Kanye, John Legend & Aphex Twin

This new song blame game owes so much to Aphex Twin's Avril 14 but is still pretty great.

11 Blame Game Feat John Legend (no tags) www.pinboardblog.com by PinBoardBlog.com

VIA THE ALWAYS EXCELLENT PINBOARD BLOG

A link splurge

Click these things. If you want.

I need to go and see Anish Kapoor's new outdoor exhibition

Chris Cunningham's moody video for Gil Scott Heron, it's essentially a portrait but is really cool.

Kanye's leaked track featuring Bon Iver. Which is well worth a listen

A really sick tune by Dubstep dude Ramadanman

Are Harry Potter and Norman Foster in cahoots?

Mark Ronson and Boy George have made a new song, it's pretty super.

Nicki Minaj Outshines Jay & Kanye

Well the big news of the day should be that Jay-Z and Kanye are releasing a 5 track mini album Watch The Throne together. And West has released Monster- the decent first track from it.


HEAR/ DOWNLOAD MONSTER HERE

If this song is anything to go by the mini-album is more likely to sound like Kanye tracks with Jay features. But actually i'm over all that after hearing Nicki Minaj on the track.

Her lyrics are biting, satirical, filthy and just plain crazy. While her flow is twisted, it's thrilling when she affects different voices for each line- like Biggie and Slick Rick did back in the day. As she raps about getting $50k for a guest verse and shows "ten times your pay" it just makes me very excited for the album.

And the whole 'is she selling herself on her looks/ body/ sexuality debate?' is redundant when her rapping is this good.*

*She is also clearly very sexy.

Yeezy

Say what you want about Kanye West, and there is a lot to say, but he picks some great collaborators.

On Late Registration he brought in Jon Brion to co-produce and orchestrate the record, adding depth to the rapper's own beats. According to rumours he's brought DJ Premier and Q Tip in to work on his new album- which is possibly called Dark Twisted Fantasy. Of course he's also championed Kid Cudi, Common and Lupe Fiasco and worked with Daft Punk, Mos Def, Talib, Nas and Jay-Z.

West's Graduation cover was by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, while his recent Power sleeve is by respected painter George Condo.

On music vids he's worked with Spike Jonze (Flashing Lights and a still unreleased short film), Hype Williams (Stronger & others) and Michel Gondry (Heard Em Say). His spectacular new 90 second promo for single Power is artist Marco Brambilla- who has exhibited at the New York Guggenheim and also directed Stallone/ Snipes action movie Demolition Man back in 1993! Plus you gotta respect Kanye for sampling King Crimson.

WATCH THE POWER PROMO HERE

Kanye's Power Artwork

IS SO FUCKING GOOD. (MORE INFO HERE)



By George Condo

Kanye Jumps Shark

But in quite a good way I think. This is absolutely hilarious and the tune is still massive:

Kanye West's Power

is bloody great and can be heard at Pinboard Blog Here

He's thankfully back on form after the very dissapointing 808s period. And he samples this 1969 prog classic....

Kanye- Coldest Winter

KANYE WEST "Coldest Winter" Directed by: NABIL "ITUNES link below" from nabil elderkin on Vimeo.

I quite like this but then I am a boobs man. And this video is all about the boobs.

My 21 Favourite Albums Of The Decade

Published this list back in March but thought I should repeat it as everyone else is putting theres out now. It was 20 but I had forgot Avalanches. So here are 21 and some honourabe mentions. Think Kid A would be my number one.

Avalanches- Since I Left You
Amy Winehouse- Back To Black
Gorillaz- Demon Days
M.I.A- Arular
M.I.A- Kala
The Streets- Original Pirate Material
The Streets- A Grand Don’t Come For Free
Radiohead- Kid A
The Strokes- Is This It
Kanye West- Late Registration
Daft Punk- Discovery
The Beastie Boys- To The 5 Boroughs
Eminem- The Marshall Mathers LP
N.E.R.D- In Search Of…
Broken Social Scene- Broken Social Scene
Outkast- Speakerboxxx/ The Love Below
Jay-Z- Blueprint
Gnarls Barkley- St Elsewhere
Justin Timberlake- Justified
The White Stripes- Elephant
Arcade Fire- Neon Bible

Honourable mentions: Hot Chip- The Warning, Cornershop- Handcream For A Generation, Gwen Stefani- L.A.M.B, Jay Z- The Black Album, Common- Electric Circus, Wu Tang- The W, Dizzee Rascal- Boy/ Maths, Outkast- Stankonia, Basement Jaxx- Rooty, Lily Allen- Its Not Me, It’s You, Radiohead, In Rainbows.

Any of which would have made my (pretty populist) run down much cooler. But you can’t leave Justin out, right?

Four Songs

For Friday. Big ones, obviously.

Hot Chip- Take It In (@ Abeano)First leak From their new album One Life Stand- which is due out in February.

Solange- Stillness is The Move (@ er Oregon Live)
Beyonce's sister has taken a beat by Erykah Badu, a Dr Dre sample and sung Dirty Projectors amazing track over the top. Not as good as the original but it still works.

Maccabees/ Roots Manuva- Empty Vessels (@ Zane Lowe)The indie band- who have really impressed me in 2009- let Roots Manuva loose on No Kind Words.

Kanye West- I'm So Appalled (@ Nah Right)
He's back and angry. This is just a two minute thing taken from a new mixtape. The chorus is simply the line: “This shit is fucking ridiculous.”

Kid Cudi ft Common and Kanye- Make Her Say

Video: 8/10
Beat: 8/10
Cudi's verse: 5/10
Kanye's verse: 5/10
Common's verse: 6/10

Clipse & Kanye

This is a fairly dodgy picture of me with Clipse (and one of the Re-Up gang) from last summer where I watched them from the side of stage- next to Pharrell- at a festival in Oslo. It was a career highlight.

The duo are crack (or perhaps coke) rappers whose lyrics mostly concern drug dealing. But for an example of their unique, complex and often philosophical lyrics listen to Momma I'm Sorry. Clipse also benefit from some of the Neptunes most out there and gritty beats.

Here is a taste of their LONG awaited new album- Till The Casket Drops. Kanye's guest spot shows you how well they're regarded among rappers and rap fans.

CLIPSE ft KANYE WEST- KINDA LIKE A BIG DEAL

Kid Cudi- Day & Nite- The Real Video

Here we finally get the So Me directed video for Kid Cudi's Day & Nite. The rapper was unimpressed with the video Ministry made for the Crookers remix and this is much better. Very much looking forward to the full album which is coming out on Kanye West's label later this year.

Talking of Kayeezy he's got new Yeah Yeah Yeahs, T.I and MF Doom tracks over at his blog. And a vid of him and Cudi freestyling. Dope. Check it here....