35 minute music video movie thingamajig. i haven’t watched it in it’s entirety yet, but i’m actually excited to, which is interesting. Would I be interested if a different artist did something similar? It’s a pretty cool concept. Perhaps if artists made enough money to put something like this together, it would bring back the concept of an album rather than the single. I suppose I’m unique, but i’d gladly sit at my computer and watch/listen to an entire album as long as it was entertaining footage and great music.
Only Kanye west can be ballsy enough to name an album “Good Ass Job”, and of course, he is naming his upcoming album just that. He’s also the only one ballsy enough to have the cover of his first single be a painting of Kanye “king of the world” West’s head chopped off with a sword stabbed through it.
The art is better than the music, but the music ain’t too bad. At least he is back to rapping again. No more of that weird autotune stuff.
I discovered William Fitzsimmons a while back, actually in the same weird way that I had discovered Ray Lamontagne a million years ago. Ray had sung a super cool cover of Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy and afterwards I ended up buying his first album and falling in love. Well William did a super cool cover of Kanye’s Heartless and now I can’t stop listening to him when I need to chill. He has to be one of the most mellow artists out there and his music just puts me in that perfect meditative mood, even if some of the songs can be a bit dark.
According to Fitzsimmons bio, he is the son of two blind parents and grew up in an auditory house where music was at the forefront. I can’t even begin to imagine how it is to grow up with two blind parents, but its to make sense that it would lead you to make beautiful, nuanced music. Nothing outrageous. Just music that pulls you in and forces you to pay attention.
I highly suggest downloading his performance from Daytrotter and I’ve also included his cover of Heartless here as well as a cover of James Taylor’s You Can Close Your Eyes that is simply the perfect song to fall asleep to.
William Fitzsimmons – Heartless (Kanye West cover)
William Fitzsimmons – You Can Close Your Eyes (James Taylor)
and just for kicks…
Ray Lamongtagne – Crazy (Gnarls Barkley)
It’s been an interesting decade and I think its pretty clear that hiphop had the greatest impact on top 40 radio in the past 10 years. It’s changed a lot though. It’s not a format that has been around for very long and it quickly changed in the 00′s from being something “from the streets” to being something from the studio. There is no more NWA. It moved slowly from music about a simple beat and a message (whether thats a message you enjoy or not) to being music made for the club and for pop music stations. So, let’s look at a few of the hit songs from the past decade.
Eminem released his masterpiece, The Marshall Mather’s LP in mid 2000. To this day, Eminem still places more emphasis on his lyrics and his rap rhythm than on dance beats. He probably has the most recognizable voice in the rap industry, or at least top 5, and it’s simply a joy to listen to him rhyme over a simple beat.
Eminem – Stan (released in May 2000)
In 2001, Jay Z released one of his greatest albums, an album that spawned two sequels. The Blueprint. While this record definitely had club hits on it, it was still a lyrical album. But the hooks were clearly becoming more about dancing than rapping.
Jay Z – Izzo (H.O.V.A) (released September 11, 2001)
Now let’s jump ahead a couple of years. This isn’t a rap record, but it is HipHop. Usher dominated the airwaves in 2004 with help from the incessant shouting from Lil John on his track “Yeah.” This song was inescapable. I’m surprised it ever wore out. This song is for ladies in the clubs, frat guys on a house boat and everything in between.
Usher (feat Lil John and Ludacris) – Yeah (released in 2004)
To save us, slightly, in 2004, was the man who would eventually become inescapable…Kanye West. He debuted with an album completely different from the one that will be mentioned further down this list. It was lyrical, it was fresh, it was awesome.
Kanye West – Jesus Walks (From ‘College Dropout’ released in 2004)
In 2005, this happened.
Black Eyed Peas – My Humps (from “Monkey Business”, 4th best selling album of 2005)
In 2007, T-Pain created a phenomenon that would continue until today. He used autotune to help him sing. And we all thought it sounded pretty damned cool.
T-Pain feat Justin Timberlake – Can’t Believe It (remix)
2008. The year where T-Pain continued to dominate the world with the autotune concept, but through a zillion other hip hoppers. The radio was dominated by two men. Kanye West, back with his 808′s and some heartbreak, and a little man with as many baby mama’s as he has tattoos, Lil Wayne. They did two different things really. Wayne is a lyrical rapper (though he is on a zillion dance tracks as well) and Kanye is just weird.
Lil Wayne feat Jay-Z – Mr. Carter (August 2008)
Kanye West – Amazing (November 2008)
And of course, one of the top tracks right now on iTunes, a cool sample, super hot production and autotuned average singing by Jason Derulo. What a combo!
first Weezy shows up on the latest Weezer record and now Yeezy shows up on the upcoming 30 Seconds to Mars album. But of course, Kanyizzle is too cool to actually try rapping on the record, instead he just gay fishes it up with some 808′s style autotune “singing”. I’ll admit, I think its kind of a cool song, though a bit long at over 6 minutes. Sometimes i’m a sucker for the overproduced monstrocities that bands like 30 Seconds to Mars create and combined with the overblown ego of Kanye, its a nice match.
Kanye West really is an asshole. That’s why he got made fun of for 22 minutes on South Park a couple years ago. Way to go Kanye, you are still just a gay fish. Taylor not only has more class than you at such a young age, but she outsells you. You want to make a comment? Do it by putting out an album as good as Taylor’s, not by “standing up” for your favorite video.
i dont really have a hip hop wednesday theme, but why can’t today be hip hop wednesday anyhow? it’s my fucking blog. i can write whatever i want. and since i now am the proud owner of white patent leather sneakers with an image of Soulja Boy Tellem on the soul (thanks LF!) i think i should be blogging about more hip hop music. especially mix tape shit from the streeets.
ok, so this track is actually about to blow up huge and isnt really from the streets anymore. i think its going to be on the More Than A Game soundtrack. If you don’t know, thats the movie about Lebron James’ high school basketball team. It also stars 4 other starting players who you’ve never heard of, but it looks like they get equal screen time, thats nice of the director. I guess that’s kind of like this song. It has Drake on it, it has Kanye on it, it has Lil Wayne on it, and while I guess you’ve heard of those guys, per his usual, Mr. Mathers aka Eminem completely destroys everyone else on this track. Clearly Em still has skills, so why did his solo album kinda blow? I don’t think he should be allowed to ever make a song alone again because clearly he only blows shit up when he competes with others.
Hip Hop it.
Drake feat Kanye West, Lil Wayne and Eminem – Forever
My absolute favorite of the twitter hashtags is #musicmonday. It’s the day when I can link people to music, praise a new album or bash a new single for no reason other than the fact that it is monday. And now that I have a blog, I can post songs right here!!!! Holy smokes!! This is fantastic!! Woweeeee!!!!
So for my first #musicmonday post, I’m just putting up some pop songs i’ve been digging lately since there is no better way to start the work week than with some dancing.
K-Os – “I Wish I Knew Nathalie Portman” Great song that incorporates “California” by Phantom Planet.
R. Kelly – “I’m A Flirt” Cool version of this song that he does along with T-Pain and is backed with music from Broken Social Scene
Mr. Hudson feat Kanye West – “Anyone But Him”
Little Boots – “The Remedy” Fun dance song, surprising she isn’t a super star yet.
