Souled Out my Soul

I apologize for not updating as often as I should or could. Let me know if there is a certain album I missed since my last post that you'd want me to review and or rate and I'll do it! Tweet me @ayyepeezy 

I mean for me,

I’m not one to really listen to female R&B projects for the simple fact that I can’t relate to loving a man or hating a man for breaking my heart. And that was a generalization of what some female R&B singers sing about some of the time. However, I don’t believe it’s too much of a stretch or an incorrect assumption either. But there are some women vocalists that sway me to listen to their music based off subject matter, style, and vocal skill. I’ll listen to Beyoncé…well because she’s Beyoncé. Jill Scott or Jazmine Sullivan could sing the phonebook to me and I’d listen contently. Anita Baker or Sade has my full attention because of their musical style and originality. And that’s where Jhene Aiko comes in.

I can’t really pin point exactly the first time I heard her. It might have been on a Drake project or Big Sean. Maybe even might have been on Kendrick’s Overly Dedicated (Growing Apart). Whatever song I may have discovered her on enticed me enough to search for her music. I completed my search by finding mixtape Sailing Souls. I listened (and finally saw a picture of her) and was hooked from then on. Earlier this year she released her Sail Out EP which got her some mainstream notoriety especially with the help of her song The Worst being played on the radio. She’s not a radio artist. Her music isn’t “radio friendly” if it was being compared to what’s being played today. Her music is what the radio needs. Her music is what R&B needs. R&B has lost its emotion. R&B has lost its feeling. R&B has lost its passion. Aiko’s music embodies all of those things. Her album Souled Out is a refreshing palate cleanser to all of the borderline rap R&B that most of us are being forced to listen to.

Souled Out, simply put, is a good album. It’s like the perfect combination of alternative R&B, soul, a little folk, and just a touch of Hip-Hop. All the right amounts complement each other to make the perfect stew of love, heartbreak, triumph, stories, melodies, emotion, passion, pleasure, thoughtfulness and it’s oh so delicious. Even with the mainstream success of The Worst she doesn’t stray away from herself in the music by attempting to recreate a radio mainstay. She made music for the soul.  It’s smooth. Doesn’t hit too hard. Is just lively enough to keep you attentive and not put you a sleep. She reminds me of Sade in that way. I don’t really like to make certain comparisons, but I feel like this is a very accurate one. Listening to the album all the way through was the first time I realized that she gave me the same feeling that I get when I listen to Sade. Jhene nor Sade make the most up-tempo songs, but they both make songs that ride easily and are comfortable without being sleepy or drowsy…which is difficult. The originality in their sound both musically and vocally stand them out together for me as well. Although both can actually sing live and are great performers, I wouldn’t put either in the same category with vocalists like Jazmine Sullivan, Aretha, or Alicia. They have strange, lovely, and mesmerizing voices that you can’t really get enough of. Their music really defies genre labelling too. You can’t necessarily categorize either one into one specific genre if you wanted to be 100 percent accurate. This album is the perfect example of that as I stated previously.

Stand out tracks for me are Brave, It’s Cool & The Pressure. I don’t really want to describe what I feel the songs mean. I want you to feel what you feel from each song without any influences. And that’s great that this can be done because this album actually allows you to feel. That’s what not only R&B but good music is supposed to do. Music should make you think. Music should make you love. Music should make you miss. Music should make you sad. Music should help you get over someone. Music should help you express. Music should be a release. Souled Out does all of these things. Souled Out is good music. Souled Out is a good album.

Album Rating: 8.3/10

Cruel Summer

Let me start by admitting that I did get the leak...but that's ONLY because I couldn't wait any longer.  I'm still planning on buying the album Tuesday. (I know, who does that right?) So let me preface everything I'm about to say about the album by letting you know that the leaked version I'm hearing might not be the official version cause there's a rumor that Kanye has two versions of the album just in case the album leaked. So we'll see...


I mean for me, this album is pretty dope!
Yes Kanye's my favorite rapper, so logically G.O.O.D. Music is my favorite "crew" or "Clique" so this may come off as having a lot of bias, but I'll try to give credence to everything I say so it won't come off as being so objective.

First off, this is the best Label Album since it's become a popular thing to do. Even though there aren't many other crew albums out, you can compare it to We Are Young Money by YMCMB, Self Made Vol. 1 & 2 by MMG and even Slaughterhouse's Welcome to Our House..but when it comes to them I'm not sure if they're a "crew". Slaughterhouse is more like a group, but either way. The reason I say this is the best label album is because it was not so much a Kanye ft. the rest of my people album. Yeah Ye was on all but 4 or 5 songs out of 12, but compare that to Rick Ross being on all but 3 or 4 of 12, and Lil Wayne being on EVERY song on We Are Young Money.  And even the ones he was on, he let the other artists shine. 2 Chainz took the spotlight on Mercy, Pusha T arguably had the better verse(s) on New God Flow, and you barely notice Kanye on The Morning.  He did a really good job of letting his artists get some shine without taking any light off of himself, cause his verses were not weak..at all!

