Who said Hip Hop’s dead?

 

The past month has been ripe with new albums, and beats that would even make the 90’s proud. J Cole, Wale, Kanye and Jay Z have supplied us with plenty of jams to last the summer. Each of their new albums have lived up to the name, and quiets the notion of hip hop dying. If you haven’t gotten a chance to listen to that new new, now would be a pretty good time.

 

J Cole’s “Born Sinner” which was on released June 18th, has got Cole going in hard in a way we haven’t seen before. His previous album “Sideline Story” was a disappointment after all the hype that was surrounding it, especially after his mixtapes (“Friday Night Lights” and “The Warm Up”) preceding it were such a success. “Born Sinner” is almost a confessional, with Cole rapping about his complicated and mixed feelings of himself. In “Niggaz Know” Cole summarizes his mixed feelings of himself best with the hook “I hit the road, I made a name, I came home, I aint the same”.  Despite Jermaine exposing himself in ways we haven’t seen before, he still manages to flow like the old Cole were used to hearing. One of his best flows in the album is in “Aint That Some Shit (Interlude)”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the other best tracks on the album include: “Land of the Snakes”, “Let Nas Down”, and “Niggaz Know”. Featuring artists like Kendrick Lamar (“Forbidden Fruit”), 50 Cent (“New York Times”) and Miguel (“Power Trip”), the album is a must listen.

Kanye West like J Cole released his latest album on June 18th, by the name of “Yeezus”. For anyone that didn’t already know that Mr. West is the biggest narcissist known to mankind, one listen to this album and the word is given new meaning. Starting with the title “Yeezus”, Kanye’s constant need to assert his self proclaimed divinity is a theme that rages throughout the album. Combined with the narcissist theme, Kanye makes it a point to let us know that he doesn’t care what we think of his music. In fact listen to “On Sight” at 1:12 when he says “How much do I not give a f***? Let me show you right now” and then proceeds to play a completely random clip of children singing.

Overall, the music is dark, and doesn’t feature traditional hip hop beats, but Kanye spits with the same fire and mean flow that his fans have grown up appreciating. Just check out “Blood on the Leaves” and you can see how he goes in, particularly after the 3:00 min mark..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With Daft Punk producing 3 of his tracks, Kanye also shifts towards electronic/synthesized sounds, and modified vocals as heard in “On Sight” and “Guilt Trip”. Despite his raucousness and unorthodox sound, Kanye delivers in a different way that may not help him in the sales department, but then again he doesn’t seem to care at this point. “Yeezus” may disappoint Kanye fans if you’re looking for old school West, but if you are ready for some out of the box Kanye, then the album is actually challenging and refreshing.

Moving on to Wale’s “The Gifted”, which was released just one week after Kanye’s and J Cole’s albums, I have to admit while it’s a good album, Wale has yet to take the next step up. From his previous album “Ambition” to “The Gifted”, we waited for Wale to show us something new, but he has yet to do so. While he makes a concerted effort to get some big name artists on the album, like Whiz Khalifa, Rick Ross, and 2 Chainz, he doesn’t give us anything to get overly excited about. Some of the best tracks include: “Gullible”, “Love Hate Thing”, and “Bricks”. You can hear “Gullible” below, it has got a nice soul feel to it, and reminds us what Wale is capable of doing:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall the album while not spectacular or groundbreaking, it does provide Wale followers with some entertainment for the time being. We’ll see what he does for an encore.

 

Last but not least, we have Brooklyn’s finest, Jay-Z and his “Magna Carta Holy Grail” released on July 4th. Its been awhile since HOV dropped a classic album but the Magna Carta is just that. Reminiscent of the Blueprint days, Jay-Z’s latest album is a combination of lyrical genius and beats full of swag. From sampling Nirvana’s classic “Smells like Teen Spirit” to collaborating with Rick Ross, and Frank Ocean, Jay-Z shows off his wide range. For who Kanye tried to alienate with “Yeezus”, Jay-Z attempted to reign in with some of his more commercial club banging beats, as heard in “Tom Ford”:

 

 

 

 

Some of Jay’s most honest moments however come in his slower not so radio friendly songs. Jay has been around the rap industry for 17 plus years, but we’ve never really seen this side of him. Take “Jay Z Blues” for instance, where HOV raps about his daughter Blue Ivey: “Now I got my own daughter, taught her how to take her first steps/ Cut the cord watch her take her first breath/ And I’m trying and I’m lying if I said I wasn’t scared”.  It’s a testament to how far he’s coming and how much he’s matured.

While Jay-Z may have received a lot of flak for his over the top marketing and corporate greedy partnership with Samsung, you can’t dispute that the King of New York is still at the top of his game at the age of 43. Count on MCHG to be HOV’s 13th number 1 album of his career. Just like he says, #youknowhegotit.   

 

Written by: Zubair Khan

7/8/13