By: James Harris

One of the most anticipated albums in years drops tomorrow June 15, 2010.  Drake releases his first studio album, Thank Me Later, and as I predicted the critics have gone on a rampage.  There are mixed reviews over the album some saying that it has “let them down” or that it “didn’t own up to the expectations”.  The question is did Drake even have a chance to meet expectations with this album?  He’s been the hottest rapper in the game for the last year and a half, everyone and their grandmother has been waiting for this album, he’s been deemed the golden child of hip hop, and even greats like Jay-Z have co-signed him.  That’s like Barry Sanders saying some high school kid is going to be the best running back ever to play the game of football.  How do you own up to that?  What did people expect from Drake?  A friend of mine told me he thought that Drake’s album should have been more raw and uncut for a rookie album but instead it came off confident and more laid back.  People are failing to realize that Drake isn’t some unpolished rookie rapper off the streets of Toronto he’s been making music, he’s been in the spotlight, and he’s made money in the past.  He put out a mixtape that sounded like an album, booked a nationwide tour off that mixtape, and got signed off that mixtape. So Far Gone was the 5^th highest selling rap album of 2009 and it was only a mixtape!  Drake’s singles “Best I Ever Had” and “Successful” as well as his feature on “Every Girl” were smash hits of last year.  Bottom-line Drake has already had his rookie year we just didn’t recognize it.  Don’t get it twisted though Thank Me Later is still extremely introspective and raw in its own way but Drake has matured with his success and you can hear it in the lyrics and song choices.

In waiting for the album the only thing I worried about was that Drake was going to stray away from the format of So Far Gone and try something off the wall that fans were not going to accept.  Luckily he didn’t he stuck with what works and put together a quality album with great production and features that added to (but didn’t overpower) the project.  The album spans the emotional spectrum from victory to heartbreak in the 14 track playlist.  Drake allows the listener into his world of fortune and fame and the issues that come with it in “Fireworks” where he worries that his success will change relationships with his closest friends. Tracks like “Karaoke” and “The Resistance” show his internal struggle with trying not to change as he continues to grow in the spotlight.  The cocky more confident Drake comes out in tracks like his single “Over” and “Up all Night (ft. Nicki MInaj)”.  Drake holds his own on tracks with features by heavy weights such as Jay-Z, T.I., Jeezy, and label mate Lil Wayne.  Even though it seems that people were expecting Drake to jump out of their iPods in a “f@ckin red jacket and some zippers” and perform the album as a hologram in order for him to meet their expectations I personally am happy with the album. So I’ll thank Drake now for good music.  Album drops tomorrow go get it.

Favorite Tracks:

Fireworks, Show Me A Good Time, Light Up (ft. Jay-Z), Miss Me (ft. Lil Wayne), Thank Me Now

Tracklist

1. Fireworks (featuring Alicia Keys)
2. Karaoke
3. The Resistance
4. Over
5. Show Me a Good Time
6. Up All Night (featuring Nicki Minaj)
7. Fancy (featuring T.I. and Swizz Beatz)
8. Shut It Down (featuring The Dream)
9. Unforgettable (featuring Young Jeezy)
10. Light Up (featuring Jay-Z)
11. Miss Me (featuring Lil Wayne)
12. Cece’s Interlude
13. Find Your Love
14. Thank Me Now

Written By: James Harris

For the past week I’ve been listening to the same album on repeat, hearing the same two voices and dealing with the same feelings of sadness and disbelief. Little Brother released their final album 4.20.2010 entitled Leftback. The duo (originally trio before producer 9th wonder left the group) released their first album The Listening in 2003 and have been making waves in hip hop ever since. From their first release Little Brother has been known to bring it to the heart of their listeners by dealing with issues that many recording artists are scared to deal with such as the “shucking and jiving” that record labels make some artists do to be heard. Their single “Lovin It” was banned from BET because it was “too intelligent for the listening audience”. So as I listened to their final album on the day that one of hip-hops pioneers took his final breath (RIP Guru) I couldn’t help but be sad for hip hop.

