Apparently this is the first single from Kanye West's fifth album, Good Ass Job. After all the hullabaloo about him 'violating' Taylor Swift's right to freedom of speech, it's nice to have him back doing what he does best.
This is 'Power' featuring Dwele:
This probably won't be online for long so get your ear holes around it NOW.
EDIT: It's gone...but you can hear it here
It's not a great week when your biggest success is a new entry at number 54. The new Hot Chip single, we hear you cry? No, that missed the top 100 altogether (yeah, no thanks to our Facebook petition, right guys?). Oh, it must have been those ABBA loving LA residents, Music Go Music? Nope, nowhere near. Yep, Caribou was our lone entry in the UK Top 75 and now that we've heard the album we can safely say it's worthy of far more, but then you could have guessed that already. Let's keep the Crystal on ice until we've dealt with these bad boys...
BUY THIS
"Hippies" by Harlem
We're pretty big fans of Canadian hip-hop rookie Drake's debut mini-album, So Far Gone, especially the single, 'Best I Ever Had'. Given his huge success in America, expectations are high for his debut long player, Thank Me Later. As with most young rappers, Drake's got a bit of a chip on his shoulder about how he can't trust anyone anymore because all his friends just want his money and all dem hoes are just trying to knock his swagga, etc. Thankfully, as with Kanye and Lil Wayne, he seems to have that ability to turn a cliche into something exciting and 'Over', complete with urgent strings and off-kilter drum beats, is pretty spectacular.
Rumour has it that Jamie from The xx has also contributed beats to the album. Those pesky kids are everywhere at the moment.
You can download 'Over' from Drake's blog
This song came out in America about six months ago, but we've only just stumbled across it because, frankly, we're massive idiots.
It's called 'Best I Ever Had' and it's by Canadian rapper/singer, Drake. It's the kind of low-slung, sex jam (ewwww, what an awful phrase) that before you listen to it you need to perform some kind of inner monologue in which you pretend to be the presenter of a West Coast radio show. "This joint right here is for Kanesha, you know who you are baby. You're the best I've ever had, for real". Or something. If not, imagine Tim Westwood introducing it with a hilariously irrelevant sound effect (BOOM) and/or jumble of street lingo.
Which ever way you cut it, the beat is SICK. The video, however, is pretty appalling and was directed by Kanye West...
As someone on youtube pointed out; "breast i ever had". The wag.
Who remembers the good old days when you could buy a commercial hip-hop album and be safe in the knowledge that all you'd hear is some mindless rhymes about money, bitches and bling with a chorus sampled from a recent hit single, usually sung by a young female singer? Now it's all MGMT this and Ratatat that (hey, that rhymes!), with all these experimental production flourishes getting in the way of all the pimpin' and braggin'.
One recent exponent of this phenomena is Kid Cudi. Fresh from working with Italian dance producers The Crookers on 'Day 'N Nite', he's back with a new single called 'Pursuit of Happiness'. Produced by Ratatat and featuring MGMT on the chorus, it's a brilliantly stoned, skillfully executed fusion of rap and OTT guitars.
Lovely stuff.
Not to be outdone, Raps elder statesman Jay-Z has gone and employed a certain Luke Steele from Empire of The Sun fame on his Blueprint 3 album.
It's got a similarly spaced out beat, this time provided by Kanye West and No I.D. Perhaps it's the start of a whole new genre; Prog-Hop anyone?
It's the gift that keeps on giving.
Jay-Z's forthcoming new album, The Blueprint III, surely has no more secrets to reveal come release time? So far, we've had the one that mentioned Noel Gallagher, the one about Obama, that other one with Santigold on it and finally the one dissing Autotune. Well, none of these are the official first single, that comes in the shape of 'Run This Town', which features Rihanna on the chorus and Kanye West rapping sans Autotune.
It's alright. The beat has that marching-band motif that 'Jesus Walks' has, and hearing a guitar over the top is a nice surprise, but Jay-Z sounds a bit bored and Kanye West says the following; "she got an ass that will swallow up a g-string, and up top two bee stings". Rihanna is the real star of the show, delivering the chorus in that kind of dead-eyed way she's perfected.
There are more surprises on the album of course - MGMT also make an appearance!
When we first mentioned this song we thought it was something Kid Cudi and friends had knocked up as some kind of 'hilarious' response to Lady GaGa's 'Poker Face'. It's not a joke though, it's actually Kid Cudi's next single and has now, thankfully, been re-named 'Make Her Say'.
The video is pretty good, utilizing a nice split screen effect and probably loads of film reference that we're too young (ahem) to notice. Even the song sounds better now, that beat popping more then it did when we were distracted by the sex abuse (poking it in her face!?). Common's verse is still a major let down, even if he does somehow have a "conscious dick".
Right, we know you're pretty much up to speed on the whole Beyoncé'thing' and her alter-ego business, but we thought we'd let you in on the next phase of her metamorphosis...get Kanye West to rap on a pretty weak track to bring it to the attention of radio. As a ploy it's not wholly original, but usually pretty successful.
'Ego' finds Kanye lazily mumbling about how girls love his "big ego" and pausing just before he finishes as if to say "actually I mean my big cock". If you haven't picked up on the subtleties of that then the next line is "so stroke my big ego"...HE MEANS COCK.
As for Beyoncé, well she slips into something less comfortable and grinds around like a mad woman, which is her being 'fierce' and 'empowered'.
A few months back Musick composed a heartfelt note to President Barack Obama pleading with him to help rid the planet of a deadly pandemic. Not bird flu, no, but autotune. Finally, after months of negotiations between his people (bless you Hilary, those muffins you made were delicious) and our people, word was sent that Obama had come up with a cure in the shape of a certain Mr Jay-Z:
'D.O.A', or 'Death of Autotune' is taken from the Jigga's much-delayed The Blueprint 3 album, which will finally see the light of day in September. This track features a lot of guitar, typically big beats from producer Kanye West and some lyrics about the recession, ringtones and general bravado. BUT, just when we thought it was safe to go back and listen to the charts again, Kanye goes and produces this:
We've mentioned Mr Hudson before, but this is his first single since his big American re-twizzle. 'Supernova' features some left-over beats from Kanye's 808s & Heartbreaks album, a massive chorus and, yeah, you guessed it, a whole load of autotune. Mr Obama we still need you, don't let us down now.
