Jimmy Buffett

Last night I went to go and see Jimmy Buffett at the circuit of the Americas. Although this isn't quite my style of music, I enjoyed his concert because it was nice to just lay back and listen to Margaritaville. 

The Fugees & Lauryn Hill

Earlier in the week, we listened to The Score by The Fugees and we listened to a small part of the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill by Lauryn Hill. I really like both of the albums and I thought that there were tons of quality verses in what we heard. I thought that Lauryn Hill was the best member of The Fugees because she was excellent at articulating her raps and she would find the creative ways to rhyme words. Wyclef and Praz were much more difficult characters to understand but I thought that each of them still possessed their own unique sound, and as a group they meshed together well. 

Reincarnated

When I first heard that Snoop Dogg was going to try and create a reggae album, I really wasn't that surprised. I mean snoop smokes 75 blunts a day and so he fits right into Rastafarian culture and Jamaican music. I downloaded the album when it came out but I never gave it much of a listen because that really wasn't my type and style of music, but after watching this documentary I will give the album another listen. I didn't really think that it was necessary for them to make a 96 minute documentary on this though, because all it does is show how much weed snoop dogg on the daily (which is ridiculous; how does he function?). But it did show a little bit about his journey and how he got Into the idea of creating reggae and then eventually creating a funk album. 

Green Day

Today we watched this documentary about Green Day. I'd never been much of a fan of Green Day and so most of this was new to me. I'd heard 21 guns and American Idiot but I had no idea that they were the artists behind those songs. Also those guys seemed crazy. They performed with a ton of passion and courage and I thought that that was special. Also, I thought it was interesting how they were able to create characters and write songs about them and it reminded me a little bit about how Kendrick Lamar did that in his album. 

Faces

Earlier this week I downloaded this new mixtape by Mac Miller called "faces." It was different from the previous Mac Miller that I had been exposed to. It was very slow and had more of any school sound that focused more on lyricism and rap flow than instrumentals. It had a few similarities to his past album but I think it was a little more sophisticated and I think he should've made it an album. He featured Earl Sweatshirt of Odd Future in a few as well and thought that that was a good choice because Earl has a similar flow to Mac's new style and they sounded good together. 

Short In-Class Performance

Today in class we had the luxury of seeing a nice little in class performance from a choir student (drawing a blank on the name) and her older brother. I thought that it was a really performance and it was nice of them to do that in from the 6 people that were in class. He was a very talented guitar player and although I could tell she was a little shy, she had a beautiful and I enjoyed the way that they harmonies together at certain points in the song. 

Detox?

So I think it was yesterday when Apple announced that they are interested in purchasing Beats By Dre. Now apparently beats is worth $3.2 billion and that would a ton of cash in Dr. Dre's pocket (as if he needed it anyways). 

But I have a theory that now that Dr. Dre is even richer, we may finally see detox drop and find out if it's nearly anything that it's been hyped up to be. 

Movie 5/1/14

Today in class, we watched a movie about how black and white people were able to get together and make music during the civil rights era. I found it to be amazing that this was possible and that in a southern racist state like Alabama, they could unite and make music.

JMBLYA

On Saturday JMBLYA is coming to New Braunfels and I will be attending this year. If you haven't heard, JMBLYA is a 1 day festival featuring mainly rap music. It comes just to Dallas and New Braunfels. This year, it features a few rappers that I'm actually interesting in seeing including Denzel Curry, Riff Raff, A$AP Ferg and Chance The Rapper. 

I think I've actually posted a blog about all of these guys before except for Riff Raff. 

Riff Raff isn't really all that great of a rapper, but he performs with such high energy. I think that he'd put on a good show because he is kinda crazy. 

ACL Lineup

Yesterday, the 2014 ACL lineup released out to the public and tickets went on sale. Of all the years that I've lived in Austin, this has been the most appealing lineup that I've ever seen. 

I can't believe that they got Eminem to come. I think to get Eminem tickets to just see him in concert it would cost like $200 and to pay $225 is such a steal. 

The next headliner is Pearl Jam. I've never really been a fan of pearl jam and never taken interest, but I've only heard goood things and I think it would be cool to check them out if Outkast or Eminem weren't conflicting. 

OUTKAST. That would also be an awesome show to go to. A few years ago I saw big boi at ACL and it was a pretty good show so I know that seeing the full duo would be even better. When I was first exposed to Outkast it was through their newer music and hits such as "Hey Ya", but when I got older I downloaded all of their older albums and I really like ATLiens and Aquemini. 

