The Beez

Tons of new music today for everyone. “We Be Steady Mobbin’” is killer and some of the best material we’ve heard from Weezy F. in a while. I’m not even going to get started on the Limp Bizkit-esque rap-rock phase that he’s going through. Lupe’s got a new track that sounds oddly familiar to “Superstar” but his snippets have some promise to them. Wale has come out with a mixtape entitled BACK TO THE FEATURE (“New Soul” is on it) and it’s pretty tight. Spoon’s “Got Nuffin” is the crunchiest thing they’ve put out in years while Air France’s “CBG Belongs to Us” is the complete opposite. Michael Jackson Top 10 cover tracks and tributes to come soon…

Spoon – Got Nuffin

8.9/10. The edgier version of Spoon that infringes on a Queens of the Stoneage sound. Did they meet up with Dave Grohl before going into the studio? Look out for the upcoming EP.

Air France – CBG Belongs to Us

6.7/10. A new move for Air France with someone singing on the track. We’re not sure where this is coming from…

La Roux – Quicksand (Mad Decent Remix)

8.4/10. Who doesn’t love Mad Decent? The label has one of the best artist rosters in the indie world. It seems that Diplo can’t be stopped.

Lil Wayne & Gucci Mane – We Be Steady Mobbin’

9.6/10. Tightest lyrics that we’ve heard from Wayne since “Yes”. You won’t hear autotone, just raw content and rawer lyrics.

KiD CuDi – Heaven at Nite

6.2/10. Seeing as there’s already a video for the track, we assume that this is the second single off of his upcoming LP, to our disdain.

Wale – New Soul feat. Yael Naim

8.2/10. Producer BKS creates a banging slow jam with a Lilly Allen spin on the track. Wale might finally get is 15 minutes.

Wale – Wonder Why feat. Big Sean, Ken Starr & Mike Posner

7.8/10. Not as good as “New Soul” but Kanye’s protegé Big Sean is on the track with Mike Posner (hoarse voice), his buddy from Duke, who is up-and-coming. Story is that Big Sean rapped on the spot for Kanye outside of a radio station and was signed shortly afterwards.

Lupe Fiasco – Shining Down feat. Matthew Santos

5.9/10. Doesn’t Lupe understand that he can’t release the same song on two different albums? There’s no formula here, Lupe. Hopefully Jay-Z will agree to mentor him.

Here are a couple snippets that we found for Lupe’s upcoming album Laser:

Lupe Fiasco – Two Ways (Sample Snippet)

Lupe Fiasco – Ladies and Gentlemen (Sample Snippet)

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

[CL] Goodness

It seems like half of Keri Hilson’s upcoming album has been leaked already, but that’s okay with us at [cardboard living] because the tracks have all been pretty dope. Get ahead of the curve here but make sure you cop her album on the 24th.

Keri Hilson – Knock You Down feat. NeYo & Kanye West

9.0/10. Keri Hilson + NeYo + Kanye West + crazy good beat=success.

Keri Hilson – Turnin’ Me On Remix feat. T-Pain  Lil’ Wayne

8.0/10. I really liked the original song when it came out, mainly because Polow Da Don’s beat is filthy. The addition of T-Pain will put the song back in my rotation for at least a week or two.

M.I.A. – Death to the Throne

7.5/10. New little M.I.A. ditty for you guys. I’m pretty sure it’s just a synthesis of three of her verses that a DJ put together but it’s pretty cool, check it out.

Mike Tully

Sweet Chin Music

We’ll kick off today’s post with a nice little remix of B.O.B’s Haterz Everywhere. B.O.B. has been doing his thing (I especially like Grip Your Body) and while this song is a bit old, I thought I’d post it anyway.

B.O.B. – Haterz Everywhere

Rating: 7.6/10–> Yeah he kind of sounds like a ripoff of Outkast and yeah sometimes I wonder if Rick Ross ever learned that rhyming the same word with itself is kind of pointless, but the beat is sick and B.O.B is gonna be huge.

Next on the [cardboardliving] agenda, some pretty cool mashups by a producer with the questionable name Barefoot in Babylon Productions. I’d suggest he retools that one a bit, but he’s got some sweet stuff and you can check out his myspace here.

Barefoot in Babylon – Skulls and Bones

Rating: 8.8/10–> Pretty sweet mashup featuring J-Kwon’s dirty beat from Hood Hop, two different cameos by Lil Wayne who’s at his best, and a refrain by none other than M.I.A. Not sure though if the song is greater than the sum of its parts. You be the judge.

Barefoot in Babylon – Feel The Love

Rating: 8.4/10–> Another cool idea where he speeds up Elton John’s Feel the Love from the Lion King while Kanye does his thing. I’m not gonna lie I memorized the entire Lion King soundtrack on tape back in my younger days (ladies I’m also single) so what better way then to revisit one of my finer moments in life than with the help of Kanye West.

P.S. Rafiki is the man

MT2

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

Daily Downloads

Ghostface Killah – Cherchez La Ghost (Sonic Truth Bmore Edit)

Rating: 6.5/10 –> Ghostface fans might cringe… it’s a strange edit but worth listening to.

Lil Wayne – Sportscenter

Rating: 6.5/10 –> Not one of Weezy’s best, but a cool beat.

Fires of Rome – Set in Stone (Dada Remix)

Rating: 8.1/10

M. Ward –  Never Had Nobody Like You

Rating: 7.2/10 –> He is still pumping out great tracks.

LAC