Love Lockdown - Kanye West

Valentine's Day is among us and though I won't be celebrating it this year (at least I think I won't be) I'm still happy for all of you who have found your soulmate ... for the time being. While procrastinating I got the bright idea to do a spur of the moment playlist of hip-hop/rap love songs. Maybe they're not all about love and some just get down to the nitty gritty, but they're romance inspired nonetheless. Some are for hilarity (like Cam'ron's "Cookies-N-Apple Juice") and some have a more sincere feel (kind of like Mae Day's "No Ordinary Love"). Here's what I have on the menu for Valentine's Day 2010.

• Sugar - Busta Rhymes feat. Jelly Roll
• Rather Be With You (Vagina is for lovers) - Wale feat. J. Cole and Curren$y
• Mrs. International - Method Man and Redman feat. Erick Sermon
• Sex in Crazy Places - Gucci Mane feat. Nicki Minaj
• Invented Sex - Jay Beretta
• Cookies-N-Apple Juice - Cam'Ron feat. Skitzo and Byrd Lady
• Sexual Eruption - Snoop Dogg
• What's it Gonna Be - Busta Rhymes feat. Janet Jackson
• P***y Monster - Lil' Wayne
• Freaky Girl - Gucci Mane feat. Nicki Minaj and Lil' Kim
• My Neck, My Back - Khia
• Make Her Say - Kid Cudi feat. Kanye West
• Studio Lovin' - Wiz Khalifa
• Climax (Girl Sh*t) - Slum Village
• The Transitional Joint (Baby Girl Glow) - eLZhi
• Fly In Her Nikes - Mac Miller feat. Josh Everette
• Say It - P.H.I.L.T.H.Y.
• Someone As Real As Her (S.A.R.A.H.) - eLZhi feat. Dwele
• Down A** Chick - Ja Rule feat. Charli Baltimore
• Best I Ever Had - Drake
• Love Story - Big Sean feat. Keely
  
• P***y (I Promise) - JWan
• Bedrock - Young Money feat. Lloyd
• Infatuation - Young Scolla feat. K-Bunz
• No Ordinary Love - Mae Day
  

Happy V' Day. To download click HERE.

Summertime - Fresh Prince & DJ Jazzy Jeff

Summer is over.

Sunday I'm moving back to school which pretty much signifies the end of the year. Maybe you've seen my gripes, but for the first time in like...EVER, I don't have a summer song. Usually it's the most catchy song of the summer but seeing that "Best I Ever Had" has been playing in my life since December....yeah that's a no go.

This year I have come to love Detroit Hip-Hop...it's a scene like no other. I guess because it's so "new" to me that I'm so intrigued by it. So naturally about 85% of this playlist is Detroit artists. So what songs have I been (poorly) singing all summer?

1) Epiphany - Chrisette Michele
2) Transformers - Yung GooD
3) Victory 2009 - 101 (aka Marvwon, Ron Dance and Ro Spit)
4) Neon - Amanda Diva
5) Cloud 9 - Slum Village feat. Marsha Ambrosius
6) I Get Crazy - Nicki Minaj feat. Lil' Wayne
7) It's Nothin' - Detroit CYDI
8) Poke(h)er Face - Kid Cudi feat. Kanye West
9) I'm Good - Fly.Union
10) Solo Dolo - Pat Piff
11) Lean a lil' bit - P.L.
12) Marathon Sh*t - JFin
13) Say It - P.H.I.L.T.H.Y.
14) As I Em - Asher Roth feat. Chester French
15) Friends With Money - Drake
16) Infatuation - Young Scolla & K-Bunz
17) Jump Rope - Cool Kids
18) Billionaire - Big Sean
19) Just Ain't Gonna Work Out - Mayer Hawthorne
20) Rock-A-Bye - iLLite
21) First Date Sex - Mike Posner
22) Gettin' Down (Hoodrats) - NGC
23) Still Love H.I.M. - Mae Day

Want my playlist? Download it here.

Know What i"m Talking About - Gucci Mane

♫ RZA (yep from the Wu-Tang Clan) is planning a remake of The Last Dragon ( a 1985 Bruce Lee film). Nothing wrong with that, but he wants both Chris Brown and Rihanna to have roles in the film. Awkward Much?

♫ Official News on the Hova front, Jay-Z's album will be released on the 8th anniversary of The Blueprint..which is September 11, 2009 (for all the non-super-fans). Yes, some of the information leaked yesterday, but quality beats delivery with me and I had to assure the accuracy with this (basically info from blogs equal no-no). ANYWAY, this is a big deal, it's his first album with Warner Music Group. Before you jump ahead, that's the other Hov news I have for you, Jay-Z signs on for The Blueprint 3 with WMG/Atlantic, but Roc Nation (his label with Live Nation) goes through Epic. Though this seems complicated, it's all for distribution purposes because supposedly TB3 (my nickname for it) will be distributed through Roc Nation as well. Jay-Z is a business, man; I expect everything to roll through smoothly.