Lastly, Skrillex is coming. I would never really listen to his music but his shows are pretty cool with the light show and the raving. 

Overall, if just those 4 people were coming and no one else relevant to me, I would've been satisfied and it would've been better than last year. Unfortunately, I won't be able to go this year because of college. But in Miami, there is the Ultra Music Festival and I look forward to seeing that lineup when it releases in May. 

The Art Of Rap

Today in class we watched a documentary called "the art of rap."  I really enjoyed this documentary. It introduced a few things about rap and rhyme that I'd never really came across. I really enjoyed the acapella freestyles throughout the film. I thought that all of them were unique to one another and they all had different styles and patterns in the way they were spoken/rapped. 

My favorite was Rakim. I liked his because he used an extensive vocabulary and he had a unique flow that featured rhyme after rhyme after rhyme and a lot of internal rhyming. I also thought it was pretty cool how he tried to explained how he writes his raps and how his lyrics actually have more meaning. 

Another one of my favorites was immortal technique. We had previously listened to a little bit of him when we listened to "Dancing With The Devil". I thought he was interesting in the fact that he physically gets his adrenaline up before he raps and it gets him going mentally to spit verses and write raps. 

Help! Remixed

The other day, I was going through some of my old Lil Wayne music from 6-10 years ago and stumbled upon this remix of Help! by the Beatles. Before this school year, I had never ever listened to the Beatles and so I never actually knew this was a sample of that until just now. 

But anyways, lil Wayne freestyles of a remixed version of help. I thought that the remade beat was pretty cool and he flows over it pretty nicely. Here's the link 

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yYPXFeTkBKk

Nirvanna

Over this past week, we listened to that nirvanna album that features the naked baby on the cover. I had never before this week listened to any of the album except for the hits that were featured on the guitar heros or rock bands that I played in middle school. I'm not generally a fan of rock music, but I like nirvanna. I like Kurt Cobain's ability to not only play the guitar but also sing. I like his singing voice and I believe that he was extremely talented. It would've been interesting to see what he could've done if he didn't die so young. 

Other than him, I'm not very familiar with much of the cast though. It would be interesting to hear what the band sounds like without him. 

The Young Sinatra

Last week, I chose to blog about Logic, who also refers to himself as the Young Sinatra. Ironically, since last week he announced that he would be touring his EP entitled "While You Wait". I guess this is what he's giving out to the fans as we wait for his first ever studio album. 

But anyways on the tour list he's making three stops in Texas and luckily one of them will be in Emos in Austin. I look forward to seeing him and I'm planning on buying tickets right when they go on sale so that I can get them cheap. 

Since I plan on seeing him, I actually did a little research and watched a few interviews and I learned a lot about him that I never would've guessed.

First off, he dropped out of high school when he just 16 years years old. Both of his parents were addicted to crack and he's actually pushed away from his mother and they haven't spoken since he was a teenager. After he dropped out, he found a friend's house to crash at and would work two separate jobs from 5am to 10pm. Then, he would go home and rap until 2-3 in the morning and get up the next day and do it again.

He's actually a really interesting guy and I would post the link to one of his interviews but I'm not on the computer but if if search "Logic hardknock tv" you should be able to find them. 

Biggie & Pac

Today in class we watched the Biggie & Pac movie. This was my first time to ever actually watch the movie and it actually informed me of a lot more than what I thought I knew. I didn't know that 2pac and Biggie were good friends at a point in time and I never imagined that one of them ever opened up for the other. I would've never guessed that 2pac enjoyed acting, and acting as rick James of all people. 

Ultimately, I've always liked 2pac music more than biggie. I think that he's a better lyricist and he raps about more meaningful things than biggie did. Also, I don't really like biggie's voice all that much and at times, it's hard for me to listen to listen to him. 

I believe that 2pac is still alive though. And he's currently hiding under a McDonalds in Las Vegas. In 2017, he will release anywhere from 10-15 albums and it will change up the game. 

Biggie is dead though. 

Logic

Logic is a rapper that I think you should actually check out. He's a rapper who I think is in college but he may have graduated. He's half white and half black and he kinda talks about it a lot. And even sounds like a mixed guy. But anyways, he actually has some lyrical ability and I'm not sure who his producer is, but whoever it is actually makes some cool beats out of other songs. 

He has songs that remix artists like Adele, Kanye & several others.

