The White Drake

Benzi teams up with Mike Posner again in the remix of “Mirror’s Edge”, which is actually an XV track also featuring Bun B. Seeing that the remix features a slow piano line and even slower drum and bass, the raspy hook that Posner delivers (he’s now being referred to as “The White Drake) is a perfect complement to on-point lyricism from the two rappers on the track. Check it out:

XV – Mirror’s Edge (Benzi Remix) feat. Bun B & Mike Posner

7.8/10. Strong lyricism is evident on the track but Posner and Benzi steal the show.

Lewis Corson

Leaked Jay-Z/Kanye/Rihanna Record is Mediocre

While it’s probably old news now, we want to share our opinion on “Run This Town” with our faithful readers. “Run This Town” leaked three days ago, on July 24th on a couple of blogs and was promptly covered by Pitchfork a few hours later (sorry, [cardboard living] doesn’t have a weekend staff yet). Staff writer, Tom Breihan gives the track a glowing review, claiming that the song ‘bangs’ and talking about Jay-Z, on a pop record, rapping like ‘he cares‘. Sorry, Tom, but we’re not with you.

The hook, that Rihanna sings, can’t help but evoke the same squirming feeling that we got whenever “Rehab” or “Disturbia” used to come on the radio. The real problem with the track is the huge difference between Rihanna’s voice, which is now pop-proven and the grinding guitar riff that drives the track. The same guitar riff loop was used in “Death of Autotune (D.O.A.)” to great effect because of its inherent hardness, but Rihanna wasn’t on that track. Hopefully, Kanye wasn’t talking about “Run This Town” when he said this in February:

I just did one beat the other day in Hawaii — probably one of the best hip-hop beats of all time, if I do say so myself.

Jay-Z’s verses sound determined and aggressive and Kanye, as he’s known to do, has a couple good one-liners on the track but hopefully we’ll hear a better track with the next leak, which we’re betting will hit the web within a week.

According to reports, “Run This Town” is set to be the single to follow “D.O.A.” instead of a track that Jay did with Drake entitled “Off That.”

Jay-Z – Run This Town feat. Kanye West and Rihanna

6.4/10. A great beat is soiled by Rihanna’s pop-proven pipes. Maybe it’s because Rihanna evokes visions of drunk college girls dancing to “Umbrella” or because The Blueprint 3 is over-hyped. There is, however, promise for the album as we keep seeing some solid beats being rolled out.

Lewis Corson

MORE

We’ve got a couple more good ones so bear with us over here at [cardboard living].

Laidback Luke – Mo Money Mo Problems (Laidback Luke Bootleg)

8.0/10. Nice little remix from prolific DJ (can we call him that) Laidback Luke. If you don’t have this by now you should, it crashed the server of the original blog it was posted on after being promoted on hype machine.

Lil Wayne – I’m Goin In feat. Drake & Truth

8.0/10. Wayne and Drake murk the beat, but the truth is Truth sucks.

Keri Hilson – Turn My Swag On (Remake)

8.2/10. Original is lame, but obviously I like Keri Hilson and this song is kind dope.

Mike Tully

Blazing into 2009

I think it’s time [cardboard living] filled its viewers in on some of the up and coming rappers who are poised to refresh the somewhat stale hip hop scene in ’09. Three of our favorites–Drake, Blu(e), and Theophilus London–all came out with mixtapes in the past couple weeks and they continue to dominate our daily playlists. Today we’ll focus on one of 2009′s most blogged about rappers and most anticipated mixtapes of the year, Drake and his impressive “So Far Gone” mixtape.

Drake lit up 2007 and 2008 by ARGUABLY outshining Lil Wayne on both of their collaborations, Ransom and Stuntin‘ Remix.

Drake – Stuntin’ Remix

Rating: 9.5/10 –> For me, Drake’s verse is one of the top 3 of all of 2008. It’s incredible to think that this kid is 21 but still has such a mature and refined verse structure and word play. Lil’ Wayne kills it too, but Drake is definitely the highlight.

You might remember Drake from his role as g Jimmy Brooks, the physically disabled character on Degrassi: The Next Generation. Well Jimmy Brooks turned into a lethal wordsmith who can either go hard on a track with the best of them or refreshingly change it up with his silky smooth singing. But I digress.

Unfortunately, So Far Gone came up a little bit short in my opinion.

Drake – So Far Gone Mixtape

My favorites are most definitely the tracks where Drake sticks to his proven formula of a tight flow and a sick beat. So Far Gone includes much more singing then I would have liked, but the highlights include Congratulations, which we’ve posted a link to below, and reviews of a couple more songs that you can listen to after downloading the mixtape off of the link above.

Drake – Unstoppable ft. Santogold and Lil’ Wayne
Rating: 9.2/10 –> What more can I say. Nasty beat, nasty verses by both Wayne and Drake, and Santogold at the top of her game

Drake – Little Bit ft. Lykke Li

Rating: 7.8/10 –> Although I’m still not sure whether I like this version better than the original, Little Bit definitely illustrates Drake’s versatility and his willingness to push the envelope with both his style and those he chooses to work with, i.e. from Bun B to Peter Bjorn & John

Drake – Congratulations

Rating: 8.4/10->While I never thought it possible, Drake manages to go hard on a Coldplay beat. This song isn’t on the online mixtape version, but his people chose to include it in the hardcopy version of So Far Gone, so here you go.

While it’s unclear what you might think of So Far Gone, we at [cardboardliving] can promise that Drake will be blazing up the charts for years to come.

MTeezy