The Chuckness

Apparently in my absence, Jay-Z and Beyonce welcome their first child into the world — Blue Ivy Carter. The birth of his baby girl inspired this new track from Jay, produced by Pharrell. Somewhat similar to “New Day” off of Watch The Throne, no? Great nonetheless — stream/download below. Tweet

People love lists. Particularly “best of the year” lists. There’s something about putting a quantitative ranking next to a collection of the year’s entertainment — the people need to know how things match up against each other. To be honest, I was dreading the creation of these rankings. It’s borderline impossible for me to take two albums of completely different genres and try to justify how one is better than the other. In the process though, you re-discover albums from earlier in the year that you loved, but didn’t quite give enough time to. This is the summation of that … Continue reading →

Lately, at every stop on their tour, Kanye & Jay-Z have been performing “N*ggas In Paris” an obnoxious amount of times. We’re talking 5 times in Miami, 6 times in Boston, and 7 times in Detroit. For no particular reason. Tonight they stopped by the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show to do…one rendition. Semi-hysterical to see models and fashion big-wigs go gorillas to this. Watch The Cradle. Tweet

Free prize for the first person to tell me what this sample is. Sounds eerily similar to “Slow Jamz” off The College Dropout at times, but I can’t quite figure it out. Regardless, this is the best shit I’ve heard out of Young Jeezy in a while. With guest verses from Jay and Andre 3000, this is the full package right here. Will update the post without the obnoxious Funkmaster Flex tags as soon as it becomes available. UPDATE: The brutal Funkmaster Flex tags are no more. Grab the CDQ below. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Download: Young Jeezy (feat. … Continue reading →

Does anybody know if Jay-Z makes money off every chart-topping Rihanna single? I’m pretty sure he gets some form of royalties for signing her initially, so he’s good to coast for the rest of his life…not like he wasn’t beforehand. Here’s an upcoming single off Rihanna’s upcoming album Talk That Talk. Definitely a little “Umbrella” sound to this one — which means it’ll be buried into your eardrums via the radio airwaves for the next 8 months or so. Enjoy it while you can. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Tweet

J. Cole’s debut album is one of the most hyped of the year. Cole World: The Sideline Story will put to rest the endless debate journalists, bloggers and fans have about whether or not Cole is marketable enough to make it huge.  He just released “Mr. Nice Watch” himself today, and this track settles the debate for me entirely. This shit is the real deal. An infectious chorus and an explosive Jay-Z feature definitely help his situation. Is it all that you’d hoped for? Album due out September 27th. As always, hit the lyrical breakdowns at Rap Genius. [Audio clip: … Continue reading →

So I get the below e-mail randomly today and was absolutely dying, I had no choice but to post it. Read on. ——————————————————————————————————————————– Look, I know this is a little unorthodox, but I just needed to rant about something and I knew that you might share the same issue. My issue is with a lyric in “Niggas in Paris.” Now I know that I am no lyricist, and I am never one to question Kanye West’s abilities, but this one has me baffled. “Prince Williams ain’t do it right if you ask me, cause I was him I would have … Continue reading →

Get More: 2011 VMA, Music, JAY Z and Kanye West “The Throne” made a surprise performance tonight at the VMA’s, and put on an explosive, literally, performance of “Otis”. Shout out to the now pregnant Beyonce. That child will be an absolute musical prodigy. Tweet

Watch The Throne, the highly anticipated collaborative effort between Kanye West and Jay-Z , was released last night exclusively via iTunes. I shacked up the $15 for the deluxe version, added it to my iPod, and awaited my flight from Chicago to Boston before pressing play. After listening to the album four times front to back, I felt the need to put the initial reaction into words. Before we get too far into this, let’s get one thing straight: Kanye West and Sean Carter are just two human beings who make music for a profession. With the immense, over-the-top hype behind … Continue reading →

Jay-Z and Kanye West not only have the most anticipated album of the year in Watch The Throne, but now they have the most anticipated national tour as well. When the album goes on sale on August 8th through iTunes (pushed back a week), tickets will go on sale for the Watch The Throne tour, covering the biggest venues across 24 U.S. cities. Starting July 28th, their LiveNation site will unleash a pre-sale for tickets, which includes a copy of the album. The tour kicks off on Sept. 22 in Detroit, and ends Nov. 3 in Boston. Oh, and according to … Continue reading →