"Drake's Cake!" -Thank Me Later's Track Listing...Supposedly!

Rap's elected "Neo" and radio's new "it" guy Drake's much buzzed about & highly anticipated 1st "official" CD is soon to be released. So folks on the net are going coo coo trying to find leaked tracks and such to have a lead over everybody else on breaking the news that it's gonna be great or not. Well I personal have some new stuff of his (track wise) but I'll play fair for now and just leak the track listing to you guys to get an idea of what to expect from ol' boy...or rather new boy.

"Thank Me Later"

1. Intro

2. The One

3. Love & Guns

4. Shut It Down (Feat. The Dream)

5. Return the Favor

6. Light Up (Feat. Jay-Z)

7. It’s Not Personal

8. Hold On

9. She Goes, I Go

10. Fireworks

11. Riding Music (Feat. Young Jeezy)

12. Don’t Change (Feat. Kid Cudi & Kanye West)

13. Fiction (Feat. Andre 3000)

14. Go Hard

15. Fear (Pt. II)

16. Momma

17. I Love H.E.R. 2010

* Forever (Feat. Eminem, Kanye West & Lil Wayne)

"Blue Is The NEW Black!" -the Blueprint 3 Album Review

Jay-Z is LEAKING! Nah he wasn't shot, only his latest album "the Blueprint 3" w/ a bullet on the internet! I truly wanted to be the first on line to support one of my favorite artist (yes! ARTIST not rapper) newest additions to his catalog of hits but when a frind offered a swift upload of BP3 I turned by back to peek into my wallet, seen a few moths fly out and was like "Hov's rich enough!" and uploaded away (what? sue me). Hey I'm NOT the only one gulity of this obviously cause he's been wise enough to move up the release date from the infamous 11th to this past Tues. the 8th. Smart move, but is too late?
Okay now on to the album itself, SPEECH! Now Jay-Z will FOREVER be considered a great lyricist, that's not in question here, what folks look to hear from an new album is the perfect marriage of his voice on a banging track, to have their own personal anthem ...that's all. In my personal opinion he talks more matter-0f-factually, more candid, and a bit more frank than he has before. Never fearful of naming names, and "keepin' it real" as one that now lives his lifestyle can. Which is hard to do without becoming repetitious and ummm...how you say? Boring! I'm actually drawn more to what he has to say then the beats the says it on. Some rappers start to think whatever they say can make a beat hotter, this my friend is NOT that case. To me this album is Jay-Z "re-envisioned" by Kanye. The NEW Kanye! Not the ol' soul sampling producer of yesterday. I dig Jay on those types of tracks (which I was hoping from this one) But alast Hope is the distance cousin of dreams. Here's what off BP3 I was thinkin' while listen.

"What We Talkin' Bout?"- feat. Luke Steele -NICE delivery & flow! Way to switchin' it up!
"Thank You" -Slick Rick-ish style, not mad though.
"D.O.A. (Death Of Auto-tune)"-Classic Hovi! Simple delivery straight to the point.
"Run This Town" feat. Rihanna & Kanye West -Eh! Grew on me, I dig the Ri Ri hook.
"Empire State of Mind" feat. Alicia Keys -NYC has a new anthem folks! BIG tune!
"Real As It Gets" feat. Young Jeezy -Man I like Jeezy on this one bro (NO homo) A 3 pointer
"On To The Next One!" feat. Swizz Beats -Booyah! Another club hit one of my fav on the album
"Off That" feat. Drake -Come on Timbo! Where's the triple beat bounce! We miss you. A waste of Drake's talent. I expected more from these 3 together. BOO!
"A Star Is Born" feat. J Cole -Great honor to his rap peers, "dedication rap" is now in you know. J. Cole sounds a lil' Lupe to me...I'm just saying.
"Venus vs Mars" -Ok Tim, you get a pass on this one. The lyrics is what saves you this time, thank Jay.
"Already Home" feat. Kid Cudi -Woulda been hotter if Pharrell sung the hook, but Cudi does a GREAT impression! Could get into this one. Kanye produced this, and I don't have to read the credits. LOL.
"Hate" feat. Kanye West -Sounds like a left over "Heartbreak 808" track to me. Gets boring after a few bars not lyrically but sonically.
"Reminder" - Ummm, forget it!
"So Ambitious" feat Pharrell -Well it this there still producing.
"Young Forever" feat. Mr Hudson - Nothing last "forever" especially these track in mind.

