Benjammin' #2

This came sooner than I expected. With the complete wealth of new music this week I had to jump on this early.

see Benjammin' #2 after the jump.

Young Dro
"Tropical"
"How I Ride"
album: I Am Legend mixtape
Release Date: now

I wasn't initially sold on Young Dro. I mean "Shoulder Lean" was a nice catchy song, and "Rubberband Banks" was great too, but they didn't sell me on Dro being a good rapper. With the release of the I Am Legend mixtape this past week I am now completely sold. His flow is ridiculous, his content is insane, he is really funny, and he is just one of the best new rappers out right now. I have now actually checked out his entire album Best Thang Smokin', and I realize how off I was. This man is a force to be reckoned with.

I chose two songs from the mixtape to showcase his talent. They are both great but especially "How I Ride". The hook for "How I Ride" is just something of goofy greatness: "This is how I ride / My car just died / The brain blowed out, doors committed suicide / The man in the trunk the only thing that's alive / And that's what I tell them when they be asking how I ride.". Great!! Young Dro is set to release his second full length album sometime in 2008, and I can't wait to hear it.

The Roots
"75 Bars" (Black's Reconstruction)
album: Rising Down
Release Date: April 29th, 2008


The Roots are back!!! Been waiting on the release of Rising Down for a while now, and today the first song has been released. It isn't the first single, it's just a song from the album that they put out there to get blog hype. The first single is said to be a song called "Birthday Girl" featuring Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy. As for this song though, it's just Black Thought completely blacking out in his rhyming. He shows on this song why he is the most underrated rapper around today. Also on the song is a tuba supplied by Tuba Gooding Jr., and it fits the song well. I am completely amped about the album, and if you want to learn more about it then check out this recent feature Entertainment Weekly did on previewing Rising Down: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20179171,00.html

She & Him
"This Is Not A Test"
"I Was Made For You"
album: Volume 1
Release Date: March 18th, 2008

Just as soon as I talk about the lead single from the album, the album leaks. Volume 1 is really just amazing. My favorite album of the year so far. It was hard to choose just one song from it, so I decided to pick two of my favorites. These two songs are great, the whole album is amazing, Zooey is a goddess. The End.

Erykah Badu
"Twinkle"
album: New Amerykah Part 1 (4th World War)
Release Date: February 26th, 2008

It's been a while since Erykah Badu has released an album. Luckily, New Amerykah is really fantastic and worth the wait. It's really an album that deserves to be heard front to back, but i'll choose my favorite song currently from it in "Twinkle". I believe it was produced by the great Madlib, but I could be wrong. Go check out this album. I'm sure you'll really enjoy it.

80th Annual Academy Awards prediction post coming later today. look out for it!