‘Cruel Summer’ Album Review – G.O.O.D. Music – 2012

Here is our review for Cruel Summer from Kanye West’s studio label, G.O.O.D Music.

Okay, so this album was not what I expected. Well, most of the tracks. Cruel Summer features the GOOD Music collective featuring:

• Kanye West
• GLC
• John Legend
• Common
• Consequence
• Really Doe
• Sa-Ra
• Big Sean
• Kid Cudi
• Malik Yusef
• Mr Hudson
• Cyhi Da Prynce
• Mos Def
• Pusha T
• D’banj
• Producer Year Signed
• Devo Springsteen
• Keezo Kane
• Jeff Bhasker
• No I.D.
• Don Jazzy
• Hit-Boy
• 2 Chainz.

Most of the members of the GOOD Music family were not featured in the album, only with the main members like Kanye, Big Sean, Pusha T, & 2 Chainz. Also with features like Jay-Z and Chief Keef. Now from singles like Mercy and New God Flow, I expected this album to be at the least an 80 out of 100. Kanye was amazing with these beats.  Clique had a very hype beat, with New God Flow with a nice mellow but intense piano instrumental. Other singles like I Dont Like and Cold were very nice. With those fives singles already being released before the highly anticipated album drop back in late September, every probably bought this album. Only one problem.

The best songs in the album were the singles. Kanye West was probably to hype for this album that he dropped so many songs. Except he chose the best songs. I think he should have just dropped Mercy to show introduce that GOOD Music collective will be doing an album together. Other than that, the album had guest stars like Jay-Z and Chief Keef.

I give this album a 6 out of 10. The singles were amazing. The beats were amazing. The lyrics were amazing. The album got all its hype from the singles. Which is sad, but hey, it’s definitely an album I’d suggest listening to.

Anyway, thats all guys.

-Jay

Meek Mill – Dreamchasers 2 Review

Hey its Jay again, here with another MMG mixtape review! This is a fairly late review. As a sequel to his preview mixtape, Dreamchasers, Meek Mill has came back with another mixtape rapping off many beats, and featuring one beat from Drake’s Take Care, The Ride. Meek Mill has always been a hype rapper, just like Rick Ross. Maybach Music Group have always been a hype group. Wale is probably their most mellow rapper.

On this mixtape, Meek Mill starts the mixtape off with a track called Intro. It begins with a recording of Mike Tyson’s speech about being the greatest boxer ever. Im assuming its to show that Meek Mill is the number one artist in the game right now. As soon as the speech ends, he begins in the verse “There’s a lot of bad bitches in the building, amen” which is also the beginning verse for his third track “Amen”. I like how he did this how he could use both verses to fit both songs which is in my opinion smart for them. This mixtape was well anticipated ever since he got his fame off of his song Ima Boss featuring Rick Ross. Even though Rick Ross pretty much beat Meek Mill in the song, Meek Mill did increase more fans. With a great intro to the song, he continues in the album spitting alot of rhymes, and featuring many artists like Drake, Jeremih, Big Sean, and of course Rick Ross.

His first 10 tracks were well put together and his lyrics were in the right place. Even though he isn’t really talking about things much people care about, the fact that he is bragging in his lyrics are well put together. Meek Mill can rap. Defintely. He knows his wordplay well. The fact he doesn’t really rap about much kind of denies him one of the greatest rappers. Maybe he doesn’t have many problems, who knows. I just know that some do. Maybe he doesn’t like speaking about them. However, the last 10 songs weren’t so great. Like many MMG mixtapes, the last songs aren’t always the greatest. It seems after their first 5 tracks they stop trying in their songs and just throw together a heavy, disturbing beats with repeating rhymes and long choruses just to end the song. There are always those songs in the middle of the bad or decent songs that appear and get everyone hype. For instance, the song Str8 Like That and House Party Remix. MMG have been known as those kind of rappers. Which is not good. If you can’t think of anything else to rap about, then take like a year or two to create the best album or mixtape with the songs you thought were the most hype or the best. Many rappers have done that, including Nas.

