We start off at the westside with Ice Cube's latest, I Am the West. This is simply West Coast gangsta rap at its finest as Cube sticks to what he knows and made him famous while not trying to be someone else with that auto-tune. The lead off single "I Rep That West," fits the album description perfectly and proof that West Coast rap is here to stay in hip-hop. If you want to rep California the right way (well the OG way), Cube's latest will fill that void for you as 20+ years into the game and he's still got it. The last thing I'll say about this one is Cube is right, "Is this too West Coast for you ************? So what..."
Even though Weezy is still in prison serving his sentence, he still has a new EP out called I'm Not A Human Being." After the disappointing Rebirth album that was basically an experiment for him adding more rock to his raps, I'm Not A Human Being is a return to form production-wise for "the best rapper alive" sticking to his guns delivering banger after banger. While the rock is still in like the title track (video above), it is not as distracting from everything else which is pretty much another example where hip-hop is today. Along with cameos with his Young Money crew, Drizzy, and Nicki Minaj, Lil' Wayne is not staying quiet while in prison spitting out new songs as his new EP makes hip-hop fans excited for his official return to the game with The Carter IV as his next highly anticipated album. Then again, I'm not as big of a Weezy fan than I thought I would be and everyone else that loves that music... its probably his damn voice.
Next is up is Jeremih (aka Mr. "Birthday Sex") with already his sophomore album, All About You. I always felt like he's just another R&B one-hit wonder with the song I mentioned previously that made him big last year and I think it is the case with his new stuff. There's only a couple songs I like from this one such as "I Like" featuring Ludacris and the club banger, "Down on Me" featuring 50 Cent (that song is just one of those songs at the clubs and I'll leave it at that). Other than that, its your typical R&B album by another dude and who knows if he will have another mega hit soon because I don't see him lasting that long in the music game.
Last, but not least is Bruno Mars's debut album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans, which is out next week. Yeah, the Bruno Mars that sings everyone's favorite song, "Just The Way Are" as if they're trying to impress some chick (like all those YouTube videos by random boys, oh wait that's the official video too!). Of course, the ladies love the song and its overplayed on the radio too much which does not stop the men trying to be Bruno. Anyway, the rest of the album is more of the same if you love "Just The Way Are" which is good if you love that song too much from "Grenade," "Marry You," and "Talking to the Moon." When he's away from trying to serenade the ladies, his more fast-tempo songs (like that "Billionaire" song - oh that everyone else's favorite song too) are also good for the most part especially "Liquor Store Blues" with Damian Marley. The last two songs in his short album are from his Its Better If You Don't Understand EP with "Count on Me" and "The Other Side" featuring Cee-Lo and B.o.B. which are also great songs. As a whole, Doo-Wops & Hooligans is a great debut album by Bruno Mars and you can't underestimate how popular he is now in the world of mainstream music especially with the #1 song in the country (well not #1 in iTunes anymore) because he is that good and definitely lived up to expectations. With that out of the way, bring on the Facebook statuses of how awesome his album is in the coming days.
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