I’m sure most of you have heard the original version of ‘Classic Man’ quite frequently on the radio. At first, I wasn’t a fan, but it did grow on me. Now with the addition of K.Dot for the remix, I am definitely digging it.
Check it below!
Tag: hip hop
Weekly Wrap-Up 6.19.15
DRAKE VENTURES TO THE CPT
On Monday, June 15, rapper The Game was seen in Compton with Drizzy Drake on set of a music video. The Drake-assisted single ‘100’ is set to appear on Game’s upcoming album The Documentary 2, the sequel to his 2005 debut. Do know that I almost drove down there, but The Bachelorette and glass of champagne I was casually sipping on wouldn’t let me go.
Check out a behind-the-scenes video below.
DRAKE & NAS IN SPRITE ‘OBEY YOUR VERSE’ COMMERCIAL
I’m about to stalk up on some Sprite. As part of the pop’s (soda, whatever) inaugural ‘Obey Your Verse’ Lyrical Collection, lyrics from Drake, Nas, Notorious B.I.G., and Rakim will be inscribed on 16 cans that will feature positive and inspirational words from the rappers.
According to Rap-Up.com, ‘the rappers were selected based on their reputation for being true to themselves through their music and advancing the culture.’
I’m just really in it for the Drake cans, pictured left.
No, but I think is a great way to spread the positivity of rap (it’s not all negative, people) and in a very creative way.
Check out the new commercial below! You should also check out another one of my favorite commercials by Sprite and yes, featuring Drake. Check that one here.
SPEAKING OF POSITIVITY…
Big Sean released the visuals for his third single ‘One Man Can Change the World,’ off of his chart-topping Dark Sky Paradise album. The song, featuring Kanye West and John Legend, is dedicated to his late grandmother who was one of the first female black captains in World War II. She later became one of the first black female police officers in Detroit (where Big Sean is from) and served 30 years with the Detroit Public School System as a teacher and counselor.
Sean credits and thanks his grandmother for showing him the importance of hard work, perseverance, commitment, and faith, and with all of that, anything is possible. In her honor, he also recently launched #ItTakesOne campaign, which promotes random acts of kindness.
I first heard the track when Dark Sky Paradise dropped, and it gave me all the feels. I think we need a song like this, especially in the hip-hop community, at a time like this.
Watch the video below.
Now off to San Diego for the weekend!
Sorry for the wait…
Okay, so so many things to talk to yinz about! I’m going to (try and) make it quick though since I know most of our attention spans are quite small these days.
#6615
The graduation party of the year was a great success due to my mom’s very hard party planning work (starting over a year ago) and the help of her wonderful friends! From the fancy foods to the delicious donuts to my fun-loving family and friends, it was the perfect way to celebrate Anth’s accomplishments and wish him well on his next journey… college! #wishicouldgoback There was LOTS of dancing, shots of Limoncello, and laughter. It was also great seeing so many people who I haven’t seen in forever and probably won’t know the next time I’ll see them – lots of fun! Proud of ya, Anth!
#SMWLA (Social Media Week Los Angeles)
On June 4, I entered a Twitter contest (go figure) for the chance to win a free pass to attend SMWLA – you should really check it out to see if they’ll be stopping in your city if you’re passionate or want to learn more about social media trends and technologies. Passes normally range from $250-$350 for the whole week, allowing you to attend a multitude of panels featuring many different social media topics. After a simple retweet and positive vibes, I was notified by the PRSA-LA (Public Relations Society of America – LA Chapter) that I, among others, won – thank you, PRSA-LA! I want to say this was my first Twitter contest I won that wasn’t tickets for a rap/hip-hop concert. Being very fortunate in my current job position, I was allowed to attend as many panels as I wanted that would be of interest to me and also benefit my current role. I met some great people, learned a lot, and could envision myself being in a true social media work environment. Hope to attend next year!
MUSIC NEWS – Too many tours!
