The Justa's League

BJ The Chicago Kid - His Pain II (feat. Kendrick Lamar)

With all the hype in the age of information it’s easy to sometimes pass over art that could possibly touch your soul. The critics/peoples latest sensation Kendrick Lamar shines, and by shines I mean illuminates life itself through his heartfelt verses. The pain in his voice connects with the bluesy piano and touches the soul. BJ The Chicago Kid, who has been pretty impressive in his cameos throughout the years is able to channel in the spirit of those soul singers before him and shares his pain as well. A truly beautiful collaboration between two artists who aren’t afraid to share emotion.

(Source: youtube.com)

The Batwa Dance (by Artsy07)

This is the best thing I have watched all year. No huge budget, no studio, no mastering, no make-up, no stage, no showmanship, just human beings enjoying life. It gets no better than this. I absolutely love everything about this video. 

Alakaholiks ft ODB- Hip-Hop Drunkies

More of that good music I grew up on. The Lik’s were so underrated. I was just having a conversation the other day, of how they kind of just a little to early to catch a bit more spotlight. With the rise of the X-Games/Skateboard scene now, they would’ve been on. Not to even really get into that whole post-American Pie crowd where partying became cool again.

Sadly at the time, they really didn’t fit the mold of anything out, they weren’t gangsta, weren’t backpacker, they were kind of just in their own lane out to have fun it seemed. They were the people at the party everyone was cool with. In current world, where a personality-ess Mac Miller, can have a Number 1 selling album, I think they would fair pretty well. 

I remember coolin out to this track many of nights, or putting on the instrumental and “freestylin” during after parties. E-Swift nailed the production, and Tash, J-Ro an Ol Dirty Bastard just made it sound like it was another party going on within the audio.  This is dopeness.

Exile - When Nothings Left (Feat. Blu)

As a listeners of music, we have become sold the latest illusion lately that Itunes and the age of MP3’s is the best that it’s ever been. Beyond that, we also believe that music is supposed to have mastered/mix clean/polished sound. One that takes away the warmth and higher audio quality of our parents generation, even CD’s were sounding better than what we hear now days. And believe it or not, Beats By Dre aren’t helping things any better.

Which is why when a song like this comes along and does it’s best to recapture that feeling, it’s sad that there isn’t a audience complaining why this isn’t on vinyl? Could you imagine how much more crips that snare would sound on that format??? Or the even the tracked verses? One can only imagine now days I guess. 

(Source: youtube.com)

Common-Faithful 

Reading Common’s (auto)biography,memoir a few weeks ago had me really hyped up about his music again. Though he didn’t spend as much time as I would’ve liked breaking down his albums(because for some reason he thought that his relationships and acting career is what his fans wanted to hear about), the little that he did got me inerested in listening to everything outside that one Pharrell handled the bulk of(I won’t even mention it).

When Be dropped it was like the now grown-up full time job having Rawkus crowd could finally rejoice from their cubicles. The album was everything Common fans had been waiting for. Boom-bap production, Raw lyrics, no singing for him, and also a little guy from the Chi by the name Kanye West(think a few of you might know him) handled the bulk of the production work as well.

One of my favorite songs off it was Faithful. Not many tracks on a popular album, from a male perspective, tackle subject matter such as so. What Common does well is able to paint the picture from the outside observer looking in on a tale. When he begins his first verse with the question”what if God, was a her?”, you know your not in for your average cupcakin’-R&B feature type song. Instead we get an analysis of what “Faithful” means in the complicated world of male/female relationships. If that enough to have you hitting play again, you add the magnificent voices of Bilal and John Legend on the track. With all these variables coming together with their best efforts, the sum is something to truly take in, and warrants every additional listen therefore after.    

(Source: youtube.com)

Yonas Michael-Lead The Way(feat. Polyester & Phil Ade) 

Two months in 2012 and there is little that I have heard so far personally warranting me to post on it. So I’ll take a trip back to 2011 and this track off of Yonas Michael’s late year release, Lost In Hollywood.

You might remember him from the now disbanded group out of Los Angeles  U-N-I(sad to groups continue to go this route). This song though goes pretty hard, and has a certain swag(hate using that term) to it.

Since being back from Europe songs like this have taken a little more liking to me since I once again spend a good amount of time in Cars again. This song is a perfect companion to a night drive somewhere, or nowhere. Just has that kind of energy to it.  

(Source: youtube.com)