I’ll go out listening to a decent song. This was also around the time when I was deciding whether or not dubstep sounded better or worse than a fax machine and whether or not Skrillex was a genius or a joke. The 45-second mark of the song – the transition from the talking-with-your-mouth-full voice of A$AP to the button pressing brilliance of Skrillex – settled it pretty quickly; “Wild for the Night” literally made me smile and figuratively made everything clear: Skrillex is the shit and dubstep goes quite nicely with rap.   



Ryan Wolf

 Album:  Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Push The Sky Away

 Perhaps the first contemporary album to use Wikipedia and Miley Cyrus as artistic references without sounding shallow or smugly elitist, Push the Sky Away feels immediately prescient. Nick Cave and company demonstrate their continued awareness of the developing world we inhabit, crawling in its search for knowledge, placing faith in man’s flawed faculties while the Internet gathers and spreads human-generated information that may or may not reflect reality. As the all-knowing Google emerges as a man-made idol, Push the Sky Away returns to the flesh, favoring physical bodies and blood. Finding mystic qualities in seemingly neutral modern technology, Cave’s low-key, mid-tempo pastiche is deeper, darker, and more frighteningly astute than superficial listens suggest.



Song:  Vampire Weekend - "Ya Hey"

Throughout Modern Vampires of the City, Vampire Weekend exchange class-focused secular musings in for serious religious introspection. On the record’s boldest, most full-frontal grappling with the spiritual, indie-pop royalty meets its Maker, addressing complaints, doubts, and praises to Yahweh (or “Ya Hey,” according to the inverted Outkast song title). Concealed within Exodus’s burning bush, God refuses to reveal his identity or “name,” obscuring the cosmic plan “through the fire and through the flames.” Earth’s searching onlookers may be left schismatic and confused, but Vampire Weekend’s fusion of inspired chants and chipmunk crooning sees beyond vicious ironies and mortal “mistakes” in this 21st century open letter to the Creator.



Nick Torsell

 Album:  Disclosure - Settle

 I’ve been having trouble keeping up with the amount of great music coming out this year. Not because I haven’t been paying attention, but because it seems like every time a record takes hold of my mornings and nights, a new one knocks it from its place, clamoring for attention. The past two months have been unbelievably rewarding for me listening-wise, with three of my favorites releasing excellent additions to their catalogs. Boards of Canada, Daft Punk, and Kanye West, whose music has meant very different things at different points in my life but all had an enormous impact on me, all came through, and I’ll be digging through their newest records for years to come. 

 But my record of the year is from a group who more than lived up to my high expectations after following their steady stream of remixes and singles, Disclosure. Settle, the 22 and 18 year-old Lawrence Brothers’ debut record, is body music, joyful and confident in a way that finds a way into your subconscious, coloring the daily rhythm of your routine. Settle is crowd-pleasing in the best way, endlessly appealing and diverse and never once pulling back from the throttle.

Song:  Kanye West - "Blood on the Leaves"

 “Creative output, you know, is just pain. I’m going to be cliché for a minute and say that great art comes from pain.” That’s Kanye in his recent New York Times interview on how his mother’s passing has affected his music. His tracks have always had a tinge of melancholy starting from College Dropout, but there’s a startling shift starting at 808s And Heartbreak where Kanye turns American Gothic. “Blood On The Leaves” is Kanye at his lowest, but also his most triumphant, reigning in a massive TNGHT beat to his own image. When that first TNGHT sample comes in around the minute mark, it’s a chilling moment, the brassy drums boasting Kanye’s total release. It’s the best representation of Yeezus’ apocalyptic nightmare-scape, a long way from a pink polo and a backpack.
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Counterpoint: Kanye West - Yeezus


[Mike, ever the contrarian, had to get his two cents in about Yeezus after our review yesterday. Mac asked him why he wanted to do it and all he did was scream "BECAUSE NO ONE REVIEW SHOULD HAVE ALL THAT POWER"]

Regardless of your opinion of Kanye West's public persona, the rapper constantly backs it up with compelling music. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy sounds like a greatest hits collection upon re-listen and his previous output demonstrates that he is in almost full control of his vision, steering the discussion of himself and his work. What gets lost in the discussion of his ego though is the equal component of self-loathing and of shame and contempt that comes through on albums like My Beautiful Dark Twisted Family. Yes, West often boasts of how great he is, his prowess with women, etc., but it is always equally countered by statements like "Bitch, I'm a Monster" (to be fair, Rick Ross says it first but the sentiment is echoed throughout). It is hard to hear the anger behind his boasts and the tone of disgust that pervades his delivery without sensing an equally powerful superego behind all that id.

