Having just premiered on MTV, watch the sultry visuals for the highly anticipated video of Future’s ‘Low Life’ featuring The Weeknd.
Really really dig this song, so I’m glad the video is already here. Happy Friday, yinz!
Oh, and happy birthday to one of my favorite artists Big Sean! The G.O.O.D. Music singer turns 28 today.
Happy Wednesday! Hope yinz are having a great week.
Mine has been pretty chill except for last Friday, which was all the way turned up. As I mentioned in Thursday’s post, I was heading to Future’s Purple Reign Tour at the Hollywood Palladium. Let me detail the day’s events for you all.
Parker and Sydney met at Agatay around 1ish. We enjoyed some beverages, called the Uber, and an hour and fifteen minutes later, we arrived at Future’s pop-up shop on Fairfax. Before we went inside the store, we decided to get some food at this Italian spot right next door called Jon and Vinny’s. Wish I could tell you how the food was but we didn’t end up eating there. We never even placed our order. Once we sat down, I hopped onto Snapchat to see if Future had posted anything. Well, he did, and I’m glad I checked. His Snap read ‘Fairfax 410.’ Well guess where we were… Fairfax 412. (412 yinz yasss).
Eating at this point was not an option. Getting in line for his store was. We were in the front of the line with a couple of big security dudes in suits who advised us that once we got in the store, we were not to take any pictures or videos. Fair enough. We entered the store, and the three of us all purchased some Freebandz swag. Next thing I know, Sydney tells me to look up and freaking Future is there, all 6+ feet of him. He was wearing a pair of light denim jeans and a white hoodie. He was super chill – on his phone with two of his kids running around him. Talk about a meet and greet but sans meeting. Or really greeting. But you get it.
We then took an Uber to the Palladium where Parker got in line, which was already wrapped around the building at 5:45pm. Syd and I got some food, grabbed an order to-go for Parker and patiently waited until the doors opened. We were really close to the front – about four rows back. The crowd wasn’t too bad. LA’s own DJ Dre Sinatra had everyone hype with club bangers. There were two opening acts before Ty Dolla $ign. Not gonna lie, I don’t know their names. Moving on. Ty came out and crushed it. I really really love seeing him perform. He’s also super talented. The man can rap and sing. He loves the fans too. He actually stage dove into the crowd and lost a shoe! He proceeded to take off his other shoe and threw it towards us. He brought out Juicy J and Joe Moses. Too dope. Watch some of his set below!
Towards the end of his set, he made the mistake of telling the crowd to move as close to the stage as possible. Seriously, you could not move. I don’t do well in tight spaces where people are all up in my business to begin with, but this was just ridiculous. We were shifting as one unit, the chick’s hair in front of me was in my face/mouth area, my right arm was smooshed up against this one mass of a man. So Sydney and I stayed in our spots for as long as we could during Future’s set, but then we couldn’t take it any longer. We moved to the back, got some water (I really ‘Thought It Was a Drought’) and were able to still see and dance. We left Parker up in the front and re-connected with him at the end.
Okay now about Future’s performance! It. Was. Lit. He opened with ‘Thought It Was a Drought’ and did most of his mainstream songs mixed with some early Future. Girls and guys of all ages and races were rapping along with him. I’m even talking about a 12-year-old boy who was there with his dad. Dad, you were the real MVP. From the lights to the overall sound, the show captivated the audience and Future really made you feel part of his set. You can just tell he vibes hard with his fans and appreciates them. Future took a little break and out came DJ Esco who kept everyone going with some crowd favorites. Future came back on and ended his set with one of my personal favorites, ‘March Madness.’ He performed for about an hour and a half in total.
The entire Purple Reign Tour was worth every penny. Not sure how he did it, but as soon as the LA show was over, Future hopped onto his tour bus to head back to Santa Ana for ANOTHER show. He performed there the night before and in Tempe, AZ even earlier that Thursday evening. Four shows in two days. That’s impressive. And I imagine his energy level was hype each show. That just proves his passion for music, touring, and the fans.
