I was on the ITunes music store the other day, scrolling through the music they had under The Alchemist, I wanted to support, when I noticed that there was a different version of The Cutting Room Floor 2 than I had. The version on iTunes was different than the limited edition one in my music library from 2007.
FEAR is a masterpiece of a record. From Kendrick Lamar’s content to the beat, it has no weakness. Lamar used the beat brilliantly to highlight three different periods in his life: adolescence, young adult and adulthood.
Meanwhile, the beat was the perfect landscape or canvas for Lamar to paint those pictures.
Welcome to another weeklong dedication and celebration of The Alchemist birthday filled with content related to the music and to the man himself.
He did it again.
Another year passed, and another year full of dope ness.
He finally dropped the sequel to one of my favorite projects, Yacht Rock. He teamed up with Anderson Paak and delivered a smooth, soulful banger. The chemistry, no pun intended, between Currensy, Freddie Gibbs and himself finally made it on a full length project, as Fetti came surprisingly and was great. His hand was in many places, crafted different things.
Additionally, my fond for Alchemist has continued. In the past few years, I’ve been showing my appreciate for his work by putting my money where my pen is and purchasing his projects and loosies in addition to his limited merch, whenever I’ve been lucky to get one.
Okay, enough of that, let’s get to the content.
(Photo credit: Alchemist’s Instagram)
“All of Me” is the pinnacle of a Joe Budden record.
It checks off box after box of Joe’s music characteristics.
Length
Beat mood
Over sharing content
Honesty
This record like the original one is: 1) amazing and 2) a classic. Much like the Eminem version, Joe gets personal and shares his early upbringing and rap career.
**Author’s Note—-The 100 is an upcoming series of posts were I posts my favorite hundred records I’ve ever heard. Yes, this impossible task was actually attempted and completed. Now, these hundred records were selected back in late 2017, so it’s possible that some new records could’ve replace a record on this list, but that’s okay. This is the first version of it. Who knows what the future holds?
Anyways, here is the first entry in the series.
Joe Budden released this record in the summer of 2011, depicting his then-relationship with video vixen Esther Baxter and their fiery end to their relationship.
The first two entries in this trilogy (now-there’s four) were more on the reflective side but part three was a complete 180-degree turn.
Continue reading The 100: Joe Budden – Ordinary Love Shit Part 3
Welcome to another week dedicated to one of the greatest rappers ever, or if you listen to his podcast, not one, not two but the third best rapper ever, Joe Budden.
What coincides with his birthday, also pays tribute to the man, the rapper or Joe’s newest word he likes to say all the damn time: creative/creator.
Joe had a great year since his last birthday. He signed a contract with Spotify for his “small” podcast and has gained a bigger following than he did when he was rapping. As a day one fan, I am teetering back and forth between his new found popularity but I support my dude, one hundred percent.
In all, Joe is currently at his highest popularity wise and more relevant than ever. His podcast attracts a good amount of listeners (I don’t have numbers to back this, but you can just tell) and his words cause friction or reaction like never before. Although I appreciate the love Joe is getting, I just wish more people would look at his catalog while they currently are focused on him. They might find something they like!
In short, I hope Joe has a wonderful day/week celebrating his birthday, now to the content!
This past year was a great year for hip-hop, a lot of music came out.
From January to December, release after release came out. Some were forgettable, while others had replay value. Out of all the music that was released, I probably heard about less than fifty percent of it, if we are being honest. If someone would’ve said they heard every release then I’d say: they are lying.
With that said, below are some of my favorite records of the year. Hopefully my perspective introduces you to music you wouldn’t have heard otherwise. Continue reading A Dozen for 2018: Best of
This was a nice surprise that I discovered in 2018.
After a strong performance and an impressive one on Travis Scott’s “Can’t Say,” Toliver peaked my interest.
I Google him to get learn some information on him. I found out he was from Houston like Scott and that he had just released a project as well. I found his album(?) and hit play.
That project was dope.
Continue reading Suprise of the Year: Don Toliver – Donny Womack
Cole has had a tremendous 2018.
He dropped an okay album (so I’ve heard) and has been killing the guest feature all year long.
Jay Rock’s “OSOM” is no exception.
