If you haven’t heard of Pusha T it’s about time you figure out why he’s the hottest up-and-coming rapper out there right now. He’s one half of Clipse and he’s the newest member of Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music family. Recently he’s been featured on West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy showcasing his skills on tracks like “Runaway” and “So Appalled.” It’s time for him to shine on his own, and so he’s finally released his much anticipated mixtape Fear of God. The 13-track collection plays very much like an EP and features artists Kanye West, Rick Ross, 50 Cent, and Kevin Cossom. On the production side, Pusha’s teamed with West, The Neptunes, Hit-Boy, Tha Bizness, Nottz, and The Inkredibles.
Download the free mixtape right here. Look after the break for the album art and track listing.
This kid named George Watsky can rap. He’s pretty incredible. This might have turned into a viral hit (it’s currently at 3 million views and counting), but Watsky is no one-hit wonder. He happens to be a professional performer and an extremely talented poet. He was the 2006 Youth Speaks Grand Slam Poetry Champion and was later featured on HBO’s Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry. Jump after the break to watch him perform an epic poem about kids who stutter.
After spending some time out of the limelight, Kanye West has returned to entertain us with his slick, emotionally-driven raps and different side of his thumping ego. On Wednesday Kanye visited Facebook HQ in Palo Alto, California to preview four tracks from his upcoming album. He donned a fresh suit and rapped a capella atop a table inside a fluorescently lit conference room in front of Facebook employees. He starts with a “fun rap”, that’s the one embedded above. It rocks. “Kill the hypocrisy/This is an aristocracy..I’m Socrates/But my skin more chocolatey.” The next rap is rather short; it may just be a freestyle, but it’s got a sick line in it: “Lost in this plastic life/Let’s break out of this fake-ass party, turn this into a classic night.” The next song likely titled “Chain Heavy” is dipped in politics and contains this humorous line: “They try to tell me that aliens built the pyramids/I swear life’s on bitch on a period”; it concludes with my favorite line I’ve heard this far: “This is the making of a masterpiece/So we broke out the chains and told our master, ‘Peace’.” The fourth song is called “Mama’s Boyfriend” and it’s an extremely emotional track about Kanye’s late mother Donde West. In it he journeys back to the days when his divorced mother started dating other men. “I’m my mama’s boyfriend/I’m her little husband…Keep your hands off my mama” he screams. Apprently this track took him 33 years to write and it clearly means a lot to him. ‘Ye drops so many uses of the n-word in this track, but he says, “I’m allowed to use it.”
Later that day he posted this message targeted to the Facebook employees: “Many times in life I’ve had to deal with moments of doubt. And as it’s been a minute since I’ve performed any fresh material in front of an audience, this could’ve been one of those moments… but it wasn’t. Your energy was a gift so electric, so genuine, that it really helped me give my best. The energy was so inspiring I had to keep going! I just hope you got as much from me as I got from you…which was everything!” Be sure to look after the break to listen to all the tracks.
From one popular social network to another, Kanye finally caved in and joined the Twitterverse. And you know what? He actually comes across a non-egotistical funnyman. Peep his first tweet: “Up early in the morning taking meetings in Silicone Valley.” This was followed almost immediately by: “Lol I spelled Silicon wrong ( I guess I was still thinking about the other type of silicone ITS A PROCESS!! : )” Then came some important news regarding his upcoming album: “The album is no longer called “Good Ass Job” I’m bouncing a couple of titles around now.” Just confirming our suspicions, Kanye. After giving a handful of shoutouts to various blogs for reporting his Facebook HQ visit, he started to notice how quickly he was garnering a following. In less than two days he managed to gain a following of nearly 300,000 (he’s currently at 293,687 followers). With tweets like these: “My thoughts on Twitter so far… at the end of the day, God damnit I’m killing this shit!!!” and “I think Twitter was designed specifically with me in mind just my humble opinion hahhhahaaaahaaa humble hahahahhahaahaaaa” you might think ‘Ye is stroking his ego again, but I think he’s actually starting to satirize himself. He’s finally realized that he “has the power to let power go” and he’s learning from his past mistakes. Hilarious comic (and one of Kanye’s friends) Aziz Ansari started trending the hashtag #PredictingKanyeTweets, and Kanye simply retweeted jokes that were on him. “Damn I wish Hermes made edible snacks, Cheezits just ain’t dope enough for my mouth”, tweeted Ansari. The fact that he’s not retaliating but instead having fun with his new lease on life through Twitter makes me believe that he’s turning a corner for the better. But don’t take my word for it. Follow @kanyewest and form your own opinions.
At the end of the day, it appears as if Kanye wants to begin a new chapter in his career. After coming out of hiding he decided to tease some tracks and open up his fanbase using the power of social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter. It’s an interesting and unconventional route to take but it’s one I can commend. Welcome back Mr. West. September 14 come now please.
Update: Later in the week Kanye visited a bunch of magazine headquarters including XXL and Rolling Stone. A video surfaced on YouTube from his meeting with the latter outlet. Look for it after the break.
It’s official: Lupe Fiasco’s highly anticipated third studio album LASERS is complete. Lupe shared the news with his fans first via his Twitter account:
Lasers is out of my hands guys and gals…it’s done and that’s all I can tell you…when they drop it…they drop it…so drop it…
Now it’s up to Atlantic Records to announce a release date and it’s golden. According to most sources, there’s no reason why it should not release sometime in this year. While you’re waiting, go give the first two singles off the album a listen here: “I’m Beamin’” & “Shining Down“.
Southeast Texas weatherman Nick Kosir at KBTV-TV’s “Good Day” program puts his own, um, spin on the weather by rapping the day’s forecast for the locals. Hey–if this is what it takes for viewers to tune into the morning news then I say go for it. Says Kosir: “There are some ‘underground’ recordings on my MySpace page. I used to be a radio DJ and I made parody songs under the name Krooked K, so there are songs still floating around out there that are good and embarrassing.” Also, be sure to check out his YouTube page to watch more forecast raps.
