Archive for the ‘Feelin' It’ Category

New Music!! Introducing J. Cole’s ‘The Warm Up’

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009
Fayetteville's Own.

Fayetteville's Own.

What up people!! So last night I attended the mixtape release party for Roc Nation’s new rap artist J. Cole. For those who don’t know, Roc Nation is Jay-Z’s new record label and Mr. Jermaine Cole (J. Cole) is their only rap artist.  He hails from Fayetteville, North Carolina so of course I’m somewhat biased because hes from NC and a huge UNC fan (he showed me a picture of the UNC logo as the screensaver on his phone!).  He moved to NYC after high school to attend college because he felt like being in NY was the only way he would be able to score a record deal.  Long story short after a show in the area, his music caught the ear of Jay Z and they worked together to create his deal on Roc Nation.  His newest mixtape ‘The Warm Up’ can (AND SHOULD) be downloaded here and what’s most impressive is that all tracks were written AND produced by J. Cole himself.  I listened to the entire mixtape last night before I went to the release, so here are my 5 favorite tracks. Please remember that I’ve only listened to the whole track listing once so here goes:

1. Heartache

2. Lights Please

3. Grown Simba

4. Dead Presidents II

5. Water Break (a sick freestyle interlude)

Honorable Mention: Knock Knock…honestly this may need to make my top five but I’ll let yall decide.

All in all this mixtape is very very good. It has a little bit of Southern flavor but is heavenly influenced by NYC, seeing that he spent 4 years living here for college.  I would even go so far to say that this mixtape is better than Drake’s because it features less collaborations and is slightly more lyrically advanced. As much as I love Drake, there were times when I listened to certain tracks that I felt like he was either still riding the coat tails of Wayne or Wayne actually killed him in a verse.  In my opinion, you should never be competing against someone on your own album/mixtape. Its your time to shine so please do so. 

Anyways speaking of Drake, this past Sunday he shot his video for ‘Best I Ever Had’ in Prospect Park in Brooklyn and word is it featured cameos from Trey Songz, Common, Weezy, Hov and was directed by Kanye West. DAMN the young gunna is pulling out all the heavy hitters! Its really great to see a young artist have so much support. A rough copy of the video should be ready in two weeks so I’ll keep an eye out for it for you guys! Enjoy J. Cole! PEACE, LOVE AND ROSES!

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Reporting live from SOHO!!!

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009
Wow...this is almost an exact picture of where my apt is!

Wow...this is almost an exact picture of where my apt is!

OMG yall! I am so sorry I havent written in so long. I know that sentence sounds rather repetitive but I swear I have been absurdly busy. In the past three weeks I celebrated my 23rd birthday in Hilton Head, SC with my parents, the next weekend hosted a birthday party in NYC as well as moved from Harlem to Soho (IM OBSESSED WITH MY NEW HOOD), and now the dust has slightly settled and I swear to you this has been my one night to really sit down and catch my breath.  Ok so let me try to catch you guys up a bit. So like I said earlier, I celebrated my 23rd birthday at the beach and even though the weather was somewhat shitty it was AMAZING to get out of the city and have some time with myself and the water. For some reason I’ve always felt so overpowered when it comes to nature. I am in NO way a tree-hugger but something about sitting on in the sad and letting the ocean submerge me always reminds me that the world is so much bigger than my miniscule problems.  One morning I woke up and watch the sunrise on the water and I just came to so many realizations.  I am 23 years old, I am no longer a child. I am a woman and I have responsibilites and I must put myself first in all aspects of my life. After I left Hilton Head, I cut out all people in my life that brought me negativity. So far this has consisted of 3 people, all male and as I’m sure you can guess one of them was “unrequited love” boy. What happened between us during the last mentioning of him was nothing more than closure because since I cut him out, I have rarely thought about him. 

So on to the next topic. Amazing boy…ohhhh amazing boy. I guess the update there is that I can call him amazing boyfrienddddd hahaha! Ok so look before ya’ll start, I understand that I’m 23 and I understand that I’m living the life in NYC and I understand that he lives in Los Angeles and I UNDERSTAND THATS 3000 MILES AWAY, but we are determined to make it work.  He understands me and respects me and understands that I want to put myself and my career first and supports me all the way and I love him for it. I’m going to visit him in LA soon and I’m soooo excited! Ok no more sappy stuff lol lets talk about the new digs.

So Soho, oh Soho what an interesting place. This neighborhood is night and day from Harlem and I can wholeheartedly say that I do not miss Harlem. Im sure once streetball tournament season comes around, it might tug at my heart strings, but I’m sure I will get over it. The fact that I can stroll around outside at all hours and not feel sketched out or unsafe is AMAZING to me. Healthy delis and amazing shopping are steps away from my apartment and MOST IMPORTANTLY I have WONDERFUL roommates!! There are in total 4 of us in a huge four bedroom apartment. We rarely overlap, in fact right now I am the only one home sitting here watchin the NBA Finals! I could not be happier.

Alright so last and final topic, career moves. The View is going well, I’ve gotten more responsibility which is nice but the pay checks are really just not cutting it lol.  I have an interview tomorrow that I’m really excited about because its with a pr agency and I’ve been dying to exercise my degree. Ironically enough though, we had a WILD shake up where a girl just found out shes moving to LA for a new job so everyone in positions below her are dying to see what types of shifts will take place. We’ll see if I go anywhere lol. On the side, my friend who runs www.thehiphopupdate.com blog offered me the opportunity to conduct some interviews so if that comes through, you’ll have to check me out on there as well! Ok the game is on so I gotta watch. Who do you guys think will win game 3? I’m gonna go with Orlando!! ALSO, everyone watch The View tomorrow to see Kanye West!!! Stay Rosey kiddos!!