MMG also like to end their LPs and mixtapes with a great song. Like for this album, he ended the mixtape with Outro. Its fairly short, just like the Intro. He raps about about how one of his homies found out about a guy with hundreds of crack rocks in his house is a punk and they are going to rob him for everything he has. Its a decent song, at least he is rapping about something about his life. He did talk a lot about his life when he featured in Wale’s song Ambition off of his Ambition album.

In the end, I give this album a mid-to-strong 7. It was well put together and its definitely an album to blast in your car on your way to work on practice or whatever you do. Its replay value is pretty high.

Thats all for now, Jay signing off.

Rick Ross – God Forgives I Dont Review

After multiple advertising from his previous mix tape, Rich Forever, Rick Ross finally releases his album, God Forgives I Don’t. The LP was released on the 30th of July, right before my previous album review, No Idols by Domo Genesis of Odd Future. Rick Ross has always been a hype artist. I believe he knows he is not a good writer, but he knows his music will get your head nodding. He’s known to repeat his lyrics consistently, which created his face in the Hip Hop community.

As the leader of the rap group Maybach Music Group(MMG), of course he is going to be known as the most famous and usually self proclaimed as the best. Honestly, I like Meek Mill and Wale better. Way better. Rick Ross is like Waka Flocka Flame. The beats are insane, and yelling or more of a stronger voice than most rappers. However on this LP, his lyrics were way worse than any other album or mix tape. He literally isn’t talking about anything. Especially his first single off his album, Hold Me Back, was mainly just repeating “These niggas won’t hold me back” about eight times each chorus. Plus, the verses were shorter than normal which means the whole song was mainly the chorus repeating how these niggas won’t hold him back. Honestly, who could hold him back? Thats the big question. Anyway, the album had some nice beats. I’d imagine the bass extremely strong. He could have done way better on this album. Meek Mill’s intro to “Dreamchasers 2” was insanely better than this whole album.

My rate on this… a 2 out of 10. The album had some good beats I will admit but I don’t like the lyrics at all. Its actually annoying. Anyway, that is my review.

This is Jay signing off.

Channel Orange Album Review | No Idols Album Review

Its Jay again. Channel Orange was released the other week, raising millions of albums bought. Frank Ocean also had two songs speaking to a male, instead of a female. The songs were Bad Religion, which is speaking about how believing that the man will love him back is dumb. The second song is Forrest Gump, referring to the actual movie and explaining his love towards another man.

The album was well put together, using the same ideas as Nostalgia, Ultra, having a tape-like intro and interlude. This is his first selection of songs where he features other artists, including Earl Sweatshirt, Andre 3000, and Tyler, the Creator. Earl comes in with a great addition to the song Super Rich Kids. A fan favorite is the song Pink Matter, featuring Andre 3000 coming in with an amazing verse and giving it that old school feeling. My personal review on Channel Orange is a weak 8/10. I feel the song Golden Girl was destroyed by Tyler, using his deep voice and rapping about something you cannot even understand. I do believe you should go buy the album right now. I recommend.

Now for the No Idols Review. No Idols was just released through Domo Genesis’ Twitter. Click Here to download now. The song was originally supposed to be sold in stores, but with some problems it was going to be a free album. Now with the review. The album was, alright I suppose. Alchemist and Domo joined up to create the album. Though, Alchemist hurts the album the most. Alchemist is the producer of all the songs and Domo attempts to rap over them, but the beat plays over his voice. With Elimination Chamber already proving Alchemist had his sample vocals and beat over the voices of the rappers, I felt the rest of the album will be the same. And I was almost right. Many songs on the 11- track LP had samples that spoke over the verses and sometimes it was vague to understand what they said. I do enjoy the beats though. The beats are amazing, especially the song No Idols. That was the only sample that I could hear the voice over. After using Rap Genius, I can understand Domo’s verses.