Speaking of verses, lyrically they get two thumbs up...well maybe a thumb and a half just because the content wasn't so difficult to talk about. They were talking about themselves or their wealth basically. Not saying there's anything wrong with that or that it's easy, but right now the lyrical benchmark, content and honestly skill-wise, rests on Lupe Fiasco's shoulders. So did they live up to Lupe's standards? No. But who could or would? So based on the subject matter of the songs, which is the same subject matter of 85% of Hip-Hop right now, lyrically they surpass 95% of that 85%. Big Sean, who amongst some of my friends has been said to be the G.O.O.D. music (lyrical) weak link (not including 2 Chainz), spit some of the best verses I've heard from him. And for me Big Sean has never been a bad rapper. Maybe "corny" at times, but I've always thought he's been GOOD (pun intended).   But you got people like Cyhi the Prynce waking up those who are sleeping on him with his verses on The Morning & Sin City. There's a reason Kanye put Cyhi on his My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy album. Kanye did his thing of course. I mean on the first song he said "R. Kelly and the god of rap sh*ttin on yal..Holy crap". Exactly. Honestly these have been some of Kanye's best verses since Late Registration. However, the lyrical MVP award might have to go to Pusha T. No he wasn't on every song, but I mean dude killed Mercy, maybe beat Kanye on New God Flow (still debating that one), bodied Higher, and started off the I Don't Like Remix with a lot of stuff we DO like. And in addition to the G.O.O.D. Music rappers you have singers like Teyana Taylor & John Legend. There's not a lot that I can say about John Legend that you don't already know. It's John Legend. But for those who don't know, Teyana Taylor can REALLY sing. And I don't say that about a lot of people. But she's really unique and dope. I'm not sure what to consider Kid Cudi. He's in his own lane. If you like Kid Cudi, you already know you like Kid Cudi. He's one of those artists that's not for everybody. If you don't like him yet he probably won't grow on you. But I like him, and Cudi was Cudi on the album haha.

When it comes to production...umm it's a Kanye West project. What else do I need to say?

Features include R. Kelly, Raekwon, I'm not sure if 2 Chainz is officially apart of G.O.O.D. Music or not but he's on the album a couple times, Jadakiss, Marsha Ambrosius, The Dream Jay-Z, and wait for it...........Ma$e.  Yup. Ma$e made an appearance on Higher. I'll let you decide for yourself about  how you feel about his verse. It'll probably depend if you like(d) Ma$e or not. 

Now to the negatives. I already mentioned the lack of diversity in subject matter. But I wasn't expecting political or self searching type songs on this album. So it didn't bother me too much.  I didn't like the fact that I heard 5 of the 12 songs before I got the album. If you're gonna release basically half of the album you gotta put some bonus songs or actually not release that many songs before the album. But my biggest critique of Cruel Summer is the fact that the songs didn't flow as well as I thought they would. When you listen to other Kanye albums it flows from one song and one topic to another smoothly. Cruel Summer didn't really do that as well as I thought it would. But I mean it's not just a Kanye album and there were a lot of people that had to be involved, included and a lot of styles had to be catered to so I can cut a little bit of slack for that reason only. 

So overall, I'd rate the album 8.8 out of 10. That's a pretty favorable rating, but as of right now I really like the album. Do I think it's gonna be the best album this year? No. Food & Liquor 2: The Great American Rap Album (Lupe Fiasco) drops on Sept. 25, and Good Kid, M.a.a.d City (Kendrick Lamar) drops a month after that.  As of right now however, it's the best album I've heard this year. Part of that is because I can't think of any other album that's come out this year...and I guess that kind of further proves my point.

G.O.O.D. Music = 2011 Dallas Mavericks ..or in other words, G.O.O.D. Music is a complete team.
Leader, captain, producer, lyrics, creativity = Kanye
Lyrical/Poetic, political, ladies man rapper = Common
Lyrical, hit-man, street rapper = Pusha T
Party, chart, punchline rapper = Big Sean
Male r&b singer = John Legend
Female r&b singer = Teyana Taylor
Lyrical, underground, light street rapper = Cyhi The Prynce
Creative, weird, other guy that does multiple things that everyone likes = Kid Cudi
Hood, street, club rapper = 2 Chainz

...what else do you need?
More producers?
Mannie Fresh, Q-Tip, Hit Boy, No ID
Overseas artists?
D'Banj, Mr. Hudson
More lyrical or political/poetic rappers?
Yasiin Bey (Mos Def), Malik Yusef.

cmon... #GOODMusic !!