In honor of the fifth year anniversary of his Friday Night Lights mixtape, J.Cole announced his third annual ‘Dollar & A Dream Tour.’ The concert actually costs ONE DOLLAR to attend but is on a first-come, first-served basis. I can only imagine the line! He will perform the mixtape in its entirety, which is dope. Cole is only stopping in four cities, one being Los Angeles. Unfortunately, I cannot attend since I already have tickets to see Nicki Minaj perform at the BET Experience that evening – #concertgoerprobz.
Earlier this week, Miguel announced his North American summer tour. THIS I plan on going to. Stopping at over 25 cities, he will be wrapping up the tour in LA on Friday, September 4 at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Yes, it is an actual cemetery. I saw The Weeknd perform at this venue in May 2011, and it was epic! Not to mention he brought out Drake as a surprise guest for ‘Crew Love,’ and I nearly fell over. Tickets are general admission, and you are free to pillows, blankets, and picnics. It’s a really cool venue, so I recommend you check it out if you ever get the chance! They also host movie nights there, I want to say in the fall around Halloween time. Get it…. spooky setting for spooky movies.
Holy heck, and how could I forget. The BET Awards! That is like the ultimate concert on steroids, next to the GRAMMYs, that is. On Sunday, June 28, I will be attending the award show in my usual spot – the mosh pit. Unfortunately, I cannot bring in my cell phone, so 1. I will make sure I’m getting some camera time and 2. You will just have to tune in to see if I made it on TV. Sorry mom and other family members that will be watching this – you’ll probably completely disapprove of the music I’m listening to on the reg.
I do have more music news to write about, but I will save that for the ‘Weekly Wrap-Up.’ Lots of things I love happening in the music world this week!
Stay tuned…
NEW: The Weeknd – ‘Can’t Feel My Face’
What a great Monday! Today in San Francisco, Apple unveiled its new music streaming service at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a little help from an idol of mine…
…Drake! He will be using Apple Music to promote his own new album, so you better believe I will be supporting this new streaming service. And in the above picture, he is high-fiving (real word?) Eddy Cue, head of software and Internet services, after discussing the Connect feature of Apple Music. To learn more about the service, check out this New York Times article here. I haven’t done enough research to compare all of the streaming services out there, so I will write another post on that once the proper research is done! But I have a feeling this might be the cake taker. Or it could be just because Drake’s involved, but whatevs. From the few articles I’ve read thus far, Apple Music looks like it could have some real potential and truly engage fans, while still benefiting the artist (and not at $20/month for the fan). #praise
If that wasn’t exciting enough for me, The Weeknd also came out to world premiere his newest single ‘Can’t Feel My Face.’ Produced by Max Martin, who has also worked with Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift, Abel swoons over a love so strong that he can’t feel his face, metaphorically speaking of course.
I’m totally blowing it with embedding the actual song into this post, so you will just have to click here to listen. Sorry for the extra step, yinz, but I’m no coder and just want you to listen asap!
And at Drake’s most recent performance at the Governors Ball in NYC on Friday, he made mention during ‘Crew Love’ that an OVO + XO collab could be making a comeback. Maybe it will drop on Apple Music! Stay tuned, yinz…oh, and this post is my first post written in Pittsburgh 🙂
Weekly Wrap-Up 6.5.15
Well, tomorrow is the day all of Robinson Township has been waiting for. 6.6.15 – Anthony’s high school graduation party. Tonight I’ll be taking a red-eye flight to head home to Pittsburgh to attend the extravaganza. #6615 is finally here, and I cannot wait to see all of my mom’s very hard work and party planning paid off. Considering she made all of the reservations, including venue and live band, for the party LAST February, yes February 2014, I’m sure it will be nothing short of amazing – much like my and Michael’s parties. But most importantly, we will be celebrating Anth! So very proud of him 🙂
For those who cannot make it and for those who will be attending but plan on having one too many shots of Fireball or Limoncello, expect a full blog post about the event next week. The selfie stick is packed. #frigginTaylorSwift
In other celebration news…
HAPPY #NATIONALDONUTDAY
This quite possibly may be my favorite day to celebrate other than my birthday. Who can really resist a piece of fried dough covered in literally whatever topping you want. My favorites are old-fashioned and cake donuts – covered in sprinkles, chocolate icing, coconut, bacon… I could keep going.