Honestly, I don’t really like the album that much. I expected way better. The features helped a lot, however. The song Elimination Chamber was great, including The Daily News featuring Space Ghost Purp (Earl Sweatshirt & Action Bronson), No Idols featuring Tyler, the Creator, and Gamebreaker featuring Earl Sweatshirt. I really only enjoyed those three songs. Prophecy, All Alone, and The Feeling were good beats too.

My rating of this album is… 4/10. I expected way better. Under the Influence was much more better than this album. Even the Untitled EP by Hodgy Beats, and he only had 9 short tracks. Go buy the album if you please, it features Earl Sweatshirt, Vince Staples, Action Bronson, Smoke DZA, Freddie Gibbs, Prodigy, and Tyler, the Creator.

Spoke Too Soon

In my previous post, I spoke about the rapper Domo Genesis not releasing a single off of his upcoming album “No Idols”. Last night at 12:30 Pacific Standard Time, he released a song called Elimination Chamber (click the link for download) or listen to it right now if you don’t want to download it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVkgUYARWao

My review on the song Elimination Chamber is pretty simple. The song featured, of course, Domo Genesis, Earl Sweatshirt, Vince Staples, and a new face to enter the rap game, Action Bronson. Domo Genesis did his verse like he has been doing recently ever since the Odd Future Tape Volume 2 album was released in stores, being cocky.  His wordplay is great and just how he sounds makes you want to believe he is a great rapper, which I do believe he is, but not that great. I loved his album Under The Influence. I really started noticing his cockiness from singles Hodgy Beats and Domo did together as Mellowhigh, and I do agree is worldplay has increased tremendously, but it’s just what he raps out. He isn’t talking about anything really. I will still listen to his music, and I can’t wait for No Idols. Domo Genesis did really well in Elimination Chamber.

Now onto Earl Sweatshirt. Of course Earl, with his tricky wordplay ever since he was fourteen, you will not understand what he says the first time you hear his verse. After doing research and following Rap Genius, I studied that he did excellent in the song. I do admit he didn’t do that well of a job this time, but I’m sure he will make up for that. Most artists don’t do well when they’re featured in songs anyway.

Vince Staples did a pretty good job in this song, after making a rare appearance, not having been on an Odd Future based track since Epar by Earl Sweatshirt on his album EARL. Though I find Vince’s bars to be quite amusing, especially in the song Moracular World by Mike G

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWOLOrlqFD0

At least he raps about life.

Now onto Action Bronson. His name has never been mentioned… that I have seen. I honestly believe he did a really good job. As a beginner rapper (I think), he come up and showed he was ready to let people know that he’s coming in the game strong. Though I believe the end of his verse was thrown together, not really well thought out.

Now onto the instrumental of the song. The sample was a good idea to put together, but the woman in the song with the background vocals repeatedly saying “one of these days” was louder than the vocals of the rappers, making the lyrics seem vague. The beat was mellow and you can definitely ride in a car to this song.

My ratings of this song, is a 4.1 out of 5. The sample killed it mainly, and kind of how the song was just spitting lyrics. I do definitely recommend you listen to this song for yourself.

Thats all for now.

Channel Orange Update / Sexuality

Hey its Jay again, here with Frank Ocean – Channel Orange coverage. Frank Ocean appeared on the Jimmy Fallon show, performing the song Bad Religion off of the LP CO. He released it early on iTunes, with reaching the number 1 LP in the iTunes store. The actually release date for stores is July 17, 2012. I will do an album review of his LP once it hit stores.

In other news, a large rumor spread about Frank Ocean’s sexuality. After critics reviewed his album, they spoke of him singing to a man in a song. Frank Ocean eventually released on his Tumblr and Twitter a post about a his love with a man. It is stated that Frank Ocean is bisexual. I, as many people, were shocked. The singer’s buzz grew tremendously. Some people tend to be homophobic and disrespectful, that Mr. Ocean loses his fans and is made fun of. True fans still support him throughout his whole career, whether he is gay or straight. Either way, I can not wait for the release of his debut album. Thats all for today, join me next time on some more Channel Orange coverage.