So, we have the ultimately abrubtly released Yeezus, an album very different from previous releases. Yeezus signals that despite being decidedly successful and on the brink of fatherhood, West is far from settled, far from content. And while this is not a party record, leaning towards the thorny and difficult, it is a sometimes unsettling journey through the often contradictory positions engendered by fame.

As I said, it is hard not to hear West's ego-drenched lyrics without hearing his anger-drenched delivery. Certainly you would expect someone eagerly awaiting his flaky pastry to be a little happier (that was a joke, voila!). If anything, this album is a culmination of West's emotional landscape from the beginning, the conflicted nature of his lyrics finally boiling over into anger and wounded ego that was evident as early Late Registration. On tracks like "Black Skinhead" and "New Slaves," West himself wrestles with this fundamental question of why shouldn't he be happy. Yet, in those same songs, West proves himself equally aware of the vicissitudes of American racism and his potential to be framed as a menace as long as he keeps bringing up points about private prisons and miscegenation no matter how successful he becomes. This album deals in contradiction and discordance.

What further makes Yeezus so compelling is its production, itself reflective of the lyrical content. West could not and should not repeat the style of his initial albums, sample laden and fun and still write these lyrics. And, to West's credit again, he is well aware of the current pop and electronic landscape, working with producers like Hudson Mohawke and sounding obviously influenced by groups like Death Grips. These songs may not contain a fun hook but, in a certain sense, we have ultimately exhausted any interesting potential that could be drawn from those kinds of songs. It is to West's credit that he seems equally capable of working in this new mode as he was on College Dropout and Late Registration. These beats (and they are definitely beats) are gritty and echo the lyrics quite well.

Yeezus is not perfect, if anything West appears too unfocused throughout and the material he is wrestling with never quite comes together coherently. "Blood on the Leaves" is especially indicative of this, the haunting sample from a song about lynching  not entirely matched by lyrics about a failing relationship. Yet, you have to admire West for his failings as for his successes because at each point they point to a deeply unsettled artist trying to honestly assess his situation.

Grade: A-


Michael Torsell
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Album Review: Kanye West - Yeezus


Just days ago, two equally awful things slipped out early and were ushered into this world where they will occupy our thoughts far, far longer than they should: the Kimye baby and Kanye’s new album, Yeezus. It’s unfair to place blame on either of these products; they are victims of irresponsibility, carelessness, and ego. Instead, blame the one responsible for producing both of them: Kanye West.

Kanye West is not “the Steve Jobs of internet, fashion and culture” as he claimed in a recent interview. He is also not a God, as he suggests several times in Yeezus. He is an asshole. And that’s okay, as long as he’s making great music. He can spend the rest of his life ruining Taylor Swift’s big moment and getting mad at people for not liking his skirts but as long as he keeps putting out albums as good as My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, I honestly don’t care. But when he puts out steaming, heaping piles of garbage like Yeezus, I feel like I have to say something.

The easy defense of this album is that he’s an artist and he’s experimenting and of course it’s going to sound different. So if you think it’s brilliant to sample a random bubblegum-pop song from the 1970’s while rapping “I wanna fuck you hard on the sink/After that, give you something to drink/Step back, can’t get spunk on the mink” as he does on the tenth track “Bound 2,” you will probably love this album. But I don’t, and it’s because of shit like this. “Bound 2” sounds like a mailed-in version of “Slow Jamz,” but what made “Slow Jamz” so great was the originality – sampling Luther Vandross with a fresh beat of his own was a great idea and it was produced very well. Jamie Foxx didn’t hurt, either. “Bound 2,” on the other hand, is not original at all: he doesn’t sample the song as much as rip it off, because there’s no other beat. So what we are left with is generic rapping (fucking, mink coats) over the chorus of a song that nobody has heard of or remembers. And because it’s Kanye, we are supposed to like it.

