Tyler, the Creator Announces the Release of Wolf, Toronto Tour Date Announced

Today, Tyler, the Creator, announced the release of his sophomore album, Wolf. The highly anticipated album will be released on April 2nd and will be going on Tour to promote the album throughout March and April. He will be touching down in Toronto on March 22nd at the Opera House. Head over to www.golfwang.com to grab your tickets and pre-order the album now. 

03-12 Columbus, OH - Newport Music Hall
03-15 Pittsburgh, PA - Mr. Small’s
03-16 Carrboro, NC - Cat’s Cradle
03-17 Norfolk, VA - The Norva
03-18 Washington, DC - U Street Music Hall
03-20 Buffalo, NY - Town Ballroom
03-21 Boston, MA - Paradise Rock Club
03-22 Toronto, Ontario - Opera House
03-23 Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg
03-24 Philadelphia, PA - TLA
03-28 Paris, France - Trabendo
03-29 Berlin, Germany - Festaal Kreuzberg
03-30 London, England - Islington Academy
04-02 Los Angeles, CA - TBA
04-03 San Antonio, TX - White Rabbit
04-05 Albuquerque, NM - Sunshine Theatre
04-07 La Jolla, CA - Porter’s Pub
04-08 San Luis Obispo, CA - Slo Brew
04-10 Seattle, WA - Neumos
04-11 Portland, OR - Hawthorne Theatre

 - Israel Lattiboudeaire 

Twitter: @IzzyLatti

J. Cole Releases Yours Truly, New Single Coming This Week

J.Cole releases new music in the early hours of the morning. The collective is called Yours Truly. He also states he’ll be releasing a new single for the album this week. See below for his message to his fans. Head over to dreamville.net to download.

“It’s time.

I appreciate you giving me the time I needed to grow, experiment, and find the direction for my 2nd album.. And I have.
Along the way I’ve recorded at least 4 albums worth of material, lots of it being unfinished demo versions waiting to be polished up, some of them are great songs and important stories that just won’t make the album (either they don’t fit Sonically, don’t fit Theme, or there’s just not enough space) .

Tonight, I want to give you a few of these songs because you deserve them. It’s hard as fuck for me to keep all this music from you for so long, so I know it’s been hard for you to wait. Thank you for your patience. Vibe out to these songs in their raw form, no polish.. just a lot of my soul..

The wait is over.

Truly Yours,

Born Sinner

Truly Yours

PS- 1st single coming this week. The album is hands down my best work yet. Can’t wait to share.”

http://www.dreamvillain.net/blog/

- Israel Lattiboudeaire 

Twitter: @IzzyLatti

Complete List of 2013 Grammy Winners

The Grammy’s is one of the most exciting night in music. It is truly the music industry’s night to shine. Below is the list of winners from the event. Congratulations to all of the winners and keep making great music that we all love. 

Album of the Year
Mumford & Sons, Babel

Record of the Year
Gotye featuring Kimbra, “Somebody That I Used to Know”

Song Of The Year [awarded to songwriter]
“We Are Young,” Jack Antonoff, Jeff Bhasker, Andrew Dost & Nate Ruess, songwriters (Fun. featuring Janelle Monae)

Best New Artist
Fun.

Best Pop Solo Performance

“Set Fire To The Rain (Live),” Adele

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance
“Somebody That I Used To Know,” Gotye featuring Kimbra

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album
Kisses On The Bottom, Paul McCartney

Best Rock Performance
“Lonely Boy,” The Black Keys

Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance
“Love Bites (So Do I),” Halestorm

Best Pop Vocal Album
Kelly Clarkson, Stronger

Best Rock Song
“Lonely Boy,” The Black Keys

Best Rock Album
El Camino, The Black Keys

Best Alternative Music Album
Making Mirrors, Gotye

Best R&B Performance
“Climax,” Usher

Best Traditional R&B Performance
“Love On Top,” Beyoncé

Best R&B Song
“Adorn,” Miguel

Best Urban Contemporary Album
Channel Orange, Frank Ocean

Best R&B Album
Black Radio, Robert Glasper Experiment

Best Rap Performance
“N****s in Paris,” Jay-Z & Kanye West

Best Rap/Sung Collaboration
“No Church In The Wild,” Jay-Z & Kanye West featuring Frank Ocean & The-Dream

