Harajuku-Ken ?

Alright. Soo... on the Rundown, there's a video of "Nicki Minaj" as a man ( smh ]. Im a fan of Nicki, and i gotta admit that it sounds JUST like her, and the face is half-way convincing. But in the end, i dont think its her. You can judge that.



-Cheekz

Jay-Z Ft. Mr Hudson - Young Forever [video]

 

 

She Don't Know That We Goin'...

...Baack To The Crib!
Official Video is here.

Juelz Santana feat. Chris Brown
Back To The Crib
Born To Lose, Built To Win (The Reagan Era) (2010)
Produced by Polow The Don
Directed by Taj Lewis



Cameos by Lloyd Banks and Jim Jones.

New Music :: Live Bradshaw

We gotta full blown feature on Bradshaw coming soon, but this 'interview' is gonna have to do for now. The Harlem native speaks again, for the 2nd time in 7 days.

















The Interview

Live Bradshaw
Live Bradshaw Playground (2010)

The Element Of Perfection

The Element Of Freedom is going to be in stores tomorrow, Tuesday, December 15th. It is the 4th album from superstar R&B singer Alicia Keys, who has already made headlines in 2009 with her scene stealing hook on Jay-Z's worldwide #1 hit 'Empire State Of Mind'. Funny, a mere 4 albums and the word 'superstar' usually don't come together in the same sentence, but '3rd time's a charm never really applied to Ms. keys'. Her first album, Songs In A Minor drew critical acclaim from critics in all walks of life, and eventually went on to sell 12 milion copies. Her next two albums, Diary Of Alicia Keys, and As I Am (my personal favorite, until now) propelled Keys into legendary status and superstardom, earning her 7 Grammy awards and sold over 14 million copies, adding to the 5 Grammy she won with 'Songs In A Minor'. To put it frankly, Keys has performed at the highest level at every level in her career, and The Element Of Freedom is proof that she has no signs of stopping.

Almost an entire month before the album's release, Keys appeared on BET's 106 And Park, and said to Rocsi, "I want the album to take you on a natural high". Not surprisingly, she makes good on her word.

From the jump, with 'Love Is Blind', Keys uses a melody with traces of Kanye West's 'Say You Will', and a slow, tranquilizing drum pattern to open up the album. The two singles, 'Doesn't Mean Anything', and the classic, 'Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart' follow, and they are followed by 'Wait 'Till You See My Smile'. It's a song with almost a dazed feeling, one of love but also anticipation as she slowly but surely brings the energy of the song, which begins very slow and mellow.



The drums provided by her executive producer Kerry 'Krucial' Brothers and Swizz Beatz I believe are the story of this album. From the 808's sounding drums on 'Love Is Blind' to the pure bass-happy 'Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart' all the way to the superstar collaboration with Beyonce 'Put It In A Love Song'. Its a vibe that's been missing on Keys' previous three projects, and with the exception of a couple songs, these captivating, energetic and energizing drums are present on every track, providing an unusual (in a good way) vibe to the overall feel of Element Of Freedom.

If I had to point out one error Keys may have made on this album, its the 12th track on the album, 'Distance And Time'. The concept of the song is good: a relationship staggered by the distance between partners. However, its masked by those loud overused adlibs from 'Like You'll Never See You Again', and I personally think if she had to put it on the album it should've been somewhere near the beginning, rather than the end. After vibing to 'Put It In A Love Song', and the uptempo lover's anthem 'This Bed', 'Distance and Time' is like watching a drag-racer come to a complete and sudden stop.

'Un-thinkable (I'm Ready' shouldn't go without notice. The entire song was written and co-produced by Toronto superstar and now Grammy-award nominated rap artist Drake, and if you listen close enough you can hear some of his background vocals in between Alicia's lines. Furthermore, the highly anticipated 'Empire State of Mind Part II' closes out the album. While most fans were disappointed that the expected new verse from Jay-Z was cut out, Alicia still manages to create a masterful sequel to the country's number one song, avoiding both too much repetition and 'corniness'.

Four albums, and four classics from the New York City native. This is clearly becoming too easy for Keys. She should consider a career in rap maybe.



