Nelly - M.O. (Album Review)

Release Date : September 30, 2013
Label : Republic Records

When you think about Hip-Hop in the early 2000s, Nelly is always one of the artists that should come to mind, whether you were a fan of his or not, you can't deny how big he was at the time. He sold millions of albums and remains one of biggest selling Hip-Hop artists of all time with over 20 million albums sold. Its crazy how things change right?, because after the Sweat and Suit albums his popular took a big dip. Not to mention he got boycotted for that E.I. Remix (Tip Trill) video. An although Just A Dream was a #1 hit, the 5.0 album didn't really move any units.

Maybach Music Group - Self Made Vol. 3 (Album Review)

Release Date :  September 17, 2013
Label : Maybach Music Group, Atlantic Records

MMG is back with the third installment of their Self Made series. The MMG roster is still mostly the same, the only thing that changed is that they brung Chicago newcomer Rockie Fresh into the fold. The compilation starts off with Lil Snupe Intro, where he Snupe raps about being happy to make it out of the hood. Lil Snupe was murdered back in June of this year, his style reminds me of  Lil Boosie, which I'm pretty sure is one of his influences. Speaking of Boosie, hes featured on Lay It Down with Ross and Young Breed. Meek is in full boast mode on the Cardo produced summer banger Levels.

Stalley - Honest Cowboy (Review)

Release Date : September 17, 2013
Label : Maybach Music Group/Atlantic Records

MMG artist Stalley released his Honest Cowboy mixtape just last month on the 8th of August, the feedback was good so he decided to put it as an EP. Five songs come from the mixtape and it comes with two new songs. The most popular song from the EP would the Texas inspired Swangin. Stalley enlists Houston legend Scarface and singer Joi Tiffany. Stalley and Face pay homage to cars over the Block Beattaz smooth beat with a Chopped N Screwed hook. Then on The Highest featuring Crystal Torres, he shows his love for Mary Jane.

Styles P - Float (Album Review)

 

Release Date : April 16, 2013
Label : Nature Sounds/High Times Records

Styles P just keeps on cranking out albums and mixtapes, doesn't he? His last album The World's Most Hardest MC Project was only out for about five months before Float. He also released The Diamond Life project mixtape and a collaborative mixtape #The1st28 with Curren$y in 2012, which consisted of all new music. If you're a big Styles P fan like I am, then you already know he puts out side projects like these all the time (The Green Ghost Project, The Ghost Dub-Dime), to keep his name buzzing.

2 Chainz - B.O.A.T.S. II: Me Time (Album Review)

Release Date : September 10, 2013
Label : Def Jam Records

2 Chainz had a breakout year in 2012. His debut album B.O.A.T.S. sold over 600,000 and he was featured on some of biggest club hits. Last time around all he wanted was a big booty hoe for his birthday and he told how different he was. So whats the difference between B.O.A.T.S. and B.O.A.T.S.2? Well 2 Chainz is more versatile, don't get me wrong though, the club songs and trap anthems are still intact, but he shows a different side of himself on some joints. The first single is Feds Watching. 2 Chainz lets us know that hes gonna be fresh as hell when the feds watching, over Pharrells bouncy reggae-tinged instrumental.

Big Sean - Hall Of Fame (Album Review)

Release Date : August 26, 2013
Label : G.O.O.D Music/Def Jam
 

Things have changed on G.O.O.D Music since last year. Kid Cudi and producer Hit-Boy boy left the label and Ye became a Dad. Big Sean had a nice buzz around this time last year with his contributions on Clique and Mercy from the G.O.O.D Music compilation Cruel Sumner and his Detroit mixtape. Since then, a lot of Sean's music hasn't caught on with the masses like My Last and Dance (A$$) did. Guap was dope but was it really "single" material? but to his credit, Big Sean said he didn't want it to be a single, but Kanye chose to make it one anyway.  Beware featuring Lil Wayne and Jhene Aiko didn't really make a splash either. I've seen the Fire video on MTV Jams a few times but thats about it.