I heard the rumors that L.B. would be breaking up and focusing on their solo careers for a while but I didn’t want to believe it; but when Phonte is doing interviews and describing the album as the group’s denouement (its ok google it I had to too) and with tracks such as “Curtain Call” where he basically passes the torch to hip hop youngster such as Drake, Pac Div and Wale and “Tigallo for Dolo” where he literally says “all by myself” the reality is inevitable. This is the final Little Brother album. We will have to wait for Phonte or Rapper Big Pooh to be featured on the others solo album to hear them together again. It is definitely a tough pill to swallow.

The album Leftback is a classic Little Brother album even though they are now working without producer 9th Wonder. I was worried that without him behind the production the group would lose its sound but they were able to maintain the same smooth sound accompanied by great wordplay. I’ve had the album playing for a week and I’m sure it will be in rotation for months to come. Though I hate to see them go I’m glad L.B. left out on a good note with a solid album.

So hip hop heads turn your faders down half way, B-Boys put your hats down low and lyricist cut your mics off for a moment of silence for the end of Little Brother. Thanks for making real music you will be missed.

Favorite Tracks:

Curtain Call, Tigallo for Dolo and Get Enough Pt. 2

Tracklist:

1. Curtain Call (Produced By Khrysis)
2. Table For Two (feat. Jozeemo & Yahzarah) (Produced By Khrysis)
3. Tigallo For Dolo (Produced By Khrysis)
4. Revenge (feat. Truck North & Median) (Produced By: Khrysis)
5. So Cold (feat. Chaundon) (Produced By King Karnov)
6. Second Chances (feat. Bilal & Darien Brockington) (Produced By Denaun Porter)
7. Go Off Go On (Produced By Khrysis)
8. What We Are (feat. Quiana) (Produced By Young R.J.)
9. After The Party (feat. Carlitta Durand) (S1 & Caleb’s Who Shot JR Ewing Remix) (Produced By S1 and Caleb)
10. Two Step Blues (feat. Darien Brockington) (Zo’s Purple Suit With The Matching Gators Remix) (Produced By Zo!)
11. Get Enough Pt. 2 (feat. Khrysis) (Produced By Khrysis)
12. Before The Night Is Over (Produced By J.Bizness)
13. 24 (feat. Torae) (Produced By Khrysis)

Written By: James Harris

A fellow music lover asked me a question the other day that I can’t let go, “Is music today, better than music 10-15 years ago?”  First off I couldn’t believe I was old enough to remember music 10-15 years ago (you’re only as old as you feel right?)! Secondly, I had to really analyze the question to determine what position I would take on the matter.

About 10-15 years ago albums like All Eyez on Me (Tupac), Illmatic (Nas), Reasonable Doubt (Jay-Z), The Big Picture (Big L), Capital Punishment (Big Pun) and Ready to Die (B.I.G) were in steady rotation.  There’s no doubt there were some real classic hip hop records made then.  These days mainstream hip hop pushes artists such as Jay-Z and Lil Wayne to artists such as Soulja Boy and The Party Boyz.  Obviously things have changed.  I can see how it would be easy to say that the state of music as a whole, at this point, is paling in comparison to the classics of the mid to late 1990’s.  However, I think that’s just surface talk.

Back in the day artists didn’t have the avenues to get their music to the masses like today’s generation (i.e. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube) so to be heard you had to be, without a shadow of a doubt, incredible.  Record Labels were not taking chances on someone that may be here today and gone tomorrow; they had to be relatively sure that if they released your album your skills would be respected and your records would sell.  In other words, you had to be damn good to be heard nationwide because the internet wasn’t as heavily used to self-promote artists.  Today, on the other hand, anybody with access to the internet can promote themselves as an artist.  Talented or not, with or without a fan base, anybody can set up a MySpace music page and call themselves the “Best Rapper Alive.” Companies are handing out record deals to people that get a million listens on YouTube or MySpace.  Due to this, we as listeners, are bombarded by a ton of music, some fantastic and some downright horrible.  And at times the horrible music is the music that makes it to the radio.  Again I can see how it’s easy to say music today…sucks. But I think that’s just background noise.

