Higher Powers Taking a Hold on Me...

During the latest session of OVO Sound Radio, Drake let loose a remix of hit #1 single 'One Dance' featuring Justin Bieber alone on the track. Here is that remix mashed together with the original Drake single.

Drake - One More Dance (One Dance Remix) [Feat. Justin Bieber]

Diddy Bop on Biggy Block, Wear My Vest on Fitty Block...

There are a ton of mash-ups on my queue on higher priority than this, but it was something I was able to string together rather quickly. I honestly made this because I was updating my iPod and wanted to put Fabolous' verse on a playlist--I heard A$AP Ferg's verse and thought it was cool to pair the two. I then decided to add Rick Ross' [pretty annoying] verse *dab* to round out the song to 4 mins. Enjoy.

Fabolous - Milly Rock (Young OGmix) [Feat. A$AP Ferg & Rick Ross]

One Step, One Punch, One Round at a Time... 'Creed' Movie Review

The Rocky franchise inherits a new name in Creed, The iconic boxing legend Rocky Balboa finds himself training Adonis Johnson, the son the great Apollo Creed. Sylvester Stallone reprises his role as the legendary Rocky Balboa and Michael B. Jordan gives an inspired performance as Donnie Creed.

Creed's boxing scenes are dripping with authenticity. The fights were gritty and full of real exchanges between fighters contrasting the usual hollywood-haymaker boxing matches we have grown accustomed to. These bouts were not saturated with over-dramatics and still able to tell a compelling narrative. The film captured the full ring-side experience from chilling first-person entrances to montages of corner men erasing red splatter off white canvas. Even details like using HBO personnel and staple boxing documentary program 24/7 to drive the plot added another layer of authenticity. Additionally, the setting of modern day Philadelphia was evident throughout the movie from Meek Mill scoring to glimpses of Philly bike culture.

Creed is a movie that transcends boxing, but embodies fighting at the same time. The boxing was second in significance to young Creed finding identity and purpose. He grew up in the system as an orphan who picked fights to cope with feeling abandoned. Fighting was his identity and unmistakably in his DNA. There was a particular scene that showed that even as an adult--so distant from the short-tempered boy he once was--the instant he felt lost, he subconsciously reverted back to that young boy who fought anyone and everyone to feel a sense of identity.

There are several parallels between Creed and the first film of the Rocky series that garnered so much fame. From charged-up training montages to a budding romance with a ride-or-die woman in the passenger seat for the lowest of lows and euphoric highs. There are a lot of takeaways from Creed. The essential never stop fighting, never fold and never give up. Also it's about finding your calling--no matter what you're doing, do what makes you happy and kick some ass doing it.

I'm out like Adonis Creed's 20-20 vision...

Murder My Allegations and Burning My Finger Traces

On this past Black Friday, J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar were in a post-Thanksgiving giving mood and dropped new verses over each others' tracks. J. Cole rapped over Alright from To Pimp a Butterfly and K-Dot absolutely obliterated A Tale of 2 Citiez off of 2014 Forest Hills Drive.

Here is a mash-up of Kendrick's latest verse with it's original track that I made. Enjoy.

J. Cole - A Tale of 2 Citiez (Black Friday Remix) [Feat. Kendrick Lamar]

The Death of Walter White

The end of Granite Slate marked the death of Walter White. When his contribution to Gray Matter was discredited, it marked the destruction of one of the most important accomplishments of his old life. This was moments after his reputation as a father was destroyed by Walt Jr. His reputation, as Walter White, in the eyes of his family and society is now completely tarnished and all that remains is Heisenberg.

At this point he changes his mind on turning himself in and makes the decision to hold off and go out as Heisenberg; not before purchasing an M60 and picking up his ricin--possibly to avenge Hank's death? WWHD.

I'm out like ricin viles from electric fixture covers...

