‘The decision to not have Drake participate in the Tidal stream has nothing to do with Apple or Drake’s deal, said Drake’s manager Future the Prince to BuzzFeed. ‘Point blank, 100 percent. I made a business decision. Apple doesn’t have the power to stop us from being part of a live stream. The only people that have the power to do that are Cash Money and Universal, and they’re our partners.’
As we pass the half way point of 2015, here comes the latest news: over trillion songs streamed so far. Last year had a total of 440 Billion over the entire 12 months which seems to me to prove that we are looking at the of the game when it comes to streaming. This means over a year streaming will have increased by 400%.
Still, Drake’s response to Meek’s claim that Drake didn’t write his own raps seems a little overdone. Meek really isn’t in Drake’s league so the sneer seems a little stuck on Drake’s face, like his smiling but very very stiffly, not at all amused, you know. Why so glum, kid? You know the first rule of fight club, never punch down, why are you punching down??
But Taylor Swift has now apologized to Minaj, tweeting ‘I thought I was being called out. I missed the point, I misunderstood, then misspoke. I’m sorry, Nicki.’ Sorry for what? Wasn’t Minaj the attacker in the story?
She now has a Tumblr page with heavy traffic, and was discovered by A$AP, her first famous customer. Then Rihanna saw his mouthpiece, and from there, Dolly became the grill-maker for celebrities. All of her creations are customized and handmade, and are unique pieces, she said to Vogue magazine she will never make the same one again. Using her dentistry practice, she makes a mold of someone’s mouth and then sculpts the piece using chromium chromate, then 18K gold, yellow or white.
In a first, the Canadian master had a sign language interpreter on stage with him as he made a dash through the heart of the set, “Worst Behavior: through “Hell Ya Fucking Right” with “Tuesday” on one end and “Started From The Bottom” on the other and right in the middle his masterpiece “Hold On, We’re Coming On” and right here Governors Ball came into its own
Drake – 6pm In New York – Oh, you’ve gotta love it, another self portrait as Drake opens his diary and rhymes his way through at the end of his masterful mix tape. An open so strong it remains one of the best of the year -yes, THE MIX TAPE – A
So here we go, sixteen days and the nyc festival of the year hits and I will take a closer look at each day. It sure seems to me, the big draw closers on Friday should be a repeat of Skrillex versus Jack White last year, Drake is going to have 75% of the attendants. Me? I haven’t seen MMJ since New Year’s Eve 2008 and I saw Drake twice last year…
You can’t play without a scorecard fellow pop pickers, and as the terrain of new releases changes like at the speed of a blink of the eye, here are two newer new releases.
If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late – Drake – Remix tape? I prefer it to his last album, though it has no “Hold On, We’re Going Home” or the single that won him a punk from Diddy and a Grammy. Any album with songs as good as “Legend” and “Jungle” needs no caveats at all.
Sam and Beck got huge bumps from the Grammys but otherwise no big time action, right? More interesting, Drake in at # 1, for what amounts to a mix tape, nearly going gold , only digital, IN THREE DAYS. And with that, Drake gets a serious claim to Kanye (or Jay Z for that matter) crown.
It works like an extreme ambient, it moves into the background with that steady flow and smooth voice, which he clips and stretches out over and over again. The songs are fully formed and samey, they could segue on the same beats, the same sounds, yet it works over and over again.
Rappers are still going strong even those I haven’t heard anything from for a long time, like Diddy ($60 million and $1.90 per second)! Beside this you have Calvin Harris ($66 million and $2.09 per second), Jay Z ($60 million and $1.90 per second), and Drake ($33 million and $1.05 per second)
Diddy and Drake crossed paths at Fontainebleau Hotel’s Liv club and in the parking lot, Diddy punched him, damaging Drake’s shoulder, and left him with a cool as fuck “Take care of your business”. And as long as guns aren’t being drawn a non-story right, rap star? Dog bites man
I am willing to accept that I underestimated Lil Wayne, who was personable, smart and had tons of great songs and as for Drake? I have no idea what woke him up but he was wide awake and indeed he won the battle of the rappers
The setlist is huge but it isn’t really, the Young Money owner and the Young Money principle star will rap just their verse on many a song. And while the battle of the rap stars concept (yes, they’ve got an app for that) may be a little on the lame side, I am hardly the target audience by any stretch of the imagination.
