My favorite verses from each Brockhampton member + Power Ranger Comparisons

Brockhampton, the boy band taking the internet by storm! 

Brockhampton has quickly become one of my favorite hip hop collectives boy bands ever. Their breakout albums "Saturation", "Saturation 2" (and now "Saturation 3") have garnered considerable attention and for good reason too. It's catchy, it's addictive and their background story is very interesting.

Movie Review #1 - Justice League (2017)

Today I will be reviewing the 2017 movie "Justice League" in my very first movie review on this blog!

Yeah, I review movies too sometimes, wanna fight about it? Hip Hop & Other Things, I keep reminding y'all.

A TL;DR of this review: Justice League deserved more justice. 

Why do I say that? Well...

LET'S START FROM THE BEGINNING...

It was the day after Thanksgiving (11/24/17) and my friend really wanted to go see Justice League...

Concert Review #2 - Enrique Iglesias & Pitbull @ The Forum on 10/27/17

My experience at the Enrique Iglesias & Pitbull concert!

"DALÉ!"... I'm very disappointed Pitbull didn't yell that 100 times in to the microphone as he danced and sweated in his $1000 suit (I'm just estimating, I'm sure Pitbull's suits son muy caros)


LET'S START FROM THE BEGINNING...

I'm probably the last person on earth that ever thought they would go see Pitbull, much less Enrique Iglesias AND Pitbull live in concert at the Inglewood Forum.

But after a few drinks after a funeral, decisions were made, and lo and behold (I notice I like saying that) my father and I ended up with four free tickets to an Enrique Iglesias and Pitbull concert...

4 Songs I've been playing this month: October 2017

The 4 songs I'm currently bumping in my vehicular automobile!

Okay, yes, I stole this idea from Youtuber Shawn Cee, but I am going to give him credit. I was "inspired" to do this by his series "5 songs I'm listening to". I doubt he'll see this post, but in the rare chance he does. 'Sup Shawn. Anyway, check out his Youtube channel here.

Basically, I wanted to talk about some songs that I'm currently feeling at the moment. Whether it'd be new or old, I feel like my tastes are wide and expansive enough that it'd be interesting to discuss them, plus, it's a short form way of writing about music, which I love to do.

Lately, I've been constantly playing these 4 songs in my car, or in my headphones. I notice I tend to have a small rotation of songs I consistently keep playing week to week.

Let's start with the newest song on here (which is Ski Mask's song) and work backwards to the oldest song on here...

(Throwback) Concert Review #1 - Kendrick Lamar's DAMN. tour

My DAMN. tour review

After seeing Travis Scott's lackluster performance, Kendrick came in and saved the day, thank goodness he was the headliner.

Basically, I went to go see Kendrick Lamar, & Travis Scott on the DAMN. tour (missed DRAM, but I didn't really care) on Tuesday, August 8th, 2017 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.

Here's a picture of my ticket...

VVV, Vol. 3 (R&B Edition) - SZA, Syd, Bryson Tiller & Sabrina Claudio

The first R&B projects that I'll be reviewing in this very special edition of Very Velocious Verdicts!

I named this blog "Hip Hop and Other Things" for a reason. Variety is the spice of life, and even I, an avid hip hop fan, can get "burnt out" or "tired" of the genre from time to time.

Which is why I'm switching it up and reviewing R&B projects that have come out this year. A couple projects that are well known (SZA, Bryson Tiller) and a couple that are not so well known as the aforementioned well known projects (Syd, Sabrina Claudio).

As far as R&B as a whole goes. I do have my episodes where I listen to exclusively R&B for like a week or so. Obviously, I'm more experienced in listening to hip hop BUT music is music, and a lot of the times, R&B and Hip Hop intersect so much the line between the 2 genres become one giant smear. 

But I've talked for long enough, let's get to reviewing these R&B projects in the very non hip hop edition of VVV!

Let's start with SZA...

My Top 10 Hip Hop Songs of 2017 (So Far) + Honorable Mentions

It's time for My top 10 hip hop songs of 2017 (so far)

Time FLIES By

It's already MIDYEAR List Season. Yes, 2017 is already halfway dead and gone. And as we approach the 2nd half of the year, I want to reflect on what the year has given me so far in Hip Hop Music and more. These are my top 10 songs of 2017 (so far).