Somewhere Between Psychotic and Iconic Drake's 'Nothing was the Same' Review

'Nothing Was the Same' Review -- Nothing Was the Same is Drake's 3rd studio album. Despite some definite skip-overs, I feel like this is his most complete hip-hop album yet. Surprisingly this is more rap-oriented than a typical Drake album, which may have been foreshadowed by pre-album cuts like Versace (Remix), Jodeci and All Me where he showed he's ready to rap again. Although his singing shows his versatility as an artist, it definitely hinders him from releasing a hip-hop classic. I'm a big Drake fan in terms of what he did for Toronto hip-hop culture and when it comes to his music I tend to be open-mindedly critical, which is definititely an oxymoron but you get it.

His first two albums were just OK albums to me. Thank Me Later was a solid debut and a good introduction; but unfortunately didn't have much innovation in terms of sound and rap. He definitely wanted to start off his career showing his versatility, but in the process cranked out some forgettable R&B tracks.  Take Care was again a rap album with too much R&B--I would even say it was a strategic album to usher Drake into the mainstream, which it did. Prime example if on it he had a track with Lil' Wayne and Andre 3000 and opted to throw them on an R&B track about saving a stripper instead of showing his chops as a rapper..lost opportunities.

Anyways, NWTS starts off with a bang with Tuscan Leather; a heavy rap intro to the album, which is definitely a promising thing to hear. As far as rap tracks, this is one of the highlights of the album and one of my favourite songs. Drake is trying to send a message with this track, but at the same time he has fun with the verses showcasing some decent wordplay. I'm glad he chose to start things off rapping.

The next track, Furthest Thing, is a very 'Drake' track musically; mellow, quick-tempo-singing hybrid rap. This is actually one of my favourite tracks on the albums as well. Drake raps about being in a middle phase. In the first verse, a very contemplative Drake provides introspection into his current mind state. Feeling like you're at a middle ground, but not exactly where you want to be at the end--I guess that being lost aspect of the first verse is what struck a cord with me.

Started from the Bottom was Drake's first single. I've never given this one much rotation. Nothing impressive in terms of rap formula, but he did a good job of creating an anthem for celebrating hard work and reward that appeals to the mainstream. In spite of the radio airplay this is still skip-worthy to me. I thought there was a chance he wouldn't do it, but R&B Drake came through in true fcuk-an-album-up fashion with Own It. Not a fan of this track beyond the production near the middle. Definitely sounds like he could've just put "(Interdude)" at the end of this. When he does rap it's just super thin despite how much he feels his own insights. Just not a fan of this one.

There's one track that really erks me, mainly because of the title choice. The Wu-Tang Clan is probably the greatest and most important rap group of all time. Known for their cut-throat, raw and rugged lyrics. Even if it's intended to be arbitrary, having a track entitled Wu-Tang Forever carries something with it. You have to come with that Triumph-type rap or maybe something more relative than an off-put piano chord in the background. The name and reputation of the Wu warrants at the very least your coldest, boombappiest, machinegunniest flow and definitely not rubbish about a girl saying she's all yourz with a RZA sample? Meh. The track is decent, but it's really hard for me to get over the title choice--it has nothing to do with the music, but at the same time it has everything to do with the essence of the song.

Worst Behavior is probably the most ignorant rap track Drake has ever made. I feel like he dipped into the Waka realm as far as he could for this one. This beat actually bangs though and grew on me. I enjoy listening to these screw-face type tracks once and a while, more so when there's some actual rapping. Hmm, you know Kendrick could ride a beat like this and do a hook like this and never compromise his flow as a rapper. 300lbs-sounding Drake on the other hand doesn't actually rap until the last verse. Not even mad at that one verse though after he's done borrowing Ma$e's flow to set the tempo--he probably knew he had to squeeze a solid verse in to stop this from being a complete write-off. The beat is just so dumb ignorant though I mess with half this track, but tenfold in the whip.

The Jhene Aiko feature on From Time is as solid as it gets from her. I would say Drake is equally solid and Jhene's complementary, but show-stealing, feature segues smoothly into a slow section of the album that surprisingly I'm not mad at. Just Hold On, We're Going Home was Drake's 2nd single. Actually a solid choice. If Drake is to do complete R&B tracks this is the direction he should take--something innovative to his sound. I don't think he has the range to hit conventional R&B tracks out of the park. But yeah this is a big track, Majid Jordan needs to sound like more of a feature and less of a sample in the beginning and Drake should maybe write an actual second verse--but regardless of these things I still rate this track. Continuing with R&B Drizzy is Connect. This is definitely one of the better R&B tracks of his career and the baseball analogies were dope. This song is delivered in signature Drake, genre-splitting sound and filled with a lot of personality. Swangin'.

