kendrick lamar

Listen: A$AP Rocky – “F*ckin Problem (feat. Drake, 2 Chainz & Kendrick Lamar)”

By Frank Wu ⋅ October 18, 2012 ⋅ 2 comments

Wow, this track is a problem. Less than half an hour ago and with no prior warning, A$AP Rocky announced to his Twitter followers that a new track would be released later today. “F*ckin Problem” is that song, which comes loaded with features from Drake, 2 Chainz, and Kendrick Lamar, as well as production from Drake’s right-hand-man and producer Noah “40” Shebib. Stream or grab the MP3 below, courtesy of Rocky himself. “F*ckin Problem” is the latest single to drop from PMF’s upcoming album LongLiveA$AP, scheduled for release on October 31 through A$AP Worldwide, Polo Grounds Music and RCA Records.

MP3: A$AP Rocky – “F*ckin Problem (feat. Drake, 2 Chainz & Kendrick Lamar) [prod. 40]”

Dates for Rocky’s current LONGLIVEA$AP tour can be found here.

Listen: Kendrick Lamar – “Compton (feat. Dr. Dre)”

By Frank Wu ⋅ October 2, 2012 ⋅ Post a comment

In just three weeks, rap’s new messiah Kendrick Lamar will release his highly-anticipated new album good kid, m.A.A.d. city. Today, we get an exclusive sneak peek of the album with an ode to the city of Compton. Teaming up with legends Dr. Dre and Just Blaze, Kendrick and Dre flow viciously for four minutes on “Compton”, which according to the pre-order tracklisting on iTunes, will serve as the 12th and final track on the standard version of the album. Interestingly enough, the much-talked-about track with Lady Gaga does not appear on the tracklisting, although “Poetic Justice” with Drake still remains. Check out the song below courtesy of TDE’s mixing specialist Ali.

good kid m.A.A.d. city Tracklist:
01. Sherane a.k.a Master Splinter’s Daughter
02. Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe
03. Backseat Freestyle
04. The Art of Peer Pressure
05. Money Trees (feat. Jay Rock)
06. Poetic Justice (feat. Drake)
07. good kid
08. m.A.A.d city (feat. MC Eiht)
09. Swimming Pools (Drank) [Extended Version]
10. Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst
11. Real (feat. Anna Wise)
12. Compton (feat. Dr. Dre)
13. The Recipe (feat. Dr. Dre) *
14. Black Boy Fly *
15. Now or Never (feat. Mary J. Blige) *
16. Collect Calls *
17. Swimming Pool (Drank) *

* = iTunes bonus track

Listen: Kendrick Lamar – “Swimming Pools (Drank)”

By Frank Wu ⋅ July 15, 2012 ⋅ Post a comment

Can’t really complain when it comes to new music from Kendrick Lamar. To build up some more hype for his soon-to-be-released classic (fingers-crossed), good kid, m.A.A.d. city out on October 2nd, Kendrick let loose about his alcoholic past on some T-Minus crafted string and bass. As usual, the track is mixed by Ali from Top Dawg.

Listen: Kendrick Lamar – “War Is My Love”

By Frank Wu ⋅ May 23, 2012 ⋅ Post a comment

Not quite sure how this came about, but the new Ghost Recon game will come with a brand new song by TDE’s Kendrick Lamar. Titled “War Is My Love”, the song features a synth-heavy beat that reminds me of Kid Cudi‘s “Mr. Rager”. As always, Kendrick kills his verses with his lyricism and haunting rhymes. The hook isn’t necessarily the greatest, but considering this was made for a game soundtrack, I guess it’s not too shabby. Give it a listen below.

MP3: Kendrick Lamar – “War Is My Love”

Stream: Ab-Soul – Control System

By Frank Wu ⋅ May 13, 2012 ⋅ Post a comment

Ab-Soul‘s Control System is now available for purchase on iTunes via Top Dawg Entertainment, but you can stream the entire album below for free. For his new release, Ab-Soul teamed up with a slew of top-notch rappers including Danny Brown, BJ the Chicago Kid, and his fellow Black Hippy members Jay Rock, Kendrick Lamar, and ScHoolboy Q. Heavily recommended tracks include “Terrorist Threat”, “ILLuminate”, and “Double Standard”.

Control System was described by Kendrick as one of the most important releases in the entire Black Hippy momvement. “May 11th, Control System, Ab-Soul. Once you get that piece, you’ll really understand this TDE thing. Then, you might be fortunate to get the Black Hippy that everything’s talking about. That’s our prized possession, that’s our baby. We have fun with that, and I don’t know. Once you throw the music out, people start putting the numbers behind it. We want that to be organic… We got music, though. A lot of music.”

