Last night Mr. Wonderful rapper Action Bronson brought his 2015 headlining tour to the House of Blues in Chicago, IL, with supporting performances by Chicago’s Alex Wiley and Mayhem Lauren. Performing a number of tracks from his new debut LP Mr. Wonderful, as well as a great selection of records from his earlier projects, Action put on a memorable performance with The Alchemist and Big Body Bes for the packed Chicago crowd. If Action is bringing his tour to a city near year, definitely do not miss out!
Check out our photos below, as we sent our photographer Andrew Baker to capture some of the night’s best moments.
Is it December yet? Not that we miss the cold weather, but we definitely miss making Year-End Lists! So in anticipation of our future and complete best verses of 2015 list, we had one of our writers make up a list of his 10 favorite verses of 2015 (so far). Remember, it’s just one writer that’s getting our future list started, and spoiler alert there is no Kendrick Lamar on our first draft. Either way, it goes to show how good 2015 has been so far, and with some of the year’s most anticipated albums still to come (i.e. So Help Me God), we can’t even imagine what our list will look like come December!
Feel free to let us know how we should adjust our rap verse power rankings, on Twitter (@TheEarlyReg).
Last Sunday wrapped up our amazing experience during our first year at Coachella. The weekend was surreal, as music fans saw performances from Drake, Lil B, The Weeknd, Tyler the Creator, Toro y Moi, Action Bronson, Raekwon & Ghostface Killah, Vic Mensa, Run The Jewels and many more! While we posted a small selection of our favorite photos last weekend, to share our experience with our readers, we will be posting new photo galleries from Coachella EVERY DAY FOR THE NEXT MONTH. We saw over 30 great performances this past weekend and we will share our collection of photos of each until we run out!
Check out our tenth Coachella Photo Series, of Angel Olsen’s Weekend One performance, below.
Written and recorded soon after the news that Officer Darren Wilson would not see his day in court for the killing of Michael Brown, Atlanta rapper/singer Raury shared his views on race through his emotional song ‘Fly’. And now we have the official, Malia Murray directed, music video for Raury’s Michael Brown inspired track. In the animated video, the ‘God’s Whisper’ singer gives fans a brief history lesson on the black struggle in America.
Lana Del Rey again is part of an upcoming Hollywood film, this time Black Lively and Harrison Ford’s “The Age of Adaline“, and you can preview her new track ‘Life Is Beautiful’ in the film’s official trailer. Speaking on her work with the film, Lana said “It’s an honor to be part of this magical movie.”“The Age of Adaline” is due out this Friday, April 24th.
Preview Lana Del Rey’s ‘Life Is Beautiful’ track below and stay tuned as we learn more about Lana’s forthcoming Honeymoon album.
Taking to his Instagram, former Duke Blue Devil Nolan Smith shared a hilarious video of his good friend, Duke senior PG Quinn Cook, convincing two North Carolina mall kiosk workers that he is none other than J. Cole. While Cole and Cook have a lot in common (they look A LOT alike, they have North Carolina ties, and they both can ball), we have to say that Cole is a substantially better singer! Sorry Quinn, at least one of your biggest fans is Mia Khalifa. Drake can’t even say that.
Watch Quinn Cook hilariously trick two unsuspecting J. Cole fans, with his awesome rendition of ‘Apparently’.
While we have known about the signing for awhile, Jay-Z made the official announcement that Chicago’s own, Vic Mensa, is the newest member of Roc Nation Records. Perhaps the most interesting part about the deal is the story behind the signing, which dates back from over a year ago. Jay-Z’s right-hand-man at Roc Nation, executive Lenny Santiago, shared an awesome story about how he first pursued and eventually signed Vic Mensa.
As Santiago shares, while Vic Mensa’s “I don’t care which label you’re from” attitude almost stopped a deal from taking place, it was Mensa’s love for the music and culture that made the partnership happen.
A New York legend and arguably the best new artist out of New York in the past few years join forces for ‘I Got Money’. Wu-Tang Clan’s Raekwon recruited A$AP Rocky for this one, and this has to be one of our favorite guest verses from Rocky of all time. After this collaboration, A$AP may want to step outside his comfort zone more often for non-trap verses, because this record definitely works!
Listen to ‘I Got Money’ below and check out our recent photos from Raekwon and Ghostface Killah’s Weekend One Coachella performance.
When comparing rappers Big Sean and LL Cool J, we now know two things. First, Big Sean’s ‘Paradise’ track (one of the best tracks on his newest Dark Sky Paradise album) is substantially better than LL Cool J’s track of the same name. Hell, LL’s hook goes “Paradise is very nice.” But now we also know that Big Sean is much better at pictionary than LL, as the two competed against each other on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
While Big Sean teamed up with Jimmy Fallon and drew a pretty solid tree house, LL Cool J gave a hilariously pathetic attempt at a tattoo drawing for his partner, actress Rose Byrne. Watch the two rappers compete below!
Ever since the unexpected announcement and release of his 2014 Forest Hills Drivealbum (his best album to date), J. Cole has stayed busy. And with the release of his new music video for his ‘Wet Dreamz’ track (which coincidentally is about the first time Cole got busy), J. Cole is continuing to stay busy. Not only is J. Cole currently on a huge three-part worldwide tour, but now he is recording music videos where Cole co-stars with dogs (you read that right, dogs). Personification at its best use in a rap video for sure!
Watch Cole’s ‘Wet Dreamz’ video below, and Chicago fans be sure to catch Cole’s Chicago stop on his tour, July 28th in Tinley Park with Big Sean, YG and more!
The Early Registration 