Sade - Soldier of Love

Go buy this now. And proceed to have a great Valentine's Day.

Melanie Fiona - "You Stop My Heart"

Chop Up Artist Spotlight alum, Melanie Fiona wishes a Happy Valentine's Day to each and all with a short video version of "You Stop My Heart." Melanie will be going on tour with Alicia Keys and hoping to make some believers of skeptics. The Bridge album is currently in stores and it's fire. I just recently BOUGHT a copy and I have nothing but great things to say about it.

MELANIE FIONA " YOU STOP MY HEART" from Paradoxal Inc on Vimeo.

Joell Ortiz feat. Novel - KAWL ME

Well I be damned! Mr. Yaowah made a song you can rock to. Holy Shit! I thought this is more of what Royce or Budden would do, but I LOVE this joint. Joell can tell pretty good stories and his wordplay stays slick. And I still can't figure out why cats still sleep on Novel. He is like the underground Ne-Yo. He murders hooks for errbody! This is officially my new ish. Free Agent in stores (iTunes at least) mid-April.

The Dead Weather - I Cut Like a Buffalo

Jack White is at it again!! Thank the Lord for AMTV. He's formed a super group of sorts called The Dead Weather and they are not playing around. This is MY ISH right now! Listen and enjoy.

Kidz in the Hall - We Gone

New Naledge and Double-O!!! I still play The In Crowd like it came out last week or something. The album comes out in March and I'm all over it.

Kidz In The Hall – We Gone from Motion Family on Vimeo.

Lloyd and Pusha T

Mack is a big Clipse fan, and I think Lloyd is an underrated artist. So without further ado, here is Lloyd's new single featuring Pusha T.

Melanie Fiona - It Kills Me

Artist Spotlight alumni Melanie Fiona does her thing with the video for "It Kills Me." I've always liked the song and the video just adds to the delight. The whole funeral scene at the end came out of nowhere and was pretty fresh. Hopefully we will get an album very soon.

Forever - Drake feat. Kanye, Weezy, and Em

Better late than never, right? But, the only real reason to watch this video is to see the LeBron highlights. Too many fireworks and lights. Apologies to all my epileptic friends who may have had an adverse reaction to all the 'stuff' going on.



Courtesy of OnSmash

Artist Spotlight - The New Royales

You may not know the group by name, but you definitely know the music. The New Royales is a collective fronted by music producer DJ Khalil. Khalil has produced some of my favorite beats 0f 2009 including "The One" by Slaughterhouse and "Kinda Like a Big Deal" by The Clipse and Kanye West. The group also consists of instrumentalist Chin Injeti, writer Erik Alcock, and singer Liz Rodrigues. They do a great job of fusing different types of music and sounds to create a sound all their own. "Kinda Like a Big Deal" has so much going on it takes a few listens just to catch all the different drops and nuances. This collective is part of a larger feeling out there that genres of music are nothing but labels. Sometimes you cannot classify a sound, a beat, or a vocal. Sometimes music is just music. I'm listening to the song they did with Bishop Lamont entitled "City Lights" and it's bananas!! He's rapping as hard and as gully as you can go. The beat is very hip hop as well. But, when the hook comes on it goes straight rock and could easily be something you would hear on a Daughtry or a Hinder album. "Hit N' Run" is another song they have where you can't really label. Is it rock? Is it pop? I don't know but it's addicting either way. Liz Rodrigues has one of the most chameleon-like voices I've heard in a while. It's reminiscent of some Electronica or Techno music on "Everywhere", but on "The One" it's soooooo rock n' roll! The music that they are putting out now furthers my argument that there is so much good music out there. They have yet to drop an album, but I know it can't be too far away. Dr. Dre has already given them a co-sign so things have to be on the horizon for the group. Check them on MySpace to witness the music first hand!!

My Personal New Royales Soundtrack:

The One - Slaughterhouse (produced by DJ Khalil - video below)
City Lights featuring Bishop Lamont
Kinda Like a Big Deal (produced by DJ Khalil - video below)
Everywhere featuring Self-Scientific
New World Order (video below)

http://www.myspace.com/thenewroyales

Clipse feat Kanye West - Kinda Like A Big Deal from Malice of the Clipse on Vimeo.