And if you’re fortunate enough to live in a massive city like Los Angeles, there is no shortage of donut shops. Check out this map, courtesy of Studio DIY (really cute website!), below to hit up all the famous and best donut shops in LA.
Map created by Studio DIY
And those not in LA, you can get your free donuts here. Happy celebrating!
Weekly Wrap-Up 5.29.15
Praise the weekend is finally here!
ONLY IN LA…
…will you find Kendrick Lamar standing on top of a traffic light in downtown LA (on Figueroa and 11th – near Staples Center) to film a music video. The video will be for his track ‘Alright,’ off of his most recent album To Pimp A Butterfly. He already shot part of the video in Oakland, CA over Memorial Day Weekend.
Check out Complex’s article here to see videos of the Compton emcee filming.
#BEYONCEALWAYSONBEAT
Earlier this week the Internet went Ham Newton with the hashtag #BeyonceAlwaysOnBeat and posted videos of her performing but to different songs. It’s actually quite hilarious and props to everyone who created a video. One that has been circulating a good deal is the ‘Single Ladies’ music video but to the Duck Tales theme song. It had me quacking up. Watch it below.
BEHOLD
I can’t forget to make mention of my West Coast best, Bre, who is currently driving cross country back to Philly to start a new job.
While I am so very happy for her to begin her new adventure and chapter in life, I will be missing her dearly – truly a wonderful person inside and out! She has made my over 3.5 years of living in California pretty darn memorable – thank GAWD you also found The Purp – also saying bye to that too 😦 I can’t say much more because then I’ll start crying (yes, I have emotions), so this will do. One of these days though I will write up a post about this epic friendship and where/how it allllll began – over a bottle (we didn’t drink the entire thing) of Captain Morgan, of course. Love you, Bre, and see you sooner than later! 
Happy Friday, yinz!
NEW: The Weeknd – ‘The Hills’
Better late posting than never! Having dropped yesterday, The Weeknd released not only a new song but (dark) visuals, as well, for his track titled ‘The Hills.’ Really really digging it. And no, Lauren Conrad and Lo aren’t featured in the video 🙂 Watch and listen below – enjoy!
Also check out…
FUTURE FT. RICK ROSS & BIG SEAN – ‘F*CK UP SOME COMMAS (REMIX)’
Listen to the star-studded remix on Future’s banger ‘F*ck Up Some Commas’ below.
Weekly Wrap-Up 5.22.15
MY POWERHOUSE RECAP
Power 106 put together a nice little recap video. Check it below! You can also see pics (better than mine since I was in the nosebleeds) on their website here.
So I know Powerhouse was last Saturday but it was pretty epic, and I want to tell you all about it! My friend Parker and I got to the Honda Center in Anaheim (where the Ducks play) around 8pm, although the concert started at 7pm, we really didn’t mind missing Casey Veggies, Logic, and G-Eazy – no offense, guys. We got right to our seats at the end of Tinashe’s performance – sorta bummed we missed it, but whatevs. I’m sure I’ll be attending some other concert where she’ll be performing. Anywho. Next up was Nipsey Hussle, Tech N9ne, and B.o.B. It’s cool to say I’ve seen them perform, but they weren’t the highlights of my night.
Cut to where my excitement began to build. Ty Dolla $ign, Kid Ink, Ludacris, and last but definitely not least… Kanye West. Ty Dolla $ign, who I’ve always liked, got the crowd moving and even brought out the Regulator, Warren G, and DJ Mustard. Now if you don’t know who DJ Mustard is, he’s a super producer who has produced MAJOR hip-hop joints you hear on the radio today. You may also be familiar with songs that start out, “Mustard on the beat.” That would be him. And yes, he rocks a giant gold Heinz mustard bottle hanging from a chain necklace. It’s obnoxious and somewhat comical, but hey, he’s branding himself and also supporting Pittsburgh. Kid Ink was dope as usual, but Luda really got the crowd going. He played mainly his old songs, which I really appreciated.