PURCHASE CONTROL SYSTEM ON ITUNES

Listen: Ab-Soul – “ILLuminate (feat. Kendrick Lamar)”

By Frank Wu ⋅ May 9, 2012 ⋅ Post a comment

“I used to wanna rap like Jay-Z / Now I feel like I’m runnin’ laps around Jay-Z / Nas ain’t seen nothing this nasty / B.I.G. and Pac got it coming when I pass too / You got the mic, I ain’t the one you wanna pass to.” – Ab-Soul

In just three days, Black Hippy and Top Dawg Entertainment member Ab-Soul will be releasing his new album, Control System. In preparation, Soul posted up “ILLuminate”, his joint track with long-time friend and fellow TDE collaborator Kendrick Lamar, who will also be releasing a new album of his own, Good Kid in a Mad City, later this year. Over some smooth Skhye Hutch production, Ab-Soul spits two insane verses before giving Kendrick a turn as well. It’s ridiculous how much quality these guys are bringing to the game and “ILLuminate” certainly meets these high expectations. Control System is out May 11th.

Listen: Das Racist – “The Recipe (Remix)”

By Frank Wu ⋅ April 17, 2012 ⋅ Post a comment

Possibly influenced by his recent interview with Kendrick Lamar for Noisey, Heems teamed up with his Das Racist counterpart Kool A.D. to give us their unique take on Kendrick’s huge Dre-tinged single, “The Recipe”. Below, you can grab the MP3, which features the two Greedhead rappers lending their mellow rhymes to the equally mellow Scoop DeVille instrumental. Weed references everywhere, but I guess that’s a given.

MP3: Das Racist – “The Recipe (Remix)”

Kendrick Lamar Announces ‘Good Kid in a Mad City’

By Kevin Miao ⋅ January 13, 2012 ⋅ 4 comments

Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar just announced to The Source that his new album is near completion. The album will be titled Good Kid in a Mad City. Kendrick stated that “it’s just going to have its own entity and its own space”, meaning that it will not be a sequel to Section.80, which was released last year to extremely good reviews by critics and was also our number 4 album of 2011. You should definitely check it out if you haven’t heard it yet. Section.80 was in between a mixtape and an album because it was released online, but Kendrick Lamar stated the new release would be his first proper debut album. Watch Kendrick’s interview with The Source below. Below that is also an interview with Drake‘s frequent producer/best friend, 40, where he talks about Kendrick Lamar’s involvement on Take Care.

Mixtape: Phil The Thrill – Barely Awake

By Frank Wu ⋅ October 25, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

Virginia’s Phil The Thrill has just released his long-awaited mixtape, Barely Awake, for free download. Talented and quite humble, Phil The Thrill is still finding his bearings as a rapper, but has already garnered quite a bit of press for himself and even met Compton MC Kendrick Lamar (peep the intro track). For some more information on the album, you can also check out my interview with Phil from a few weeks ago, where we discussed a bit about his rapping career and this mixtape in particular.

Chill beats and quality songs from an up-and-comer. Fly thoughts! You can download the mixtape below or alternatively, stream it after the break.

Download:
Mediafire
Hulkshare

Interview: Phil The Thrill

By Frank Wu ⋅ October 15, 2011 ⋅ 2 comments

My favorite thing about talking to artists is just hearing how humble they really are and how much work they’re putting in to achieve their dreams. Hard work definitely does pay off. So last week, I was extremely fortunate to speak to an up-and-coming rapper from Virginia named Phil The Thrill, who has been releasing an EP a month for the past five months, garnering attention from XXL Magazine and SmokingSection.com. On October 25th, Phil will be concluding the series with a full-length mixtape entitled Barely Awake, which you can preview here.

Check out my full interview with Phil below.

Hey Phil, what’s up? How’s it going?

Phil The Thrill: Good, good, good.

I’ve just been reading about Steve Jobs. Man, that’s terrible.

Phil The Thrill: Crazy, crazy. I mean, they knew it was gonna happen eventually, but it was just all of a sudden it seems like.

Yeah… ah, the man’s a genius. So I hear you’re 22 years old and from Newport News, Virginia, is that correct?

Phil The Thrill: Yessir.

Actually, where have I heard of that place from? Is that…Michael Vick’s hometown?

Phil The Thrill: Yeah, yeah. Michael Vick, Allen Iverson.

Oh, okay. How’s the music scene there?

Phil The Thrill: It’s… pretty scattered. This area is known as Hampton Roads, the 757. I’m not sure how familiar you are with this part of Virginia but Missy‘s from here, Timbaland‘s from here, Pharrell‘s from here,The Clipse are from here. So yeah, we have a pretty crazy rich tradition as far as music goes. It just seems like they’ll move away and you know, it’s hard to really get them back to reach out to artists that are coming up now. But as far as tradition goes, we’re definitely on the map when it comes to music, period. And then 45 minutes up the road is where Trey Songz and Chris Brown are from.

Man, that’s nice.

Phil The Thrill: Yeah, man, it’s crazy.

So where did your rapper name, Phil The Thrill, originate?

Phil The Thrill: It’s actually been a name that’s stuck with me. It’s actually been my nickname since I was around twelve years old. I was an athlete playing basketball and football and you know, when little nicknames happen to you when you’re a kid… they’d just be like “Oh, Phil The Thrill!” It sticks and through high school, when everyone would have AIM screennames, I was like lemme use my nickname. It stuck with me then and when I went on to play college basketball, it stuck with me there. So it became my Twitter name and once it sticks, I’m not going to try to change that just because I’m doing music. It’s my nickname and what people know me as. (more…)

Search

Connect

Recently Popular