If I never heard Drake's Versace Remix, I would mess with The Language track harder or give it more attention. The 'Versace flow' is hard, but The Language is definitely a more toned down vessel. He had the opportunity to at least switch it up, but chose to keep this flow throughout the track and recycle thoroughly. Another track carried by this flow is 305 in My City which has Future's less (or more) retarded cousin, Detail yelling the hook. Man, I thought it was Drake slurring out the chorus and it just left so much of a bad taste in my mouth that I couldn't take in the track properly. But when I saw it was a feature it helped me to better separate the two artists, or rather, separate Future's cousin on bath salts from the artist. But ultimately this gets dashed into the skip pile. Womp.

Too Much is another one of my favourites. Introspective Drake speaks on his life and relationships during the fame. The piano and vocals by Sampha layer this track with emotion and sets up the frustration in the verses nicely. Pound Cake has possibly the most disappointing Jay-Z feature I've ever heard. It's just not a re-playable Hov verse especially with all that cake cake cake carat cake mess he spits. Just felt forced to me. Not as natural as Light Up felt, but can't win all the features you acquire--sometimes rappers don't feel inclined to give you their best stuff. Drake then checks in with Paris in Paris Morton Music 2 to end the album. Love the beat of this, Boi-1da sorta annoys me with the scratching in Pound Cake but the PMM2 beat is cold af.

Overall I think this is Drake's most complete album of the 3. I don't consider it a classic by any means, but just his closest thing to a complete hip-hop album. I think the key was that this time around when he did crank out an R&B track, he made them count. Drake's attempt at normal, tired R&B hurt his previous albums as a whole. I hope he keeps going in this direction until he finally keep the singing tracks to 2 or 3 thoughtful ones and can maybe crank out a hip-hop classic with that formula? After that he can have an entire Marvin Gay attempt of an album for all I care. Drake needs to keep on progressing hip-hop culture and assist the more competent of his peers in defining their era.

I'm out like on-call stripper rescue teams...

'The Whole World Was Changing And I Didn't Know How I Fit In.'

The Butler was a pretty good movie overall. Elaborate but not complex. One thing that stood out to me was that the slogan for the movie 'One quiet voice can ignite a revolution.' is a little misleading in representing the butler character's contribution to civil rights...

Despite what the tagline says, the butler character was very reserved and wasn't much of a revolutionary. Forest Whitaker did a good job portraying a very soft-spoken, but at times bland protagonist. Although the movie revolved around this character, I felt like he really stepped to the side and watched the real heroes of the civil rights movement in unbiased silence.

Possibly it was down-played on purpose by Whitaker to show how an average working class black man can have an impact on civil rights in his own way. Martin Luther King Jr. in the movie actually spoke on the importance of the butler saying he is just as important to civil rights as any activist. He says the butler represents their oppressed community in a positive light. By being kind and helpful he shows the white man that there is not always hostility in the hearts of black people. They are just as deserving of the rights and freedoms of the country as any non-colored person.

The butler character served the upper white community his whole life and was trained to be silent and a ghost when serving. This aspect of his career led to some dull moments for the character, as in, he wouldn't do anything but serve and impeccably abide by every rule. On the surface he showed no intent to progress his people until he was influenced by the death of JFK that opened his eyes a little more to just how the world wasn't fair to his people. Only then did he decide to stand-up for himself as a human-being and started to distance himself from being consumed by helping those who looked down on him.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie and the ride through American history, although, this made it a bit choppy in telling its own story. As the movie progressed it seemed to focus on the butler's life at each historic moment rather than the plot developing within the butler's personal life. The story-telling being dictated by the timeline of American history took away from the film's own identity. It kept it interesting for me though, but maybe that's because I'm not familiar with the context, being Canadian and all.

I'm out like Forest Whitaker's left eye...

