Big Sean, Hall of Fame

Life has been good for Big Sean, in case you didn’t notice. He’s dating Glee’s Naya Rivera, got honored by Def Jam for selling over 10 million singles, and his most recent one, “Control,” generated the type of buzz desired by most artists on the eve of releasing a new album. Speaking of, his sophomore set Hall of Fame is an extension of that success. Big Sean continues flexing the lyrical prowess he’s known for over solid production primarily orchestrated by No I.D. And he tapped the likes of Nas, Nicki Minaj, Kid Cudi, 2 Chainz and Miguel—just to name a popular few—for collaborations.

Most of the album is about how far he’s come from his days as an aspiring rapper in Detroit. There’s a lot of the braggadocio materialistic stuff too, but there’s also self-reflection and Big Sean’s attempt at being motivational, which can be heard on “Nothing’s Stopping You,” where he raps, “What you know about having faith in something you can’t see?/Tell me how much do you believe?/What you know about feeling something you can’t even touch?”

Sophomore slump avoided.

Hall of Fame is out today.

Marques Houston, Famous

Eighties babies/’90s kids rejoice, your childhood crush is back! After taking a break from music to focus more on acting and personal business endeavors, Marques Houston has decided to take another stab at music again. His latest singles, “Give Your Love a Try” and the Marvin Gaye-inspired “Only You,” are sexy grooves that his now grownup fans can appreciate. I’ll spare you the cliché stuff about him being “mature,” because it’s all laid out on the album.

Famous is out today.

Mavado ft. Nicki Minaj, “Give It All to Me”

It’s only right that Mavado releases new music, as dancehall seems to be creeping back into the mainstream’s audio sensory zone. He tapped Nicki Minaj to lend a couple of verses to his sexy riddim about a girl so hot she almost makes him lose his ice cold.  “Dem a prove, dem a steer, dem a watch like movie, movie/Yuh a tell mi you bad, now a time fi you prove it/So prove it,” chants Mavado in Auto-Tune as he dares her to prove how fly she really is. Take that how you want, but for the sake of keeping it clean, a good way to do that in this instance would be a sexy waist wine on the dance floor. Nicki Minaj keeps her rhymes devoid of patois, but there’s tough talk about how much of a bad gyal she is, and she even sings a little at the end.  

Listen here.

Earl Sweatshirt, Doris

Earl Sweatshirt helped thrust Odd Future from obscurity to ubiquity back in 2010 with the release of his mixtape, Earl. Fans gravitated toward the gritty, gloomy quality of his music, but he became more of an urban legend after his mom enrolled him in a boarding school in Samoa, citing bad behavior. Earl faded into legend, then he got legal and left his mom’s clutches. Enter Doris, a debut album that not only shows growth in the young MC’s flow and style, but also revisits the dark quality of his music—this time with a touch of quirkiness worthy of comparisons to MF Doom.

Listen here.

TGT, Three Kings

Tyrese, Ginuwine and Tank have joined forces to make the ladies sweat. Three Kings is their debut album as a trio, and if you’re familiar with their music as soloists, then imagining what this sounds like is a no-brainer. The album is lots of falsettos and generally just electric sex as they sing about everything from threesomes to romance to hardcore lovin’.

Available here.

Sly and the Family Stone, Higher

The musical genius of Sly and the Family Stone gets commemorated via Higher! The four-disc box set, out today, features the ultimate songs from their career, including “Family Affair,” “Small Fries” and more. Also included are rare and previously unreleased grooves that probably should have been classics. Better late than never.

Listen here.

Starrene Rhett Rocque is a pop culture junky who often fantasizes about becoming a shotgun toting B-movie heroine, and aspires to save the world from the impending #ZombieApocolypse… In reality she’s a freelance entertainment journalist/blogger who muses about music, TV, movies and love. Follow her on Twitter @GangStarrGirl.Hall of Fame

Life has been good for Big Sean, in case you didn’t notice. He’s dating Glee’s Naya Rivera, got honored by Def Jam for selling over 10 million singles and his most recent single, “Control,” generated the type of buzz desired by most artists on the eve of releasing a new album. Speaking of, his sophomore set, Hall of Fame, is an extension of that success. Big Sean continues flexing the lyrical prowess that he’s known for over solid production primarily orchestrated by No I.D., and he tapped the likes of Nas, Nicki Minaj Kid Cudi, 2Chainz and Miguel—just to name a popular few—for collaborations. Most of the album is about how far he’s come from his days as an aspiring rapper in Detroit. There’s a lot of the braggadocio materialistic stuff too but there’s also self-reflection and Big Sean’s attempt at being motivational, which can be heard on “Nothing’s Stopping You,” where he raps, “What you know about having faith / In something you can’t see, tell me how much do you believe / What you know about feeling something you can’t even touch?”

Sophomore curse avoided.

Hall of Fame is out today.

Marques Houston, Famous

Eighties babies/90s kids rejoice, your childhood crush is back! After taking a break from music to focus more on acting and personal business endeavors, Marques Houston has decided to take another stab at music again. His latest singles, “Give Your Love a Try” and the Marvin Gaye-inspired “Only You,” are sexy grooves that his now grownup fans can appreciate.  I’ll spare you the cliché stuff about him being “mature” because it’s all laid out on the album.

Famous is out today.

Mavado Ft. Nicki Minaj, “Give It All to Me”

It’s only right that Mavado releases new music as dancehall seems to be creeping back into the mainstream’s audio sensory zone. He tapped Nicki Minaj to lend a couple of verses to the sexy riddim about a girl so sexy she almost makes him lose his ice cold.  “Dem a prove, dem a steer, dem a watch like movie, movie/Yuh a tell mi you bad, now a time fi you prove it/ So prove it,” chants Mavado in Auto-Tune as he dares her to prove how fly she really is. Take that how you want but for the sake of keeping it clean, a good way to do that in this instance would be a sexy waist wine on the dance floor. Nicki Minaj keeps her rhymes devoid of patois but there is tough talk about how much of a bad gyal she is and she even sings a little at the end.  

Listen here.

 

Earl Sweatshirt, Doris

Earl Sweatshirt helped thrust Odd Future from obscurity to ubiquity back in 2010 with the release of his mixtape, Earl. Fans gravitated toward the gritty, gloomy quality of his music but he became more of an urban legend after his mom enrolled him in a boarding school in Samoa siting bad behavior. Earl faded into obscurity and then he got legal and his mom’s clutches. Enter Doris, his debut album that not only shows growth in the young emcee’s flow and style, but also revisits the dark quality of his music, but with a touch of quirkiness that could even draw comparisons to MF Doom.

Listen here.

TGT, Three Kings

Tyrese, Ginuwine and Tank have joined forces to make the ladies sweat. Three Kings is their debut album as a trio and if you’re familiar with their music as soloists then imagining what this one sounds like is a no-brainer. It’s lots of falsettos and generally just electric sex as they sing about everything from threesomes to romance to hardcore lovin.

Available here.

Sly and the Family Stone, Higher

The musical genius of Sly and the Family Stone gets commemorated via Higher. The four-disc box set, out today, features the ultimate songs from their career including, “Family Affair,” “Small Fries” and more. Also included are rare and previously unreleased grooves that probably should have been classics. Better late than never.

Listen here.

Starrene Rhett Rocque is a pop culture junky who often fantasizes about becoming a shotgun toting B-movie heroine, and aspires to save the world from the impending #ZombieApocolypse… In reality she’s a freelance entertainment journalist/blogger who muses about music, TV, movies and love. Follow her on Twitter @GangStarrGirl.