The Needle & The Groove

Crazy show – hope all of you caught it.  I love taking these FlipCams to shows, best invention ever.  J. Cole also confirmed he has a whole verse – not just a hook – on Blueprint 3 – crazy.  This is the majority of their sets (all of J. Cole’s, Wale did “Nike Boots”, “Pretty Girls” and “Get Em Slump” in addition to these tracks).

J. Cole – “Heartache”

J. Cole – “Last Call”

J. Cole – “Dead Presidents”

J. Cole – “Losing My Balance”

J. Cole – “Lights Please”

J. Cole – “Grown Simba”

Wale & UCB – “Intro/Breakdown”

Wale & UCB – “Rising Up”

Wale & UCB – “Good Girls”

Wale & UCB – “Elevator / Boys (Remix)”

Wale & UCB – “Ice Cream Girl”

Wale & UCB – “Back in the Go Go”

Wale & UCB – “Dig Dug”

Wale, Mike Posner, & UCB – “Drug Dealer Girl / Wonder Why”

Wale & UCB – “Artistic Integrity”

Wale & UCB – “W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E.”

Wale & UCB – “Chillin’”

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Time to tie up some loose ends.  Here are some tracks that dropped this week that I didn’t get a chance to cover.

• Jay-Z – “Run This Town” featuring Kanye West & Rihanna

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First real single off of Blueprint 3, D.O.A. was just a “street” single.  Kanye kills his verse on this track.  Blueprint 3 – September 11, 2009.

• The Roots – “How I Got Over”

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Studio version of the title track performed on Fallon a couple weeks back.  Don’t know how I feel about this one – don’t mind Black Thought singing, but this sounds a little too soft.

• Chrisette Michele – “Fragile” featuring Wale

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Single off of Chrisette Michele’s album – really digging this track.  The two also collaborated for “Shades” on Wale’s upcoming studio album, although apparently there is some difficulty clearing one of 9th’s samples for the track.

• Mike Posner – “First Date Sex”

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My opinion of this guy changes each day.  I really do enjoy his remixes, but sometimes I get a Wierd Al vibe from them.  His voice is unique and is definitely refreshing compared to autoned ish, but – like autotune – three songs in a row and I’m through.  Anywho, would definitely prefer to listen to this if forced to choose between it and Jeremih’s version.

• Nore – “Floatin’ In the Sky” featuring KiD CuDi

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I could swear CuDi is a long lost member of Bone Thugz after hearing this track.

• Slaughterhouse – “Cuckoo”

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All four members go hard on this one.

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I would typically save this for a weekly wrap-up post, but since the song is coming from a fellow Duke student, Mike Posner, I thought I would give it more attention.  I honestly didn’t know the name of 3OH!3 until the official remix with KiD CuDi came out a couple of weeks ago – I simply knew them as the group with the questionable Helen Keller lyric. It looks like Posner unofficially(?) jumped on the remix as well, providing a hilarious verse to an already enjoyable track.

3OH!3 – “Don’t Trust Me” featuring KiD CuDi & Mike Posner

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I think verses like this could really be Posner’s bread and butter. Similar to his Love Lockdown remix, “Fucked Up Now”, Posner can create hip-hop tracks more relatable to a college aged male than your typical hip-hop track. These tracks and “Cooler Than Me” peg the Duke social-scene pretty accurately, which adds another dimension of enjoyability to his songs locally. I wouldn’t be quick to peg him as an Asher Roth though – he’s not that much of one-trick pony. Regardless of people’s opinions of his singing voice its obvious the dude has talent – production, clever lyrics, and the ability to remix non-hip-hop tracks. His mixtape is free on iTunes, so check it out.

Mike Posner & The Brain Trust – “Cooler Than Me” featuring Big Sean

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Posted by the Groove