Next concert… Rihanna and Travi$ Scott, but that’s not until May. That’s all for today!
…an epic time tomorrow. We are one day away from the Future concert tomorrow night at the Hollywood Palladium! Parker, Sydney, and I are all taking half days at work (well, Syd is taking a full day) in preparation for the Purple Reign Tour. Shout out to bro bro for the ticket.
The plan is to meet at Agatay shortly after we get home from work, Uber to the Hollywood area, maybe hit up the Future pop-up shop, and chill until the doors open. I have a feeling the line will be pretty long and people will start to line up early. I cannot miss my chance to be front row for this. Serious. And I’m pumped that Syd will be sitting (actually standing) with us this time. She came to The Weeknd’s tour with us in December but was all the way across the venue! That’s commitment.
Ty Dolla $ign is also opening, and he supposedly has a new mixtape he may drop in the very near future. Tomorrow is about to be LITTY, and I can’t wait to be part of it.
I’m sort of a late bloomer Future listener, so let’s #tbt this post to the first Future song that got me hooked. However, this was back in 2011, so I guess you can say I have been listening to him for quite some time now.
And happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Here are the overdue updates I’ve been meaning to write about. We’re going to try to keep this short and sweet since there’s SO much happening in the hip-hop world.
First and most importantly, on Saturday, January 30, Drake hosted OVO Sound Radio and finally gave us a drop date for Views From the 6. Well, it’s not an actual date, but the album will drop in April. And it makes complete sense. Toronto’s area code is 416 (close to that Pittsburgh 412 ya heard). April being the 4th month and the year being 20(16). It makes ALL the sense, and I’m actually a little disappointed in myself that I didn’t figure it out. Maybe it will drop on April 16th? I’m still thinking some new music will come out this weekend during All-Star Weekend. Don’t even get me startd on how upset I am I’m not there. Moving on to the next piece of news.
YEEZY-WIZ TWITTER DRAMA | This celeb beef was some real Twitter fingers action. Kanye went on quite the rant about Wiz Khalifa. It all stemmed from Kanye changing his album title from SWISH to Waves, which prompted Wiz to Tweet out a photo of Max B, the original ‘Wavy Daddy.’ Cue the Tweets. Drama is all I can say. I was actually laughing reading them, but it was all a bit much. I also managed to screen shot all of Ye’s Tweets, and thank goodness I did because he deleted them. I’ll have to dedicate a post to just those sometime in the near future. Cut to present. Kanye and Wiz had a phone call, made up, and all is good.
EVOL | Future blessed us with ANOTHA ONE. Not much longer after Purple Reign, which dropped in January, the Atlanta rapper released another project titled EVOL, which is ‘love’ spelled backwards. I haven’t listened to either of the projects as much as I should have, but if you listen to one song, you absolutely must listen to ‘Run Up’ on Purple Reign. Seriously fire.
‘DOWN IN THE DM’ REMIX | Listen to this raunchy yet lit remix to Yo Gotti’s club banger featuring Nicki Minaj here. Let’s just say I listened to this on my way to work, and it definitely woke me up. Nicki goes hard in this. Love it.
RIHANNA – ANTI | Okay, this should actually get its own post. What a dang good album. The overall sound and lyrics of ANTI are incredible. The flow from beginning to end. Brilliant. Comparing this album to others by Rihanna, this is by far her most mature piece of work. If you’re an avid RiRi fan, I’m sure you’ll agree. I encourage you to listen! I promise it’s not a peppy pop album you’ll get sick of. And listen to ‘Love on the Brain.’ That straight up doesn’t even sound like Rihanna, but has more of a Beyonce and Macy Gray feel. So good. Listen, yinz!
