Out of nowhere and with no announcement from the man himself, a new album from Odd Future’s Earl Sweatshirt appeared on iTunes. The sophomore LP and followup to his debut album Doris, titled I Don’t Like S***, I Don’t Go Outside: An Album by Earl Sweatshirt. is set to release in just one week on March 23rd. The 10-track album will feature Vince Staples, Wiki, Dash and Na’kel and you can check out the full tracklist below. Preorder I Don’t Like S***, I Don’t Go Outside: An Album by Earl Sweatshirt and download its first single ‘Grief’ now on iTunes, and if you live in the Chicago area, be sure to enter our ticket giveaway for Earl and Vince Staples’ upcoming tour stop in Chicago.
Off his forthcoming LP Ludaversal, we now have Ludacris’ collaboration with rapper/producer Big K.R.I.T. Ludaversal is set to release on March 31st, and will have features from John Legend, Rick Ross, Usher, Cee Lo Green and more. Stream ‘Come and See Me’ below and pre-order Ludaversal now on iTunes.
With the NCAA men’s basketball tournament starting in just a couple days, Atlanta rapper/singer Future has released his new track ‘March Madness’. We don’t know who will basketball’s March Madness this year (our pick is Duke or Wisconsin), but if you were to bracket Atlanta rappers right now, Future would definitely be a one seed! ‘March Madness’ is produced by Tarantino and you can stream it now, below.
During Fools Gold’s“Holy Ship” rap party last year, Pharrell played an unreleased (what sounds like) Fabolous track which can now be identified as having the same instrumental as Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly track ‘Alright’, where Pharrell has a production credit alongside producer Soundwave. You can check out a snippet of the Fabolous track in the video below (at the beginning) and compare it to Kendrick’s ‘Alright’, which is available now on iTunes. Although this isn’t a totally uncommon practice in rap, both tracks share a beat and hook, so let’s hope that Fabolous had no legal rights to the track, or Pharrell’s bank account may take another hit.
Well he didn’t quite “pull a Beyonce”, but Top Dawg Entertainment‘s Kendrick Lamar surprised us all as he just dropped his critically acclaimed sophomore LP To Pimp a Butterfly (the follow-up to King Kendrick’s good kid, m.A.A.d city album) a week ahead of schedule on iTunes and Spotify. Don’t wait until March 23rd, download the 16-track project now which has features from Thundercat, Snoop Dogg, and more (and stay tuned for our album review when we can soak it all in). Download To Pimp a Butterfly now on iTunes and stream its explicit version on Spotify.
[Update: Perhaps Interscope wasn’t supposed to release the album, as TDE CEO tweeted “I WOULD LIKE 2 PERSONALLY THANK @Interscope FOR FUCKING UP OUR RELEASE… SOMEBODY GOTS 2 PAY 4 THIS MISTAKE !!!!”]
During a stop on his Rodeo Tour with Young Thug, G.O.O.D. Music‘s Travis Scott shared his opinions on a number of rappers. Pumping up his crowd, by reminding fans that his show is not a J. Cole or Chance the Rapper concert, Scott also threw shots at singer Trey Songz, yelling “F*ck Trey Songz” to the crowd. Well apparently word reached to “Mr. Steal Your Girl” as Trey Songz replied to a fan on Twitter, while also throwing back shots of his own towards Travis Scott. “F*CK YALL N*GGAS @tyga @chrisbrown @treysongz @jcolenc @augustalsina”, one fan person tweeted. Trey replied with “you sound like what’s his name??? Damn what’s that boy name??”. Well either Trey Songz is experiencing some severe memory loss or Travis Scott is irrelevant in his book. It will be interesting to see if La Flame responds to the comments.
The best and brightest of this past week in music, as well as a throwback track! Hopefully you can bump these tracks on your way to work to brighten up your Monday mornings. This week alone we have a brand new leak from Kendrick Lamar’s forthcoming sophomore LP, the return of Charles Hamilton (with the help of Rita Ora), an unreleased Kim Kardashian inspired track from Kanye West, and a charitable remix by John Legend and Sam Smith. Get started at the jump below to check out our favorite records of the past week.
While the tracklist was originally left blank on iTunes, today the blanks have been filled and we have the track names and features for Kendrick Lamar’s highly anticipated To Pimp a Butterfly LP. The 16-track album is set to include features from Thundercat, George Clinton, Snoop Dogg, James Fauntleroy and more! It may not have the strength of features that Kendrick’s freshman LP had, but either way, we couldn’t be more excited. Check out the full tracklist below.
In a recent interview with Clique, The College Dropout himself, Kanye West, revealed that he is set to receive an honorary doctorate from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago on May 11th this year. Speaking on the arts, West told Clique “I was a gifted artist since age five and won national competitions and went to art school. I’m actually getting an honorary doctorate on May (11th) from the (School of the) Art Institute of Chicago.” From attending Chicago State University and the American Academy of Art before his eventual dropout (which paved the way for his debut album), this summer Mr. West will join his late mother by soon becoming Dr. West (although an honorary doctor of course). Check out the full interview below.
Last night DJ Oreo (DJ for Chance the Rapper and Vic Mensa) brought his OREOFEST experience to Reggie’s Music Joint in Chicago. And pretty much the whole city was in attendance, as Oreo brought out some of the biggest emerging names in Chicago rap music. OREOFEST saw performances by Katie Got Bandz, Alex Wiley, Z-Money, Lil Herb, Bandman Kevi, Leather Corduroys (SAVEMONEY), Ego, Cago Leek, MoBo The Great and more! Check out our photos below as The Early Registration’s Jesus Montero was there to capture some of the night’s best moments.
The Early Registration 