I was reading a little article with Nottz on HipHopDx this morning and it got me pretty excited for his album, You Need This Music, which is supposed to drop sometime this year. Nottz is one of my favorite producers out. He is one of the only cats who seems to have the ability to work with cats like Kanye, R. Kelly, Snoop, Rah Digga and Little Brother. His beats are always fresh and different. I wasn’t aware that he was a rapper and was putting out an album until I saw his video for Shine So Brite. The joint is really dope. He followed it up with a video and a song called Cars which is equally as fresh. I’m exactly sure when they album is going to drop but I WILL be bumping it for sure. Another exciting and interesting piece of information is that Nottz was supposed to do an album with the late, great J Dilla. He produced a track called Diamonds for Dilla from his album, Pay Jay, which never dropped but hit the net last year. Diamonds is one of my favorite Dilla joints ever and to hear Nottz did the track was really cool. For everyone NOT familiar with Nottz, check his credentials. Dude is amazing. Here are the videos for Shine So Brite and Cars, as well as a few other Nottz produced joints that I love. Happy Monday
Happy Muthafuckin Friday!!!!!!!!!! It’s Classic Shit Friday’s as promised and in support of an incredible Little Brother show in Chicago on Wednesday, I just had to put in the LB classic, Get Back. I love the first two albums and all of the mixtapes but Get Back is my favorite LB album. After 9th Wonder’s depature from the group, many wondered what LB would sound like. Get Back proves that they can still make incredible music with a new list of producers. The sound is fresh, different and definitely a step forward for Little Brother. The music sounds crisp, the lyrics are on point and every song hits the nail on the head. When you hear that shit live too, it sounds even better. I’m gonna miss LB but their legacy will live on for a long, long time as one of the illest duo’s on hip hop history and Get Back solidified that. My favorite joint is Can’t Win For Losing so, enjoy some classic LB below, produced by illMind. Happy Friday to all. Mike Murder drops next week.
I have a bit of depressing news this week after seeing some of the soundscan numbers. Little Brother’s FINAL album as a group moved less than 5K. Damn. I thought they had more of a stronghold than that. Maybe their numbers will go up in the next few weeks. Anyway, the usual suspects are up top. I wish I could give you all the numbers from soundscan every week but billboard requires a monthly fee and I don’t want to pay that just to see artists flop. Check the top.
I must say that it’s nice to see Cypress Hill make a “strong” return with 18K. Despite having a dope album, Devin The Dude moved just under 7K and Kurupt put out a project too. I was totally unaware of that. Anway, until next week………….
For the rest of the week, I am going to listen to nothing but Gang Starr and Guru but I wanted to share Little Brother’s new video for Curtain Call since I posted my thoughts about LeftBack yesterday. The video just dropped today alongside the album. I encourage everyone to go out and buy LeftBack. Another one of hip hop’s greatest groups has split up so, it is important to suppor their last release as a duo. LeftBack in stores now. Go get it. Here is the video for Curtain Call, which I must say is pretty dope. Shout out to Big Pooh and Phonte. We love yall. RIP Guru
This might be the moment that everyone has been waiting for including myself. I have been bumping the new LB album, LeftBack for several days now in anticipation for the official release tomorrow. As everyone SHOULD know by now, this is Little Brother’s last album together, which breaks my heart, so the anticipation and expectations have been high all around. After the classic shit on GetBack, I have been thinking about this album nonstop so, when I found out it was going to be their last, my hopes increased ten fold. The first track I heard was Curtain Call, which I thought was pretty dope. Seemed like a very fitting song for a last album. Other than that, I heard nothing about LeftBack except for a little Phonte and 9th Wonder Twitter “drama,” which made me lose some hope for hip hop. Nonethelesss, Christman came last week in the form of the new album and I have listened several times and my honest “unbiased” opinion is the album is a little disappointing. First off, some of the production I don’t really like. It doesn’t quite bang like the rest of their material. In addition, there are two remixes too songs that were featured on Getback. This threw me off more than anything. For a last album, I was hoping that all the tracks would be nothing less than stellar and although both of the originals were dope, the remixes are skips for me. Having said all that, it’s still LB, it’s still Phonte and Big Pooh. The music still has heart, soul and meaning. Phonte is sharper than ever and Big Pooh continues to step his game up. LeftBack is a little too feature heavy but Tigallo for Dolo is worth the pricetag alone. Although fans might be a little disappointed with the album, the bigger disappointment will be because this is LB’s last go round. Here is the track list, Curtain Call and my official farewell to LB. It’s be a pleasure.