Alicia Keys
The Element Of Freedom LP (2009)
J Records













Best Songs: Love Is Blind, Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart, This Bed, Like The See, Wait 'Till You See Me Smile (etc) (Yes, I said etc)
Worst Song(s): Distance and Time (I'm sorry, I had to choose one).

Wowwww Moment: Put It In A Love Song, Un-thinkable (I'm Ready).

Overall Verdict: 5 out of 5 stars.

Return of the Lu

In the past few weeks, hip hop 'experts' and bloggers have been all abuzz about the greatest works of the industry in the past, and quickly closing decade. Kanye West's College Dropout, Jay-Z's Blueprint and 50 Cent's Get Rich Or Die Trying were all mentioned numerous times as the albums that changed the genre forever, and I was very disappointed to see neither Lupe Fiasco's Food And Liquor nor The Cool on any of the lists. Two hip-hop classics (in my opinion) put together by the Chicagoan native, Kanye West protege, and recipient of a Shawn Carter cosign, should be recognized and acknowledged in some sort of forum.

I'd like to think that its this bitterness and anger at not being acknowleged by the 'experts' that causes Fiasco's lyrical explosion on his most recent project - Enemy Of The State: A Love Story - because there's clearly a take-it-to-the-next-level vibe emanating from Fiasco with every spit bar, and every witty punchline. Lines like 'Domino-in n*ggas, delivery is Papa Johns. Little Ceasers uh, burnin' down your Pizza Huts. Plaque collection buildin' 'cuz, I don't brush my teeth enough', 'Said she was a Phantom I, knew she was New Jersey (Devil) she said that she was Anaheim (Angel)', and 'Made (maid) man, so you can call this cleaning up, OCD I never think its clean enough', make you realize that Fiasco is hip-hop's next ginormous thing.


















1. Intro
2. All The Way Turnt Up
3. Angels Remix
4. Fireman (Yoga Flame)
5. LASERS Manifesto
6. Say Somethin'
7. So Ghetto
8. Thank You
9. National Anthem
10. The One
11. Popular Demand

Best Track(s): Say Somethin', Thank You, All The Way Turnt Up, Fireman, The One.
Worst Track(s): Popular Demand (there's no real worst track on the mixtape, but, I had to pick one)

Wowwwww Moment: Say Somethin'

Say Somethin'

Lupe Fiasco
Enemy Of The State: A Love Story

Official Video :: 50 Cent x Governor

Despite the lowest first week sales figures of his illustrious career, the G-Unit frontman plows ahead and drops the 3rd video from Before I Selt Destruct.

50 Cent feat. Governor
Do You Think About Me
Before I Self Destrcut (2009)
Produced by Rockwilder
Directed by Chris Robinson



Cameo appearances by Vivica A. Fox, Tahiry and Tamala Jones.

Official Video :: Lupe Fiasco

Lupe drops a video (in collaboration with 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon') for his newest single off of the movie's soundtrack: Solar Midnite.

Lupe Fiasco
Solar Midnite
New Moon Soundtrack/Lasers

We Are, Yeah I Said It We Are...

The long awaited, somewhat highly-anticipated Young Money family debut album will be here on the 21st.

Young Money
We Are Young Money
Young Money Entertainment/Cash Money Records/Universal Records (2009)
















1. Gooder
2. Every Girl
3. Ms. Parker
4. Wife Beater
5. New Shit
6. Pass The Dutch
7. Play In My Band
8. Fuck The Bullshit (feat. Birdman)
9. Bedrock (feat. Lloyd)
10. Girl I Got You
11. Steady Mobbin (feat. Gucci Mane)
12. Roger That
13. She Is Gone (feat. Pleasure P)
14. Streets Is Watchin
15. Finale

Production confirmed from Tha Bizness, Kane Beatz, Chase N. Cashe among others.

New Music :: Lupe Fiasco x Trey Songz

Fresh off the hardest mixtape this side of So Far Gone, Lupe gets into the studio with the self proclaimed 'Panty Droppa' Trey Songz for a leak, rumored to be on Fiasco's upcoming Lasers album.

















