Drake - Thank Me Later (Album Review)...

Drake’s upcoming album, titled “Thank Me Later” is one of the most highly anticipated albums of the year. I am very interested in seeing how it will do as he has to be one of the most hyped artists in a long time. He has had a huge buzz for so long now its insane. I always thought he should have released it long ago when 'Best I Ever' had was the only song on the radio. His earlier mixtape 'So Far Gone' was good enough to be an album and so were his other mixtapes..but he took his time and put out a pretty good album.

I will admit that on my first listen I wasn't overly impressed with the album. But I was DEAD tired that day and half asleep on the bus, so I didn't give it a really good listen. Having listened to it over and over I do really like it, and there aren't loads and loads of songs I skip when listening to it. Thats always a good sign, as an album with 3-4 good songs, is never great.

Feature wise, he came strong *pause* with his choices, Alicia Keys, Jay, Swizz Beatz, The-Dream, Jeezy and label mates Nicki Minaj and Weezy. Jay-Z (as much as I hate the guy) smashed it on there track 'Light Up' the Nicki Minaj track is fire, infact all the collabs were crazy.

If you heard any of Drakes mixtapes before, its much of the same format, some rapping, some of his singing, he must be using autotune, but its not crazy robot sounding stuff, just sounds good. He has loads of nice punch lines, loads I will be quoting on facebook, no doubt about that.

The subject matters vary from girls, to money, to him coming up in the game. Not many meaningful tracks on the album, nothing truly moving which you sometimes get on a new artists sophomore album. But he is more of a 'swag' based rapper lol..rather then a deep guy like Lupe, or B.o.B. He's already rich and a star. BUT still I'm feeling it.

My fav song on the album right now is his new single 'Find Your Love' which isn't rap at all.

The album has sooo many songs that can be singles I think we well be hearing Drake songs on the radio for a very long time.

Album Rating: 8.5/10

01. Fireworks (ft. Alicia Keys)
02. Karaoke
03. The Resistance
04. Over
05. Show Me a Good Time
06. Up All Night (ft. Nicki Minaj)
07. Fancy (ft. Swizz Beatz & T.I.)
08. Shut It Down (ft. The-Dream)
09. Unforgettable (ft. Young Jeezy)
10. Light Up (ft. Jay-Z)
11. Miss Me (ft. Lil Wayne)
12. Cece’s Interlude
13. Find Your Love
14. Thank Me Now

NEW Usher Album..My Thoughts...hmmm....

So the Usher album (Usher vs Usher Raymond) leaked recently...sucks for the dude, no doubt he will be pissed. I really don't know how they haven't tightened up the security with music releases yet. Every single album seems to be leaked a week or more ahead of schedule. But lately its been months ahead sometimes, the usher album was supposed to come out in early Feb, but leaked early Jan. The 50 album got leaked a month before also, then there was Weezy's Rebirth album that leaked a nice 2 months before..OUCH!

Anywho whats done is done, for his sake I hope music buyers will still purchase it when its officially released. So I did get it today and gave it a listen (don't worry I will cop officially) and its a mixed bag. Befoe I get more into it I have to say that this is not the retail copy, so for all I know some or none of the songs will be on the album, but I am pretty sure most will.

So I loaded it on my ipod this morning and gave it a listen on the way to work. My journey is a nice hour long, so I got through just over half of the 20 song album. 5 somgs deep I had to make this FB status update:

Just wasn't feeling it from the start, to many songs seemed like throw away songs. BUT!! as I got further in things picked up and I heard some heat. He seems to have jumped on the lil dance music bandwagon and has 2 or 3 dance kinda songs.

Seems to have changed his style up a lil bit..seems to be kinda rapping a lil on some tracks, using crazy metaphors and all sorts. Talks alot about looking for the right lady, since his divorce it was bound to be a big topic. Also touches on him steal being the man in RnB..to 'misquote a line' he says something about how everyone goes on like they are rich and he is still spending money from confessions.

All in all, from the version of the album I have, it should have been about 12-13 songs long and it would have been better then the current product. Maybe thats how it will be.

KiD CuDi - Man On The Moon = ALBUM OF THE YEAR!!!

As the title of this blog post says, this is my fav album this year. There have been a few I have really liked like Asher's 'Asleep in the Bread Aisle and Em's Relapse, but I am just loving Cudi's album. I am surprised I love it so much as for the longest time I just couldn't see what the big deal was with this guy. Day n Nite was cool, but after that I was like meh nothing else going on.

Then I went to the Wireless festival where he performed and I was like WOW he is awesome. So I checked out his mixtapes again and for some reason it just clicked and I was really feeling him *pause*.

So I was really looking forward to the album and now having it many plays through, I bloody love it. You know an album is good when you very rarely press the skip button.

In My Dreams, Soundtrack 2 My Life, Simple As.., Solo Dolo, Heart Of A Lion, My World, Day N Nite, Sky Might Fall, Enter Galatic, Alive, CuDi Zone, Make Her Say, Pursuit of Happiness, Hyyerr...If you didn't know or realise these are the names of his songs, this is 14 out of 15 and these are the one's I like. The last song on the album is ok, but I am just not a huge fan of it. But 14 out of 15 isn't bad at all is it?

It's a very different album to whats out at the moment, he has this monotone singing style then he raps, his subject matters are different to everyone's. It's an album in the vain of a 808's and Heartbreaks or Andre 3000's The Love Below...it's rap but its kinda not rap, i's just different but awesome lol.

To wrap it up, defo worth a purchase, if you liked his singles so far you will love the album. Fav songs on the album are Alive and Pursuit of happiness...




Rating: 9/10

Master Shortie - A.D.H.D Album Review...