1. Curtain Call (Prod. By Khrysis)
2. Table For Two Feat. Jozeemo & Yahzarah (Prod. By Khrysis)
3. Tigallo For Dolo (Prod. By Khrysis)
4. Revenge Feat. Truck North & Median (Prod. By Khrysis)
5. So Cold Feat. Chaundon (Prod. By King Karnov)
6. Second Chances Feat. Bilal & Darien Brockington (Prod. By Denaun Porter)
7. Go Off Go On (Prod. By Khrysis)
8. What We Are Feat. Quiana (Prod. By Young R.J.)
9. After The Party Feat. Carlitta Durand (S1 and Caleb’s Who Shot JR Ewing Remix) (Prod. By S1 and Caleb)
10. Two Step Blues Feat. Darien Brockington (Zo’s Purple Suit With The Matching Gators Remix) (Prod. By Zo!)
11. Get Enough Pt. 2 Feat. Khrysis (Prod. By Khrysis)
12. Before The Night Is Over (Prod. By J.Bizness)
13. 24 Feat. Torae (Prod. By Khrysis)
This week has been a pretty big week in terms of releases in the world of hip hop and R&B. Erykah Badu, Usher, Wu-Tang and E-40 all dropped new records. I, myself, have only heard two of those 4 records but two are very solid projects. Ms. Badu hit the charts at number 4 with her new album, The New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh, moving 110K. “Ursher” came in at number 1 selling 330K, while Meth, Ghost and Rae sold 38K at number 12. Here is the top.
I had NO idea how well the Wu was gonna do but I guess it’s alright. 3 of those copies are still wrapped at my house. I also bought 2 copies of Ms. Badu’s album, which happens to be my favorite album of the year so far. I can’t say I have heard much more than the radio singles for Usher new album but he seems to be doing pretty well. Little Freak featuring Nicki Minah is kind of hot. Stayed tuned until next week. April is certain to have some incredible releases. Little Brother’s album Leftback on the way.
It’s Wednesday and the weekly numbers are in for the first week in March. Sade is still holding on to the top spot, moving 127K. Black Eye Peas are still dominating things with another 50K and my boo, Miss Keys is still sitting up top. Here is top
Freeway and Jake One passed the 10K mark. Eminem and Jay-Z are neck and neck and Drizzy Drake is almost at 400K. A couple big releases later this year are Little Brother’s final album, Leftback and Meth, Ghost and Rae’s Wu-Massacre. Hopefully they will do at least 60K first week. Until next time……
Happy Humpday to every. I got a few things I wanted to post today. Last night, I came across Little Brother’s new single, Curtain Call from their new and final album, Leftback. I have been waiting for this album for quite sometime, so I had to share their new single with everyone. Curtain Call is produced by Khrysis, need I say more. Shout out to 2dopeboyz on the link.
I know this is a bittersweet moment for people all over the world but Little Brother’s next album, Leftback will be their last as a group. I guess Little Brother will fall to the same fate as many of the greatest rap groups ever. I don’t know if it is just artists growing in separate directions or the nature of this game but too many incredible groups have split. I guess we should all be thankful for the 4 albums and numerous mixtapes LB blessed us with but I can’t help but feel a little defeated. Anyway, the cover and tracklist for Leftback just dropped and I had to share it with everyone. Check the cover above and the track list below. I promise i will try not to shed a tear. Sigh.
1. Curtain Call (Prod. By Khrysis)
2. Table For Two Feat. Jozeemo & Yahzarah (Prod. By Khrysis)
3. Tigallo For Dolo (Prod. By Khrysis)
4. Revenge Feat. Truck North & Median (Prod. By Khrysis)
5. So Cold Feat. Chaundon (Prod. By King Karnov)
6. Second Chances Feat. Bilal & Darien Brockington (Prod. By Denaun Porter)
7. Go Off Go On (Prod. By Khrysis)
8. What We Are Feat. Quiana (Prod. By Young R.J.)
9. After The Party Feat. Carlitta Durand (S1 and Caleb’s Who Shot JR Ewing Remix) (Prod. By S1 and Caleb)
10. Two Step Blues Feat. Darien Brockington (Zo’s Purple Suit With The Matching Gators Remix) (Prod. By Zo!)
11. Get Enough Pt. 2 Feat. Khrysis (Prod. By Khrysis)
12. Before The Night Is Over (Prod. By J.Bizness)
13. 24 Feat. Torae (Prod. By Khrysis)
It’s dope to see Khrysis all over the album but I wish 9th had at least one joint. Regardless, I’m copping this shit the day it comes out. I am betting they moved about 30K first week. It would be nice to see them do 100K though.
Today, I wanna wish everyone an EXTRA happy Friday. Shout out to all the producers at the Big Tune last night at the Metro. Every producer did their thing. Shout out to Rob Bates, Nascent and Sacwe for doing their thing and shout out to the finalists J. Mac and J. Rell. J. Rell was the undsiputed champion of the night. I had never been to a beat battle before but I was definitely impressed. All the producers played some dope shit. The crowd was energetic and live as hell. Thanks to Tawwwwwwwwwwd for getting us in and holding it down like always. We had prime real estate to watch Little Brother rock the SHIT out of the crowd and see Just Blaze spin nothing but his own hits. This was my third time seeing Little Brother and every time they kill shit more than the last time. They are one of hip hop’s illest and greatest groups of all time. Phonte’s ass was freestyling while looking at twitter and hollering at chifashionista. They played several cuts and had the crowd captivated and jumping the whole time. Needless to say, I have been bumping LB nonstop. My official theme song for the rest of the day and the whole weekend is Dreams. LB performed this joint last night and it has been stuck in my head ever since. Everyone has dreams and most times “dreams don’t keep the lights on.” Some real shit for that ass. Happy Friday once again to everyone. I suggest everyone rock some Little Brother this weekend and if you EVER have a chance to see Just Blaze spin make sure you check him out. He spun all his own shit last night and it was amazing for real.