With Yeezus, he is trending away from good music towards seeing what he can get away with. I don’t know how else to explain this album. In “New Slaves,” the fourth track on the album, Kanye seems to be making the point that people like him used to not be allowed in certain stores, and now these same stores are encouraging people like him to come in so they can take advantage of him and his money. I don’t really disagree with the point, but I disagree with how he chose “I’d rather be a dick than a swallower” to be the bridge; if you are really trying to indict society and point out how much we all suck, at least wait until the next song to be a jackass again. When you couple that with the fact that the beat on “New Slaves” might have been made by a six year-old playing with Kidz Beatz or some shit on his iPad, you have a really awful song.

But as is bound to happen when you are stewing around in a steaming, heaping pile of garbage – which is how I’d describe the process of listening to Yeezus – you will try hard to find something pleasant about it. This may explain why I kind of like the 7th track “Blood on the Leaves.” It actually has a discernible beat and is not just an amalgamation of random sounds, like much of the rest of the album. It is also only slightly ruined by auto-tune, which I have to chalk up as a victory. The ninth track “Send it Up” and the opening track “On Sight” are also relatively good, and I suppose if someone twisted my arm enough I could get down with the second track, “Black Skinhead.” But a reminder: I’m trying to find something pleasant in a steaming, heaping pile of garbage.

In case there is any confusion, I don’t like this album. And unlike other albums that I don’t care for but can understand the appeal, I can’t understand the appeal here. Six out of the ten songs on Yeezus are remarkably bad, and the remaining four would be skipped over if they were on any of his previous albums; overall, it is a collection of terrible beats and insufferable lyrics and an example of when giving Kanye the green light to do whatever the fuck he wants goes horribly wrong.

Grade: D



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Straight Dope: May 20th


Straight Dope. The unvarnished truth. The true information. The full story.

You will find very little of that here.

 While somewhat less essential than hard facts about life, what you have instead discovered will surely become a vital part of your musical diet. This is hip hop, son. The best tracks released during the week, as decided by me, hand-picked and brought before you like breakfast in bed with almost zero beds (unless you’re in one) and absolutely no breakfast. Which is fine. You should be hungry for this, because so am I. I don’t mean motivated, either. I mean actually, physically hungry. I have two beers in my refrigerator and I can’t afford groceries. Send help.

 Let’s begin.
Kanye West - “Black Skinhead”


Busting out of the gate with a Yeezy video may not be the best way to establish credibility with a skeptical audience, yet here we are. Known primarily for saying outlandish shit to earn the ire of just about everyone, it’s true that his ego has been known to outshine the incredible amount of talent and general artistic ability he possesses. I know I’m not going to change any minds, Kanye West is the man who debuted his last new track via projector on 66 buildings all over the globe. You’re either into it at this point or you’re not.


If you are feeling it, "Black Skinhead" features an angry West getting his punk rock on in a leather jacket with quite a bit more screaming than you might be used to in the genre. It’s pretty stunning, and should hopefully reflect the tone of his new album rumored to drop 6/18. You might as well do yourself a favor and check out "New Slaves" while you’re at it.
If you aren’t feeling it, and would instead like some fuel for your hate furnace, here you go; he drops a LeBron James reference again, will be titling his new album Yeezus, and Ben Affleck intros the clip. Enjoy.




Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire feat. Goldie Glo - “Illest Niggaz Breathin’”


I don’t know if I’m posting this song because I actually like it or because it features a recurring Mortal Kombat sample that makes me want to uppercut everything in sight. Kismet, eXquire’s forthcoming mixtape, is due to be released in June after a delay of several months, and with it comes the promise of more brash, intelligent, poignant tracks.


Still, listening to Goldie open is a bit of a drag, and it’s nowhere near as good as Noble Drew Ali which eX threw at us two weeks ago. Give it a listen regardless, you’re probably at work or something and don’t have anything better to do.