If you haven't heard of Master Shortie he is a South London rapper (bit of singing also) who is sort of on the same kick as your Dizzee Rascals, Chipmunks and Tinchy Stryders. I remember seeing his video for his song Dead End in 08 and thought this is pretty darn catchy, I think he will do ok, and maybe a year or less later here he is with his debut album.

Now I wouldn't call him a serious rapper or a hardcore rapper, as he raps about bapes, rope chains, skinny jeans, groupies etc etc, which is cool, things he is into (me to also, which is why i dig the album) and he doesn't really rap with a complex style or anything but its entertaining and easily listening. If I was to diss anything I would say he recycles subject matters and lyrics a little to much, more variety would have been good.

What I like about the album is its much different to all the uk hip hop you hear right now, you don't hear any rappers rapping about wearing skinny jeans or them rocking boat shoes in there videos, he has to be the most non-threatening rapper out. he has alot of 80's influnce on his album...e.g. when he breaks into Prince Charming by Adam and the Ants in his song 'Nothing To Be Scared Of'

My fav songs on the album are Under the Moon, Bring It Back, London Town, Groupie Love, Right Time and Dead End.

Anywho to sum it up I think its a pretty decent album, a few songs seem to be filler, there are enough songs on it I like for me to listen to again. At least 4 will go in my new playlist. Lyrics wise it's nothing mind blowing or amazing, but I don't think he is out to come off that way. While some of the subject matters are recycled on his songs, I like the stuff he is talking about and I can relate more then a gun toting rapper.

Raing 7.5/10

Please pardon my Chester French but FUCK me there Awesome...

So last night me and my mate Sam went to see Chester French at 'The Old Blue Last' in Shoreditch...walking to the venue I didn't really know what to expect, didn't know if it was huge, tiny or what...we get there and it was a cool little pub with the sort of stage area above it...

Due to the whole train strike we got there fairly early, around 7ish and went to the bar and the guy said it should be starting around 8.30, what we didn't know is Chester French were gonna come on at 9.45 lol...so we had a nice lil wait there in the pub...at first I was a lil worried at how empty it was, but I guess everyone else got the memo it wasn't really starting till later lol...safter 25 mins of being in there I realised D.A from Chester French was sitting pretty much 2 meters away from me lol...anywho it eventually filled up and it was cool...

So it gets to 9.45 we head up there and not only was i surprised at the size as it seemed to be even smaller then downstairs, but they were playing some awesome RnB tunes, some classic Usher, Ne-Yo and Ginuwine, it just seemed so random for an Indie band but I wasn't complaining as I love that stuff...














Anywho about the show, FUCKING AWESOME, I hate when I see someone live and I wish to hear the album version, this was just great, they sounded so good live and the band were great...they started out with there bangers 'She Loves Everybody' and 'Jimmy Choo's' which surprised me as you expect that to be there closers, but it was awesome and got me hyped straight away...

Here are some vids from the gig...









Overall a very awesome show, they said they might be back June 20th, I will be there again for sho...

Album Review Time...

Decided to do a lil album review on some of the new/ old albums I have been listening to lately while bored at work...

Asher Roth - Asleep in the bread Aisle...
This was the album I was most looking forward to this year. Heard about Asher like 7-8 months ago, with his roc boys remix 'roth boyz' and I thought, this kids pretty nice. He then released his first mixtape the green house effect which was just fire, he spat over some crazy beats and I was just really excited for his proper album.

Anywho back to the actual album, its 12 songs deep and I love 9 of them, like 1 and 2 our just ok for me. Which to me means this is a dope ass album. My fav songs on the album are probably 'LA Di Da' (check the youtube vid below), 'She Don't Wanna Man' and 'His Dreams'. His dreams is such a big song, its Asher telling the story of how his dad wanted to be a star musician and he now sees what its like through his son's eyes...that's what I think its about anyways lol.

His flow is nice, he has some interesting subject matters, its not all about smashing college chicks and getting drunk. Some deeper songs in there also, like the 'His Dreams' song I mentioned. Peeps try and say he sounds like Em, to me he doesn't at all, he even has a song on there called 'As I Em' with Chester French in which he addresses all that business. Also having listened to Eminem's album, its so dark and gritty, they are nothing alike which is good.


Rating 8.5/10

Eminem - Relapse...
I am embarrassed to say but this is kind of the first Eminem album I have listened to all the way through. Which is strange as he is one of my fav's and I love his music. Basically back in secondary school times when his first albums came out, I didn't have the funds to buy them so only really heard them at my mate Adam's house. Back then I wasn't paying attention to much, I knew it was dope and he said some wild ish, but I never really gave them a good good listen.

So now comes Relapse, been looking forward to this since he did a lil relapse freestyle which was just crazy. The first single 'We Made You' was Em's classic jokey first single which is pretty good and the video is hilarious. I knew the album would be a bit dark as from interviews he had been speaking abotu how he had some serious drink and drug probs and had been to rehab, so the outlandish ish he is spitting isn't to surprising.

Fav songs on the album are probably 'Beautiful' which seems to be everyone's stand out track, 'Bagpipes from Bhagdad' and 'My Mom'. The last 2 mentioned are HILARIOUS..(if you didn't know caps, means its true)...Bagpipes is the song when he goes IN!!! on Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon, calling her the C-word and everything. Then 'My Mom' is where he talks about how his mum fed him nothing but drugs when he grew up lol. Some crazy ish but said with a crazy delivery.

Relpase is part 1 of 2 albums he will be releasing this year, so far so good, I really like it, not his best album IMO, but still dope.


Rating 8/10

Thats it for now, I will do a couple more tomorrow...now back to watching The Wire woop woop...