Kanye West - “Amazing” (Featuring Young Jeezy)

Kanye, stop it. You’re making me nervous, bro. I’m all for experimental and “different” but your new artistic direction (and I use that term loosely) is borderline ridiculous. Amazing? Today must be Opposites Day because “Amazing” is anything but. All the bells and whistles in the world cannot cloak the sheer mediocrity at display here.

Bottom Line: Good intentions don’t always yield good music. But I’ve got my forks and knives on stand-by mode, ready to eat my words if 808s & Heartbreak turns out to be an instant classic.

Bonus Tracks:
Kanye West - Streetlights
Kanye West (Feat. Lil Wayne) - Tell Everybody You Know

I’ve been avoiding Charles Hamilton’s Sonic the Hamilton mixtape like a leper, and after reading Xplosive’s scathing synopsis of the mixtape I’m still not interested in it.

Peep game:

The conclusion I’ve drawn after listening to Sonic the Hamilton is that the hipster rap movement is nothing more than recycling of what we called backpack rap until about a month ago. The same people have traded in their backpacks and Ecko hoodies for Louis Vuitton man-purses and designer brand flannel.

Ouch! Catch more of Xplosive’s well articulated rant at Xplosive World.

Jay-Z - “History”
Oh boy, not that whisper flow again. By the way, this is the radio rip, complete with Jay and Angie Martinez talking at the end. Here’s a slightly DJ-less version, courtesy of Arthur.

Bonus: Common - “Changes”

If you’re looking for some politics-flavored hip-hop music to keep you company as you wait for tonight’s result, look no further than The Tape Deck Vol. 13 (Barack Obama Edition), brilliantly assembled by Ivan.

• Download - The Tape Deck

But wait, there’s more… (more…)

Nas & DJ Green Lantern - Election Night

From the man who gave you “Black President” and co-penned “My President Is Black” comes “Election Night”. Here he recaps Obama’s journey, referencing his grandmother’s death. Apparently, this was written within the last 24 hours.

[Spotted @ NR]

This is a slightly modified version of “Shaka,” off Q-Tip’s The Renaissance, due out on election day. They modified it to include an excerpt of Obama’s speech at the beginning. Whatever happened to the actual collaboration we were promised?

Nicki Minaj - Beam Me Up Scotty

I don’t understand half the stuff Nicki Minaj is saying here but damn if that beat isn’t catchy. I can see “Beam Me Up Scotty” incinerating dancehalls all over America.

Halloween and hip-hop don’t always mix. But the rare occasion when they do always leads to a cataclysmic clash of epic beautiful proportions. Much of hip-hop is fiction anyway, so fabricated stories about ghosts and goblins shouldn’t be that hard to begin with.

One of my all time favorites has always been Geto Boys’ “Mind Playing Tricks on Me.” No, that’s not my H-Town bias speaking; that’s my knack for robbing kids of candy bias in action. Creepiest song I ever heard? “Dance with the Devil” by Immortal Technique. Seriously, how mentally fucked up do you have to be to go through with that song concept?

Peep my Halloween hip-hop playlist after the cut. (more…)