As always...we must start with the honorable mentions (there are 2) for this mid year list.

HONORABLE MENTION #1...

Kendrick Lamar - DAMN: My track by track review

My Review for Kendrick Lamar's "DAMN."

Kendrick Lamar. K. Dot, Cornrow Kenny, or Kung Fu Kenny, is a rapper from Compton, California. After releasing a series of mixtapes dating back to 2003, Kendrick finally got people talking with his 2010 mixtape titled "Overly Dedicated". And since releasing that mixtape, Kendrick went from just your run-of-the-mill, internet struggle rapper, to being the next big thing in Hip Hop and boy, did he not disappoint.

Or did he?

VVV, Vol. 2 - Kodak Black, Joey Bada$$, Rick Ross, Freddie Gibbs, Starlito and Don Trip & Jonwayne

Albums I'll be reviewing in the 2nd installment of "Very Velocious Verdicts"!

Welcome to the 2nd installment of Very Velocious Verdicts (VVV for short!) Basically, I take projects that I've heard that I think deserve a review, but unfortunately would take too much time to review track by track, and I review them in a shorter review format. Thus, allowing me to cover multiple projects at a time, but in a quicker manner.

Also, a word on the new Kendrick Lamar album...

Drake - More Life: My track by track review

Cover Art for "More Life"

Drake. Does this man even need an introduction at this point? Even if you've been marginally aware of popular music in the past 7 years, then you have heard of this man before. To put in perspective how famous this man is, even my 74 year old grandmother knows who he is. Now, you may be saying "Well, just because she's older, doesn't mean she can't keep up with the times!" and if you are saying that, you have to understand something. My grandmother comes from a 3rd world country called "Belize" (as does the rest of my family), she spends the majority of her days cooking food, looking after kids, and watching movies on the lifetime television network. The closest she gets to current technology is the house phone and flip phone she uses when she's out and about. She is literally never near a radio, or watches anything related to what the current, popular music is on TV. Just lifetime network movies and cable news...and even still, a 74 year old immigrant from Belize knows who Drake is...

Very Velocious Verdicts, Vol. 1 - Future, Oddisee & Mozzy

Albums I'll be covering in the first installment of this new series!

Okay, so as most of you probably already know. I write a lot. Covering each track on each album at first, on paper, seems like a great idea. But the problem with hip hop (and music in general nowadays) is the over saturation of tracks on albums. It seems like the art of short, and concise albums is lost in 2017. Every rapper, it seems, just loads their track lists with upwards of 16+ tracks, with runtimes of up to one hour and 30 minutes.  1 HOUR AND 30 MINUTES FAM. THAT'S 3 EPISODES OF "SEINFELD" WITH THE COMMERCIALS INTACT, THAT'S INSANE AND UNNECESSARY. There are literally movies out there that can be watched and re-watched in that time period. The point is, I don't like overly long musical albums. Doesn't matter who it is. Let Michael Jackson & 2Pac come back and release a joint album together. If that project is 25 tracks or more, they can BOTH go back to the graves they dug themselves up from (RIP though, I love both artists, no disrespect)...

Lupe Fiasco - DROGAS Light: My track by track review

Cover Art for "DROGAS Light"

Lupe Fiasco. Lupe Fiasco is a Chicago born MC who first gained major attention after featuring on Kanye West's song "Touch The Sky", a single from West's sophomore album "Late Registration". After spitting an ear-grabbing guest verse as well as dropping a few overlooked mixtapes. Lupe finally turned heads when he dropped his debut album back in 2006, entitled "Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor". Critics and casual listeners alike both praised Lupe for not being the stereotypical "shoot em up bang bang nigga die slow" type rapper that, at the time in 2006, was dominating the hip hop scene...

Big Sean - I Decided: My track by track review

Cover Art for "I Decided."

