Prayers for 3 Stacks

Hip Hop legend and one half of Outkast, Andre "3000" Benjamin lost his mother, Sharon Benjamin-Hodo, a day after his 38th birthday on May 27th. She was found dead in her Atlanta home. Our condolences go out to Andre 3000 and the Benjamin-Hodo family during this time.

Clipse - The Funeral (Throwback Thursday)

Throwback Clipse "The Funeral" (produced by The Neptunes) back when No Malice was Malice and King Push was braid less and went by Terror...

No Malice "Hear Ye Him" July 2nd

Pusha T "My Name Is My Name" July 16

Make sure you go and support!!!

The-Dream "IV Play" Album Review

The-Dream returns with his 4th album (5th if you include 2012's mixtape turned album which was released under his government name, Terius Nash, 1977), IV Play, after putting in quality work behind the scenes for the likes of Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Pusha T, and Kanye West over the past couple years. While he handles the bulk of the albums production along with Carlos McKinney, he calls in a few of his peers for more help than usual this time to mixed results. IV Play's lead single, "High Art" features a decent verse from Jay-Z, while features on songs like Pu**y (G.O.O.D. Music's Pusha T and Big Sean), Slow It Down (Fabolous), and Turnt Up (Beyoncé and 2 Chainz) do little to add to value to their respective songs, sometimes due to no fault of the featured artist, sans one of the worst verses I've heard from Big Sean in a while on the aforementioned "Pu**y." The two best songs containing features are the Kelly Rowland assisted "Where Have You Been" and "Too Early" featuring Gary Clark Jr. The Dream that we have come to love and enjoy finally appears on the albums title track and "Michael" where he does his best Michael Jackson impression(vocally) and tells the temporary woman of his affection "tonight I'll settle for half, tomorrow he can have it all." The hidden gym on IV Play comes by way of "Self-Conscious", an ode to women encouraging them to be happy with who they are and not who the world wants them to be because he'll be there to love them regardless. In hindsight maybe some of the features on this album were ill placed but Dream still manages to show he is comfortable riding solo, which ultimately saves this album.

Final Grade: C+

Talib Kweli- Prisoner of Conscious Album Review

Talib Kweli returns with his long awaited 5th solo album, Prisoner of Conscious, the follow up to 2011's Gutter Rainbows. Kweli has always been placed in a box by mainstream music listeners as a "conscious or backpack" rapper, which is likely the inspiration for the album's title, as it seems almost as if Talib is trying to prove his doubters wrong by experimenting with different sounds and styles, which causes the album to appear unfocused. Lyrically Talib is still one of the games elite, as proven on tracks such as "Human Mic" and "Hamster Wheel." POC's best moments come when Talib is in his wheel house on cuts such as "Push Thru" featuring Curren$y and Kendrick Lamar and "Before He Walked" which features Abby Dobson and a surprisingly solid verse from Nelly. While lyrically solid and filled with gems, ultimately the biggest fault of this album is Talib's attempts to reach more mainstream fan bases (the Harry Fraud produced "Upper Echelon" is the most obvious attempt), which may alienate his core fan base. Another thing that I noticed that would definitely benefit the direction of this album was the absence of frequent collaborator and producer, Hi-Tek. Talib Kweli still manages to deliver a solid album with Prisoner of Conscious, but I doubt that it will reach the audience intended and it will leave his core audience a little disappointed.

Final Grade: C

Black Hippy - U.O.E.N.O.

Rumor has it that Kendrick Lamar was supposed to appear on a remix to Rocko's controversial "U.O.E.N.O." but here he is along with his Black Hippy crew (Jay Rock, Ab-Soul, and Schoolboy Q) with their own remix. Who had the best verse?

ScHoolboy Q - Hell Of A Night

New Schoolboy Q....possibly off of his upcoming album "Oxymoron"



Disclaimer: I guess whoever posted this video didn't know that Joe Budden and Schoolboy Q are two different people

Kanye West "New Slaves" Projection in San Francisco

I think the projection video was a nice marketing idea...until the local police starting shutting them down.

Thoughts on the song itself???  I'm feeling it, would love to get my hands on a CDQ version though.

Yeezus...June 18th...no preorders, make sure you visit your local music retailer to pick it up

Ludacris "#IDGAF" Mixtape Review

Lets see, what is the easiest way to sum up Ludacris' new mixtape... women, partying, drugs and liquor, and that pretty much does it. If the purpose of this mixtape was to build momentum for his upcoming lp "Ludaversal", Chris Bridges fails miserably with "#IDGAF." "#IDGAF" boast descent production for the most part but Luda fails to deliver lyrically, spitting cliché filled verses, accompanied by suspect hooks. This work displays none of the creativity or risk taking fans have normally come to expect from Ludacris, instead he sticks to the script of drunken nights, chasing women, and popping an occasional molly. Coming in at ten tracks strong, only two records stray from this formula, the Young Jeezy assisted "Raised In The South" and " Mad Fo" which now features Meek Mill and Chris Brown in addition to Swizz Beatz and Pusha T (the original featured verses from Pusha and Luda with a Swizz Beatz hook). The aforementioned "Raised In The South" is the projects best track overall, while the once menacing "Mad Fo" loses a lot of it's luster with the needless addition of verses from Swizz, Meek, and Breezy, each who add little to the track other than length. If your patient enough to sit through those verses there is a light at the end of the tunnel, a punishing verse complete with not so subliminal YMCMB shots from Pusha T, which closes out the mixtape and provides it's brightest moment. One thing is for sure, Ludacris certainly didn't give a (you know) when he put this project together.

Final Grade: F

French Montana "Excuse My French" album review

I went into this album not expecting much and still managed to come out disappointed. French has never offered much lyrically and that trend runs rampant throughout this album as he normally depends on his penchant for crafting catchy hooks and his ear for beats. To offset his lyrical deficiencies French enlist a slew of features (he only goes solo for 6 of 18 tracks), but features from the likes of Rick Ross, Diddy, Nicki Minaj, Drake, Lil' Wayne, and The Weekend (to name a few) do little to help strengthen his debut. While records like "Pop That" and "Freaks" have already become club favorites and I'm pretty sure I'll hear "Ain't Worried Bout Nuthin" on a few corners this summer, "Excuse My French" offers nothing more than redundancy. The most disappointing moments of the album may have been French's inability to capitalize on the two potentially biggest moments on the album on "Once In Awhile" which features Max B and a well placed Kanye West sample that gave the track a triumphant feel and the "Ice Cream" sampling "We Go Wherever We Want" which features The Chef himself as well as Ne-Yo, but French's inability to step up lyrically in the clutch ultimately fails him on his MMG/Bad Boy debut. 

Final Grade: D

Pusha T - Numbers On The Board (Official Video)

My Name Is My Name...July 16th..cop it

Kendrick Lamar's "B****, Don't Kill My Vibe" Official Video

Here is the latest visual treat from K. Dot's classic album "good kid, m.A.A.d city....