"Heart Me Or Leave Me Alone" -808 Album Review

Okay folks, it's OUT today! Though I never really hear folks saying "I can't WAIT till 'Ye's new joint comes out!" it's still always an event when it does. Straight off the back, my first thoughts on it were "T-Pain of '08 meets Pharrell of '80" or the soundtrack to a really weird robot love story called "Byte Me!" Or better yet, "Cold Play meets Zapp on a trip to Africa" Mind you, without question I applaud his musical ambition to push "rap" (if it still can be called that) further. Kudos. But don't download this latest endeavor hoping for the party/champagne anthems of past CDs, it ain't gon' happen bro. Known for starting off his albums with a haunting but catchy beat "Say You Will" does not fail to continue in that tradition. Always the reflective artist he states "My friend shows me a picture of his kids. And all I could show him was a picture of my cribs..." on track two " Welcome to Heartbreak" (w/Kid Cudi) NICE! Next up was second single "Heartless," which he just performed on Good Morning America this morning & the AMA's Sun. Personally I'm not feeling this one too tough. The lyrics are cool, but I keep waiting for the beat to drop. And that's the sentiment I feel through out the whole CD, "Where's the Beef?" or rather the beat? "Amazing" san Jeezy-less, I can live with. "Love Lockdown" stands out like a sore bandaged up thumb. The tension the beat builds up is dope, especially with the accompanying piano chords on top. It's the music you'd hear playing in the background when the humans are chasing the lover robots in said movie. "Paranoid" (w/Mr. Hudson) I had to look at the credits to check to see if the Neptunes were listed...Nope. All Kanye. Hmmm. I hear a Pharrell remix in the near future. All in all, it's a cool addition to your ever growing playlist/CD collection but this should been a double CD instead of Bey' Half his Grammy getting goal type records, and then CD2, some funkier party $#!t. At the end of the day, I still rather be a Kanye -like artist than one tellin' folks "Superman dat oh!" anyday!

*BTW I joked and asked "Kanye what's next? Cologne called You Smell Me?" That's when he made that face you see pictured. Or maybe it was just my camera in his face.

"Flashing Lights"- Paparazzi Pics (Pt.23)

Missed the Mass Appeal 50th jawn at Rebel? Well I got the "goods" man! While waiting on that slow ass guestlist line to get in, someone mistakenly opened the exited door near the line to leave. And about 12 of us "mistakenly" went in said open door (I don't do lines...coke or otherwise lol) Made it just in time to catch Kid Cudi's performance which was "different" to say the least. The crowd was thick with "Hot totties" (good looking young chicks) and fashion forward dudes. It was the "Everybody Nose" video set part two, without the fight. And NO, I didn't fall off with the flicks. I was foggy like London in there as you can tell from the last few pics.

"Flashing Lights"-Paparazzi Pics (Pt.11 & 1/2)

Before I even get into what where these picture are from,
Imma need you to put your mother f'n hands together for (cue drum roll)
Kristen Frazier (Corner Stone Marketing!)
With out her you'd just be looking at words right now (lol).
Now, on to the show! Last night was part two of my crash course
in true Hip Hop (pt.1 beginning Tues. Smirnoff concert)!
The Legendary Pete Rock, Wade & Company, Rhymefest,
Black Thought, Erick Sermon, Royal Flush, Styles P,
Lordz of the Underground, and
Some random white dude doing a really good drunk Kanye
impression, were all the things I got to witness first hand.
You get to see the pictures:

SPECIAL ADDED BONUS:
The "lost" pics from LIU's Free concert
presented by YUME
starring Deemi, Eric Roberson, and heaVY