FLINT CRISIS | Detroit native Big Sean donated $50,000 to support the Flint water crisis. While some of you think he should have given more, it’s obviously way more than I’m sure you’ve given. I don’t want to get into that discussion now, but let’s just give a round of applause to the Sean Don for donating to this town in time of need. Props!
Happy Friday! Lots of exciting things week, so check back early next for a post! And until then, I’ll be waiting for Ye to drop his album.
In today’s favorites, you can simply listen to the playlist below! While I probably didn’t capture all of my favorite songs, these are the majority of them. You’ll see lots of Drake (obviously), Future, Chris Brown, Ty Dolla $ign, and The Weeknd to name a few.
Happy listening – especially if you’re at work and need something to get lit to while mentally preparing yourself for your New Year’s celebrations. And while I normally give yinz a playlist curated on Soundcloud, that streaming service doesn’t always have the originals of songs. So this time, you’ll have to listen via my YouTube channel. 🙂 Perk: Some tracks include the music video. I’ll be adding throughout the day should I think of any other bangers that dropped this year. Enjoy!
Got the blog going up… on the (last) Tuesday (of 2015).
Happy Monday, yinz! With it being the last full week of 2015, I’m going to do something a little different. Obviously this blog focuses on music, my life, celebrities, and all things digital so I’ll be compiling my top lists of all those topics. I look forward to sharing my favorites with yinz and welcome your faves, as well!
Today’s Serge’s Selections: 2015 Edition are my favorite albums that dropped this year. These are in no specific order because that would take me until December 2016 to do that. Check out my list below, and let me know what you think. Am I missing any of your favorites? Did I include an album you don’t like?
If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late – Drake
I remember exactly where I was when this surprise project dropped. It’s actually the same place I am right now – Agatay’s couch. It was right around Valentine’s Day, and I promise you I stopped what I was doing and just listened to the songs on repeat. Typical. As mentioned before, this was a complete surprise. After Beyonce dropped her surprise self-titled album, Beyonce last year, more and more artists have begun to take that approach. While I do like a good surprise, I do sort of like having a release date as that is something to look forward to. Anywho. IYRTITL put out some bangers and crowd pleasers for sure. Drake nailed it per usual.
What A Time To Be Alive – Drake & Future
Again, I remember where I was when this premiered, as well – in Agatay’s kitchen. The squad, Nick and Parker were over, and we sat around listening to the premiere on OVO Sound Radio and casually sipped some Coors Light. It was lit in the most chill way. Want to talk about bangers though? Listen to WATTBA. ‘Jumpman,’ ‘Big Rings,’ ‘The Plug’… are you kidding me? ‘Big Rings’ is my alarm in the morning because my team needs some really nice things. This project also made me like Future a lot more. Solid.
T R A P S O U L – Bryson Tiller
If you don’t know, now you know. Born in Kentucky and at the young age of only 22, Bryson Tiller is extremely talented, and T R A P S O U L is definitely one of my absolute favorite albums that came out this year. From the intro to the last song, the whole album flows perfectly. It truly lives up to its name – trap beats with a soul sound and flow. I highly suggest you get on the Tiller train.
Dark Sky Paradise – Big Sean
What can I say about this one? While I don’t post often about Big Sean, he is one of my favorite artists. He is a hardworker, gives a lot back to his hometown of Detroit, and can spit some legit rhymes and verses. Not to mention, he’s easy on the eye and has a beautiful smile – see below.
Dark Sky Paradise is another one that has so many hits. From ‘Blessings’ featuring Drake and Kanye to ‘I Don’t F*ck With You’, this is an album I have listened to on repeat multiple times. And we can’t forget about ‘One Man Can Change The World’ featuring John Legend and Kanye West. So so good and motivational – a very special song to Big Sean – it was written in memory of his late grandmother who he was quite close with.