The fact of the matter is this, the different avenues of distributing music have served as both a gift and a curse to the consumer and at times the curse seems horrible.  But (I know this whole time you’ve been waiting for the “but”) these same avenues have brought us some real diamonds in the rough.  If you dig deep enough through all the music being thrown out there, you will find some great tracks, albums and artists.  The first time I heard a Drake track I was searching on YouTube and saw a clip that read “Congratulations Drake.” Initially I thought it was some type of graduation comedy clip.  I was obviously happily mistaken! Based on that clip I downloaded every Drake mixtape I could find from Room for Improvement to (at the time the most recent) So Far Gone.  I found the super group Slaughterhouse by running across Joe Budden’s twitter account and reading him talk about JoeBuddenTV where I heard my first snippets from the group (if you haven’t heard Slaughterhouse you are missing out- get the album).  In addition, it was because of the YouTube-based JoeBuddenTV that I found a new found respect for Budden (Escape Route was one of the best rap albums of 2009 in my not so humble opinion). J. Cole promoted himself, made a mixtape. It got into the right hands and somehow found itself on Jay-Z’s desk. I could literally go on for hours about the various artists that have benefited from the ability to get their music to the masses without a deal, promotion or a budget.

So what is my answer to the question?  I think music today is as good and in some instances better than music before.  I say that because we still have seasoned veterans making good music such as Jay-Z, Nas and Eminem and in addition to that we have a roster of new up and coming artists that have great potential such as Drake, Wale, Joe Budden, J. Cole, Joell Ortiz, and Crooked I to name a few. Look I know it’s easy to say that music is horrible right now if all you listen to is the radio- you have to dig deeper.  I know its easy to say that every time you get an email blast from MySpace artists you wished you hadn’t pressed play- keep giving it a chance.  I know it’s easy to say that back in the day wack rappers didn’t get to shine- don’t be discouraged.  You have to realize that there is more opportunity now for more people to try to be heard but if you look hard enough and listen close enough you’ll hear the type of hip hop that you’ve been longing for.  Its out there, trust me…

To keep up with this month Lady MC…here is the classic freestyle battle between Roxanne Shante vs. Sparky D…. I don’t know why this reminds me of Nicki Minaj and Lil Momma

To continue with reppin the ladies during Women’s International Month…we’re going to take it back to the one and only group Salt and Pepper…. you can’t get more classic than with push it

Light as a feather hard as a rock…. In homage to one of the first lady MC’s to rock the mic, MC lyte’s Rock the body…Let’s start international women’s month right… Big up to Ladies who held down hip-hop without holding us down!

Let’s start the New Year right with this classic track. Ahmad, Back in the day…enough said…

Shot out to the Good Life freestyle  on this one…

Effects of Hip Hop Video Images

For a long time researchers suggested that Black Women were not affected by media images at all (Poran 2000). It was thought that Black women were protected by a “racial subculture” that guarded them from negative body images. However when more in-depth studies were conducted, different conclusions were formed.

Princeton professor, Melissa Harris-Lacewell breaks down the concept of fictive kinship and how it applies to African Americans, and more specifically Black women and media images.

Check Harris-Lacewell full presentation above

Harris-Lacewell says that the story of any one person in a marginalized group successful or not, has an effect on the ethnicity as a whole. Just as a Black role models have a positive effect on African Americans, negative images, or images that don’t measure up to the standard of the roles models, can have a shaming effect. This point is especially important in looking at the images of African American women in videos. When Black women appear in music videos in sexually submissive and misogynistic environments, the whole of the race feels the affects of each women’s transgressions.

These images promote a psychological effect of shame that the Black women community feel as a whole. The shaming effect has little to do with whether or not the Black woman participates in the culture that is promoting the negative images and all to do with the fact that you are Black. For the near fact that all African American women are connected through this fictive kinship, when a Black woman views a music video, apart of herself is affected.