One of my favorite logic songs is titled "Young Jedi" and it features dizzy wright. Another of my favorites is called "All I Do". 

Hair Metal

Today in class we watched a bunch of different hair metal videos. There's so many abnormal things about hair metal, that I just don't know where to start. 

First off, these guys really needed to have changed their attire. In this day and age, appearances are everything and almost everything is often judged just straight off appearance. These guys dressed like chicks with low cut shirts, tight pants, and makeup. If I was a parent, there's NO WAY I would've let my kids watch this shit. 

Also, they not only dress like women, but they move and dance and almost sound like women. 

Lastly, this music has a different sound to it than most other genres of rock, and even other genres of metal. I can see how it's catchy and people can enjoy it, but the lyrics don't really get through to me. It's hard for me to understand what they're saying and when I can, it's hard for me understand the meaning.

Or nah?

A few weeks ago I posted about the weeknd and how I liked a remix of one of his songs. Recently he remixed this song by Ty$ called or nah. A lot of different singer and artists have remixed this but I like his version the best. 

I think that the weeknd is a great singer and he does a great job in this remix. The lyrics are a tad inapropriate but when you have a nice voice, I don't think that that is all that important. 

I'm not sure why I favor him over most other R&B singers but I guess he just has a sound to him that I like. 

Movie

I thought that the movie we watched in class was pretty interesting. I didn't like it as much as the hip hop movie we watched but I did prefer it over some of the stuff that we looked at during the first semester. 

I thought that it was interesting to see what the African Americans had to endure. It must have really difficult for them to play a song like sweet home alabama during such a tough time. It seemed like the artists really didn't have much say even though they were the ones who were gifted and talented. It was interesting to see how much things have changed since that time. 

MJ!

Young Michael! Today in class we took a listen to thriller. I ashamed to admit it, but I've actually never heard this whole album and I've mainly just listened to most of the hits. 

I really enjoyed it and it obvious for anyone to understand how it was the top selling album in history at one point before those bastard Eagles came in and ripped away Mike's championship belt. I thought that the album had just the right amount of funk mixed with R&B. And on top of that, MJ has a great voice (because he sounds like a chick) which is what carries it over the top. 

I hope that we can listen to more related music in the future. 

YG - who do you love?

Over the break YG came back from the dead and released an album called "My Krazy Life." YG has been out of the game for a while and he surprised me when he came out with this. Now the album as a whole is alright and it's mainly filled with songs that you'd hear in a club, but it's still a quality album. 

My favorite song off of the album was called "Who Do You Love?" and it featured Drake. It's got a really good beat and I think it's a new club hit. 

Now there's really only two quality verses and then the song turns into bullshit so if you take a listen I think you should stop after drake's verse. YG's opening verse is alright except it's just a little repetitive and he says "nigga" like 20 times. Drake's verse is much much better and although he might not be spreading the best message, he does do a nice job with his rhyme and he even includes some of the internal rhyme that we talked about before the break. His verse is also twice as long and that's most likely because he's just the better rapper. 

Sanctified

Over the past week or so, Rick Ross released another album. This one was called "Mastermind". I haven't listened to the whole thing yet, but I have started listening to some of it. Out of what I have listened to, my favorite song is "Sanctified" which featured kanye and Big Sean. 

The song begins a sample from some soul music but I'm not sure the name. After that ends big Sean and kanye both go over the hook and then kanye starts rapping. When his verse starts, the beat kinda switches and the bass comes in. I really liked the beat of this song and I thought that it was really chill and slow. Unfortunately, big Sean never really got to spit a verse on the original but he does have his own remix where he does and it's much better than rick Ross or kanye. 

SXSW

So since I will be at the beach during spring break and mainly during the second half of the week, I won't be attended any of SXSW this year. Unfortunately, this means that I won't ever have attended and most likely will, since there's a pretty low chance that I go UT next year. I'm not too disappointed about this though, because out of the other places I'm considering for college, there are tons of music festivals every year. 

I'm deciding between university of Miami and USC, both of which are in large cities that have amazing music festivals every year. Miami has the ultra music festival and LA has coachella and I'd really look forward to going to one of those over ACL. In my opinion, ACL is for older people and it's mainly indie and various genres of rock. I'd prefer to go to a concert for younger people since I'm 17 and I feel like those concerts would serve me better. 

Schoolboy Q

Earlier in the week Schoolboy Q came out his 2nd studio album entitled Oxymoron. I thought that this album was a little disappointing and a little worse than his first one. 