Best Rap Song
“N****s in Paris,” Jay-Z & Kanye West

Best Rap Album
Take Care, Drake

Best Country Solo Performance
Carrie Underwood, “Blown Away”

Best Country Duo/Group Performance
“Pontoon,” Little Big Town

Best Country Song
“Blown Away,” Carrie Underwood

Best Country Album
Uncaged, Zac Brown Band

Song Written For Visual Media
“Safe & Sound” (From The Hunger Games), Taylor Swift, John Paul White, Joy Williams

Short-Form Music Video
“We Found Love,” Rihanna featuring Calvin Harris

Long-Form Music Video
“Big Easy Express,” Mumford & Sons

Best Spoken Word
Society’s Child: My Autobiography, Janis Ian

- Israel Lattiboudeaire 

Long.Live.ASAP

 

    The LONG. LIVE. A$AP album is something that most of us have been anxiously awaiting for more than a year. Now the album is finally here but whenever there is a lot of anticipation it is never possible for an artist to fulfill all of the public’s desires. LONG. LIVE. A$AP is going to be the set up for the rest of A$AP Rocky’s career for the foreseeable future unless he changes something drastically. LONG. LIVE. A$AP isn’t much of a departure from the A$AP Rocky that we have become accustomed to, he still keeps the same style for the most part. Lyrically A$AP doesn’t offer anything new at all and the products are still very solid as we’ve become accustomed to from A$AP rocky. With all that being said, A$AP still finds a way to create an album that you won’t have any issues listening to; it’s not going to be album of the year, it’s far from there, even though it won’t be in contention, the areas where the album does well will have you pressing replay over and over again.

    Before I would have said its just the productions on the album, but I was fortunate to enough to hear the beat for “PMW” before A$AP dropped his vocals on it and it was a nice beat but what he did to it was just astonishing. Leads me to believe there is more to A$AP than just the crisp productions and hard one-liners. He’s able to bring his confidence to each and every one of his songs, and even when the execution isn’t there the confidence that he has in his flow is enough to bring him through a song. Though this doesn’t work well on every song on this album leaving a disconnect throughout. My initial listening experience left me wanting a lot more from this album than I received when I finished it at first. I was rather critical of what the finished product was and disappointed to be honest. After waiting for almost a year for an artist to release an album, I could see how my expectations might have become inflated so I decided to give LONG. LIVE. A$AP some more time to grow on me. This is something that I’ve realized a while ago with albums; you just can’t judge them right away. I’ve had the album for a while now and I’ve been waiting for the album to finally hit me. I was waiting for that moment where I would love the album like everyone else, I was waiting for that moment where I would go “oh darn wow this is really what I was waiting for”, that moment never came. Though the album is still a solid album for the current period of hip-hop that we live in.

     LONG. LIVE. A$AP is more of a street album than it is anything else. This album does allow A$AP to build his street credibility very well, as well as there are tons of club bangers on this album. There are no tracks that give you a greater insight into who A$AP Rocky is as he pushed out the same material that he had on his much acclaimed project, Live. Love. A$AP, which was great but the fact is that nothing is ever as good the second time around. I’ve heard all of it before and I was looking for an evolution of A$AP Rocky but what I heard from him was just material progression. There are bright spots of the album where A$AP still manages to amaze with tracks that’s aren’t normal ‘A$AP rocky style’ such as “1 Train” and “Ghetto Symphony”, but other than that not so much. Overall I was left with a feeling of ‘OK’ and that’s what I am going to rate this album as. It’s just an ‘OK’ album at best. I still believe in A$AP rocky and hope for his future projects are still high. This project just left me feeling not as satisfied as I believed I should have felt from such a highly anticipated project. Only time will tell what ASAP will release next, my hopes are that it’s just better than LONG. LIVE. A$AP.

- Jason Williams

Twitter: @JaesonWilliams

I/O’s Isolation

   

     Have you ever liked something and you knew that you really liked it but you were unsure of how to explain what you liked and why. I have had the hardest time attempting to explain why I like I/O’s Isolation album/mixtape. Isolation is a mixtape but it sounds like an album. From beginning to end Isolation is a wonderful journey; it’s a short story worth listening to. The depth that you find on Isolation is not common for this period of urban music. I almost feel that I am pigeonholing the album by lumping it into the urban music sphere; maybe calling it an electronic experimental album would be better suited to what it really is.

