Hip Hop Heats Up w/T.I. and Luda

Cover of "Paper Trail"

When I posted “Hot Summer Albums” on July 2nd, my top 5 list of summer releases did not include two major artists dropping studio albums early this fall.

T.I. – Paper Trail

Ludacris – Theater Of Mind

Both artists are currently working on movies, and have frequently ventured onto the silver screen. You might remember Luda in the Academy Award winning “Crash” (Crash, the TV series drama premiers this fall on Starz) and T.I. as one of Denzel Washington’s brothers in “American Gangster.” Ludacris also recently signed a multi-million dollar deal with AT&T for an upcoming marketing campaign for the U.S. phone company. However, the music these two put out this fall will generate a lot of attention and keep the rap game going strong. Be sure to check out T.I. songs off the new album (No Matter What, Swing Your Rag, and Whatever You Like) and the upcoming mixtape by DJ Drama and Ludacris The Preview coming later this summer.

Jay-Z Breaks Yet Another Barrier

This past week at the worlds largest greenfield music and performing arts festival, Jay-Z became the first American rap artist to preform at Glastonbury.

London Bridges are fallin down, not bridges but britches when Jigga’s in town!

Despite critism from numerous musicians and music critics, Jigga rocked the festival with about 180,000 in attendance throughout the three days. Moving away from white rockers of the past and towards a greater mix of music, Jay stole the show opening with his own cover of Oasis’ “Wonderwall”. The fact that rappers have made their appearance at the worlds major music festivals shows its prevalence among the music culture today. I grew up a Hip Hop head and always felt somewhat left out of the music scene. I am white and supposed to listen to white music, but our generation has bucked that age old trend. This is evidence of the diversity with which surrounded me from a young age and will hopefully be a piece of dispelling racism in our country. With my idol Young Hov rocking stages all over the world and mixing it up with all kinds of musicians, Hip Hop is truly here to stay.

Check out his entire set available for listening or download at datpiff.com

Hot Summer Albums

Ok, so summer is the time for swimming pools, movies, trips to the amusement park and baseball games. But lets not forget about all the great music that drops in the summer. Here is my top 5 list for upcoming albums (along with links for more info). Its hip hop, so if you want, comment back on some other LP’s set to be released this summer.

1. Clipse – Clipse Presents the Re-Up Gang (Aug 5)
2. Game – LAX (Aug 26)
3. Nas – Untitled (July 15)
4. Ne-yo – Year of the Gentleman (Aug 5)
5. David Banner – Greatest Story Ever Told (July 15)