To further expound on the affects of Black women images have on the mental and emotional well-being of Black women, a study called, The Politic of Protection: Body Image, Social Pressures and the Misrepresentation of Young Black Women was conducted. The study suggested that Black Women were less likely to feel little to any emotional response to seeing pictures of white woman, however produce deep emotional responses to seeing images of Black women in the media (Poran 2006).

Another study in 2003, tracked the impact of Rap music videos on African American Adolescents’ Health[1]. The study enrolled 522 single African American females between the ages of 14-18 from December 1996 through April 1999. Of the females that enrolled 92.2% completed the 12-month follow up.The average amount of Rap Videos watched at the 12-month check in were 12 hour per week. In that time 37.6% acquired a new sexually transmitted disease, 4.8% hit a teacher, 12.1% reported being arrested, 14.8% had sexual intercourse with someone other than their steady partner, 44.2% reported using drugs and 44.4% consumed alcohol. Compared to the adolescents that had less exposure to rap music videos, the study group were 3 times as likely to hit a teacher, more than twice as likely to be arrested, 2 times as likely to have multiple sex partners, and 1.5 times more likely to have and STI.

The bombardment of negative images of Black women provided in music videos, coupled with the lack of positive images to compensate (Ward, Hansbrough & Walker 2005, Jones and Shooter-Gooden 2004) produce psychological responses that can lead to low self-esteem and low self worth among African American women (Harris-Lacewell, Ward, Hansbrough & Walker 2005).

The effects of low self worth on African American women

A negative body image of oneself can lead to destructive behavior, acceptance of violence and other unhealthy choices (Wingood et al. 2002, Shambley-Ebron 2008, Ward, Hansbrough & Walker 2005, Wingood et al. 2003)

In terms of sexual health and HIV/AIDS there is direct connection between body image and the willingness to engage in risky behaviors (Wingood et al 2002). A study looking at HIV/AIDS prevention for African American girls suggest that exposure to repeated negative media images at a young age might influence their sexual decision and identity (Shambley-Ebron, 2009). It’s not hard to conclude that there is a correlation between seeing repeated negative images, like the ones portrayed in rap music, and uptake in risky behavior.

When looking at tolerance to violence, young female who watched rap videos were more likely to be accepting of teen violence than they were before watching the video (Johnson et al. 1995). One of the reasoning behind this phenomenon is that females watching other females in subordinate position were more likely to feel that that was a women’s place (Johnson et al.1995). Women who don’t value themselves or other women are less likely to value their safety or other women’s safety women it comes to domestic violence.

African American women, who suffer from low self worth and self-image, might also indulge in “corrective behavior” (Hall 1995).  Some of these include cosmetic surgery, use of skin cream, eating disorders as well as psychology issues such as depression, self-hate and obsessive compulsive disorders (Hall 1995).

Robillard, and Edward W. Hook, III.2003 A Prospective Study of Exposure to Rap Music Videos and

African American Female Adolescents’ Health, American Journal of Public Health, 93 (3):437–440.

Hello Hello Hello Everyone…and Happy Tuesday, well if you are seeing this on Tuesday. Today I’m going to mix it up a bit with the classic joint. Usually I grab a track from way back, but today we’re going to take a trip into the future. I’m apologizing beforehand for this, because this artist album is not available in the U.S. and I’m sure you’re going to want to cope this.

V.V. Brown is one of the hottest new artist to come out of the U.K. She has a classy soul style that is all her own. Her voice brings back memories of Etta James, but in a neo-rock type of way. Brown blends funk, soul, rock and R&B into a mix that I can only describe as if the Neptunes got together with Joss Stone and the David Matthews band and had some sort of off the chain jam session. Below is a track off her first album Traveling like the light. Brown if definitely the new artist to watch. Holla

If you would like to learn more about Brown visit her here.

So does anyone even remember when Andre 3000 was just regular old Andre from ATL? If not, below is the super classic from Outkast. Coming straight out of 1993, player’s ball was Outkast’s very first single. This song is featured on their album Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik released in 1994. If you’re looking for a classic album that is knocking from start to end… Look no further… Aw… there is nothing like a classic, hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.  Oh by the way the video is actually the remix of the original song.