Kendrick Lamar

At first all I heard of this guy was, "Yo, he's the next big thing in rap." And really I just thought that was a bunch of ghetto kids who listen to bad rap hyping him up. I spent a long time not listening to him. But then something drove me to finally download his album. I listened to it all the way through and I shit out of my ears. It was amazing. I strongly suggest you listen to it. It tells a terrific story. You can't listen to it seperately, you have to listen to it fully all the way through.

The album starts off with him rapping about his life as a young teenager in the hood. Rapping about the parties he goes to, friends he hangs with, the girls he messes around with. Until he gets a call from his mom and dad telling him to come home.... then they end up fighting and it ends with dad telling the mom to "Not Kill My Vibe".

Every transition of this album is perfect. At first Kendrick is a kid who drinks and smokes his life away until he realizes that its stupid in the hit song "Swimming Pools (Drank)". He tells how money is what makes the world go round and how much easier it would be if it was here in "Money Trees". He also shows his sentimental sides in how girls don't want a thug they want a poetic romantic in "Poetic Justice". Then he tells his stories of being an underprivellaged kid in Compton in "Good Kid" and "Mad City". Then after hearing of his friend and companions dying off, he sings a sad song about how he hopes people will remember him in "Sing About Me" and how he needs to learn his morals in "Im Dying of Thirst". Then he closes off this masterpeice with the streets made him and he's never gonna change with "Real" and "Compton".

This guy is for real. His rhymes and lines are just ridiculous. In the song "Sing About Me" he says "and if I die befor your album drop I promise I'll...." and all you hear is gun shots. That's just genius. He also slips in small things like in "Money Trees" he says, "with all disrespect". Just small things like that can make a rapper.


My favorite song by him is Sing About Me

The most popular song is probably "Swimming Pools"

Stevie Wonder: Talking Book

I love this album. The sound is just so ahead of it's time. It was shocking to know this album came out in 71-72. Every song flows perfectly and I like it cause his voice doesn't just go with one sound like many singers do. His voice goes with every sound. Whether it be rock, funk, soul, ballads, whatever it is he sounds perfect.

The album starts off with a great smooth song "You are the sunshine of my life". And then the bass drops on "Maybe Your Baby". That bass is just so ridiculous I love it. And the fact that Stevie Wonder plays every insturment except Sax and he did all of them for Superstition?? Possible his best song... that's insane.

My favorite song on the album for sure was his ballad "I Believe"

The Roots

Last night I listened to three roots albums in a row.... Thing Fall Apart, Illadelph Halflife, and DoYou Want More?!!!??! And I gotta say Do You Want More was my favorite so far. Some of the lines Black Thought spits are amazing. "I wake up early in the morning, I mean early afternoon. Break lyrical hymn of the stem like boom, I'm flyer when I'm higher put my shit up on a tomb" that line is sooo sick. And I like Do You Want More because I get a nice chill feeling when listening to it. I love Proceed and Mellow My Man. And also Distortion to Static is a tight track. Definitely a go to album when I'm just chilling out.

Illadelph Halflife.... I hated the first track "Respond React". It was so repetitive and annoying but then "Section gave me that nice Roots feel. Overall the album is ok. Maybe I didn't get a good listen out of it. I feel like the sampling on that album is poorly executed. I'll have to listen to it again to really be able to judge it. But "What They Do" is one of my favorite songs ever.

Things Fall Apart..... I didn't fully finish this one. (Fell Asleep) Looking at the track listing alone makes it seeme like a unique album. I really can't judge it right now, but once I'm finished with it I'll let you know.

Overall my favorite track off of Do You Want More is "Proceed"

My favorite Roots track overall is "What They Do"

Marvin Gaye

I've listened to a little Marvin Gaye before we listened to him in class. But ever since What's Goin On? I've been stuck on him. His smoothness and passion of his voice and lyrics is impecible. What's Goin On? is a great album to go to sleep too. It serves all sides of music to me. Heartbreak, Influence, Comedy, Fun, Passion, its the whole package.

Now I'm listening to Let's Get It On.... I like What's Goin On? more. Let's Get It On is very good in it's own way. It's just What's Goin On? is amazing. Every track I love.


Really can't wait to listen to more of Gaye.

Curtis Mayfield and Bobby Womack

I love the music we're listening to in class right now. I love R&B because they sing with so much passion and energy in their voice. Also their voices are all smooth or rough and I love it.

Personally I liked Bobby Womack more. "Fire and Rain" is a killer track and his voice.... it's unique. Plus his song writing is very good. I like it because he sings smoothly.

Now Curtis Mayfield. I'm sure I probably wasn't listening fully but all of his songs seemed to have over exsessive horns. Sometimes I couldn't hear him fully.... But overall he's also great. He has a lot of passion in his voice and its powerfull. I'll listen to Superfly again so I can get a real good listen in.

Overall my vote goes to Womack right now. Womack is a talented terrific artist. He's worked witht he best in the business. Guitarist for Aretha for a while. And he worked with The Family Stone on some tracks as well.

