A Direct Letter: To Lil Wayne

Dear Lil Wayne,

I'll start by saying that my mother LOVES YOU!!!! (and so does a significant amount of the world's population) As I sit here this morning I am actually listening to your new rock single "Prom Queen". Let's begin from the top. The track is KILLER. The instruments each individually rock, good lookin out on the part of the producer! Next, I was under the impression that this new venture of yours would be more like the song you did with Kevin Rudolf "Let It Rock". Listening to "Prom Queen" right now is disappointing me slightly. I didn't expect you to actually SING on these songs. I'm hoping this isn't how the entire album is going to be, because if it is, then I'm just not so sure about how that first week is going to look. Lyrically it does sound something like your grade A alternative rock song. I just wasn't prepared to hear you actually embody those rockers so near completely. I greatly prefer your performance on "Hot Revovler". That was the money shot.I must mention now that as the song continues to play, it is growing on me. Congratulations on trying something new Weezy F. Baby! I really hope this works out for you!

Sincerely,
JLynn

A Direct Letter: To Kanye West

Dear Mr. West,

I have nothing but the utmost respect for you and the work that you do. I think it was very brave of you to try something completely different for 808's and Heartbreaks. I must also say that I need for you to make some more of the music that I have come to adore from you. I was hoping that maybe the next album could be something like The Intern or The Work Force. I'm sure you see where I'm going with this. Don't get me wrong, 808's and Heartbreaks is great stuff, I'm just starting to miss the old Kanye. However, I already know that I "can't tell you nothing". I recognize your greatness, but maybe just think about it?

Sincerely,
JLynn

P.S. You really rock that dougie haircut!!

SWAVOR

Apparently in light of all of the swagger being passed out now a days, a new adjective has been created. I present to you : SWAVOR!! Yes, swagger+flavor= Swavor. It's used in just about the same way sagger is, but it's more fun to say. To honor this creative new addition to the hip hop vocabulary I will give you all what I call the "Swavor of The Week" from now on. Since there's not much left in January I'll let this week's SOW ride out til Feb. So the first Swavor is J.Money (First Name Last Name)



Straight outta ATL, J.Money (First Name Last Name) is the epitome of Swavor right now. His music if nothing else is infectious. His song "First Name Last Name" is the reason why I can't even say "J.Money" without following it with "First Name Last Name". I'm gonna keep Mr. Money posted up on the side bar for the rest of this month so you all can get to know him better.

CHECK HIS MYSPACE!

Money Goes

"New" Jay-Z
"When the money goes, will the honeys stay..."

To start, I don't think Jay's money is going anywhere ANYTIME soon, and even if it does deplete, I think Bey has got to be a ride or die chick by now. She'll stick wit her man.

Check the song out for yourself at allhiphop.com [ link provided]
http://allhiphop.com/stories/multimedia__music/archive/2009/01/27/20816404.aspx

Good Men are Hard to Find: Ladies it may NOT be your FAULT

I know alot of women think that most men aren't worth the air they breathe, due largely to negative experieces they've had. A lot of women also feel like they may never find the right guy for them. These same women have probably analyzed themselves over and over again in an attempt to find out why they keep getting into these ill relationships. A good majority of those females come up short after the analysis and still cannot explain why their relationships have not been working. I'm here today to tell those women to SEARCH NO MORE, for I have your answer. Well, Jay-Z gave it to me actually.

You see ladies, the fault is not your own, nor is that of those "no good" men tht you've been dating. ALL of the blame belongs to your father. Yes! Your father is completely to blame for all (or at least most) of your ill fated relationships. It's simple, in a little song called Beach Chair on the Kingdom Come album, Jay-Z explains his worries about this very issue: "...I got demons in my past, so I gotta daughters on the way. If the prophecy's correct then the child shall have to pay, for the sins of her father, so I barter my tommorrows against my yesterdays and hope she'll be ok..."

There you have it plain in simple. Your dads were probably havin a ball out in college or something partying it up being big time players and didnt stop to think how they would feel if some loser guy did all of those same things to his own daughter. Thus, along came you, and apparently the prophecy is correct. Now, I'm not sure how to resolve the problem, maybe you should confront your fathers if possible, or something to that effect.

A Direct Letter: To T-Pain

I have no problem at all with the extensive use of autotune and the vocoder going on in the music biz right now. TO each his own. But I definitely have a problem when I'm listening to a song by Jamie Foxx FEATURING T-Pain and I can't tell which one of them is singing when. Now, I'm not sure of exactly who is reading this blog, but in the event that some industry cats come across this and can relay this message that I'm about to put out, I must issue a challenge.

