By KEVIN JACOB
Staff Writer
Hello all and welcome to another edition of Kickin’ It. I missed out on submitting last week but fear not, as I’ve got some new music for everyone to check out as we’ve had some really solid albums come out recently. Let’s get into it.
Pharrell, G I R L – Pharrell has been on fire within the last year giving us “Blurred Lines,” “Happy,” and probably playing a part in your favorite artists’ songs. Flat out, dude has been everywhere. In the end of February, Pharrell said that his new album would be coming out in three weeks and I was hyped. As a fan of Pharrell, I was hoping to hear some dope raps mixed with singing as he usually does. Although I didn’t get exactly what I expected of the record, Pharrell still managed to make one of the more uplifting and positive albums I’ve heard so far this year. “Marilyn Monroe” starts the album off with a slightly dark but great track. The string section in it is ridiculous and it brings that vintage Neptunes sound but there’s more to it. There’s a similar sound but it’s advanced and more polished. The first half of the album continues with similar bangers which include “Hunter,” which has some crazy bounce to it, “Happy,” which still is one of the catchiest songs of the past year, and “Brand New,” which if this doesn’t make it to radio, then I’ve officially lost all faith in the industry (although I think I already have. *shrugs*). The best track on the album for me though has to be “Come Get It Bae.” It’s catchy, sexy, and just a straight-up fun record. It actually makes Miley Cyrus looks like she has some type of vocal chops. Well, let’s not go that far. But it’s a great record and oddly enough reminds me of a slightly grown- up brother to Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines.” Take that as a good thing. Although I was really feeling the first half of the album, the second half was a bit of a letdown in my opinion. “Gust of Wind” with Daft Punk doesn’t really live up to their previous collaboration “Get Lucky” and “Know Who You Are” with Alicia Keys is just straight up weak. Overall, I think that this album was pretty chill and Pharrell has delivered. This is a pop album, but a damn good one at that. This is definitely gonna be one that you’re going to be hearing a lot this spring and summer.
Rating: 8/10
YG, My Krazy Life – I’ve been aware of YG’s music for a while. He brought it with “Toot It and Boot It” my freshman year here at Saint Rose and although it was cool, I really started taking notice when he started releasing his solid Just Re’d Up mixtape series. To be honest, YG and DJ Mustard, who handles most of this project, have basically started the ratchet west movement that you hear on the radio today. These two, besides anyone from TDE, have made the west a force to be reckoned with, with their synth heavy g-funk bass that could destroy your speaker raps. YG and Mustard are the originators of this sh!t and they barely get the respect for it that they should. YG is a gangster. He was a member/is still a member of the bloods gang and went to jail for a while for a home invasion robbery attempt. When the intro, “BPT,” starts, you’re instantly thrown into YG’s vision of Compton. And it starts with a bang. After “BPT,” you have one of the better tracks on the album, “I Just Wanna Party,” which has a good verse from Schoolboy Q, but a guest verse from Jay Rock that shows why he may be low-key the best one in TDE besides Kendrick. He absolutely murders Q on the track and you forget bout YG’s verse at the end. Show stealing performance. The album continues with some cool tracks such as “Meet The Flockers” and the highly popular track “My Ni**a.” Other great tracks include “Me and My B****” and “Really Be (Smokin N Drinkin).” The best track on here for me is “Sorry Momma,” which shows YG at his most personal and instrumentally it’s the most moving song on the whole album. It’s filled with emotion and a blissful saxophone piece done by Terrace Martin. In the end, although the album had some filler, there wasn’t really anything that was terrible or bad about it. YG continues to show why the west shouldn’t be taken lightly. Solid debut album.
Rating: 8/10
Freddie Gibbs and Madlib, Piñata – When you pair up underground gangsta MC Freddie Gibbs with underground legend Madlib you know you’re going to get a great project and this one could potentially be labeled a classic. “Deeper” has strings that cut deep. “High” takes everyone’s favorite pot smoking anthem and flips the script into a rapid fire tale from Gibbs and Danny Brown. “Harold’s” is some of the smoothest sh!t I’ve heard in a minute and “Real” is one of the best diss records since “Ether,” no bullsh!t. Gibbs goes hard at his former employer Young Jeezy and he slices dude up on this one. Even though I got love for the snowman, Gibbs really got at him on this one. Like, once the beat flips? Man, all bets are off. “Lakers” is also smooth as hell with a great Ab-Soul guest verse and even though the closer “Piñata” is almost nine minutes long, it’s got an impressive list of guest rappers that include everyone from Mac Miller and Domo Genesis to Casey Veggies who spits his verse with a hunger that I never even knew dude was capable of. This album point blank is great. Not one weak track on here. Gibbs delivers with being a real gangster rapper. Madlib delivers with great beats and skits/samples. This is a winning combo in any category.
Rating: 10/10
That’s all for this week’s edition of Kickin It. Check back with us next week as I got a lot more to talk about and discuss. Have a good week everybody.