Big Sean. Big Sean is a rapper from Detroit, Michigan. He is most known through his associations with Kanye West and being signed to West's label G.O.O.D. Music. Kanye West is said to have almost not signed Big Sean. According to Sean himself, Kanye was at a radio station and Sean left his job at a check cashing place and rushed to the radio station that Kanye was at. Initially, Kanye did not want Sean to rap for him, saying he had to go. Eventually, Kanye let Big Sean rap for him as he was exiting the radio station, by the time Kanye had got halfway to the exit, he started to like Sean's raps and turned around to start nodding his head along to Big Sean's raps. The rest is history, Kanye liked the freestyle he had heard from Big Sean and signed the Detroit native. From then, Sean has undergone an evolution of sorts. When I first heard Big Sean I thought he was very creative, but I just attributed that to the music video to "Getcha Some". When I heard "Marvin Gaye & Chardonnay" and saw the music video for it, I was like "ok, Sean's just another turn up, let's have fun rapper" which, for the record, there's nothing wrong with being, it's just that there was nothing interesting about him that stuck out in my mind...

Migos - Culture: My track by track review

Cover Art for "Culture"

Migos. Migos are a hip hop trio from Lawrenceville, Georgia or if you're like me, you've mostly heard about them coming out of (or being popularized from) Atlanta, Georgia. Now, the group consists of 3 members, Takeoff, Offset & Quavo. Quavo's name is the most recognizable of the group simply because he has more notable (solo) features with major artists such as Kanye West, Travis Scott, and more. Offset and Takeoff aren't as well known or recognized but when it comes to the Migos as a group. Offset and Takeoff seem to shine tens times more than Quavo at certain times. Don't get me wrong, no Migo is overall just definitively better than the other, in fact, I think they all bring their own unique characteristics and strengths to the group without over powering one another or sounding too out of place. I primarily think that this is why a lot of people often get the members of Migos confused for each other. It's simply because Quavo, Offset and Takeoff have so much chemistry and are so in sync with each other, that they can transition effortlessly between verses of each member. They can do this so well, it's to the point where newer listeners will have trouble telling them apart at first. Obviously, the more people listen to Migos, the more apparent the differences between each member becomes...

Wesley Rocco - Words to Myself EP: My track by track review + Bonus track review

Cover Art for "Words to Myself EP"

Wesley Rocco. Wesley Rocco is an up and coming artist from Texas, who is fairly new to the game. And judging from his write up on Google Plus,  this is his first official project that he has professionally released on iTunes, Spotify etc. Now, truth be told, I don't know much about this artist personally. Don't get me wrong, I interact with him on a social media app called "Google Plus" (G+) and while I've had some back and forth discussion with him about mostly hip hop related things, it's not like I can go to a wikipedia page and read up on his real name, date of birth or anything of that nature. This means, in reality, I have no real personal knowledge about this artist going into this project. I did hear a track he did called '1992' last year and I remember liking it, so I figured, why not try out this project? I'm only a few months late, and he's supposed to be dropping another EP soon so might as well see what all this music is about...

Top 16 Projects of 2016 (Get it? Cause "16" is in the year number?)

Truth be told I love doing lists and ranking things, as does any other Hip Hop head. I feel like it is in the nature of a head to systematically rank things when it comes to Hip Hop. Whether it'd be top rappers, top producers, top beats, top verses, top moments in Hip Hop or even top name brands worn by rappers who like to rap about that sort of stuff. 

Anyway, like I said before, I had a somewhat turbulent 2016, but I had a lot of good music to accompany me through that year. Here are the projects that I discovered and listened to throughout the course of last year. I hope you find at least one project or song that you didn't about before. I really tried, within the last year of 2016 especially. To try and find lesser known artists as well as projects from said artists to listen to. A few of my picks you won't find any on any other year end list as a ranked top pick (at least the ones I've seen) so without further ado let's get to number 16 which is...

Honorable Mentions of 2016 (In No Particular Order)

2016 is DONE. Thank goodness cause I took a lot of L's last year. But THIS year will be different. I hope so anyway...

Anyway here are some projects that didn't make my "Top 16 of 2016" but I still think deserve to be recognized cause all these artists showed some form of greatness in one way or another, whether they'd be old or new artists all these guys showed much potential or just pure awe inspiring moments like I said.

Anyway, let's get to the first honorable mention...