Blackout

Lupe Fiasco featuring Trey Songz
Lasers (2010)

New Music :: Wale

Fresh off a critically-acclaimed debut album (Attention Deficit), Wale gets back in the studio to take a whack at the Timbo instrumental, that was most recently conquered by both Drake and Lupe Fiasco.



Say Something (Freestyle)

Wale

Rated ?

Anybody who knows me (Kay speaking) knows that I'm not a Rihanna fan. I've grown to be less and less of a fan of her music since she was a good girl 'gone bad' in 2007, and grown even less attracted to her appearance as it changed with the years. So, when someone gave me the idea to review Chris' album and her album back to back, I scoffed at it. But, as a fan of music and the industry itself, I couldn't help but be intrigued by just what Rihanna would sound like on the most important album of her career (Rated R). So I got a playlist together on Imeem, and let it run through, twice. So I'll talk my shit now.

The album, in and of itself is a pop record. Let's se the record straight with that. It tells a story, and Rihanna's will to format the album in story mode almost ruins the entire thing. She begins the album very confused as to whether she'd like to set a rock/pop/r&b theme, and it shows in the annoying, monotonous first full track of the album, 'Wait Your Turn', which sounds more like an extended commercial promoting the release of her album. The hook saves it from being an epic fail. However, moving on, we get to 'Hard', the second single off the album, featuring Atlanta-bred rapper Young Jeezy. Unlike 'Wait Your Turn', the beat doesn't outshine her, and the song turns out to be pretty good. However, considering the overall theme of the album, and the title of this song specifically, you'd expect her to come much harder than she did on the chorus. This represents a repeated theme throughout the entire album, for the most part, in spots where we expected Rihanna to come full force, her angry and insane alter-ego of sorts fails to fully show up.

However, don't let this slight error take away from the album itself.



Rihanna plows on through a rocky introduction to put forth a few extremely high-quality tracks. Beginning with 'Rockstar 101', that, from the title alone, had the potential to be very bad, actually outshines a lot of the other songs. A tantalizing beat, coupled with a stadium-status chorus begins a very nice stretch of music on 'Rated R'. 'Fire Bomb', my personal favorite song on the album, is where we start to see Rihanna break away from that rocky, unsureness she made you feel on the beginning 3 tracks of the album, and you start to feel that libearation I'm sure she was aiming for. Of course 'Russian Roulette', the critically-acclaimed first single makes for a nice, mysterious, thoughtful interlude, and Rhi's ballad continues shortly after.

Moving away from the liberating feeling of 'Fire Bomb', 'Russian Roulette', and 'Rude Boy', Rihanna begins to let the sadness set in with 'Photographs', another standout record, this time pairing up with Black Eyed Peas frontman Will.I.Am. It's a song about losing love (*sneezes* Chris *sneezes*) and having nothing but photographs to remind her of the times she had. 'G4L' is bananas, frankly. Its a great record, probably the angriest one on the album, where Rihanna promises to stick by her 'bitch', and she's ready for any 'motherfucker' who tries to get crazy. I like the vibe, its something different, and the sound is crazy.

After 'G4L', we find Rihanna lamenting about the sad emotions she'd felt over the past few months. Songs like 'Te Amo', and 'Cold Case Love' are clear indicators that sadness is something she deals with on a daily basis. Finishing out the album nicely with 'The Last Song' (how ironic), Rihanna completes a musical journey of her past 10 months, with surprising effeciveness and vigor, something that's actually missing from her ex-boyfriend's newest record.

Overall, Rihanna manages to overcome a couple false starts to create one of the better records of the year. I don't think it should stop there. Nothing like this has been released with this much emotion and grat production for a long time, it reminds me a lot of Kanye West's 808's And Heartbreaks album. Not for the sound, but for the emotion and feeling in everything from the choruses to every sung verse, it really is one for the ages. The beaten and battered girl, both emotionally and physically, somehow escapes from the reigns holding her back, and creates as close to an epic masterpiece as she, and just about anyone else making pop records, has ever come.