P.S. Totally forgot to mention! I went to the Drake concert a couple weeks ago here in NYC at S.O.B.’s and it was pretty good. Drake could definitely use some more stage presence and connect with his audience a bit more, but hes a newbie so I won’t hate. Its just that in the age of flip cams and camera phones, he should prob assume that everyone in the audience has seen his set before in a diff city so he should try to be a little more creative. Basically almost everything he had done, I had seen before…I met him after the show though and he’s a sweetheart so he definitely deserves your support!!!

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Drake…

Monday, March 16th, 2009
Aubrey Drake Graham
Aubrey Drake Graham

I should definitely be sleeping right now but this new/old news is keeping me awake. Ok so apparently I’ve been sleepin on dude but I just cannot help but write about this young man who is providing a breath of fresh air to the rap game right now. Some of you may recognize Aubrey “Drake” Graham as “Jimmy” from the hit Nickelodeon television show “Degrassi” where he played a student confined to a wheelchair after a school shooting (yea…the show is kinda OD especially since its targeted to tweens but thats another story). He has quietly been making mix tapes since 2006 and has recently exploded on the scene and is being hailed as Lil Wayne’s protege. He is currently signed on Wayne’s label Young Money Entertainment and word on the street is that he was very recently signed to Atlantic records. He has dual citizenship and hails from Toronto and Memphis respectively. I am literally obsessed with him. I cannot stop listening to his music or reading articles about him because I love the fact that he doesn’t pretend to be anything that he isn’t. He is so honest about not fitting the stereotypical role of a rapper and does not mind talking about his past in regards to acting and how he feels about being a crossover product. I definitely cannot talk about him enough but you MUST listen to his music so that you can feel the same way! His most recent mixtape is called ‘So Far Gone’ and can be downloaded here. He really is amazing, and I guess what I’m most impressed by is that on the surface, he’s just an actor off of a nickelodeon show which in my mind means that he has had to work so much harder than your average artist to gain respect in the rap game and at this point he really does have so much respect from so many people (Wayne co-signed!). DO NOT SLEEP ON THIS DUDE. Trust me 2009 will definitely be his year. And uh…not to mention…hes kinda fine lol. Enjoy the music and stay rosed up!

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Feelin it: Bracketology

Monday, March 16th, 2009
Last year's ACC championship

Last year's ACC championship

Its the most wonderful time of the yeaaaaaarrrrrrr!! Oh me oh my I have so much to write about I don’t even know where to start. Obviously, one of the first things is that today was the day most college basketball players dream of SELECTION SUNDAY. I personally have waited so long for this day because it is the start of what i believe is the most exciting 3 weeks in sports. Nothing can really replace the NCAA tournament. The excitement and the hunger is practically tangible for these boys. Theres nothing like watching them come together as a team to leave their hearts on the floor all in a quest for one mission…a national championship. Of course I could talk about how much the idea of this means to me but lets get into specifics. Although I was way too hungover today to work on filling out my bracket, obviously I’m looking for Carolina to take the cake. We expectedly got a number 1 seed in the South region and i really think we can take it if Ty gets healthy (bless his heart). At this point he could still miss the first game but of course I’m sure all the loyal Tarheel fans would love to see him on the court as much as possible. Trust, I will be watching this very closely, I love these guys so much and i know how much a national championship would mean to them. Gotta slide this in to be a loser but do you think Danny will dance at the big dance? Haaaaaaa! Ok I’m lame lol. Go Heels!!!

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Feelin It: March Madness

Friday, March 13th, 2009

So I’ve decided to start a new category. Its gonna be called “Feelin It” and basically be about any and everything that I just happen to be really into at the moment (for all you hip-hop heads, you’ve probably already made the connection to my favorite Jay-Z song ‘Feelin It’ – Reasonable Doubt). As of right now and until early April, my main “Feelin’ It” is going to be March Madness. I live for this time of the year. The hunger in these boys is practically tangible and I love how so much is riding on every game. If you really look at it, this whole tournament is pretty inspiring in a lot of ways but i don’t want to get too rosey on you so I’ll just move on.  Anyways as I said before, I am a Carolina graduate so I’m just going to put out a disclaimer now that I’m going to have a preference. I will be closely following all teams in the tournament because I am a huge sports fan, but I only follow them so I will know what type of competition Carolina will be against. So long story short, I’ll just be covering the Tarheels and maybe giving a few shout outs after some key (Duke) losses haha. Currently we are in all the regional tournaments. The ACC tournament has been narrowed down to four teams and tomorrow Carolina plays Florida State and Duke plays Maryland. Today’s UNC vs. VA Tech game gave me a heart attack and prompted many screams and curses but we pulled it off with a 79-76 win. Honestly…I do not mind if we lose the ACC tourney because in the last 3 years, we won it and lost the NCAA, and in 2005 we lost the ACC and won the NCAA. I’m sensing a pattern. Either way I love these boys so much and I know they have the heart and the talent to take the whole dance. Stay tuned for a recap of UNC v. Florida State tomorrow! Stay rosey people!

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