END OF 2010: Album Edition

As the end of yet another year approaches, I took a looksie at the albums released in 2010, and really thought which were worthy of my top marks.  There is really no method to my madness, I just looked at which albums I listened to the most, which had the best individual songs, and which was best all the way through.  The three strongest albums came to me pretty quickly though it was difficult ranking them in order from first to third.  Well any way here it goes.

*Just as a disclaimer, I did not include mixtapes in this segment

Number 3
Travie McCoy's Lazarus
Final Say 9.25 out of 10





Gym Class Heroes [GCH] front man Travis McCoy begins this countdown with his single debut in Lazarus.  I was worried in the weeks before this album arrived due to the high hopes and huge letdown I was given with GCH's third album The Quilt, however I was wrong.  I flash back to all the hype about Lil Wayne and his album in which he would "sing" all of his songs in the "rock" experiment Rebirth.  Most critics and Lil Wayne fans slammed the album (see Blargus).  Travis McCoy succeeded in what Wayne failed to do.  He crushes this genre, the rap-sing-hip-hop-guitar type genre, which may be his alone.  His voice is not only passable, but enjoyable, he sings about real things and is happy, which is just refreshing.  The first single from the album was "Billionaire" ft Bruno Mars was a smash hit on the radio, along with the most uplifting music video I have seen in a long time.  Lazarus chalk full of songs that are uplifting and about having fun, no violence, no degrading women, and no shit talking.  This is my third choice of the year due the fact that not all of the songs are as strong as they should be (see Critical, and The Manual), which is weirdly more songs then the #1 and #2 albums on my end of year compilation.  On a high note though, Travie's individual songs go toe to toe and maybe even beat the best in albums 1 and 2.


Number 2
Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Final Say 9.5 out of 10





Ah Kanye.... Forever the entertainer.  Thank you for this CD and consistently dishing out honest, and real hip hop to the masses.  As I touched on in an earlier review, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy delivers.  It's almost disheartening to me to put this Album in second place.  So many times I've listened to this album since November and it still strikes me as powerful.  Kanye has a way of making you feel his pain, through clever and sometimes cleverly crude lyrics.  He does not hold back, and the final product is extraordinary.  Mr. West did not snap up the top honors as "Album of the Year" not because of the albums faults but of its tone, you have to be calm, and almost upset to listen to this full album or watch the accompanying film Runaway.   There is a time and a place for this, but the winner was a Album that requires no mood or feeling.  Do not let this fool you, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is fantastic.



Album of the Year
Number 1
B.o.B's  The Adventures of Bobby Ray
Final Say 10 out of 10





Well here we are, number one, and the winner B.o.B aka Bobby Ray aka Bobby Ray Simmons, Jr (a three way tie?).  The rapper B.o.B, from Atlanta (Decatur) blessed the planet with coming to it and giving the gift of great music.  B.o.B often references his distance from others (especially other rappers) by calling himself a type of alien (like superman).  The title of The Adventures of Bobby Ray, plays on that comic book aspect of his life.  However there is no doubt that Bobby Ray is superhuman, he raps, sings, plays piano and guitar and is quite good at all of them.  Its hard for me to focus on just this album due to the fact I have hundreds of mix tape tracks of his which may be even better then this album, but I will.  If you haven't been living under a rock in 2010 you probably have heard his radio smashes Nothing on You ft Bruno Mars, Airplanes Part 1 and 2 ft Hayley Williams of Paramore and Eminem, and Magic ft Rivers Cuomos of Weezer.  The albums wonder does not end there though.  The Kids involves Bobby Ray spitting verses at speeds to the likes of Simmons idol Andre 3000.  Bet I ft T.I. is a straight hood song with clever rhymes and a great chemistry between the Atlanta natives.  Finally Past My Shades ft Lupe Fiasco looks at Simmons common theme of feeling out of place in the music business and the internal conflict of Bobby Ray and his "thug" alter ego B.o.B.  This conflict is also a norm throughout the album, how Bobby Ray thought he had to act and talk in order to acquire a record deal.  This album may be the end of B.o.B and the coming out party for Bobby Ray:

"The difference between B.o.B and Bobby Ray is ... when I was signed under B.o.B, I was really young and didn't understand the type of business I was getting into," he explained. "[I didn't understand] how free I could be with the music. I felt like I had to play this person, play this certain character — talk a certain way, dress a certain way, rap a certain way. Now that I look back on it, I don't really feel that way. I don't really believe it. I wouldn't do that now. I wanted to break away from that and not box myself in. Bobby Ray isn't a character — he's really me. At the same time, it's so different, it's like a snake shedding its skin. Shed the old and onto something new. When I feel that's had its run, I don't think I'll do another name-change, but you're constantly evolving and that's where the inspiration from that came from. ... Moving forward, I'll officially be Bobby Ray."


