Watching Movies With The Sound Off// Part Four (Final Part)

REMember

This is arguably the most depressing song on the album. It is about one of Mac’s old friends who recently passed away. In the first verse of the song he talks about his friends death, and how it has impacted/impacting him. It’s super depressing. My favorite verse in the whole album is the ending line to the first verse in this song. “You had a girl, I kinda wish you knocked her up. So I could meet your son and talk you up.” This line gives me the gnarliest chills literally every time. I guess it just really hits me on another level talking like that, like how much he misses him. The next versus include Mac trying fathom his friend being gone, and giving advice on how to deal with stuff like this. The chorus for this song is really cool. It reminds me of an old school depressing song, and I really like those vibes. This is a perfect song to listen to in a very mellow or bummed out mood, so I wouldn’t recommend listening to it if you are in any other mood. 

I got this sweet picture from a sweet website called Fresh Grind. 

The Star Room 

This one I’ve been waiting to blog about for quite a while now. It is one of my favorite songs of all time, and easily my favorite on the album. Talk about chills, I am not kidding at all here, I get the chills throughout the duration of this song. You read right, the entire time. I guess it’s a mix of how I listened to this song quite a bit when I was going through some hard times last year, how I can relate and sympathize to what he’s saying, and the ridiculous lyrics and flow. This is just hands down an amazing song. But I do have to say that you have to be a certain kind of person and in a certain mood to listen to this song. I know plenty of people that I share musical interests with, who just HATE this song. And I can never figure out why, but I love it. It’s always that song that I put on when I’m bummed out, having a hard time, or just need something deep. I hope it can do the same for you. The music video for this song is pretty intense and explicit, so beware. If you would rather listen to just the audio, you can here. 

I got this picture form the University of Northern Iowa's webpage...?

Hope you enjoyed this rather long post about Mac. I’ve really been playing around with the layout, so I’m curious for your guys’ feedback on it. Also, be sure to hit me with any other feedback you may have, including requests. Much thanks

-Eli Levine

2014 Forest Hills Drive// Part One

2014 FHD/ G.M.O.D

This week I am stoked to bring to you two sweet new songs from J. Cole called G.M.O.D and Wet Dreams. These songs are on his new album called 2014 Forest Hills Drive (FHD), and they are two of my favorite songs right now. I have never been that big of a fan of J. Cole in the past, however, this new album and some interviews I have been watching have definitely changed my perspective on him. The interviews I’ve been watching have mostly been of my favorite rapper, as you all know, Logic. I love watching Logic’s interviews and learning more about him. One really cool interview I watched just over a week ago was Logic talking about how J. Cole has influenced his music and personality. Logic says that Cole has been with him since his beginning in the rap game, and that he has always offered helpful advice for him about what to do with his music. Logic says that his whole new album is themed after what Cole recommended. I think it’s really cool how involved and helpful Cole has been in Logic’s life, and how he would definitely not be where he is today without Cole. I love hearing cool stories like this, especially after previously thinking that Cole isn’t that nice of a guy.

I just grabbed this picture of the album cover from Wikipedia. 

2014 FHD/ G.M.O.D
Back to Coles’s new album, I do love all of the songs, but the two that have really stood out to me have been G.M.O.D and Wet Dreams. The first one that I am going to talk about is G.M.O.D, which stands for Get Off My D*ck. Though the name of this song may sound pretty vulgar and unappealing, the song draws the attention of a varying demographic. Even my mom likes the song. It might be from the really sweet beat, different from every modern day rap song I’ve listened to. Or it could be him constantly changing up the pace between fast and pissed off sounding, to mellow and deep. Whatever it is, a lot of people seem to like it, and I like it too. I use it primarily for a pre lacrosse game pump up, though just listening to it late night in my bed I always enjoy. The story in the song is actually pretty interesting and deep, which I like to hear in rap songs. It talks about his life growing up, how difficult it was, and how he made it through all the hate, and that he is proud of what he’s doing today. It’s really cool to hear the story. When he says “get off my d*ck” in the song, he is referring to the people who were never there for him when he wasn’t famous and didn’t have a lot of money, but who are here now and want some of what he has. Though this may be a harsh way of portraying the message, I like the way he gets it through and I like the lyrics in the song. I also really like the unique beat. That is probably my favorite part of the song. And make sure to listen to the whole song, because it sounds like it’s ending at almost four minutes, but there is actually one more full verse. You can listen here. This is the faster version of the song, with J. Cole actually singing. There is another version on youtube, that has a slower beat and with J.’s voice deepened for it. Some people like the slowed version better, but I definitely prefer the sped up one.

