This Week In Rap News
Written by Coog Radio on January 30, 2016
For hip-hop, rap, and r&b lovers everywhere, this week was an amazing week for music. From a new Rihanna and Drake song, to J. Cole’s album, to twitter beef, it felt like everyday there was something new to marvel at. Let’s recap, shall we?
1. Kanye’s New Album:
If you’ve been following Kanye on twitter, he’s become quite active in the past month or so before the debut of his highly anticipated album “Waves” (formerly entitled “Swish”). Kanye has kept his fans up to date with just about every process of the album through twitter. A few weeks ago, his wife Kim Kardashian announced the return of G.O.O.D. Fridays. From then, Kanye posted two new songs: “Real Friends” and “No More Parties in LA” featuring Kendrick Lamar.
This week, Kanye posted several pictures of the track-list for his album. Within three pictures, you could see the progression of his work.
The most recent picture has a few big names in music, notably Chance the Rapper (in blue sharpie in the middle of the page) and Earl Sweatshirt (in blue sharpie as well with a drawing of a UFO on the right hand side). People have speculated that maybe (hopefully!!!) they’ll be featured on Kanye’s album. If that’s true, it would definitely make a lot of fans happy. The collab with Kendrick already had people smiling ear to ear.
With Kanye’s tweets, a little drama took place as well between Kanye and Wiz Khalifa regarding the name of the album, but it only hyped fans even more. “Waves” was even trending on twitter for a day. It seems that marketing for albums is quite simple these days, a few popular tweets and you’re set to release your album.
2. Rihanna’s Song “Work” and album “#ANTI”:
On Wednesday, Jan. 27, Rihanna released “Work”- her first single from her album “#ANTI.” This upbeat song features rapper Drake. It’s been a minute since Rihanna and Drake blessed us with a collab–the last two times being Drake’s “Take Care” and Rihanna’s “What’s My Name,” so fans were stoked. The song did not disappoint, and if that wasn’t enough, Rihanna’s album “#ANTI” officially came out as well. You can stream or download it on Tidal, and it’s also available on iTunes to purchase.
3. J. Cole Forest Hills Drive: Live- Fayetteville, NC:
On Jan. 28, for J. Cole’s birthday, the selfless rapper gave his fans a present: a live version of “Forest Hills Drive” from his homecoming show in Fayetteville, North Carolina. For those skeptical about listening to live albums, this one is definitely a must hear if you’re a fan of J. Cole. Although it’s a concert, it feels very personal with J. Cole interacting with the audience and telling stories about the songs and his life. After hearing the live album, you’ll be an even bigger fan of him. This album includes all the songs from “2014 Forest Hills Drive,” excluding “Note To Self,” and even has his popular songs: “Lights Please,” “Morning,” and “Nobody’s Perfect” featuring Missy Elliot during the intermission. You can listening to it on iTunes, as well as Tidal.
4. Zayn’s First Debut Single:
On the night of Jan. 28, former One Direction boy band member Zayn Malik released his first single “PILLOWTALK” as a solo artist. I’m not completely sure this constitutes as R&B news because the song is a bit upbeat, but it’s definitely been something that’s highly anticipated and worth discussing.
5. Flume’s New Single:
The second single of Flume’s upcoming sophomore album “Skins” was also released on Jan. 28 (I don’t know who decided that Thursday was the day to release all the jams but, I’m not complaining). This song “Smoke and Retribution” is a collab with Vince Staples and Kučka.
https://soundcloud.com/flume/smoke-and-retribution-feat-vince-staples-kucka/
6. Tory Lanez Debuts Single on Jimmy Kimmel:
After having his first debut on live television on the Jimmy Kimmel show, singer Tory Lanez also debuted his next single entitled “LA Confidential.” It was co-written by Miguel and you can definitely tell. You can listen to it here.
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This week was so exciting for r&b/rap fans and it’s only been the fourth week of 2016. Who knows what else is to come?
By Daisha Lewis