Really want to get more into this Soul movement we're going through.

Grammys 2013

Well that sucked ass. I mean the performances were alright. LL Cool J was a bad rapper as it is, but as a host he was the worst.
The opening was Taylor Swift, (doing a Lady Gaga impression) singing that annoying We Are Never Getting Back Together which sounds like a song played in an Old Navy commercial. There was like circus shit flying around and off tone singers and it just made me uncomfy.

Then Fun. tore shit up. They weren't playing anything that was overplayed on the radio, they played there other great song "Carry On". And as it was about to drop to the last chorus, it started to freaking rain on the stage. So it was pretty cool.

Next was Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z and I was expecting a mediocre performance. But JT did it right. He brought out a huge jazz band and it was tight. His singing was good, dancing was awesome, and plus he knew how to outreach to the crowd.

Next was this guy I never heard of called Miguel. He had like a 5 minute performance with the god awful rapper Wiz Khalifa. Good thing Wiz didn't really do anything cause Miguel did everything. He started out in the crowd wailing crazy notes, and then he made the beat himself. He ran up on stage and started singing more to this crazy good song. Then Wiz "rapped" for about 20 seconds then it was over and I was like "The Fuck?"

Next was Jack White and he killed it. For the first part he had an all guy band then for the second half an all girl band. Ridiculous skills.

Then I was looking forward to a nice tribute to Bob Marley. It had a pretty good lineup, Sting, Bruno Mars, Damien and Ziggy Marley. Sounds like a good time. They're singing the famous "Could Be You Loved" and then Rihanna shows up. I try to ignore her. Then they stop. One Marley song??? Really??? Despicable.

Overall the grammys were alright. Frank Ocean was good. Won 2 awards, Im happy.

Nirvana: Nevermind

First time I've ever listened to this album all the way through, and I love it. Like you and Sage said, every song is a single. The only song I really didn't like was "Territorial Pissings". That song to me sounded like a bunch of noise. But overall the album is a 9/10. That 10 minute pause reeeaaalllly tripped me the fuck out. I thought I finished the album and I thought "Hmm. That was a weak ending." Then I looked at my iPhone and it still was playing, I thought "Is this song broken or what?" Then the drop to the hidden song started and that was amazing. And also the album starts off with the best song of the 90's "Smells Like Teenage Spirit"

My favorite song on the album and possibly my favorite Nirvana song is "In Bloom". At first I thought that song just had a good melody and sounded good and catchy. Then I really listened to the lyrics and those lyrics were describing what I was doing. It was awesome. Great album. I liked it cause the bass playing was straight nasty with Kurt Cobain's unpretty, grungy, voice it was the shit.

Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell's voice is incredible. It's pretty much rediculous how wide her range is vocally. She is one of the rare singers that have to break point between their regular singing voice and their falsetto. She is rediculous and her song writing is pretty genius. Although sometime throughout the album, I feel as if alot of the songs sound the same. Maybe that's just me but I tended to get bored with it. I would listen to Joni Mitchell after an intense breakup. Because a lot of her songs just have this sad depressing mood with depressing lyrics.

I like the songs All I Want, California, and River. To me those were the songs that spoke to me personally.

In one of her songs, she delivers her lines in a way where it's like she's not really singing. She is singing, but it's mostly like a conversation, like the words aren't even meant to rhyme. And it reminded me a lot of this Deadmau5 song I like. It's about miscommunicating on the phone and all that. It's not exactly a DJ dance song, more of a ballad like Joni Mitchell does.

My favorite Joni Mitchell song on that album was "All I Want"

And that song where they basically don't sing, It's more like a conversation is this one. It's "Telemiscommunications" by Deadmau5

Imagine Dragons

I just downloaded their new album last night, and it's not bad. The only thing wrong with it is that all the songs sound alike, plus I know the radio is gonna kill and rape the shit out of this album. Because while I was listening to it I was like, "oh, there goes another hit" which isn't a bad thing. It's just I hate it when it is a hit because the radio is gonna ruin a perfectly fine song by forcing it down my throat. Overall I like it because it's a new sound. They have a variety of sounds they use, a lot involve claps with sythesizer, which i love. But then they'll throw in elements of electronic/dance/dubstep and it sounds nice.

 It's just a lot of times their lyrics don't make a lot of sense. But sometimes you don't need that in an artists. Their songs are for sure catchy as fuck though. I looked them up live for their performance of "Radioactive" (an alternative dubstep track.... the radio has already raped it) and it didn't sound how I wanted it to. The singer wasn't belting like he does in the recording and the dub wasn't there either.

Overall, I give this album a 7/10. It was very good and a chill album with a different sound for sure, but every song sounded the same and the lyrics lacked depth. Also another personal point off for me because of the live performance no where matching the recording.

Their most famous song, with elements of dubstep, "Radioactive"

And another famous song, "It's Time"