2014 Forest Hills Drive// Part Two

Wet Dreams

The other song that I really enjoy on his album is called Wet Dreams. This song also has a rather vulgar name, and this name, unlike G.M.O.D, is not deceiving. The song definitely more on the R rated side of music, with very graphic sexual material and quite a bit of swearing, so be warned when listening. But besides the inappropriate parts of the song, it has an amazing story. I mean it may not sound like the deepest thing, but he talks about him losing his virginity. Now I know right away you are probably thinking, “Ew, why would I want to hear about that?” But, if you listen to the lyrics really closely you’ll realize that the song digs a lot deeper than him just losing his virginity. I also really like how he ties together the story with a stellar reoccurring chorus. But I would have to say my favorite part of this song was listening to it for the first time. I was driving around with my bro and the whole night we were bummed we didn’t have an AUX cord so we couldn’t play our music and we were stuck with the radio. And we kept hearing all of these songs that we didn’t like at all so we kept changing the station. But when when we were almost back to my house, this song came on. He already knew all of the words, but I hadn’t heard it. I picked up the chorus instantly, and fell in love with the flow. That night I went home and listened to the whole album, after thinking I’d never listen to Cole. That just goes to show that you should always give everything a chance before you jump to conclusions. Anyway, the song has a great chorus, amazing flow, and an interesting story. So I would for sure recommend checking it out, but be sure to pay close attention to the lyrics.

I got this picture of J. Cole from taking a screenshot off of the cover for the Fire Squad Instrumental. I was using the instrumental for some raps of my own. If you want to hear the original click here, it is another great song on his new album.  

Wet Dreams
Along the lines of interesting stories, you should hear the story of the album’s production… The album’s name comes from the street name on which the house where Cole grew up and first started writing in. Last year (2014), he went back to North Carolina, and re-bought the house (after losing it to foreclosure just after graduating high school), and dedicated his third studio to it. I think it’s really cool how he goes back to his roots so much with his music. Like of course rappers all talk about their life growing up, but he really sets himself apart by doing something like this. Naming his album after his house of origin, having every song on the album be about his life growing up, talking about stuff that must be super difficult to talk about… I just think that’s really cool. Some other interesting things about the album, is that though it was primarily made by Cole himself, it was released under three labels, Dreamville, Roc Nation and Columbia Records. This is not totally unusual, but hip-hop albums are typically released under one label, and the labels usually help produce the album. This album was announced three weeks before the release date, including no singles, and little promotion and marketing prior to the release on December 9th 2014. The first week after the album being dropped, it sold 371,000 copies, being considered as Gold, by the RIAA, an amazing feat for how little marketing and promotions it had. This this shows how loyal his fan base is and how sometimes rolling low-key can be better. Anyway, I really enjoy this album so be sure to check out the songs I didn’t write about, but those especially. Also, let me know what you think of me mixing up the format of the blog and if you have any requests. Thanks, as always, for reading.

Don't Over Think// Part One

Don’t Over Think

Hello all, sorry I haven’t posted in a while, at the start of new quarters I feel really unmotivated to blog. But anyway, since it is a new quarter for me, I am going to be changing up the format of mu posts a little bit. Nothing big, just going from my usual template of talking about the song in the first paragraph and the artist in the second, to more random and diverse layouts. Just a heads up. So to really start off this post I want to talk about an amazing mixtape that I have come across recently by C Dot Castro called Don’t Over Think. Castro was one of the original members of the RattPack, the other two being Logic and Big Lenbo. Castro is also part of the Visionary Music Group (VMG), which is getting to be quite successful and renown. It is actually really interesting how I learned about his new mixtape, I was in the VIP line at the Logic concert I went to on February Third (by the way, an amazing concert, easily one of the best nights of my life, so if he’s in your area, don’t be afraid to buy some tickets), and these guys in front of us starting talking about it, and then we all began to have a conversation about VMG. After the concert I went home and looked it up, and instantly fell in love with almost every song. Every single verse is just done so well and you can really tell how much work he put into it. The guys that we were talking to were saying that they met Castro at a previous concert and that he told them he spends days at a time just working on one single line. ONE SINGLE LINE, that is ridiculous, but the perfectionist in him is really paying off, producing an outstanding mixtape. I haven’t thoroughly listened to every song, but I am going to do a couple short summaries of my favorites, definitely check them out, and you can listen to the whole mixtape here. 