His lyrical ability is still really really good but some of his songs were just weird and uncomfortable. But he still had some really good songs that I favored.

His song with Kendrick Lamar named "Collard Greens" was one of the better ones on the album and it even has some rapping in Spanish. My favorite song is called "Hell Of A Night" and it's one of the few solo songs on the album. I thought that it had a really cool beat and it's one of the better lyrical songs on the album. 

Rhyme & Punishment

I'm glad we watched this movie today, you know what I mean? I hadn't really listened to a lot of the guys they interviewed like prodigy and 40 bloc but I had never known that hip hop artists were being cracked down that they were, you know what I mean? I thought that a lot of the guys were pretty funny too, you know what I mean? I couldn't believe the stories that Prodigy told where they were trying frame 50 cent. I just thought it was rediculous on their part in attempting to get him to do that, you know what I mean?

I also enjoyed Project Pat's story too, you know what I mean? I think that it's crazy that he saw a stabbing every single and was sent to such vicious prison for the crime he did, you know what I mean? 

But anyways, I thought that the movie was very informative. It was interesting to see all the different ways these guys ended up in jail. However, it makes hip hop music look terrible with all of these stars behind bars, you know what I'm sayin?

Drunk In Love - The Weeknd

I'm not sure if you listened to or even heard of The Weeknd, but I think that he's one the best, if not the best R&B singer alive. A couple days ago, he released a remix of Beyoncé's drunk in love. 

Personally, I believe that his version is much better than the original because of the style. He changes a few words but for the most part the lyrics are the same. Where the song differs, is his delivery. He has a great voice and he uses different tones and styles than Beyoncé. 

I think that you'd like his version more than Beyoncé's as well. 

CALL ME: Blondie

Before going into class today I had never even heard of Blondie before, BUT I had heard the song "call me" and never known the name. I really liked this song. I thought that it was catchy and it had a nice sound. The guitar riffs were on point and the vocals matched very nicely with them. It didn't really sound like Blondie is much a of a punk band but I guess they are! I look forward to listening to more of them in the future and hear different eras of their career. 

Music In Class: Me

Today in class I played Regulate by Warren G and Nate Dogg. It's one of my favorite old school songs. I like how they switch off and pick up off of each other's verses. Also I've always really like Nate Dogg's voice. I'm not sure what it is about it but his voice is amazing. I've never really heard any other songs by Warren G but he has a nice old school flow and I thought that all in all, the song was well executed. 

Music In Class: Chris & Will

Christian: Christian played the song "Bastard" by Tyler, The Creator. I'm not much of a fan of Tyler and his music and it actually kinda scares me. This song in particular was actually really scary. Tyler curses way too much and the beginning of the song, I thought was just was too unnessesary. He then played ANOTHER Tyler song and it was even worse. I liked the beat, but the rapping was just terrible. After that, I'm convinced to never put that kind of music on my phone ever again. 

Will: I liked wills music much better than Christian. He played New Edition and I thought it was much better to listen to. It was peaceful and I hadn't listened to that kind of music in a long time. I liked his old school choice. He then played Juicy J so there was really no surprise there. 

ScHoolboy Q

I think earlier in the first semester I posted a blog about schoolboy and how I had been a fan of him.  Well now he has an album named "Oxymoron" coming out on February 25th and I really look forward to it. 

He's released a couple singles from the album and I really like all of them. They are entitled "man of the year" and "yay yay". 

Schoolboy has a flow that separates him from many others. He often mixes it up and changes his sound to surprise his listeners. I look forward to his album coming out in a few weeks. 

Red Hot Chili Peppers Halftime Show

As we all know, the Red Hot Chili Peppers decided not to plug it in during their halftime performance at the Super Bowl. I know everyone has different opinions on the matter, but personally I don't mind then choosing not to plug in.

First off, the nfl didn't even want them to plug it in. They thought that it would too much trouble have them plug it in and if something had gone wrong, it could've been a terrible disaster. 

Also, I thought that it was very honest of them to not even try to fake playing. I didn't think that they were being stupid about it; instead I thought they were just trying to stay honest as not try to fake it as if they were playing.

In the past, many other Super Bowl performing bands have the same as the peppers and I don't blame them for doing what they did. 

Denzel Curry

So a few weeks ago I bought a ticket for Jambalaya which is a one day music festival in New Braunfels. Tickets were cheaper if you bought them before the lineup was released so I gave it a shot. They released three different phases of people on the lineup and after each phase was released, ticket prices increased.