Now for the headliner. Yeezus. I know I may lose some readers during this part, but the man is truly talented – I’ve been seeing many negative comments on Facebook about him not being an actual artist, especially since his most recent (and overly censored) performance at the Billboard Music Awards. Okay. Bai. I’ll save my pro-Kanye rant post for a rainy day. Back to his set! He also performed a lot of his older stuff, but we were #blessed to hear his newer material like “All Day,” “Only,” and his verse from Big Sean’s “Blessings.” Not gonna lie but when he performed that, I got more excited I think when they played Drake’s voice for the chorus leading into Ye’s verse. Yes, it was just a recording of Drake’s voice – he didn’t actually show up. I have issues I know. Kanye played for a solid hour despite his sore throat issues he was having. It’s just amazing to me that one person on stage, no backup dancers or band, can have 20,000 people rapping along with him and just filling the arena with so much energy! I live to experience things like this.
But that was my Powerhouse experience, and Power 106 did yet another fantastic job with the lineup and smooth transitioning in between artists. Any way you guys can get Drake to headline one of these like you did for Cali Christmas in 2011? 🙂
Happy Friday, yinz!
NEW: Drake ft. Beyoncé – ‘Can I’
I’m just going to leave this right here. I’m pretty confident this will be on Drake’s Views from the 6 . It’s definitely got a slower feel to it – not my favorite, but I’ll give it a few more listens. Also, apologies in advance if the track gets taken down, so enjoy it while you can!
And it got taken down – as did most of the others 😦 I will keep an eye out for another link for yinz!
EXCLUSIVE: #MiguelMonday
So what did you do after work last night on Monday, May 18? Probably didn’t go to an impromptu FREE Miguel concert in Venice Beach. I still can’t even believe this was real. Let me explain.
Sunday night I see…
…which obviously meant I had to turn on his tweet notifications so I could be alerted the second he released the time and location.
Monday around 4:30pm…
Once I realized my roommate Kylie couldn’t come with me since she had #sports (a co-ed soccer game), I text the one person who is down for anything… Mac Bab. Conveniently enough, she was heading to Venice for the night already, so it worked out perfectly. Not knowing if we’d make it in time or if we would even get in, we said YOLO and went for it. Praise to the heavens we did. We were the first people there, so we grabbed a drink at the bar until a very kind man from Vevo told us what to expect and when to head downstairs.
We walked RIGHT up to the stage. It was a very tiny stage – we were in the basement of a pretty grungy (but epic) bar.
Not knowing what to expect and with a crowd of no more than 50 people, Miguel and his band walked on the stage. Now this is sorta when I went into a state of #celebushock* – might have blacked out a bit (and no mom, not from alcohol). Yes, he was that close. No, this is not zoomed in or filtered. I die.
His performance was part of Vevo’s #VevoGOShow – mini concerts/performances, normally a surprise with last minute locations and times that are filmed and posted on the Vevo YouTube channel. I’ll be sure to post the Miguel one once it’s up. But for now, you can check out the videos I took below and visit my YouTube page to see the rest of my footage!
It was truly one of my most memorable experiences yet, not only living in Los Angeles but in my life (and it was completely free!). Experiences like this just keep adding on years to my time spent in LA. 🙂
After his performance, he told the crowd all drinks were on him in the upstairs part of the bar so everyone should go hang with him, and that is exactly what Mac and I did. We got another picture with him, chatted for a bit, and left around 9:30pm. A solid Monday for sure. And if you aren’t that familiar with Miguel’s music, I highly suggest you check him out. He is so incredibly talented and not to mention so very nice which made me like and respect him even more as an artist and as a person. I cannot wait for his new album WILDHEART, dropping on June 30!
Oh, and thank you #VevoGOShow and my new friend Alex for the autographed Miguel poster. I look forward to more #VevoGOShows and more epic Mondays (or any day of the week really)!
*celebushock – when one enters a state of shock when coming within a few feet of a celebrity and you forget where you are and what occurred during that time but you know it was the best experience ever
Californyinz 