I got this picture by taking a screenshot of his song All Right, definitely a honorable mention
because I didn't talk about it as one of the four I picked (mixtape cover). 

Kilo

The first song that I will talk about is also the first to occur in the mixtape. This is probably my favorite song on the mixtape, but it is interesting because he actuality dropped this song with a music video (be aware that this music video is pretty violent and has some harsh content) quite before he dropped the mixtape. At the beginning of the song, you would think it would be a really mellow, deep song, but once the beat drops, the vibe totally changed to a strictly pump up, fast paced song. The best lyrics of this song are really hard to determine because of how many good ones there are, this is when it really shows how much of a perfectionist Castro is, literally every line is so solid and could easily be featured here. But since I have to choose I am going to go with when he says “Now when I say I’m the best that ain’t over confidence, motherf*cker that’s common sense.” That line just gives me the chills, so solid and clever, overall a great song. 

Check Next Post For Part Two

Don't Over Think// Part Two

Royal

The next song I really like is called Royal. This song is really different than a lot of rap you’ll hear these days, which I guess is the reason I like it so much. It is like really fast paced, but kind of has a sad and dark vibe to it. I really like the chorus, the beat is cool, and the versus are killer. If I had to choose the best lyric it would either be “I just spit a little bit of cr*ck, then I sit back and I get high of that bass.” I like these lyrics not because they are deep or clever, which they aren’t at all, but because of the great flow in which he spits them. Or it would be the chorus “Throw me the ball I'ma run with it, yeah. You have no seen nothing, I have only just begun with it yeah. I never be done with it yeah. Lately I feel I've been working too hard, It's about time I have fun with it yeah.” Deep, clever, fast. 

I got this picture from a wesbsite called ThatNewJam.
Another honorable mention for the songs on the mixtape is Curtain Call. 

Are We There Yet

This is definitely up there with Kilo when talking about my favorites on this mixtape. It is just such a good song, incredibly deep, talking about his whole story and how he made it through, while spitting versus with ridiculous speed and flow. Once again, it just goes to show how persistent Castro is. Every verse in this song is killer, for sure take a look at this song, listen to the lyrics, and think about how difficult it is to spit like that is, not to mention how difficult it is coming from what he came from (if you really want to hear a sad song about his childhood, listen to Revenge, which is also on the mixtape but I didn’t include it in my top four). The best lyrics in this are literally impossible to choose because I can’t type the entire song into this post.

The Blueprint Feat. Jon Bellion

This is the outro to the mixtape, and a really well put together song, with good vibes, good lyrics, and a great story. Just like all of the other songs, great lyricism, though what really sets this song apart is the killer beat and great chorus that Jon does. There are two parts of this song that literally gives me chills every time. The first is when he says “I’ve gone weeks with nothing to eat, but fast forward, just a couple years more, me and my team about to do a nationwide tour.” I’m not really sure why this gets to me, it might be because I’ve followed Logic so closely and watched this same thing happen to him, and I was just at his concert. The second part that always gives me the chills is “The girl that used to diss me asking me to call her now, I used to look out in the crowd and hear not a sound, *Castro*, yeah that’s what they shouting now.” Make sure to listen for those lyrics and make sure to check out the songs I left out as well! Thanks for reading as always