Ghostface - Stapleton Sex (NSFW)

DISCLAIMER: This video probably wouldn't make The Chop Up under normal circumstances. Probably......

But, the Cinematographer went to the same high school as us and we wanted to give props. Keep doing ya thing SC III! And on a side note, isn't Ghostface too old to be making songs like this???? I mean this isn't even really a song. Just talking over a beat. Oh well. I'm going to buy the album just off GP.



Props to OnSmash

New Diddy-Dirty Money "Love Come Down"

In the midst of Jay-Z's Blueprint 3 and the Drake phenomenon Diddy's "Last Train to Paris" has been lost in the shuffle. It should drop late '09 or early '10 and has potential to be interesting. Check out the new joint from the album.

Drake feat. Trey Songz - SUCCESSFUL

Trey adds a verse. Weezy subtracts a verse. I heard Thank Me Later comes out on Valentine's Day so I'm guessing he is going to have to release at least one more video before then. This whole Drake thing is starting to have BUST written all over it. I think the music on the album is going to be good and I think he will sell respectable numbers, but if he would have struck while the iron was scorching, the impact would have been huge!! I mean Jeremih sold like 60,000 his first week with one song. Drake could have done about 300,000 easy. I'm not sure if this wait is a good thing or a bad thing, but it's not the strategy that I would have used.



Props to Nahright and On Smash

Drake feat. Kanye West, Lil' Wayne, and Eminem - FOREVER

I liked this better when it was a Young Money record. I never thought I would say that given the star power on this joint, but it's the truth. This song sounds rushed and thrown together. The verses are cool, but the record doesn't sound as big as I think these artists may have wanted it to be. After Forever and Swagga Like Us I'm beginning to think that these superstar posse cuts are better ideas than actual products. I mean the energy and cohesiveness isn't the same as songs like "Niggas Done Started Something", "Blackout", or "24 Hours to Live." Those songs were hot because they didn't seem forced and the verses complimented each other. Oh well. I'll still bump this in the ride and enjoy it, but it shoulda been hotter. I mean the original Young Money version had Kid Kid saying "Make a plumber throw his plunger in the air, like 'I Can't Deal With This Shit!'" Classic!

http://2dopeboyz.okayplayer.com/2009/08/26/drake-forever-f-eminem-kanye-west-lil-wayne-prod-boi-1da/

Courtesy of 2 Dope Boyz.

Ghostface feat. Raheem DeVaughn - BABY

I think Ghost is taking LL Cool J's spot as the ladies' rapper. Well Drake is taking that spot, but Ghost is coming in a close second. This song is smooth! Tony Starks has an album dropping in September so make sure you are on alert.



Brought to you by OnSmash and the good folks at Nahright.

Blueprint 3 tracklist

1. What We Talking About (Produced by Kanye West)

2. D.O.A. (Death Of Auto-Tune) (Produced by No I.D.)

3. Weigh Me Down (Feat. Kid Cudi) (Produced by Kanye West)

4. Unforgiven (Produced by Kanye West, Additional Production: MGMT)

5. Run This Town (Feat. Rihanna & Kanye West) (Produced by Kanye West)

6. Empire State Of Mind (Feat. Nas) (Produced by Kanye West & No I.D.)

7. When It Comes To This (Produced by Timbaland)

8. Always (Feat. Drake) (Produced by Kanye West)

9. Scenes From The Past (Produced by No I.D., Co-produced by Kanye West)

10. Everyday A Star Is Born (Feat. Mr. Hudson) (Produced by Kanye West)

11. Already Home (Produced by Kanye West)

12. Forever Young (Feat. Mr. Hudson) (Produced by Kanye West)

13. Thank You (Produced by No I.D.)

Bonus Tracks:
14. Sound Of The 70s (Produced by Kanye West)

15. We Made History (Produced by Kanye West)

Drake - The Winner

"I'm never lookin' down, so I always know what's uuuuuuup." - Jimmy from Degrassi

New Drizzy! I really hope I don't get tired of hearing this guy before he even releases an album. This song is good, but sounds more like an album track than a single so we'll see. But, I can tell Drake has a knack for putting words together and rapping so this kinda stuff is prolly easy for him. Link Below. Props to 2DopeBoyz.

http://2dopeboyz.okayplayer.com/2009/07/11/drake-the-winner-prod-tha-bizness-cdq