Drake

Drake's mixtapes have become something of a phenomenon over the last few years from 'Room For Improvement' and 'Comeback Season' in 2007.

In the last 12 months he's also dropped 'So Far Gone', his shortest and most laid back piece, closely followed by this years 'Comeback Season II', which is 28 tracks of stone cold genius. With collaborations with Lil Wayne, Kanye, and Bun B it really lives up to the hype that caused one of the biggest bidding wars between the major rap labels in recent years.

So to the actual mixtape. The beats are exactly what you would expect from someone so closely linked with Lil Wayne and the rest at Cash Money Records. There's lots of keys and really fast drum loops and the rhymes are so tightly constructed it's impossible to find another new voice on the scene to compare him to. probably the best verse includes;

"Dropped a mixtape that shit sounds like an album,
Who'd have thought a countrywide tour would be the outcome,
Labels want my name signed by the X like Malcolm,
Everybody got a deal i did it without one."

So here's a free download for Comeback Season II

And here's the official video for 'Forever' featuring Lil Wayne, Kanye and Eminem who absolutely kills it.

Groove Armada

Another album coming out this year that I'm really hyped about is Groove Armada's 'Black Light'. Due out early this year some of the tracks have already been getting lots of attention especially on BBC radio 6 where my favourite, 'Paper Romance' is on the A-list so will be getting plenty of airtime these coming weeks.

Some of the tracks sound like they're got a much dirtier edge than you would normally expect from Groove Armada with some seriously scuzzy basslines and screechy vocals. But like all classic Armada tracks I can still see myself throwing moves around the dancefloor like a maniac to them.



And check out the tidy little remix of Paper Romance by Urchins on their Myspace.




But if that's not doing it for you, they're still churning out some pop-dance gems like 'I Wont Kneel' featuring SaintSaviour on the vocals which harks back to the phenomenal 'Song 4 Mutya'


sainstsaviour

Nas and Damian Marley

Earlier last year I heard that these two were working together on a full album and I can now confirm that 'Distant Relatives' is going to drop on April 20th this year.

Nas' previous few albums have been pretty tight especially 'Hip Hop is Dead', and Marley's 'Welcome To Jamrock' was nothing short of the genius we would expect from the son of the greatest artist of all time. So having the two work together on such a big project should be incredible.

The pair have said that the inspiration for the album comes through their shared ancestry and is especially apt for the current global climate. Marley said "the globe right now is ready for change and this is the soundtrack for that". A portion of the profits of the album are also said to be going towards building schools in Africa.

We can expect Nas' typical Queensbridge rap style along with the finest of Jamaican beats produced by Marley himself along with K'Naan rhyming on two tracks at least and a New York youth choir popping up. As always I've got a little preview for you, download 'As We Enter' to get an idea of the sound these guys are cooking up together

Gorillaz

In one of my last posts I mentioned that Damon Albarn was dropping vocals on the new Massive Attack album and said that it was going to be the most important album of the year and i may just have to backtrack on that one.

March this year heralds the arrival of 'Plastic Beach', the third album by the animated genre-mashing musical heroes that are Gorillaz. The band have also just been announced as headliners for Sunday night at the epic Coachella festival, taking the stage after Orbital, Thom Yorke and Pavement it looks like it could be the best close to a festival in recent memory.

The most exciting thing about this album has got to be the sheer quality and span of the contributing artists which includes; Lou Reed, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Gruff Rhys, Mark E. Smith, De La Soul (who have wrote two of the songs), Snoop Dogg, Mos Def, Bobby Womack, Kano, Bashy, Little Dragon, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Sinfonia Viva and The National Orchestra for Arab Music.

So for now, have a listen to the impressive first single from the album,
Stylo featuring Mos Def and Bobby Womack

Future Predator

If I was to meet a ten year old boy who understood music production I would have a little more faith in the future of our country. Now if i were to meet a ten year old boy and ask him if he knew what Dubstep was i would be astounded if he could answer me correctly.

Imagine my surprise when I came across 'Magik', a ten year old boy from Bristol who has produced this little gem. I mean it's not going to be this years best track but the fact that this guy is only ten years old just makes me depressed that my high school music lessons were spent hitting the 'Demo' key on a shitty Yamaha keyboard.





'Magnetic Man' is the first dubstep supergroup and with a combined age of much more than ten years; Skream, Benga and Artwork are producing tunes which could easily be some of the best this year. on top of that they're throwing out videos which would make Michel Gondry proud and probably push Magik into a pretty serious epileptic seizure.

Future-proof

I'm going to make one of those bold over-reaching statements i often make and can never usually justify. The only difference this time is the fact that i actually cant imagine too many of you disagreeing with me here and i can completely justify this dcision.

The best album of 2010 is without a doubt going to be Massive Attack's 'Heligoland'. Now, to justify this statemnt here are a few simple facts.

Firstly, Damon Albarn is providing vocals, considering the sounds he created with both 'Think Tank' and 'The Good, The Bad and The Queen' this can only lead to amazin things.

Secondly, Martina Topley-Bird is also providing vocals and she has also already worked with Damon Albarn in Gorillaz and her far-away lullaby voice will suit Massive Attack perfectly.

And finally, remember the best Radio Live Lounge track ever? when Elbow covered 'Teardrop'? Well Guy Garvey is also going to be dropping in on the Album.

Plus Neil Davidge and Robert Del Naja were nominated for an Oscar for their soundtrack for the mostly unknown 'Trouble The Water' in 2008.

Until February your going to have to make do with this, Joy Orbison absolutely smashing the beat.

Snoop

So Snoop ended last year on a bit of a high with his 'Malice in Wonderland' album which had some of the best new school beats of any recent hip-hop album. Considering he had Dre, Timbaland and The Neptunes all working on the production it's hardly surprising that it was his first album since 'Paid tha Cost...' to break into the billboard top ten.

'I Wanna Rock' is probably the best track on said album and when Jay gets involved on the remix he absolutely smashes it.






While I'm on the subject, you may aswell have a look at this absolute banger from last year where Snoop remixed Chase and Status's 'Eastern Jam' after he heard it on the 'Slumdog Millionaire' soundtrack.