-Eli Levine

Bang Bang- Marty Grimes & G-eazy

Bang Bang

This is going to be my last blog post of quarter to and I decided that it should go out with a bang, literally. That’s why this week I have picked a super sick song by Marty Grimes featuring G-eazy called Bang Bang. This is one of my favorite songs at the moment, and it is pretty fresh, dropping earlier in the 2014 year. However, the first time I heard it was about a month ago and I fell in love with it instantly, especially G-eazy’s part. This song just has all the perfect components: a great beat, sick hook, and some tight versus from some of the rappers around. On my last post I talked about how important I think it is that rappers have clever or flowy lyrics when the beat drops that sound good when the beat drops. That’s another reason why I like this song so much, it does a great job doing that and the beat just gets me pumped up. Also, in past posts, I’ve talked about when a song gives you chills, there is something really special about it, and G-eazy’s part in this songs gives me chills almost every time. It is also a unique song for him because I haven’t heard many songs that he is featured in, he raps much faster than usual, and he doesn’t even mention something about girls or drugs at all. Though it’s much different than the usual, I really like it. As for Marty Grimes, his parts are pretty sick and go along with the beat well, though it’s kinda hard to distinguish what he is saying at times. As for the best lyrics I definitely have to go with when G-eazy says, “Every time I rap now I make it stack, and every time you rap now y’all take a nap.” Or when he says “Now this sh*t BANG, this sh*t BANG.” Though the latter isn’t very clever the ‘bang’ comes from the hook of the song and it sounds really cool when incorporated  with G-eazy rapping. Though there are plenty of Marty Grimes’ parts and almost every part from G-eazy’s verse that I could have included, I though those were the best.The explitness in this song is more on the moderate side rather than mild, but still not too bad. Including lots of swear words, but nothing too bad on the drug or sexual reference side. However, since there is no official music video for this song, I provided a video of them on tour, which does involve some pretty heavy explicitness involving drug and sexual exposure. 

I got this picture of G-eazy and Marty on stage from a website called The Crowd Album

Some more about Marty Grimes and Young Gerald

Since I have a couple of posts about G-eazy I am going to focus on Marty for this portion. However, if you are looking for some more info on G-eazy, check out my Lady Killers II post. And since Marty is a very new rapper in the industry and I have just recently started listening to him, I don’t know much about him and neither does the internet (something new). But I do know that he has been on tour with G-eazy recently an he is bound to blow up soon, so stay tuned. Also, drop comments for suggestions, feedback, or anything really. And with the quarter almost at its end, it’s likely that I won’t be blogging for a while so to contact me, email me in the gadget above. 

-Eli Levine

I got this image of Marty Grimes from a website called The Arena 

Young Jedi- Logic Featuring Dizzy Wright

Young Jedi

About a week ago I downloaded about sixty new Logic songs onto my phone, and while I was in California this weekend for a lacrosse tournament I put them on shuffle, and one really stood out. It’s called Young Jedi, it’s a tight pump up song by Logic, featuring Dizzy Wright. This song not only is a sick pump up song, but a good mellow song as well, especially during Dizzy Wright’s part. Though this song isn’t very traditional, by that I mean that it doesn’t have a hook or chorus, it still has some sick flow and clever lines. It also has a sick beat and it always drops at a perfect time in relation with the lyrics, which I think is very important. I also think that that is an important trait in an artist. If you aren’t able deliver clever and flowy lyrics during a part with no background music or when the beat drops, then it takes away from the overall ill rating of the song. It’s almost like a turnoff… This is one of the reasons why I like Logic so much. Anyway, for the best lyrics of this song I choose the opening part of the song. It’s just so sick, starting off with some background rapping and then Logic coming in saying “Back again like I never left, Young Sinatra that’s till the death. We turnt up till we go deaf, rep Rattpack till my last breath.” perfectly timed to when the beat drops. The beginning gives me chills and gets me pumped up every time. The explicitness in this song is pretty mellow, it has a couple swear words, some small, indirect drug and sexual reference, but nothing too bad at all. Sadly, there’s no music video for this song, but the audio video has a cool background image, as do many other of his songs without a music video have. 

I got this sick image of Logic and Dizzy Wright performing together from a wesbsite called str8outdaden

Some More About The Artists

Since I have done plenty of songs by Logic, my favorite rapper, already, I am going to focus more on Dizzy Wright. However, if you want to learn more about Logic and the Rattpack, check out my second blog post World Wide, or go to this link, where you can learn all about his new album and its creation. La’Reonte Wright, better known as Dizzy Wright, is a twenty four year old rapper from Flint, Michigan. Wright has spent most of his life rapping, considering that he started when he was eight. Throughout high school we would open concerts and finally signed with a rapper named Hopsin on Hopsin's independent record label Funk Volume. He later went on to release his debut album SmokeOut Conversations, followed by The First Agreement. After that, The Golden Age a mix tape, and State of Mind, an EP that reached number fifty-four on the Billboard 200. Dizzy Wright has never been one of my favorite rappers, due to his dark influences from Hopsin, though recently I have been listening to more of his music and it is definitely growing on me. For my blog, as always, thanks for reading and let me know about any suggestions or anything like that. Also, let me know what you think of the new colors and layout I have been playing around with. 

-Eli Levine

I got this image by taking a screenshot from the music video of The Flavor by Dizzy Wright.