Beauty Behind the Madness – The Weeknd
Cheers to the freaking Weeknd. He has grown so much as an artist and from the numerous articles I’ve read as a person, as well. I mean he used to never even do interviews, and now he’s selling out arenas and going on major city tours. It’s epic. I was lucky enough to see his BBTM tour this month actually with Parker. It was so incredible. Truly a show. This album has given us the very popular hits ‘The Hills’ and ‘Can’t Feel My Face,’ as well as the Fifty Shades of Grey theme song, ‘Earned It,’ which I actually can’t listen to anymore becuase every radio station overplayed it. Like most project of Abel’s, they are dark and filled with lyrics about drugs and sex. The songs on BBTM have more radio hits than his previous work. I love that this album has given him the recognition he deserves.
Rodeo – Travi$ Scott
Holy smokes. I’m listening to this album now actually! Current track: ‘90210.’ I was late to start listening to Travi$, but I am pretty freaking glad I do now. He has such a unique sound but also one that reminds me of Kanye. That could be because Kanye was one of the producers of Rodeo. I was looking forward to seeing Travi$ open for The Weeknd at the Madness Tour but unfortunately missed his performance – he was the opening act and only performed for about 20 minutes. #lame Oh well, I’m sure I’ll be attending another function where he’ll be performing! But yes, you should 100% listen to La Flame ( a nickname of his). It’s lit!
Royalty – Chris Brown
Yes, yes, and yes. Only released a couple weeks ago, I’ve been listening to Chris Brown’s seventh studio album on repeat. ‘Make Love,’ ‘Back to Sleep,’ and ‘Liquor’ are probably my top tracks. Yet again, C. Breezy puts out another legit project. The album is named after his daughter and even has a song dedicated to her. The music video for that is here. She is so cute and seeing them together in this music video is even cuter! I suggest you watch it and listen to the album. 🙂
For those Kendrick fans, yes I realize I didn’t include To Pimp a Butterfly. I just wasn’t able to get into that one. There are songs I love from that project, but not the album from beginning to end. And there are a few more days left in 2015, so if Drake happens to drop Views From the 6, you already know that would be added to this list.
That’s all for today’s Serge’s Selections: 2015 Edition. New list, new topics tomorrow!
Yasssss! Sort of an unexpected collaboration but definitely much appreciated.
Earlier tonight both Future and The Weeknd took to Instagram to give us two separate snippet posts, but both videos shared the same beat. Well yinz, the collab is here.
Thanks to my plug, Parker, for the fast acting on sending the song my way.
Listen here!
Okay, I promise I will embed the real link to this when I’m on a computer, but I’m currently out right now and SoundCloud on the phone is weird.
Any who. You must listen to this banger Future just dropped. Hyped.
Listen on Rap-Up here!
You can say that again. I purchased the Drake-Future mixtape as soon as it was available on iTunes. Speaking of iTunes, What a Time To Be Alive was no. 1 after only three hours of being released. Incredible. And an update as of yesterday (via RapUp), the mixtape debuts at no. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart – congrats!
I turned on Beats 1 Radio at 4:00 PM PST on Emmy Sunday and anxiously awaited the stream. Shortly after about a 30-minute curated mix, Drake hopped on and premiered the much-anticipated tape. Below is my first attempt at an album/mixtape review. I’ve broken it down by song – hope you enjoy!
Digital Dash – Definitely a good start to the mixtape. The song is split perfectly between Future (first half) and Drake (second half) and gives you a good feel of the rest of the album.
Big Rings – This song can (and will) bump! ‘You and yours vs. me and mine.’ I would love to be at a club or let’s be serious in my car listening to this. And I like how this second track is the reverse from ‘Digital Dash’ – starts with Drake and then goes into Future. This type of song motivates me for sure – primarily the beat.
Live From the Gutter – This is a good long-drive song. ‘This for my dawgs that go Karrueche with the chopsticks.’ I cannot with that. I must admit, I also had to look up the definition of ‘live from the gutter.’ Thanks to RapGenius, I learned that ‘the gutter’ is the slang term for ‘the ghetto,’ extremely low income areas, where Future came from but now is quite wealthy.