When all is said and done, this is my go-to album of 2010, Bobby Ray is a chameleon and no two songs are the same in this album.  I strongly urge the fans of The Adventures of Bobby Ray to find B.o.B's mixtapes and try them out as well, some of them are better then this album of the year.  




Honorable Mentions

Chromeo Business Casual
Ke$ha Animal
Bruno Mars Doo Wops and Hooligans
Chiddy Bang The Preview 

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy: A Good Ass Job

This November Kanye West dropped his highly anticipated My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (MBDTF) on the world.  I like many other was excited especially after hearing snippets of the CD in Kanye's film Runaway which brings the tracks of the CD together in a story.  Runaway is beautiful, the cinematography is incredible and Kanye's talent shines.  I know I sound like a kiss ass, especially because my favorite Yeezy CD (before this) was 808's and Heartbreak commonly called his worst CD, but apparently I am not alone, critics far and wide are calling this CD (to quote South Park) genius.


It opens with the track,  Dark Fantasy which gave me goosebumps like needles on my skin, the lyrics of this song are so strong and the beat is how do i say it.... hood.  I could describe all the songs, but ill save you that so you can form your own opinions.  However his guests on the disc are held to the same high standard Kanye holds on him self.  Cudi, Pusha T, Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross (who i usually hate), John Legend, and Bon Iver all throw down on their tracks and strengthen Kanye's message.


As most of you should know, Mr. West surrounds himself with drama, the biggest of which is the 2009 MTV Video music awards when T Swift won the award for best female video and an apparently enraged Kanye famously said "Yo Taylor, I’m really happy for you…I’ll let you finish. But Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!".  This put Kanye on everyone's so called shit list, including President Obama who called West a "jackass".  This as well as Kanye's past antics led the show South Park to create an entire episode about him, and basically how full of himself he was. 

The pain felt in 808's and Heartbreak is obviously still not resolved in MBDTF, the CD takes the best of 808's  and his third CD Graduation to create a hip hop masterpiece which i believe most people can relate to.  The second single Runaway ft Pusha T of Clipse calls out all the haters in Kanye's life as well as plays on how he needs to become a better person.




"Let's have a toast for the douche-bags,
Let's have a toast for the assholes,
Let's have a toast for the scumbags,
Every one of them that I know
Let's have a toast to the jerkoffs
That'll never take work off
Baby, I got a plan
Run away fast as you can"

This CD is absolutely a top three CD of 2010 (Along with Lazarus by Travie McCoy and The Adventures of Bobby Ray By B.O.B.) and I urge you to give it a shot, I actually bought this CD after downloading it because I wanted to make sure Kanye is getting rewarded for consistently putting out great music.  Watch Runaway first because I feel like it made the CD stronger and have more feeling.

Yes Please

Dark Fantasy

Gorgeous 

All of the Lights

Lost in the World

Do I have to?

So Appalled  (Still good haha)

Final Say

9.5 out of 10

Don't Turn Out the Lights on the Dallas Cowboys Just Yet

I cannot say I exactly called it, but i had a sneaky suspicion that the biggest letdown of the NFL in the Dallas Cowboys would put up a fight against the surging New York Football Giants.  I never imagined however the 13 point shellacking that the Cowboys laid down at New Meadowlands Stadium.  Dallas led by their interim head coach Jason Garett and the newly dubbed stud Jon Kitna, marched into New Jersey with a portion of their lost swagger a proceeded to beat down Eli Manning and his boys in blue.
This game on paper seemed like it would go in another direction to say the least, the last time the the Cowboys won was the same as the last time the Giants lost, Five weeks ago.  Even the Stadium seemed confused, losing power two times during the game.  Jon Kitna, yes Jon Kitna threw for 327 yards and three touchdowns with a passer rating of 124, which is absurd.  This post cannot go without talking about Dez Bryant who is going to be a star (no pun intended) in this league.  The Fox broadcasters joked about the Cowboys going 9-7 and making the playoffs, while I wont go that far i think they will win half of their remaining games, most of which are against quality opponents.
As an avid listener to the Scott Van Pelt show on ESPN radio, I listed to Mr. Van Pelt himself rank the Giants as the #2 best team in the NFL last week, I wonder what will be said about that tomorrow on the show.  All I'm trying to say is that this was an impressive win for Jerry Jones' boys from Arlington.  Let's see what next week brings, maybe the Dallas Cowboys won't be such a let down after all.