♫ There were rumors floating around that Mos Def had pushed back the release of "Estatic" until August but according to an e-mail Mos Def's label will be releasing the album on time June 9 (THIS TUESDAY), and beginning THIS Saturday, the album will be available for listen on his MySpace page. One track that has my heart jumping rope is the Talib Kweli/Mos Def (Black Star) collab on the Dilla (sidebar: "Jay $tay Paid" released this week, cop that!) beat "History" check it below.


♫ Weezy F. Baby says that "Rebirth" is finally ready for release. Production has finally been completed on the album (which has been pushed back 3 times already). Lil' Waye spoke with MTV briefly at the MTV Movie Awards and naturally was questioned about expectaitons:

Expect great music. That's all I ever want them to expect from me. I wanted to grow and show my growth as well. It's a difference from when you go in a room and come out and you're better and everyone says, 'How did you do that?' So with this album, I wanted everyone to see my growing pains.

I have never been anxious for a Wayne album...and nothing has changed, this shall be interesting though.

Successful - Drake Feat. Trey Songz

♫ Drake is about to begin filming the video for his first single "Best I Ever Had" The Canadian Degrassi alum told MTV that he just wants to make women feel special with the video:

The biggest thing about that song is that a lot of women come up to me and say, 'That's my song, because it really makes me feel special.' So I told the directors that were interested that I just want the visuals to coincide with that feeling. I want women to feel special when they watch the visual and say, 'I wish that was me,' or 'I know that feeling.' That's the goal with the video — to be genuine and not sappy. Keep it sexy and keep it together, but still make women smile

IF you haven't heard Drizzy is also working on his debut album and is rumored to have been in the studio with Jay-Z, Kanye West, Lil' Wayne (of course) and some smaller artists (actually the next big thing) Wale and Detroit's own Big Sean (well him working with Wale and Bg Sean are fact more so than rumors). Drake hopes to have the video finished by the time the BET awards air in late June.

♫ T.I. is getting his grind on behind bars and I'm not talking conjugal visits, either. He is set to release a new mixtape entitled, what else but, "A Year and Day." If you remember I posted one of the tracks for the tape that was leaked a couple of weeks ago and features Mary J. Blige "Remember Me." Some of the other featured artists on the mixtape according to MTV are Chris Brown and Kanye West, the tape also features re-realeases of tracks that were featured on the rapper's "Paper Trail" album.

♫ You've seen the video on blogs (including this one before the host site took it down...I'm going to find it again, lol) but Kanye West is NOT a happy camper because "Paranoid" video starring Rihanna was released. According to Ye, the video is "old" and is not the one that was intended for release. Here's what he said on his blog:

IT HURTS ME TO SEE THE OLD AND VERY WRONG VERSION OF THE PARANOID VIDEO GET LEAKED ALL OVER THE NET WHILE I WAS ON AN 11 HR FLIGHT AND COULDN'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT. IT'S JUST FRUSTRATING WHEN THIS STUFF HAPPENS BECAUSE I REALLY CARE ABOUT THE PRODUCT AND SINCE VIDEOS NEVER GET PLAYED ANY WAY YOU MIGHT AS WELL TWEAK THEM AND MAKE THEM AS SPECIAL AS POSSIBLE. THE VERSION THAT GOT LEAKED FROM THE CAMERA PHONE LAST WEEK IS AT LEAST A LITTLE CLOSER TO THE FINAL PRODUCT. THANK YOU EVERYBODY FOR YOUR SUPPORT BUT THAT VIDEO WAS NOT UP TO MY STANDARDS.

Word, I admire Kanye, not many artists care about the quality of product they produce as long as they make money off of it. I thought the "wrong" "Paranoid" video was dope, can't wait to see the real one. Below is one of the screenshots for the REAL video that the Louis Vuitton Don posted on his blog.

Umbrella (rmx) - Rihanna feat. Jay-Z & Chris Brown

♫ Has Jay-Z been in every one of my news updates? If you remember Hov just got out of his contract with Def Jam and according to Billboard, he is close to inking a deal with Epic Records. It is said that the deal is 95% complete and will combine Jay-Z's RocNation releases with Epic for distrbution purposes. There were rumors swirling that Mr. Beyonce was going to make the switch to Columbia *sidebar: Epic and Columbia are both under Sony BMG* because of his close ties with the label and the fact that Beyonce is signed to them. So, hopefully it's smooth sailing for Mr. Carter so "The Blueprint 3" can hurry and drop (this Anti-auto-tune thing has me anxious!)

