The Chuckness

Nas went ahead and released the second single off his upcoming album last night — with the same token sound that we’ve grown so accustomed to from him over the past, I don’t know, 20 years. Here’s a man who’s not gonna be switching up his style anytime soon. Life Is Good due out in the near future. Tweet

K’NAAN’s been a favorite of mine for a bit now — and it was pretty obvious that he was well on his way to success with the release of his last album Troubador. Once he landed “Wavin’ Flag” as the official theme song of the 2010 World Cup, it was a wrap. Since then, he’s been quietly working on more material, and our first look at what he’s got up his sleeve comes in the form of “Nothing To Lose”. He has a little 5-track EP coming out next Tuesday (1/24) titled More Beautiful Than Silence, and this is our … Continue reading →

The late Amy Winehouse is releasing a final album this winter titled Lioness: Hidden Treasures. It’s compiled of several unreleased songs that weren’t necessarily meant to be the final product, but all of the material is new to our ears. Most of the tracks were just first recordings, and they’ve been re-worked and beefed up by her producer, Salaam Remi. This one right here was recorded back in 2008, and features a verse from Nas. Her final album is slated for release on December 6th. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Download: Amy Winehouse (feat. Nas) – Like Smoke … Continue reading →

There’s this show called Crossroads that my pops is absolutely obsessed with. The concept is easy: they take two artists, generally of polar opposite genres, and put them together to come up with a song of their own. Pete straight loses his mind when there’s a new episode — but this is besides the point. There’s a documentary coming out called “RE:GENERATION”, where popular DJ’s/producers are mixed and matched with people of opposite genres. Pretty much the same thing as Crossroads. In the documentary, DJ Premier is matched up with orchestra conductor Stephen Webber. Pretty Lights, Skrillex, Mark Ronson and … Continue reading →

Last night, Nas and Common jumped on Twitter and released this track to the masses. Arguably the most hard-working producer in the game, No I.D., is behind the beat; as Common goes in for two verses, and Nas adds one of his own. If you don’t know already, take 2 minutes of your day and look at No I.D.’s resume; shit is ridiculous. He’s almost single-handedly taken over the entire genre, and few people even know what his face looks like. Check out “Ghetto Dreams” below. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Download: Common (feat. Nas) – Ghetto Dreams … Continue reading →

  It’s been a long time since Nas has given the world any new solo material, but he changed that today. He premiered “Nasty” as the first single off of his upcoming album Life Is Good earlier, but I held off due to the screaming DJ’s every 5 seconds. Here we have the finalized version, and it’s 3 minutes packed with limitless witicisms. Check it out below and let me know what you think. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Download: Nas – Nasty Tweet

Here we have a haunting, yet addicting cover of Nas’ famous track “If I Ruled The World”. Freedom or Death is a duo coming out of Toronto, and they’ve completely changed the feel of Nas’ song (obviously, as it’s acoustic/hipster as shit), but they’re still able to capture the essence of the original. Hit the stream and download below. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Download: Freedom or Death – Rule The World (Nas Cover) [via] Tweet

Nas and Damian Marley sampled this original track in “Patience”, from their collaborative album released earlier this year…and at the time, I had no idea what it was. Do yourself a favor and hit the Wikipedia page for Amaduo & Mariam…they have a ridiculous story, and it’s cool to see them having success. Long story short, they consist of an older couple from Mali, who met at Mali’s Institute for the Blind. Gotta be the first musically successful blind couple from Mali in the history of mankind. Anyways, hit Miike Snow’s remix to “Sabali” if you’re in the mood for … Continue reading →

I’ve been listening to a decent amount of dubstep lately, and this song has been one track in particular that’s gotten a ton of plays.  You may remember this original song from the Drake reference track “I’m Ready For You” because it was used as the sample, or even the remix with Nas that Chuck posted a while back.  Enjoy… [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Download: Nneka- Heartbeat (Wet Paper Remix) Tweet

To be honest, I jumped the gun a bit on this post. I caught it over at Above&Beyond, saw the artists and the cover they were doing, gave it a a brief listen and decided to post it. Unfortunately, as I’m listening to it, I’m semi-cringing. Therefore, we’ll use this as an experimental post…I’m curious what you all think. Clearly Carlos Santana is one of the greatest guitarists of all time, and Nas is right up there on the rap spectrum, but for some reason together, this just doesn’t do it for me. We’re open for all thoughts here…let me … Continue reading →