Dear T-Pain,
I challenge you dare you DOUBLE DOG DARE you to record at the very least, an entire mixtape without the vocoder or autotune. It's just a mixtape so it's not like record sales are at stake with this or anything. With all of the artists using the vocoder now a days, it seems like you would want to stand out from that anyway. Let's not pigeon hole yourself. I'm sure you have an unsurmountable talent, and not that you have anything to prove to anyone, but it is 2009, so why not try something different. We all need to reinvent ourselves sometimes, if for no other reason than to just see what happens. Just think about and get back to me with a response if you can.

Sincerely,
JLynn

Eye Legacy

Left-Eye's album will be released on Tuesday!! January 27th!!! Can we say "Go out and buy 3 copies??" Get more info at http://www.lefteyelegacy.com You can hear some of the music there too. IT's GREAT! Not that it would be anything less than that.

"Omarion's" New Joint "Movin"

OK, so there's this big Youtube thing goin on, where a song by "Omarion" has surfaced and is getting alot of play. Let's set the record straight. For starters if people took the time to listen to the entire song to the END you would all be informed that it IS NOT OMARION!!! The artist identifies himself. Also, I happen to know the individual who wrote and sang this song, if my memory serves me correctly, I believe I was present for the recording of the rap part of the song which IS NOT YOUNG BUCK, as one Youtuber stated it was. I'm not gonna jump off deep into this because it's just way too amusing to watch. But I can tell you with 100% confidence that "Movin" was NOT recorded or written by Omarion and it was NOT produced by the Neptunes (which a couple of Youtubers and bloggers have said). Yes, I know who made the beat also. I can tell you that, neither the producer nor the artist know who leaked this to Youtube with the completely incorrect information attached to it. This is where I give you the opportunity to hear the song for yourself and for the last time it is NOT Omarion!!!

Asher Roth A Milli

I heard this one on the RADIO about a month ago, and I was soooo much feeling it, but being that it was just part of a mix I couldn't find out who it was (especially since everyone and they MAMA got on the A Milli beat) but now I know that the genius on this "A Milli" cover is none other than new comer ASHER ROTH!!! I think I'll make him my pick for 2009 right after Drake. If you haven't heard Asher (though you should have heard him on the song and video I posted earlier this week w/ B.o.B and Charles Hamilton) here are some pieces of his work to check out.

A Milli


I Love College


P.S. I love college too!!! Real talk, I really do love college. (and I would love to meet Asher!)

JAY AND JEEZY

So I know you all must have heard the Jeezy song "My President" by now. It's been out for more than a minute. Now, Jay-Z has hopped a verse on it. I came across it on allhiphop.com this morning. I would be so lost without that sight. Personally, I like it better lyrically than the whole Jeezy song (sorry snow man). Check it out for yourselves!
http://www.allhiphop.com/stories/multimedia__music/archive/2009/01/20/20802794.aspx

Sky Is The Limit

Yes! Our president is now Barack Obama. I think thats gonna be the news for the rest of the week. it deserves to be. So in the spirit of this moment, I give you this song by B.o.B, Charles Hamilton, and Asher Roth: "Change Gonna Come"

Heres the video.
Heres the song for download.

NOTORIOUS

This is my take on NOTORIOUS. I enjoyed the movie overall, no doubt about it, the film was very entertaining. However, it didn't reveal anything that I didn't already know. Between actual rememberance, and VH1 specials, this movie was basically just a tame reenactment. I say tame because I know that there had to be more going on in the relationships between Biggie and Faith and Lil Kim than they actually had time to portray in the movie. Real life is always grittier than the silver screen hands down. The cast did a decent job. I can't say they did great only because I dont know Biggie,Kim, Faith, Mrs.Wallace, Diddy or Cease personally. I will admit that Angela Bassett could have done WAY better than what she did. She seemed to go in and out of Mrs.Wallace's Jamaican accent throughout the movie. If you don't know anything about Biggie Smalls then it's a must see only AFTER you've done your own research though. I'll give it 2 out of 5 stars. I'm a hard critic.

The Hip Hop Professor

Sooo... I need not mention that NOTORIOUS is out today. GO SEE IT! 

In other news, I had the privilege to see Michael Eric Dyson and hear him speak yesterday! You probably have seen him on that BET special: "Hip Hop vs. America". Yes, he is just as cool in person as he is on the little screen. If I could write half as well as him, I would probably consider dropping out of school and writing a series of best selling books or something. Basically, Dyson came to GA State University to speak at the annual MLK Convocation. Best part about all that is it was FREE. I feel sorry for any one who missed that. I have a couple of pics that I will post later today, so check back in for those this evening! Check out this video of him talking about the genre of conscious rap.

Gone Again

Sooooooo, we all know that Eminem is soon to make a long awaited come back. The song "Gone Again" samples Rihanna's "Unfaithful" and features Jay-Z. I'm more than pretty sure that this is just his verses from "When I'm gone" put over the new sampled beat + a Jay-Z verse. Even so, I think I may like this version a little better than the original. But then again I do prefer the hook on the original to the chipmunk sounding sample of Rihanna on "Gone Again". You can decide for yourself. Here are both versions of them.