     The electronic sound is futuristic while still maintaining a familiarity that you can’t quite put your finger on. The album has a very clear direction which is something that I am very appreciative of because much too often nowadays albums and mixtapes sound like there was no thought or consideration when it came to the direction or the theme of the album. There is no such issue with this album. With a clear theme running through from beginning to end, the continuity is something to be praised, it’s much like getting into a mood and staying in that mood or state of mind for the entirety of the album. There are a few different topics that are discussed which give the listeners a diverse listening experience. These topics or ideas are all connected almost like branches of a tree and the product of this tree is fruitful to say the least. The album doesn’t have many songs it could do without, everything fits nicely together each song making the other sound better and each song allowing the listener to better understand the story being told. One or two songs don’t belong but they still don’t detract from the overall experience or direction of the album.

     I/O is able to create a masterpiece of an album without the use of any features, which I would say, is great. We’ve touched on the sound of the album, which is electronic in influence, but not overly electronic where you would think that I/O couldn’t sing. The electronic sounding productions are excellently done and from what I can tell there were no big name producers on this project making it more of a feat. There are no issues with any of the transitions, beats or the tempo at all. Isolation is just a testament to the little guy that could. I/O set out to create something great and that’s what he did, no big names just himself, his voice and the story that he wanted to tell. His story was one of those stories that never gets old, it’s one of those stories that once you’ve heard it you want to share it with someone else. After the isolation album I/O released a song titled “You Slay Me” and it’s fanatic. Finding great artists on the come up like I/o is one of the main reasons I love writing about music. Being able to share something that most people don’t know about is something I love to do and I’ve been trying to characterize I/O and his Isolation album as appropriately as possible. I just hope I did it justice and you like it as much as I do.

- Jason Williams 

Twitter: @JaesonWilliams

Looking back at the Music of 2012 

Every year we take the time, at the end of the year, to review what has gone on in every genre and make up lists for the best songs, albums and mixtapes of that year. For 2012, it was easy to figure out what the number one album would be, but after that it got a little harder to figure out what should follow on the list. It wasn’t because there was too much to consider, even though there were a lot of releases that came out this year the issue was that a lot of it wasn’t very good. Artists that you expected to release phenomenal work didn’t deliver. Much of the music this year was void of creativity as a lot of artists just made what they knew would sell or get played. 2012 was another year when we saw the great ship of hip-hop take on more water which makes em unsure of whether or not hip-hop will be able to make it out of 2013 as a viable genre which creatures classic albums.

For the first time in two decades a rap/hip-hop album failed to sell a million records. Aside from the masterpiece that we received from Kendrick Lamar, hip-hop/rap is stagnant, stale and for the most part forgettable. Looking forward towards 2013, there might be some hope and it might not be all doom and gloom for some of the other genres. Female R’n’B and adult contemporary are on the rise with lots of fresh talent and some of the veteran artists in this genre are also slated for returns from a year off. New logos is looking forward to Melanie Fiona, Jesse Ware, Rihanna *yeah I said Rihanna* she is at a magical place in her career and she is finally combining her image with her music. Lana del Rey released a fantastic project this year and we anxiously await what she does next. Lana del Rey wowed with her vocals and visuals in 2012. She is in a position where she can solidify herself with a great follow up project. The males had a great year in 2012 as well; Frank Ocean released a well-received debut project, though for us the project was missing a few things in regards to consistency we look forward to Frank fixing that and continuing with the momentum he has had this year. JMSN as a male R’n’B pop artist broke out in 2012 with a fantastic solo debut album that was iTunes release only. It would later be released for free after being featured heavily on the classic Kendrick Lamar album of 2012 and on The Games album ‘Jesus Piece’. 2012 was a solid year for music, it wasn’t the most special year that I have ever witnessed, but whenever there is a down year there is always a rebound year to follow. The rebound year is what we are hoping for 2013 to be. With great projects expected from A$AP Rocky, a pretty good mixtape out right now by Wale which we will have a review for soon, the return of Beyoncé and Adele, as well as J Cole and Drake. Also with future releases, 2013 is bound to be a comeback year for urban music.

- Jason Williams

Twitter: @JaesonWilliams