♫ Many celebrities have Twitter, Facebook, Myspace and of course YouTube accounts. There is a new trend among them called livestreaming, it's a way of recording so that the viewer gets to see what they're doing. Why am I telling you this? Well Chris Brown (haven't heard that name in a while) and Bow Wow (hahahahaha) were live-streaming together from Shaq (yes, that Shaq) crib. Still wondering why this is news? Well during the stream (turned YouTube vid) Chris Brown actually speaks and says "I ain't a monster," you don't have to be a super-genius to figure out what he's referring to. He does go on to talk about his new album that's supposed to be released sometime this year and thanks his "real" fans for sticking by him.

I don't do all this talking on the thing, this is just some new stuff I'm doing. I just wanna say 'what's up?,' because I ain't been out there in a minute. But the new album is gonna be coming soon. We working on it right now. It's called Graffiti. It's got everything on it, so y'all be ready for that. I'm about to drop a single this summer for y'all. We ain't going nowhere. Everybody that's haters, they just been haters. All my real fans, I love you. I ain't a monster.

[grazie MTV for transcribing ;-) ]

♫Speaking of Chris Breezy, his ex-breezy Rihanna may have to appear in court. Last Month, Brown's lawyer attempted to have the case dismissed due to the fact that evidence had been leaked online, but the judged denied his request. According to the Associated Press, Rihanna's lawyer said he will likely receive a subpoena for the singer to testify in a preliminary hearing June 22. If this does happen Rihanna could be subject to cross-examination by Brown's lawyer. *could possibly be the most interesting court case since O.J.'s*

Hollaback Girl - Gwen Stefani

♫ I heard this earlier in the day, but I was waiting on the official say so from the news sites. Yesterday boxing legend Mike Tyson's 4-year-old daughter, Exodus Tyson, was hospitalized and on life support after an accident on a treadmill. According to various news sites, she was discovered by her 7-year-old brother tangled in cords on the treadmill and paramedics were called yesterday morning. CBS quoted Sgt Andy hill about the situation.

Somehow she was playing on this treadmill, and there's a cord that hangs under the console - it's kind of a loop. Either she slipped or put her head in the loop, but it acted like a noose, and she was obviously unable to get herself off of it.

Exodus was pronounced dead today at about 11:45 a.m.
My heart and prayers go to MIke Tyson and his family.

♫ T.I. finally went to jail today. Mr. Harris is expected to serve the same amount of time as rapper Lil' Kim did, one year and a day, but if he is well behaved he will get out in ten months on good behavior. T.I.P. will be spending his time in an Arkansas prison (meaning that the judge denied his request last week to be moved closer to Atlanta). But that really won't matter, T.I. will be on probation for 3 years, have to do 2 more months of house arrest, and 470 hours of community service.

♫It took him a minute but Nick Cannon FINALLY responds to what happened to the disappearance of the Eminem post on his blog. If you don't remember (and are too lazy to look at my older posts) Nick Carey ranted on and on about Slim dissing him and Mariah on "Bagpipes from Baghdad," but Cannon insists that the reason the blog isn't up si because of "technical issues." The controversial blog generated so much traffic that it constantly crashed the site. I'm not a genius or anything but unless he sent a smoke signal out saying I don't have the post up anymore wouldn't people still visit, traffic still be heavy, and the site would still crash? Do remember that Eminem said he never saw the post and didn't get the opportunity to read it. NC also backtracks on a couple of things, he says he has no beef with Eminem and that it was just one of those things that he HAD to say. Sorry nick, but according to what you posted you wanted to battle Slim, realized that the chances of you coming out of that battle unscarred were slim to none?

♫ I knew there was a reason I loved Jay-Z, he is doing Blueprint 3 AUTO-TUNE FREE! Do you understand the joy I am experiencing? Actually it's bad when youhave to promise your fans that there will be no auto-tune on an album..shows the trend needs to die. ANYway, Kanye West said Hov' is taking his time with the album to give people the best product he can to his fans. The Louis Vuitton Don also told MTV:

We actually removed all the songs with Auto-Tune off of his album. To make the point that this is an anti-Auto-Tune album, even though I released an album that has all Auto-Tune! "t's music; it's just sonics. I like Auto-Tune so I do it, but you want the other thing — like you'll wear a suit to a wedding and gym shoes to a basketball game. I think it's a perfect moment for Jay to provide some gym shoes to a basketball game right now.