I keep on looking at the date, August 16th, and the time, 7pm, and hoping there is some mistake somewhere because one of the most eagerly anticipated concerts of they year, the 15th anniversary of Okayplayer (you know, Guestloves music website thingy) at Summerstage, is happening at the same time as Eminem and Rihanna at Metlife. So I will be going to Em but my heart will be with Dev Hynes
It’s Late – Ricky Nelson – A 1959 hit, this is rockabilly as pop music and it is something that can’t be done in 2014, the guitar break is supple and sweet, just a couple of notes, but not one is wasted and the lyric so pared down he sings the entire thing twice and still brings it in at under two minutes – A
o To 100/The Catch Up – Drake – Drake sucks on stage and can drag over an album but when he drops a single and when it is out of the blue like “Started From The Bottom” and this very well rhymed state of the Drake (he is sick of apologizing to girls) he is in a whole other league – A
Last week a couple of dozen huge and fully grown men graduated from college to the NFL, where they will make millions for a couple of years and let’s hope they save up for a rainy day. If they don’t they will always have the NFL Draft where Mr. Johnny Football got drafted 22nd and Jadeveon Clowney got drafter first and Ha Ha Clinton Dix 21st , thereby giving Jimmy Fallon jokes for years to come.
Real Thing – Tune-Yards – I certainly don’t dislike Merrill Garbus enough to question why you love her, it is just that her songs, like this slice of funky weirdness meets doo wop, don’t stick to me at all – B
I am not a hip hop scholar. I am a person who listens to the genre on occasion when feeling ‘hood. Of course that’s after I put in a full days white collar work in and drive to my suburban 3 bedroom home.
So because these other rappers were ‘killing it’, Eminem got super jealous and wanted to write a song ‘dissing everybody’, but alas he never did it, as this would have been a ‘career suicide’.
‘Rihanna and Drake are just having fun at the moment. Neither of them are relationship people really. But Drake has made it clear that if things are going to get serious with them, he doesn’t want her speaking with Chris.’ That was the point young Conor Oberst was making on “Make War”, how new lovers try to wipe out old lovers.
‘RS can’t be playing w/someone’s emotions like that. Anytime we given a scrap that is historical’… ‘then they revoke his (@Drake’s) cover like “aint no thing”. I personally live vicariously anytime someone on my side of the fence gets cover’.
‘I completely support and agree with Rolling Stone replacing me on the cover with the legendary Phillip Seymour Hoffman. He is one of the most incredible actors of our time and a man that deserves to be immortalized by this publication. My frustration stemmed from the way it was executed’
Definitely a rebound and as annoying and dreary as Drake can be on stage, he is self-deprecating enough to make up for the hugely frustrating Justin Timberlake episode last year. Mazel tov, Drake. You won out
Popdust is probably my favorite music website, it looks like a dream and is wildly sarcastic and funny and fun. It obsesses over K-Pop and has better ears than Pitchfork; if Popdusts Top 20 songs of 2013 seems a little obvious, well, the whole point with pop music is that it be popular…
You Send Me – Sam Cooke – The smoothest of all soul singer seduced a white audience with this grown up puppy love masterpiece of 50s; pure and innocent but with the suggestion of sex – A+
Some time this summer when Passenger was blowing up he UK charts I predicted this would crossover Stateside and though, to be honest, I am not always exactly accurate in my predictions, this very appealing track was more than everybody gets it right once in a blue moon.