"Gone Again"ft. Jay-Z


"When I'm Gone"

Lil Wayne borrows some Jigga

I came across this song on allhiphop.com. It's Lil Wayne of course. But he does borrow a lil help from the Jigga man, since he starts his verses something like "When the Remy's in the system, aint no tellin will f**k em, will I diss em, I'ma pimp by blood not relation" Sound familiar guys? Definately from Jay's hit "I Just Wanna Love Ya". In any case, Wayne knows what works, and this song is pretty good if I must say so myself. Check it out for yourselves now!
http://www.zshare.net/audio/538667339298c422/

Who Got Next

Yes, it's been a while but I finally found another artist worthy of the "Who Got Next" spotlight! It is my pleasure to introduce to you a very talented young rapper by the name of Catalyst. He isn't your cookie cutter artist either, his music goes deeper than that and by default definitely goes harder. I had the pleasure of listening to one of his mixtapes yesterday, and I must say it's the kind of music that chills you out. If you're having a bad day, put it in, and you just get relaxed. There isn't enough of that kind of hip-hop in the world anymore. So What I'm going to do is give you all the opportunity to have a couple of those tracks to add to your music libraries. These two happen to be my personal favorite from the mixtape. I MUST warn you, that if you don't enjoy music from the beginnings of hip hop, ( you know, the REAL stuff) then you probably wont appreciate this guy too much. So first I want you to check out his Myspace. If you like what you hear, then I want you to download these songs for yourself, (they have the Carter 2 Carter stamp of approval!) And for all of you guys in the Atlanta area, you can catch Catalyst LIVE at the Apache Cafe on January 23rd. Ladies are free before 10, and he is set to perform a little after 10. Go check his music out, then go check him out in person!

"Like A Seesaw" "Zatoichi"
Enjoy guys!!!

iSouljaboytellem

1. I know it's late, but I wasn't sure if I should do it or not.
2. I know some of you hate this guy
3. I felt that I had to do this

Let's get into a brief review of Soulja Boy's latest release iSouljaboytellem. To start I think it's obvious by this album that S.Beezy is trying to make a record to give him more credibilty as an artist and some extra staying power. I know I'm not the only one who was betting that by next summer most people who be saying "Soulja who?" Either way, for what most people expect from Soulja Boy, I'd have to say that this album was pretty decent. It's not a cd full of crank that music. As a matter fact, I don't recall off hand hearing the phrase "Crank dat" as a major theme on this album. (Good job Beezy!!) Also, no matter how much credit critics like to take away from Soulja Boy, I must say that a couple of the songs are well past decent. I'd go so far as to say that they are pretty darn good. For example, the track with Sean Kingston entitled "Yamaha Mama" which samples from "Stuntin Like My Daddy" is a nice little tune that I personally hope will be the next single. I mean really, you can't go wrong with Wayne. A few of the other tracks are ones that I've been hearing for quite some time now so they didn't do much for me but put me into club mode, since that's where I'd heard them all before. Overall, I'd have to give Soulja Boy 2 and 1/2 stars for this album. I do that to be completely neutral, since I know for a fact that the younger crowd is in love with it (I have a 12 yr old cousin) and the older crowd is just waiting for him to fall off, although they can't help but find themselves sayin "Hey! You there! I see you over there...". So I figure those sentiments must average each other out.

Rumormill Still Running

I have NO IDEA how true this is, but I felt it was my duty to at least relay to you what I heard, or read or what have you. Basically the new rumor is that Nivea may be pregnant. I'll leave it there until further information surfaces. Again, THIS IS ONLY A RUMOR. I have to use that disclaimer. In other news I'm not so sure where I would be without the internet and allhiphop.com. Since that is where I found this video of Wayne talking college football with the big boys. I already knew he was writing a blog for ESPN the magazine, but I didnt see this one coming and I'm not sure why. Check it out for yourselves.

Dream Girl

So I got this song for you guys to check out. It's called "Dream Girl" by Tay Dizm and Akon. I hope I'm not late getting up on this. [fingers crossed] It's cool in my book. I dont really have any pros or cons for it. I dont love it but I dont hate it either. I suppose it's what you call a happy medium. Well, take a listen for yourself and let me know what you think about it.
http://www.zshare.net/audio/53699960baeefd1c/

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Happy New Year everyone!
Would does 2009 have in store for hip hop, or just music in general. No doubt there will be plenty more Lil Wayne collaborations. I forsee more rock collabs. Actually I'm hoping for more rock collabs from Wayne seeing how well he did with Kevin Rudolf on "Let It Rock". It's not like it isn't completely obvious that Weezy wants to be a rockstar anyway. I'm cool with that as long as he keeps making music. Jay-Z will probably drop another album too, if not that, then he'll probably enter more lucrative business ventures.