As promised after the release of Yeezy‘s new song “Theraflu” yesterday, the very first track off of the forthcoming G.O.O.D. Music collaboration album has been released to the masses. At around 8 pm Thursday night, New York radio legends DJ Clue and Funkmaster Flex both announced their intentions to play the new track, leading to a bit of a radio scuffle between the two extremely influential radio hosts. Nevertheless, we now have our first look at “Mercy”, a collaboration between the boss Kanye himself, Clipse‘s Pusha T, D-Town’s Big Sean, and 2 Chainz.
Interestingly enough, the song is being billed on iTunes as a Kanye song with features from the rest of G.O.O.D. Music. Upon listening though, “Mercy” sounds nothing like a pure Kanye song and is definitely a collaborative work. Lyrically, there isn’t much content here aside from the hearty dose of braggadocio from each rapper, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing when its delivered from rappers as technically talented as these guys are. You can grab it below and be sure to purchase the single on iTunes now.
Bam! Just about two hours ago, Funkmaster Flex premiered Kanye West‘s new song “Theraflu” on Hot 97. A collaboration with DJ Khaled, “Theraflu” has a bouncy vibe (produced by Hit Boy) that is extremely similar to Watch The Throne standout “N***as in Paris”. Bringing back his old school flow, Yeezy drops bars mentioning Amber Rose, Kim Kardashian (“And I’ll admit, I fell in love with Kim/ ‘Round the same time she fell in love with him”), and Kris Humphries (“Lucky I ain’t have Jay drop him off the team”). You can check out the song below.
“No one above the age of 21 was involved in the making of this album. This album was recorded in one 10 hour session. Thanks to our friends, family, loved ones and anyone who fucks with us.”
Avant-garde jazz trio BADBADNOTGOOD make their return today with the release of BBNG2, an eleven-song record composed of hip hop covers as well as original songs. This time around, the ridiculously talented Toronto group tackles the music of James Blake, Kanye West, and even Odd Future, but also contribute five new songs of original material that are even more appealing than their covers.
If you aren’t yet familiar with BADBADNOTGOOD, you can preview the entire album below through their Bandcamp. Once you’re satisfied, you can head over to their website for a free download of the album in multiple file formats.
For his next studio record, Curren$y has enlisted the help of D.C. emcee Wale, who joins the laid-back rapper on what may be one of this year’s smoothest tracks. On “What It Look Like”, Spitta contributes his traditional hazy stoner rap and Wale brings back his energetic go-go flow to give us a hearty dose of the Jet Life.
Curren$y’s forthcoming record is entitled The Stoned Immaculate and will hit stores on June 5th. In the meantime, he’ll be embarking on the “Jet Life: The Stoned Immaculate” tour later this month, as well as releasing the video for “What It Look Like” on April 8th.
I haven’t heard from Hoodie Allen in a while, so it was to my surprise that I came across a new email from him today. And Hoodie was full of surprises: since the end of summer, he has been hard at work creating his first ever retail record, a brand new EP titled All American that will appear for sale on iTunes. All American will also be completely original with no samples appearing on the record, a huge change in style for a rapper that blew up the blogosphere with his catchy indie samples.
Hoodie writes, “So this is something completely new for me. I’ve built most of my following online based around 2 ideas –1. free mixtapes and 2. creative use of sampling. With this new project, I’ve worked really hard to expand upon the sound that my fans love while actually creating all the songs from scratch.”
For a quick preview of what’s to come, Hoodie released a video and a stream of his RJF-produced lead single “No Interruption”, which you can check out below. If it’s any indication of what’s to come, All American will continue with the traditional fun, laid-back sound, while allowing Hoodie a bit more artistic freedom and development. All American will be available on April 10th.
To follow up last night’s report on Earl Sweatshirt joining the rest off Odd Future in Manhattan Center’s Hammerstein Ballroom, we now have a decent quality fan-shot video of the crew performing the ten-minute-long “Oldie” from The OF Tape Vol.2. Midway through Earl’s killer verse, twenty-some Odd Future members piled onto the stage to surround Earl in support of his first major live show. Enjoy.
Earl Sweatshirt is back and if you didn’t believe the original reports about his return, we now have much more concrete evidence. First off, Earl just participated in his first ever interview, sitting down with Hot 97’s Paul Rosenberg to talk about his return alongside Odd Future members Tyler and Taco.
Perhaps what is even more exciting is the fact that Earl made his live debut tonight at Manhattan Center’s Hammerstein Ballroom. With the entire Odd Future crew by his side, Earl performed key cuts from his discography, including “Orange Juice”, “Assmilk”, and “Kill”.
Below, you can watch the Rosenberg interview, as well as an impromptu music video for OF Tape Vol. 2‘s crew cut “Oldie” that was filmed by Lance Bangs at a photoshoot with Terry Richardson.
A few days back, the producer-rapper duo of King I Divine and ScienZedropped off their collaborative mixtape Divine ScienZe for free download over at 2DopeBoyz. All the tracks are produced by Queens native King I Divine, who gives the entire project a unique boom-bap sound that meshes really well with ScienZe’s sharp rhymes and smooth flow. To top it all off, the duo enlisted the help of a hard-hitting supporting cast that includes features from rising artist Sene, West Coast legend Blu, and more. If you’re a fan of old school hip hop, then these two will definitely find a regular spot in your headphones. You can download the mixtape for free below and if you’re not already convinced, you can also preview two songs, one of which includes guest verses from Sene, Blu, and Britain Parker.
As The Dean’s List previously mentioned in our interview, the second single from their upcoming album Generation X is “Hollywood (feat. Dani Ummel)”. In contrast with the rebellious first single “Youth”, “Hollywood” opens with a mellow-sounding intro that builds into a high-energy frenzy of drums, horns, and synths. Once again, Sonny kills his verses and Dani Ummel’s chorus meshes quite nicely in between, resulting in one of my favorite songs from the group thus far.
We’ve been blessed with the opportunity to offer “Hollywood” for free download/listen below, but if you want to support the trio, be sure to purchase the song over at iTunes, as well as their album once it drops on April 3rd.
s / s / s is the name that Sufjan Stevens, Son Lux, and rapper Serengeti have chosen to use for their new supergroup and on March 20th, the trio will release their first project, an EP entitled Beak & Claw, via Anticon. Our first preview of the EP comes in the form of opening track “Museum Day”, a masterful blend of genres that features an auto-tuned Sufjan (very much in the vein of his newest album The Age of Adz) alongside somber rhymes from Serengeti. It’s pretty interesting to hear everything blend together so effortlessly and if this track is any indication, Beak & Claw will be in heavy rotation throughout the rest of the year. You can give “Museum Day” a listen below.
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