Diamonds Dancing – And finally, Drake serenades us with his angelic voice on this track. This is definitely one of the more chill songs, but I’m not mad about it. It’s one of those songs you can vibe to at the end of the night. I like this song more and more each time I listen to it.
Scholarships – I wish I had received more of these in college. Okay, the song. ‘All this passion I got, all I ever needed.’ Again, one of the main reasons why I love these rap and hip-hop artists so much is because of their passion, and it so clearly stands out in their music. ‘I need acknowledgement, if I got it then tell me I got it then.’ This Drizzy verse couldn’t be any more aligned with my personality.
Plastic Bag – Ah, yes. The ‘plastic bag’ phrase and even what we all thought was the official countdown for this mixtape (putitallinaplasticbag.com). It sounds like both Drake and Future are all for the strippers taking home the cash that’s been thrown to them. ‘Get a plastic bag, go ahead and pick up all the cash. You danced all night, you deserve it.’ Fair enough!
I’m the Plug – Woah. Love the beat of this track. And Drake’s lyric ‘This that OVO Halloween gang.’ If I liked Halloween enough to dress up for it, I would somehow incorporate OVO into my costume. And Drake goes in on this one at the end. #lit
Change Locations – ‘Me and my friends, we got money to spend.’ Let’s remix to match my lifestyle, ‘Me and my friends, we don’t got no money to spend.’ Definitely a more chill beat compared to the other tracks. Listen to Drake’s first couple lines in his verse when he joins – dead.
Jumpman – This is definitely one of my favorite songs on WATTBA. Holy smokes. I picture myself being at a club, preferably at Greystone in Hollywood, and jumping up and down like a lunatic. To the beat of the song, obviously. ‘You don’t have to call I hit my dance like Usher (woo!).’ My favorite artist rapping about my other favorite artist. Great stuff.
Jersey – ‘You do what you want when you poppin’, yeah.’ This line rapped multiple times throughout is referring to Future telling his fans and listeners to make the best out of your life. Preach! This song isn’t one of my favorites, but I can vibe with the ‘poppin’ lyric for sure.
30 for 30 Freestyle – The project ends with a 4-minute freestyle of Drake and Drake only. The lyric that 100 percent stuck out to me in this track was, ‘but just know it’ll be January in no time and your absence is very concerning.’ Okay, so two things with this one: 1. My birthday is in January, soooo need I say more and 2. He’s concerned about my absence. I took this one too far, but just let me have my moments.
And that’s it! Overall, I dig this project. While I’ve listened to it MULTIPLE times since its release just two Sunday’s ago, I’m not sick of it… just yet :). I definitely have my favorites – ‘Big Rings,’ ‘Diamonds Dancing,’ ‘I’m the Plug,’ and ‘Jumpman,’ whereas other Drake projects, I literally love every single song. On a scale of 1 to 10, I give it a 7.5. It’s missing the complete ‘wow’ factor to me. Not sure what that is exactly, but something isn’t there. Regardless, the 6IX God compiled another very successful project with Future who I have been listening to a lot more now.
And for those of you readers (mom and Uncle Freddie who straight up told me he doesn’t read my posts when they feature the music I listen to – tough love) who really don’t know or care about these posts, I think you’ll be able to relate to the grandma in the video below. Truly hilarious. Thanks to @mtvhiphop for sharing!
And it’s National Coffee Day – hope yinz are all celebrating.
Sergen, out!
You know that 15 second clip Drake and Future put out of them in the studio leading up to the drop of WATTBA? Well, here is the extended version! There’s some conversation between the two rappers, bumping ‘Digital Dash’ with DJ Esco.
I’m really hoping more of these come out! Love seeing the behind the scenes of this stuff.
Watch below.
Californyinz 