Mellow Monday 15: Boxing Day Edition: B.O.B and Lupe Fiasco

     Boxing day, its better than Christmas, you get to take back all the socks you got and use the cash for what you actually wanted. Well I found us a couple new albums you won't want to return.

     B.O.B, love him or hate him he's taken the scene by storm with last years release, The Adventures of Bobby Ray, but if you aren't all for the high production value radio worthy albums then have I got a winner for you. Last month Datpiff.com sponsored Bob's new mixtape "EPIC: Every Play is Crucial". Short of Saint's Row the Third, "EPIC" is as street as it gets this month in my house, and I for one am fine with that. This release isn't going to be getting mainstream airtime anytime soon, which for me is a bonus, nothing ruins a song like hearing it in the grocery store. So we've established it isn't about pop any more, this is hip hop, Bob's roots, and best of all its free, and if you hit that link above you'll get 15 Datpiff exclusive tracks like, Strange Clouds with Lil' Wayne, Things Get Worse with Eminem and Welcome to the Jungle. Anywho I'm not sponsored by anything fun so thats all the product placement I can handle, grab it up and love it, and if you take it back I'll find you.

     Lupe Fiasco, possibly the realist rapper I know of, environmentally, and politically aware and active. Dropped on thanksgiving this mixtape, "Friend of the People: I Fight Evil",  is an homage to how huge electronic music is getting, Lupe drops it over some of the biggest tracks this year, and manages to keep up and keep the rhymes fresh and catchy. Again this tape isn't hittin the stores anytime soon, its a mixtape pure and simple, "featuring" some of my favourite artists, Bassnectar, Nero, M83, The Glitch Mob, and Skrillex to name a few. This mixtape is huge but not many of the tracks are exclusive to it so keep your ears peeled, you heard it here first.

     Kept it simple today, two tapes, two artists, so grab em up while they're free and support the artists when they aren't. Also if you're still feeling that Christmas spirit head on over to our Facebook page and give it a like, its all I asked Santa for.

Mellow Monday 10 : Logic + 3 Great Hip Hop Tracks

     Alright first time home in four days, cant say I wouldn't rather still be partying but all good things must come to an end. On a more positive note I had a pretty decent thanksgiving and hope everyone else here in the great white north did as well.

     If you remember last weeks post I had a vid by Logic, a rapper from Maryland (if memory serves), when I was searching around my computer for suitable hip hop tracks I realized I only had one track off Young Sinatra. Young Sinatra is not only Logic's handle but the name of his first mixtape, which premiered back early september. You've heard me whine about it before but my internet connection really held me back on this one, Young Sinatra is much more than just a mixtape, its a full length album, rockin twenty two tracks, with artful skits and interludes.

     So after I muscled my way across the internet and dropped this on my ipod I had it on repeat damn near all week, the first time I listened to it I was amazed by not only the antique samples and masterful beats, but Logic's flow and the heart he obviously poured into this release. Every track on this album is sheer poetry, boasting everything from heartfelt stories of pain and the past to uplifting tracks that had everyone in the room laughing and jammin. Logic, I apologize for not taking this album seriously sooner, it is a mistake I will not make again.

Logic - Young Sinatra by Thissongissick.com

     I thought I would try a new angle this week and post tracks from more "mainstream" artists (today at least), so for your auditory pleasure we have tracks from Bruno Mars, B.O.B. and Common.

      Our first track is a brand new release from Bruno Mars, It Will Rain, which unfortunately was written for the new Twilight movie comin out in November, solid song, horrible franchise. So here's your chance to love it before it hits the radio and the big screen.

Bruno Mars - It Will Rain

      Next is a new gem said to be the first single from Bobby Ray's upcoming sophomore album, featuring Lil' Wayne. This track has it all, from a sick flow to some damn heavy beats and even a wobble or two, turn it up. 

B.O.B. ft. Lil' Wayne - Strange Clouds

     For the finale we have an amazing song from rapper with a conscience, Common. I think its safe to say that Blue Sky contains just a "little" sample from Electric Light Orchestra's song by the same name, this is the second single released for his new album "The Dreamer, The Believer", and like the rest has been produced by No I.D., impressive if I do say myself. 

Common - Blue Sky

     So hit those links above for some amazing hip hop, unless you don't like mainstream rap then please exit the site immediately, oh and be sure to tell me all about it on our Facebook page. Cheers.