Legacy Track of the Week: Sevyn Streeter - Before I Do
“Truthfully (Truthfully), honestly (honestly), I need, I need, I need to believe…” Sevyn Streeter just released her debut album Girl Disrupted and this one is definitely a heater. Smooth R&B produced by Bernard Harvey, Micah Powell, & The Stereotypes who altogether turn in one of the best records of the year.
Jay Z - Adnis
“Uh, letter to my dad that I never wrote, speeches I prepared that I never spoke, words on a paper that I never read, proses never penned, they stayed in my head” Jay Z just released the bonus records from the latest 4:44 album, and this one is an open letter to his father Adnes Reeves who left his family when he was around 12 years old, following the events of his brother Ray’s murder. As Jay explains in the record his father became addicted to Alcohol and Heroin while running the streets in search of his Uncle Ray’s killer, a story that he’s referenced often throughout his career. Off the record it’s indeed true that Jay’s father passed away in 2003 from liver failure, a year before he reconciled with his son for the first time in twenty years, in which Sean Carter asked his father how he could abandon someone that looked just like him. This record is perhaps more closure for Jay and it’s done exceptionally well with production from James Blake, and it’s timing couldn’t be better as it surrounds the arrival of his new baby boy and girl.
Jay Z - Blue’s Freestyle / We Family
(stream coming soon)
“I feel like Ali, Viet Cong never done shit to me, feel me? More worried about Trump than anyone overseas, feel me?” Jay coasts on more stellar production from NO ID but the real story is Blue Ivy, who without a doubt taps into her own Beyonce style and she murdered it 🔥🔥🔥 all jokes aside this was definitely a nice bonus record.
Jay Z ft James Blake - MaNyfaCedGod
“On the run, we took a hundred together, more than the money, it was the fact that we done it together, uh, healing in real time, Song Cry to Resentment, that was real crying, Bonnie and Clyde things, we hold it down, had we surrendered then that'd be the real crime” More relationship bars from Hov for the 3rd and final bonus track off 4:44, produced by and featuring James Blake (along with producer Dominic Maker) who continues to influence the states with his vintage London sound.
Terrace Martin Presents: The Pollyseeds - Mama D / Leimert Park
(instrumental) 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥💎💎💎💎💎💎💎🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 💎💎💎💎💎💎
Terrace Martin Presents: The Pollyseeds - Wake Up
(instrumental) 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥💎💎💎💎💎💎💎🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥💎💎💎💎 the smooth sounds of Jazz are alive and well
Terrace Martin Presents: The Pollyseeds ft Chachi & Rose Gold - Feelings of the World
“Look at how time flies… things looking different for you & I” The multi talented super producer Terrace Martin just released a collaborative album with his new band called The Pollyseeds, made up of a variety incredible artists including Robert Glasper, Kamasi Washington, & Rose Gold to name a few.
Terrace Martin Presents: The Pollyseeds ft Preston Harris - Don’t Trip
“God will always love you forever…” The outro is one of the standouts off the project entitled Sounds of Crenshaw Vol 1
Sevyn Streeter - Soon As I Get Home
“Soooon as I get home, I'll make it up to you, baby, I'll do what I gotta do” Nice uptempo record off Sevyn Streeter’s debut, which was a long time in the making after many years of songwriting for her contemporaries.
Sevyn Streeter - Translation
"If we both shut up, we won't be so lost in translation, if we just light up, we won't be so low in translation” Another standout off Girl Disrupted.
Sevyn Streeter ft Ty Dolla $ign & Cam Wallace - Fallen
"When I found her, shit, I thought I found love, nah, better yet, I found drugs, damn, now I'm gettin faded too much, need to step back but that pussy so clutch, what, damn, this girl gotta hold on me, she got me singin like Jodeci, like my my my, my my my, oh that's Johnny Gill, fuck it man that shit was ill” Produced by Cam Wallace I’m not really sure why so many producers think they can rework this New Edition classic, yet nonetheless this was a decent effort where the highlight is actually Cam Wallace’s featured verse.
Capital Cities ft Rick Ross - Girl Friday
“She's got things to do everyday of the week, while I'm just playing hide and desperately seek, I wait around the clock, but her calendar is blocked, I'm a hard place, and she's a rock, she's a rock” Lyrics aren’t good but the energy is right, and for those like myself just finding out Capital Cities is a duo out of Los Angeles and their Swimming Pool Summer EP was released last week.
Stalley - Let’s Talk About It
“Everybody's motto pop a bottle, freak a model fuck tomorrow” Another good record from Stalley off his upcoming project New Wave, not to be confused with the Bone Thugs album of the same title that came out a few weeks ago.
Statik Selektah ft 2 Chainz & Wiz Khalifa - Man of the Hour
“I’m in my bag, God told me anything that I want I can have” Wiz actually spits one of his best verses in recent memory for Statik Selektah, who’s scheduled to release his upcoming album 8 later this year.
French Montana ft Pharrell - Bring Dem Things
“Here's a little story about a kid from Morocco, had to show Carlito I was Benny Blanco” Produced by Harry Fraud this is heater off French Montana’s new album Jungle Rules, where he even gets Pharrell to spit a 16 off the rip
Twista ft Blac Youngsta & B. Scott - Paper Chasin
“In the kitchen water whippin chickin dinners feeding all of the folks, I’m in love with the stove, I’m in love with the stove…” Twista with the unnecessary cocaine raps but truth be told it’s one of the only decent records off his latest album Crook County, which otherwise has few other highlights to name. This one however is absolutely a heater despite the fact that Twista is a grown man making Kodak Black music
Twista ft Jeremih - Next To You
“I wanna get next to you, tonight I got my Christian Dior's on, on my new Spider from Zone,I got a couple dollars and yeah, I just gotta, I just gotta, text her what she on, and she text back ‘I'm alone,’ yeah, you know ain't no questions baby, I wanna get next to you…” The first single and best record off Twista’s new album Crook County was actually released last October, yet off the strength of the album’s release it’s only right to mention it once more.
Meek Mill ft YFN Lucci & Barcellini - Young ***** Dreams
(stream coming soon)
“Still change hoes like I change clothes, chain froze, Range Rov, and I'm playin Hov, flashbacks seeing cops in them plain clothes, my ***** fighting open cases and they ain’t close” Typical bars from Meek Mill over better than decent production from the Dreamchaser’s own Papamitrou, this is the best record off the Meekend Music II EP.
DJ Shadow ft Nas - Systematic
“Mathematics is God’s language, it’s in my blood, art, music, letters and numbers, I'm a vessel, I'm humble, meeting startups, I invest if I want to, transforming global markets with all of my partners” For those unaware DJ Shadow is a producer from California who’s been critically acclaimed since the mid 90’s, and whom just released The Mountain Has Fallen EP with a guest appearance from Nas, who spits not one but two vintage verses for what’s also become a theme song for HBO’s Silicon Valley.