Of the people released so far, one of the more recognizable names was Denzel Curry. 

I hadn't listened to him very much before the lineup was released, but I started up again. He's a young rapper and he has a really nice flow. In my opinion, he's a "better" Joey Badass. If you want to check him out, listen to Threatz or any songs off of "Notalgia 64" if you know how stream mixtapes. 

Grammys

Last class we discussed the winners of the Grammys. Personally, I don't think that the Grammys really have much to say about who actually has the "best" work. It's more of a political contest and the winners are people that you'd hear on the radio.

For example, Macklemore won best rap album. I don't have anything against Macklemore but everyone knows that he didn't have the best album. Even he knew that he was robbing kendrick. He posted a picture on twitter of a text to kendrick saying that he was robbed. 

I don't really follow any of the other categories, but after seeing this kind of disappointment in the rap category, I'm guessing that there a ton of other disappointments around the rest of the music community. 

A New Song By Future

A few weeks ago, Future released a song entitled "Sh!t" and yes that's exactly how it is spelled. I really liked the song, but the only version that I bothered finding time to download was 11 minutes long!

The song features like 12 rappers and all of them spit a few bars. Some of the versus are good and others are really bad. 

The main reason why I liked this song is because of the production. It is produced by MikeWillMadeIt who is one of the best hip hop producers alive right now. Without his beat this song really would just be a mess. I really haven't found a song that he's produced that I haven't liked yet. 

I think that you should give the first couple minutes of the song chance because it really gets worse and it progresses. 

R.E.M.

Today, on this beautiful Tuesday I'm class, we discussed R.E.M. for a little bit before watching the Big Star movie. I've never really been to familiar with  R.E.M. and this I'd only heard their hit "Orange Crush" because of when I used to play guitar hero in middle school. I really liked that song but I'd just never really taken much interest in discovering any other songs that they'd released. 

Due to my previous exposure to R.E.M., I hope that we could listen to a little more of thier music so that I could possibly have a new view of them. 

My Own Lane - Kid Ink

Earlier in the year, I posted a blog about Kid Ink and how I was excited to hear his new album. Well it's been a few months and his album finally came out and now I'm here to talk about it. 

This album came out right at the beginning of 2014 and so since it was the first thing that I had the privilege of downloading in the new year, expectations were held high. Fortunately, this album met my expectations. 

Just as I had expected, this album was everything that I had wanted. I thought that the production was outstanding and the rapping was moderate. He has some really catchy riffs and hooks and his entire album was consistent. There weren't any drop offs and his quality stayed at a high level. 

When I said that the rapping was moderate, I meant that the lyrics weren't at an extremely high level. However, I still thought that Kid Ink did a great making hits out of the songs that he was given. 

My favorite songs from the album were "No Option" and "The Movement."

Zeppelin II

Today in class we listened to Zep II. I thought that this album was an improvement from the first Led Zeppelin album we listened to.

I thought that the guitar riffs and the production was much improved. I just thought that this album was easier listening to than the first one. It had more of a variety of tracks, and it was just executed more effectively than the first one.

I look forward to listening to the next Zeppelin studio album and I hope to hear more of the same progressions. 

Big K.R.I.T.

A couple days ago I was playing NBA 2k14 on my playstation and then this song came on entitled "Cool 2 Be Southern" by Big K.R.I.T. I've been a moderate fan of his, but I had only listened to the hits in the past. But then I heard this song and I couldn't believe it was him.

After this, I went into my iTunes library and realized that I had actually downloaded a lot his music but just never really listened to much of it. I played the album that I found this track and I couldn't believe how good it was. Then I listened to a few of his mixtapes and I got the same results. 

Big K.R.I.T. is one of the most consistent rappers that I've ever listened to. He doesn't have any music that's an outstanding "10 out of 10" but everything he releases is solid and consistent.

Since I'm doing this from my phone, I can't embed any videos but I think you should check out "Cool 2 Be Southern" and "Country Shit". 

Album by Mr A.!

On our first day back from the break we had the blessing of listening to YOUR album before it was officially released #leak.  I really enjoyed it and I'm not just saying this because you're the one who determines my grades. 

I thought that it was outstanding. I really had no idea at all that you could sing like that. I also thought that every song was well written and the album was very consistent. I hate albums that are inconsistent and drop off at times because it's tough to stick it out and listen to them. I would let you know my favorites from the album but I didn't quite catch the names.