It's Business Casual as Usual For Chromeo

As my buddy Dean over at Blargus (Wesleyan University) already pointed out, Chromeo's Business Casual hit stores September 14th. Being utterly absent from blogging for going on 9 months now I thought I'd come out of hibernation with the fabulous duo from Montreal. These guys have ousted Red Hot Chili Peppers as my band of choice so the pressure I put on this CD was huge. After their sophomore recording Fancy Footwork, I didn't think they could do any better. In a way I think I was right. Business Casual is fantastic, but i wouldn't say it is better or worse then Fancy Footwork.

The CD opens with their third single "Hot Mess" classic get your groove on Chromeo dance track, I think the music video falls short, but the song is quality. Next is I'm Contagious which is arguably my favorite on the CD. This is followed by Night by Night The first single with the boys charging some foxy New Yorkers to dance (sometimes) with lead singer Dave 1. Don't Turn the Lights On (Seen above) is a great video and song as well as random.

I could go all day with these songs, but really this CD is wonderful. The duo use their hypnotic beats as well as reviving disco beats in the songs Don't Walk Away and The Right Type. The only questionable song on the CD is the french J'ai Claque La Porte (I Slammed The Door), maybe it was the language barrier but also the beats are just not there either. All and this is a great disc and you should really consider picking it up.

Yes Please

I'm Contagious

Night By Night

You Make it Rough

Do I have to?

J'ai Claque La Porte

Final Say

8 of 10

Revenge is Best served with Cock....

January 26th is a day most Cats fans will never forget. A loss. The one and only. At Columbia, South Carolina the cats got cocky[ no pun intended] , or played poorly and the Gamecocks pounced. Devon Downey, the only non Kentucky player talked about in the SEC player of the year conversation, dropped 30 points points on the cats. His percentage was terrible, but some of the shots he made where incredible. To make matters worse, the USC student government sent UK a rude letter saying how their mascot was terrible, and how they dominate us in sports (0-3) last three games in basketball, and (0- 12) in football. I'd like to see the all time statistic for basketball, and the football game game this year the Cats lost by two because of a botched face mask call with time expiring.
February 25th, Thursday is being called the revenge game on campus. The Cocks come to Rupp. Kentucky played two close games last week vs ranked opponents, and played pretty well. DeMarcus Cousins, who was the only ray of hope in the first USC game [27 points, 12 rebounds, 3 blocks] has been the only one "slumping". John Wall and especially Patrick Patterson have been brilliant. On paper this game seems lop sided. In real life, it will be more so. I think we will win by 30. The crowd of 24000 will be vicious, and the players will be out for blood. I'm sorry Mr. Downey, you and your school are about to get your asses kicked by 3+ NBA stars in front of 24000 on national tv.
Good luck with that.

When stuck in Zombie Land....

What 5 Things would you want?

These are my five, and although this list is not perfect I say I would pick better and survive better then most...

here it goes.

1. Rex Ryan

He's fat, funny, and someone I wouldn't necessarily be torn up about if killed. Plus when running from zombies you always want to be faster then your "friend".

2. Intratec TEC-DC9 (Tec 9)

Some would opt for a shot gun, or a desert eagle but why would I choose the Tec? Simple. In Z-land speed is your friend, T feel like those other guns would only encumber one's progress. The Tec is light at 1.23 Kg's and is effective within 25 meters which is plenty. Also if makes you feel like Pac or Biggie when shooting it. I would probably want another gun as back up, but if i were stuck with only a single gun the Tec 9 would be my pick.

3. Fireman's Axe

Ah the melee weapon. A tool you wish to never use but must be deadly because if you are using it you are probably in trouble. I picked the fireman's axe for several reasons, first because you can get some serious speed when swinging it, making it more lethal more quickly. Second it is sharp as hell, good for cutting off limbs or heads. Third, the pick on the back, lets you sing in all directions causing obscene amounts of damage. A non sharp weapon may be better however. This was brought to my attention when I was informed of the dangers of the sharp weapon getting stuck in your err subject. More research is required but ill look into the blunt weapon.

4. Chain Mail

Odd that I would include this right? Not so fast. A zombies main form of attack is their bite, and a bite can be delivered to any part of the body. This is what makes modern body armor ineffective. The dark age staple covers all parts of the body, and does not encumber movement. This armor protects pretty well against bites and doesn't restrict movement.

5. Trophy Truck

Most would see the Hummer H2 or the Cadillac Escalade in the movie "Zombie Land" and think, wow that's a perfect vehicle. This is why these people would die. In Zombie America one has to be prepared to brave the world of no or poor roads. The Trophy truck not only has incredible off road capabilities but is super quick. These machines are engineered to hit 135 mph off road, which is ridiculous! This is why it is my clear front runner in a vehicle to brave Z- land in.

This is my list of 5 must haves in a Zombie ruled land. Feel free to use my ideas when the world succumbs to the invasion. Your welcome in advance for the help.

The John Wall Dance

I caught the fever.

Have you?