Hell, even Kelly is sucker punching us with a seasonal album and it may be ok, at least a coupla songs perked my interest, it isn’t even Thanksgiving yet!
Sure he died and that sucks and it was a little too young, I mean, he might have made it do 86, why not, right? BUT the outpouring of love and affectionate, the willful misreading of the man, the canonization of Lou… I bet Lester Bangs is scratching his head somewhere wondering how the hell that happened.
Arcade Fire, Maria Taylor, Linda Thompson ruled this week, I could have filled every position with their songs. AF, maybe I’m being difficult but I really do like it, and Maria and Linda are both on my top 10 albums list of 2013.
Prism sold more than 2 thru 9 combined and I guess that means sales are still in free fall because it’s not as though Prism sold a million or even half a million units.
There was something so off about Drake. He started with slow mood songs, moved on to bangerz like “Versace” and A$AP Rocky’s “Fucking Problems” before starting a deadly three song set with Jhene Alko and leaving the stage for a break
Same Damn Time – Future – The best song at Sunday nights Drake show shakes the rafter as a singalong for threesomes, a full throttle piece of fun for all the family if all the family – B+
Nights Of Cinnamon – John Mendelssohn – The quality sarcasm of the great Kinks Kronikler comes wrapped in melody and charm, days of sulphur seems to be the operative the word but the mood is (you know we’d get their eventually, is rather Victoria-ish – A
Ever since I caught Drake on SNL I’ve been hunkering to see him on stage and this set list is tasty indeed. I don’t know Drake’s material as well as I know Kweey’s so if I seem a little vague that is why. But I do know I am shocked he isn’t performing one of his greatest songs, “Over My Dead Body”.
I have never seen Drake headline a show and I am thrilled at the opportunity even if I am not thrilled with Nothing Was The Same, I can’t wait to see if Drake can bring it on stage at the Prudential Center this Sunday. Based on his SNL performance I am expecting very big things.
Pusha T and Danny Brown are held over from list week, Pearl Jam and McCartney are new to this week and except for acquired taste new r&b guy Black Milk, this is just about a holding action
Heartbreaker – Justin Bieber – Man, this guy got sucky. I was never a huge fan but he was always good for a coupla good tracks a year; how could this be any more generic – C-
Ho hum, the charts are such a bore in 2013, Miley, Katy and Lorde oh my. There has to be more to modern pop than this. This is really kinda sad, it is not that it is terrible, the way the album charts were a couple of weeks ago
If Miley can get one more hit song off this album it is gonna break her right through and the album will be a monster and she has it as well. Otherwise, no surprises here except maybe Panic!, it was no Pretty.Odd and I am surprised it moved over 75K units.
Something’s Gotta Give – Frank Sinatra – Sings Jimmy Mercer, and this one swings hard and it is one of those arrogant songs that Sinatra excelled, it swings from a chandelier and is all seduction and smart cracks and finger snaps – A
If ever a year seemed to be about a scene that was waiting to happen, this would appear to be that year. This time three years ago, the pop scene was exploding at its seams, as was hip hop and indie
People are right, Timberlake should have cut the two album drift to a sharp singleminded single. Even so, this isn’t close to as bad as they naysayers claim
But depression, sorrow, the infiniteness lightness of blueing, the pain of fame gam?. These are the colors of modern r&b and superheroes. Thanks, guys.
Let’s Dance – The Ramones – Just for all of you who were left with a bad taste in their mouth after the “CBGB” debacle, here is a reminded how everything is Ramones – A
If it wasn’t for the fact that Lorde apparently is only 16 years old, you’d be excused for believing Lorde is a 28 year old Disney XD actress playing a 16 year old
There is only one number to keep an eye on here and it belongs to Drake and here it is: 658,000 units sold. That would have been a good showing ten years, today it is a legitimate hit album and if t loses 70% of its audience next week, it is still gonna go platinum sooner rather than later
