My name is Evan Vogel. I'm a 22 year old College student attending UW-Milwaukee. I am majoring in Journalism but my passion is Hip-Hop. I write my own songs and poems and just genuinely love the art form. Contact me on Facebook, Twitter or my blog if you want to get to know me or just want to find some new music! Peace and Love.
If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it. Often times in the music realm, consistency is synonymous with relevance and even success. If there was one emcee out today who embodied and personified the previous statement, it would likely be New Orleans artist, Curren$y. He has used his time since leaving Cash Money Records to drop a seemingly endless amount of music in the form of EP’s and mixtapes that gained a respectable number of followers, especially resonating with the marijuana indulgent folks out there. To this day, even with the vast array of options, many Curren$y fans and even those not overly fond of his relaxed, comfortable style would say his best work lies within the Pilot Talk album series. In 2010, he released both part one and part two to positive feedback. Now, after five years of continued Spitta releases unrelated to the two-part series, a trilogy reveals itself in the form of Pilot Talk 3.
We have all heard the classic line, “Introductions are everything.” It is a staple statement our parents tell us before sending us on our way to our very first job interview and becomes something we think about when meeting any person for the first time. I can’t think of any medium where this statement rings more true than music. Musical artists often create hundreds of songs before even considering showing the fruits of their labor to the public. I can’t help but associate this principle to one of the most respected MC’s in the game, Nas. His introduction was the now infamous, ‘Live at the BBQ’. A teenager who came into the game straight swinging; laying everything he had out on the crowded table. Nas went on to become one of the most prolific game changers in hip-hop. He spoke about his life and the state of society and notably the state of music. In 2006, he even released an album titled, Hip-hop is Dead. So where am I going with this? Well, not too long after making that critical but heartfelt assertion, another artist decided it was time to make his presence known. His introduction came in the form of a supremely overlooked album, Below the Heavens in 2007. If you don’t know who I am referring to by now, you’re definitely not alone. This album was the product of West-coast rapper Blu and producer Exile. Continue reading Throwback Thursday Review: Below The Heavens | Blu and Exile→
On Thursdays we review albums that are considered “classic” and today we review Eminem’s most disturbing and divisive project, Relapse. By 2009, Eminem had all but faded from hip-hop conversation, purely in the sense of new material. Most people who cared enough to know, knew that he had been battling a harsh drug addiction the past few years and all anyone could do was wait. When talk started to surface about more new material than was capable of fitting on one album, the internet went into riot mode. People ate up any and all new developments, whether fact or fiction. Conversation started to give people a sense of what to expect – and to call the content of the album dark, would not even begin to do it justice. Continue reading Throwback Thursday Review: Relapse | Eminem→
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 we have new music from the lovely Jhene Aiko, tracks from Ludacris’ and Earl Sweatshirt’s forthcoming LPs and more. Get started at the jump below to check out our favorite records of the past week.
Like all genre-stricken art forms, hip-hop music has garnered a plethora of tropes and cliches that it will forever carry with it. This was no overnight happening; but rather, it comes from an abundance of similar-sounding releases spanning multiple decades. Artists who verbally tread the same ground as their predecessors. And for those who aspire for a lyrically different route, still manage to get categorized by their beat construction and selection. As an art, hip-hop’s metaphorical canvas is stained and its brush has withered, leaving only so many strokes left. Most artists reach to break the mold and put their own little spark of energy back into the culture. For all the flames that have been lit and blown out, there is at least one hip-hop group whose spark has yet to even start dimming. Continue reading Throwback Thursday Review: Aquemini | OutKast→
On Thursdays we review albums that are considered “classic” and today we review Hov’s classic LP Reasonable Doubt. Embracing the East-coast mafioso style with enough 1990’s New York street vernacular to fill a concert hall with, Jay Z started his monumental career with his crowning achievement, Reasonable Doubt. Today, Jay Z is involved with such a multitude of business ventures that his music has started to fall victim to the stresses and pressures of pop culture. This was not at all the case of his early work, which was rooted in Jay’s struggle to make a name for himself. Now-a-days Jay Z touches a track and the internet crashes, regardless of its quality. The man has nothing left to prove to anyone, yet he still makes music which is admirable. The problem is that it is nowhere near the caliber of Reasonable Doubt. There was a definitive passion in the way Jay Z rhymed that forced you to pay attention. He commanded each song with the finesse of a veteran.
Often times, features are the best way to get exposure as an up-and-coming artist, as there is the opportunity to collaborate with some of the biggest names in the industry. No one has utilized features better than Jhene Aiko, propelling her to the Grammys and becoming a go-to collaboration for rappers in just over a year’s time. She has been featured on so many songs in the last couple years that it isn’t even a question of if you have heard of Jhene; it’s a question of how many times. Taking a look back at some of her finest moments, we have rounded up a list of our ten favorite features from Jhene.
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 we have new music from Big Sean, Logic, Tech N9ne and iLoveMakonnen. Continue reading Songs of the Week ft. Big Sean, Logic, Tech N9ne and More!→
On Thursdays we review albums that are considered “classic”. Be you. Be yourself. Be the person you want to be; simply exist. Stay true to the core of who you are as an individual, no matter what others want or expect from you. This is the premise behind an album that raised the constantly shifting, metaphorical bar in hip-hop culture. This album was the aptly named, Be by Common, which was released in 2005. He released this album three years following the critically divided experimental album, Electric Circus. The divisive nature of that album is what allowed Be to shine like a supernova. Unlike it’s predecessor, Be allowed very little room for criticism. Continue reading Throwback Thursday Review: Be | Common→
The year 2010 was a big year for hip-hop. Nicki Minaj cemented her place with Pink Friday, Wiz Khalifa dropped the stoner bible with Kush and OJ and Kanye West graced us with one of the greatest albums of all time, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. There was also a collaborative effort by two heavy-hitters that was being played in clubs and bedrooms everywhere. I’m talking, of course, about Chris Brown and Tyga’s mixtape, Fan of a Fan. The mixtape, naturally, was a hit and even landed at #2 on Datpiff.com’s list of “Top Mixtapes of 2010”. It had what you would expect from Chris Brown and Tyga as a tag team duo; songs suited for the bedroom and the rest, meant to be played through the type of speakers you would find in a club. Nothing out of the ordinary, but what set it apart from similar projects was its stellar production, undeniably catchy choruses and punchlines that would make Lil Wayne proud.
The Early Registration 