Ricky Hil joins Jay-Z, Kanye West and multiple others in doing the ‘God’ thing on his latest leak.
Juicy J Reveals Producers On ‘Stay Trippy’
Producers on my album: juicyj,mike will, lex Luger, young chop ,crazy mike, dr Luke ,baby e,Timbland ,Edan ,danny boy theweeknd, & more
— juicy j (@therealjuicyj) July 6, 2013
It looks as if we might have our sights on when Stay Trippy is being released (he says sometime in August). In additional, Juicy J tweeted the production (aside from his own) that will be on the album.
#StayTrippy drops in aug I'll let you know the day next week,soo Imma finish up this bottle & go to bed Charlotte NC tomm we gettin weird
— juicy j (@therealjuicyj) July 6, 2013
Maxwell Performs At 2013 Essence Music Festival
Maxwell performs ‘This Woman’s Work’ and ‘Fortunate’ at this year’s Essence Music Festival In New Orleans.
Faith Evans & Kelly Price Perform At 2013 Essence Music Festival
Courtesy of Anthony Antoine TV:
Essence Music Festival 2013 heats all the way up with Faith Evans LIVE in the Coca-Cola Lounge. The song I most wanted to hear of Faith Evans set (outside of Waiting to Exhale’s “Kissing You”) was the classic jam “Soon As I Get Home.” Instead of taping, I simply enjoyed UNTIL Faith brings out Kelly Price to jam along. Faith’s set was brilliant and included many of her hits from “You Gets No Love,” “Love Like This” “Never Let You Go,” “Caramel Kisses,” “So Emotional” and more.
A Drunk Rihanna Reportedly Escorted Out Of Festival In Poland (Video)
The above footage was recorded by a fan at the Heineken Open’er Festival in Gdynia, Poland a couple days ago.
Just goes to show: you can party all day and night, but you never try to out-drink the Europeans.
Mikky Ekko – Kids (Video)
New visual from Louisiana artist Mikky Ekko for ‘Kids’, produced by Benny Blanco, John Hill and Dimitri Tikovoi.
Jin Jin & The Ragdolls – Fire Me Up
New Jin Jin & the Ragdolls, premiered courtesy of Mistajam on 1Xtra.
Hit-Boy – New Chains (Video)
Hit-Boy flips Kanye’s record ‘New Slaves’ and creates a new track called ‘New Chains (James Somersett)’. It was only right to get some chicks to shoot the visual for the new record.
@EllieGoulding – Burn (Video)
We just posted the song and now we get the video. I assume that Ellie Goulding is working on a forthcoming new album as we speak.
Mario Feat. Nicki Minaj – Something Else (Video)
Check out the latest visual from Mario for ‘Something Else’ featuring Nicki Minaj. Restoration is on the way.
Ellen Grossman Reviews Jay-Z’s ‘Magna Carta… Holy Grail’
Get More:
Jay-Z, Music News
The woman on the train that met Jay-Z on his way to the Barclays Center got to visit MTV and review Hov’s new album.
By the way, we reviewed it as well.
Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) Force Fed Under Standard Guantánamo Bay Procedure
From The Guardian:
As Ramadan begins, more than 100 hunger-strikers in Guantánamo Bay continue their protest. More than 40 of them are being force-fed. A leaked document sets out the military instructions, or standard operating procedure, for force-feeding detainees. In this four-minute film made by Human Rights organisation Reprieve and Bafta award-winning director Asif Kapadia, US actor and rapper Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def), experiences the procedure.
IN THE STUDIO: Andre 3000 & Mike Will Made It
It’s almost a waste of time to watch this off the fact that you don’t even hear any music. Definitely looking forward to a final product of some sort.
Jesse Rose Feat. Arama – Time Is But A Moment
Play it Down’s latest — number 7 in the 12×12 series — released 12th July.
P-Wild (@Pwild_sbsb) – #Wildout (Artwork)
P-Wild reveals the artwork for his upcoming project, #Wildout, which is set to drop on Saturday. New Slutty Boyz tape coming this Fall.
ALBUM REVIEW: Jay-Z – Magna Carta… Holy Grail
ALBUM REVIEW: Jay-Z – Magna Carta… Holy Grail
★★★☆☆
Despite the wildly left-field moves that Kanye West made to promote his album Yeezus, leave it to none other than Jay-Z himself to take it a step further by selling approximately 1 million copies of Magna Carta… Holy Grail well before it’s release date. All you needed was a Samsung Galaxy phone, and you were able to collect lyrics and check out in-the-studio adverts (complete with Hov, Timbaland, Pharrell and Rick Rubin laid out on a couch) before you could download the album for free.
I’m not even going to speak on how he outshined the actual Magna Carta in England, either.
What makes this review interesting are those lyrics; this is because when you read them, you saw a lot of the depth in some of his songs — particularly ones like ‘Jay-Z Blue’ and ‘La Familia’ for example — and the news headlines caught on to the fact that he was spilling his heart on a lot of personal issues concerning his family, fellow industry peers and even his new sports agent business. For me, it was further confirmation that this was about to be one of the greatest albums I’d ever heard.