Devilish Grin For My Alias Aliens To Respond...

Big Sean - "Control" [Feat. Kendrick Lamar & Jay Electronica]

Last night, Big Sean let loose a track that did not make his upcoming album, Hall of Fame. It features a malicious verse from Kendrick Lamar, as well as, a masterful verse from Jay Electronica in its own right.

K Dot absolutely spazzes out with probably the most talked about verse of the year; prompting hashtags like #twitpicyourreactionafterhearingkendricksverse and #RappersKendrickDidntMention to blow up on Twitter. Kendrick 'calls out' basically every rapper on top of the game right now. For me it's more of a roll call than a diss. It's definitely respect and homage more than anything..

People are quick to say Kendrick has gone crazy dissing everyone in the game! That's why I hate rap fans sometimes--the ones that don't listen and fcuk with rappers like Kendrick merely off hype. All Kendrick is doing is sparking fire for competition--this is what hip-hop needs to strive. He's challenging all rappers to elevate their bars. Which I am definitely not mad at.

Honestly, this era of hip-hop is surprisingly turning into a great one. 90's mainstream rap was so raw and lyrical man, that's why no one can touch that era. The 2000's were when rappers started seeing pop culture fame and hip-hop in the mainstream reflected that. I hated mainstream hip-hop for that reason. To sell records you have to dumb-down. Those boom-bap artists who kept the art alive had zero shine..

But now? Artists like Kendrick Lamar, Drake, J. Cole, Mac Miller are some of the most lyrical rappers [for the most part] and at the same time they are the most popular. It's a good look to have people that in the mainstream who take time to rap their asses off. At the same time, you can't always expect the mainstream to appreciate the art. Kendrick is a wizard--I don't think I've heard someone that innovative since hearing Jay-Z, Nas, Eminem, Andre 3000, The Notorious B.I.G. etc. for the first time. He has an authenticity to his music and all the right tools to be the next great king of hip-hop. I have all the trust in the world in Kendrick to run away with this torch.

For argument sake my top 3 for as long as I can remember still stand at Jay-Z, Nas and Eminem. I think this will be the case until the day I die, but if any rapper has what it takes to seep through until then, it's definitely Kendrick.

I'm out like malicious K-Dot features from sophomore albums...

Ask You To Please Excuse My Table Manners, I Was Making Room For The Table Dancers...

Drake - "All Me" [Feat. 2 Chainz & Big Sean]


The first single off of Nothing Was the Same which is dropping September 17. All Me features 2 Chainz and Big Sean.

In the hook Drake boasts about building his career with little assistance and being self-made. He knows he's on top of the rap game and in case it wasn't clear Drake hits it home with a verse drenched in narcissism. Big Sean is very off and on for me, but he kills this.

I'm out like bullet-proof condoms...

It's Amazing I'm In This Maze With You...Justin Timberlake & Jay-Z, The 'Legends of the Summer' Tour in Toronto

Going into this concert I already knew I would being heavily favoring one side of this tandem. If you didn't know, Jay-Z has been my favourite rapper for as long as I can remember (2. Nas, 3. Eminem FYI); even my blog moniker was contrived from classic words by Hov himself. So of course I went in knowing I'd be rocking a little bit harder 50% of the time..

Don't get me wrong, I am a fan of Mr. Timberlake's work as well...just that there's a dedicated space for hip-hop in my heart and not so much for pop music. Incidentally, most of the JT songs that really resonate with me are the ones more so floating in the R&B genre than pop side. But in any case, The Legends of the Summer Tour kicked off in Toronto...
__________

On a hot Wednesday night in the great city of Toronto, Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake kicked off their Legends of the Summer Tour. It was my first time at the Sky Dome for a concert and I was a little disappointed the roof wasn't open despite the clear skies. I chose to approach this concert with an as-long-as-I'm-in-the-building attitude and opted for the upper decks. Much of this decision was mainly based on the 50% set split with JT, but also I've always wondered what it'd be like to sit up top the massive stadium with the CN Tower over head. Despite an initial hit of vertigo the seats were just fine. The stage was vivid even from far away, although the acoustics suffered a bit.