Rated R LP
Rihanna
Def Jam, 2009

Best Song(s): Photographs, Rockstar 101, Russian Roulette, Fire Bomb, G4L, The Last Song.
Worst Song(s): Wait Your Turn
Wowwww Moment: G4L

Verdict: 4.5 out of 5 stars.

New Music :: Live Bradshaw

The Harlem native gives the people some of what they want with a leak from his upcoming debut project, Live Bradshaw Playground.

We care, apparently he doesn't.



I Don't Even Care

Live Bradshaw
Live Bradshaw Playground (2010)

Chris Breezes Back Onto The Scene

Okay so, 2009 is probably a year Chris Brown would like to forget. No need to get into detail about the whole domestic violence saga that transpired around Grammy time, we already posted that (Search in February). No need to talk about the record companies' greedy plot to drop Rihanna and Chris Brown's comeback albums in nearly back to back weeks to spark controversy and eventually boost sales. Let's just talk about Chris Brown's album itself, frankly because, there's a lot to talk about.



We all know about the first single, 'I Can Transform Ya' where Chris makes full use of his platinum-selling talents (singing/dancing) alongside legendary beatsmith Swizz Beatz, and Young Money frontman Lil' Wayne. While in a lot of ways the song could have been improved, its hard to go wrong with that combination, and the album only goes up from there. 'Sing Like Me', 'Crawl', and 'So Cold' put his singing talents on display nicely, while 'What I Do', which brings the 'goon' Plies digs into Brown's southern roots. Usually a combination like this makes for an epic fail, but The Runners' instrumental works to both Brown's and Plies strenghts. The thing about the album is, its more of the same Chris Brown.

If I can, I can look to the difference in the 'Trey Day' Trey Songz and the 'Ready' Trey Songz. A whole world of difference. The 'Exclusive' Chris Brown, and the 'Grafitti' Chris Brown, aside from the need to shave, is the same. Now, of course, I'm not saying that he needs to switch his style up, its a very unique and amazing sound, that he will always be remembered for. But, I believe he can maintain that sound, and still take it to the next level, not just with his creativity, but with his song content. While 'What I Do' is a great song, I don't doubt a large majority of his fans are tired of hearing it. The rest of the album does the hype justice.

Tha Bizness submitted a very disappointing instrumental for the 'Take My Time' duet with Tank, which could've been a huge record, considering it was formatted to be a Take You Down Part II of sorts, and I.Y.A should've been missing from the entire album. I think there's something to the fact that the album ended with three solo pieces, almost to show just how good Brown could be by himself, and he makes his point. Two of the most talked about artists in the industry (Trey Songz and The Game), alongside producer Polow Tha Don make 'Wait' one of the standout records, but Eva Simmons should have watched 'Pass Out' from the bleachers. Her verse sounds more like an elevator music-like intermission than a guest appearance.

Overall, the many ups and downs on the record make me want to give it a 3.5, but it closes out very nicely, and the production is phenomenal, minus the 'Take My Time' disappointment, so I'll give it 4. I'm sure you were expecting to see me analyze all the different places he references the Rihanna situation (So Cold, Famous Girl, Crawl, shit, half the album) but I'll save that for you to figure out. Rihanna's review is coming later today, look for that. Also, a comparison of the two albums is somewhat in the works, and then I'll call it a day for the rest of the year for these two. Lot's of music to catch up on (new albums from Gucci Mane, The Clipse not to mention Alicia Keys on Tuesday) and Lupe Fiasco's mixtape, which has quickly reached legendary status. KPS is ummm, back. =]



Grafitti LP. (2009)
Chris Brown
Zomba Music/Jive Records
Single(s): I Can Transform Ya (feat. Lil' Wayne, Swizz Beatz), Crawl.

Best Song(s): Crawl, Sing Like Me, So Cold, Lucky Me, Wait, Famous Girl
Worst Song(s): Pass Out, Girlfriend. (The girlfriend lyrics were great, beat sucked).

Wowwww Moment: Crawl, Wait.

Verdict: 4 out of 5 Stars.

Suav3.