 The Lonely Island - “Diaper Money”

Look, it was a slow week, and this happened. The Wack Album is also set for release in June, and I will only feel mild embarrassment when I greedily snatch it up. Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer are the rare joke rappers who actually have an understanding of what they’re playing with and a respect for the music that keeps them from ever seeming like they’re mocking it in more than a playful way. Plus, diaper money, man. It can’t all be high art.


DJ Reflex feat. Childish Gambino - “Body so Tight”

Okay, so you can definitely have sex to this. It’s up to you if you want to throw it down while Troy from Community spits at you, but sign me right up. Donald Glover has earned “must play” rights on any track with his name attached to it after releasing Camp in ‘11 and following it up with his mixtape Royalty last summer. Reflex, who I guess deserves some credit for putting the track together, gets a special mention for throwing together the right mix of sounds to perfectly recall the intro music to an X-Men game I used to play on the Sega Genesis.


See you next week.


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Listener's Digest: June 29 - July 5



Right now, you are probably slowly melting from the heat. Don't worry, they say slowly transitioning into a pile of goo is good for the skin, plus you can be more like Alex Mack, and who doesn't want that. I for one love the heat, rather I love sitting in this air conditioned room while I hear about how hot it is from the rest of you. However, I have to be as comfortable as possible because I am hard at work discovering new songs for you to listen to this weekend. You're welcome!

Woods - "Cali in a Cup:" Having left behind the low-fi sound of their earlier releases, this new track benefits from the enhanced recording quality. Aside from the change, this is a fairly standard Woods song, easy paced and catchy. This is the first single off Woods' forthcoming album, Bend Beyond,which is set to be released on September 18.
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DIANA - "Born Again:" A Toronto group whose roster includes members of Dan Bejar's Destroyer project,  "Born Again" echoes the smooth style of the most recent Destroyer LP. Mellow with female vocals winding over an atmospheric groove, this track is a great introduction.




Fang Island - "Seek It Out:" Fang Island specializes in stirring riff heavy songs sounding vaguely like the soundtrack to a game of Dungeons and Dragons taken to a fever pitch. That said, it is still good fun. "Seek It Out," is the newest song off their forthcoming album, Major, which will be released on July 24.




Blur - "Under the Westway:" Despite Damon Albarn's recent threats that Blur and Gorillaz were done (which would have been a serious bummer), Blur released a new song this week. "Under the Westway" is a strong return and hearkens back to some of their best work of the 90s'. A minimal, piano-driven lullaby that leaves me wishing they would release another album. It has been 9 years, please?


Kanye West  w/ Pusha-T - "New God Flow:" So, apparently everyone is putting Pusha-T on their track this Summer. You already heard the new The-Dream song, and now a new Kanye West track featuring the Clipse member. "New God Flow" is a ferocious song with both rappers in good form. The track can be streamed on Kanye West's website.

Michael Torsell

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Weekly Remix: Kanye West-Mercy (RL Grime & Salva Remix)

The original track for this week's remix is probably one of the hottest Hip-Hop songs in the world right now right now, topping the Billboard charts since it's release several weeks ago. New York and L.A. producers RL GRIME and SALVA have teamed up to bring this remix to the people. The original song is a trap bass anthem produced by Kanye West, Lifted, Mike Dean, and Mike Will with some of the instrumentation provided by Hudson Mohawke. This remixed version of the song is chopped up and twisted for the atmosphere of the dancefloor while still keeping some of the feel from the original. Below you'll find the video for the original, and the RL Grime and Salva remix.



james wild
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Picking Up the Slack for MTV: Kanye West


I've written about Kanye West's music videos before because if its one thing that man has its style. His music videos are always works of art. The most recent one is for his song "Lost in the Woods" featuring Bon Iver that came out on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy almost two years ago. The video is visual stunning with high impact shots in black and white of clouds, dancers, buildings and Mr. West himself. It was one of my favorite tracks off that album and the video is a great addition to the music. Enjoy



Katie Africano
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