And then it came out and we listened in its entirety.
One thing is for sure on Magna Carta; Timberland isn’t just back, this guy is even better than ever. Even with the other producers’ contributions to the project, you knew that Timbaland had his hands all over it, and it was probably the best decision Jay-Z could’ve made on the album. But we’ll get back to the production in a moment.
The biggest problem here, which is a surprise, is Jay-Z’s lyricism. It’s easily the most minimalist raps we’ve ever heard from the greatest emcee of all time this side of ‘Girl’s Best Friend‘. There’s no doubt that gems are on here, with lines like…
“When I was talking Instagram/Last thing you wanted was your picture snapped”
or…
“Can’t take this money with you/Burn this shit up like I’m Richard/Niggas asking/Is the oven on”
…but for the most part, Hov is basically conversing to his listener in the simplest way possible. While folks like Evidence, Prodigy and even Tabi Bonney can get away with this style, it’s not what I want to hear from Jay-Z.
As I said before, the production is damn impressive thanks to the overseeing of Timbaland (special kudos goes to Mike Will for ‘Beach Is Better’ and 16-year-old Wondagurl — with Travis Scott — for ‘Crown’)….hell, ‘Tom Ford’ could potentially be the greatest club anthem/trendsetter this year…
…and then there’s ‘BBC’.
It says that both Pharrell and Timbaland produced this, but it’s obviously more of Pharrell’s sound, and it’s terrible. It sounds like the type of beat he would have given Jay-Z during his Roc La Familia era, and after that missile that he gave Kendrick Lamar for good kid, m.A.A.d City, I’m floored as to why this was chosen for a song that also featured — in addition to Jay-Z, Timbaland and Pharrell — Nas, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake & Swizz Beatz.
So, to sum it up: Magna Carta… Holy Grail is a cool album with sick production from Timbaland & Co. and minimalist raps from Jay-Z (that sometimes do get personal enough to enjoy). That’s about it.
PURCHASE: Jay-Z – Magna Carta… Holy Grail
Beyoncé – Part II: On The Run (Solo Version)
We’ve all heard ‘Part II: On The Run’ on Jay-Z’s album (which is the sequel to Jay-Z’s ’03 Bonnie & Clyde’), and now Beyonce returns with her solo version of the song.
Capital STEEZ – King Steelo
Some jazzy, unreleased Capital STEEZ, released by Joey Bada$$ on what would have been STEEZ’s 20th birthday. I still think he was the best out of that group, RIP.
Adam Kanyama (@adamkanyama) – På Riktigt (Video)
Swedish Hip-Hop in the form of ‘På Riktigt’ (‘The Real Deal’), courtesy of rising star Adam Kanyama.
Epidemic – Somethin’ For Tha Listeners (Album)
Epidemic’s junior release “Somethin’ For Tha Listeners” brings to light yet another dimension of the duo’s creative abilities. With soundscapes profoundly reminiscent of one of Hip-hop’s most esteemed eras (the 90’s), the two MC’s move away from their traditionally abstract and complex concepts, into more concrete, down to earth, and real world themes. Keeping their trademark multi-syllabic, rapid fire style of rap, this time around they chose beats with fairly slower tempos to ensure that their messages were clearly understood. All tracks on the album were mindfully crafted by a virtually unknown yet highly talented west coast beatsmith who goes by the name of Esco. Bringing to the table an authentic golden era sound, as well as adding a touch of west coast flavor, he provides a perfect musical backdrop for Epidemic to drop some of their slickest, most heartfelt, and witty rhymes to date. Somethin’ For Tha Listeners was constructed to be played throughout without the skipping of any tracks. All songs fit like integral parts of a puzzle to create one of the smoothest listening experiences in Hip-hop since the 90’s. Whether you’re kicking back with some headphones on, driving in a car, or listening at home with your system bumping, this album promises to take you to another time and place with its smooth boom-bap production, peppered with grain and vinyl static, while stimulating your brain’s left hemisphere with intellectual, content-heavy rhymes. The album includes a fan favorite bonus track titled “Nothin’ Matters” produced by affiliate B.B.Z. Darney as well as DJ cuts on most tracks by DJ Tha Boss, and scratches on “One Life” by Dixie.
Peven Everett – I Can Be Your Boyfriend
Peven Everett’s King Of Hearts is available now.
King of Hearts is the highly anticipated new album from Peven Everett who returns with a bang! Instrumentalist, prolific lyricist and heatbreak extraordinaire. This album is fully armed with a sparkling set of super smooth and sizzling love songs. Once again showing us his unique ability of seamlessly floating across all genres from RnB, Power Soul, Funk, Rap and Soulful Vocal House.
Itch (@itchsspeeches) – Best Shot (Video)
The official music video for Itch’s new UK single ‘Best Shot’ (available for preorder here).