A$AP Ferg - Trap Lord (Album Review)

Release Date : August 20, 2013
Label : ASAP Worldwide/Polo Grounds/RCA Records

Trap Lord was originally supposed to be a mixtape, but Ferg changed it to an album instead. I know A$AP Mob released their Lords Never Worry mixtape last year, but a solo mixtape from Ferg would of been dope so we could of got an idea of how his music would sound. Work Remix featuring ASAP Rocky, French Montana, Trinidad James & Schoolboy Q is the first song I've heard from him, so I'm still new to his music. The second single Shabba featuring A$AP Rocky produced by Snugsworth is inspired by none of than the Mr Loverman himself, Shabba Ranks. Ferg said the song came about from them playing around in the studio.

Clipse - Lord Willin' (Album Review)

Release Date : August 20, 2002
Label : Star Trak / Arista Records

Whoever would of thought the Clipse would go from having a shelved debut album to having one of the biggest Hip-Hop songs of 02. I used to watch Rap City like everyday in my teen years, so I remember when they used to show the Clipes The Funeral video and that was the only single from the Audio Exclusive Footage album. Although the album got shelved, it can still be found on the net. The VA duo didn't take off right away, but another group that The Neptunes were working with ended up buzzing first, and that was Philly's Most Wanted. The Clipse were featured on their album on the song Street Tax, they also were on N.E.R.D's In Search Of... album.  Pusha T went by the name Terrar at the time.

Rich Gang - Rich Gang (Album Review)

Release Date : July 23, 2013
Label : Young Money / Cash Money / Republic Records

This is the first album from Rich Gang, which consists of Young Money and Cash Money. With limited features from the "stars" of the label, will the newer artists step up to the plate? Nicki and Wayne are featured on one song a piece and Drake isn't on any of them. Birdman says the reason he isn't on the album is because he's working on his new album plus he says Drake is on some new tracks that's being saved for the upcoming Big Tymers album. But anyway, the album starts with R.G., Birdman speaks on the intro, while the "Man Right Chea" Mystkal drops a energetic verse and you already know he's gonna bring the energy whenever he gets on the mic. Future and Detail  link up on piano driven Million Dollar, which is basically a short song leading into the first single Tapout. You've heard the song by now, you know how it goes "She got that million dollar ooh ooh ooh!".

Ace Hood - Trials & Tribulations (Album Review)

Release Date : July 16, 2013
Label : We The Best / Cash Money / Republic Records

Since the release of his 2011 album Blood, Sweat & Tears, Ace Hood has kept his name out there by releasing  four mixtapes (The Statement 2, Starvation, Body Bag Vol. 2 & Starvation 2). During that two year stretch we also seen a lot rappers using his "Hustle Hard" flow. For real I cant even count on one hand of how many people uses that flow now. To his credit, he did get at them on song "Wanna Beez". In addition to having his flow stolen, Ace Hood has been the butt of Instagram jokes lately because his "60,000" dollar watch fell apart on the red carpet at the BET Awards.

Wale - The Gifted (Album Review)

Release Date : June 25, 2013
Label : Maybach Music Group / Atlantic  Records

I gotta give Wale his credit, he continues to improve with each album he puts out. His sophomore album Ambition went gold thanks to the hit single Lotus Flower Bomb featuring Miguel. Wale also had an impressive showing on MMG's Self Made Vol 2 album. The DC native kept busy by releasing the Folarin mixtape on Christmas Eve 2012. The first single off The Gifted, Bad featuring Tiara Thomas appeared on that mixtape and its also Wale's biggest hit to date. June has been a big month for Hip-Hop, Kanye West, J Cole and Mac Miller all released albums on the same day (June 18), so that leaves June 25th wide open for Wale's 3rd album.

The good thing about this album is that it sounds nothing like Wale's past efforts. On the albums opener The Curse of the Gifted, Wale raps about his gifts and curses over Sean C, LV's guitar heavy instrumental. Wale addresses how people believe everything they hear nowadays on the Cee Lo Green featured Gullible, in the second verse he spits "TV killed the radio/ And then the internet slit the television throat/ But not before I gave birth to several episodes/ Our generation is cursed we got too many clones".

Blog Intro

First things first, I was supposed to start this blog last year, but I kept wasting time, not to mention I couldn't come up with a blog name. When I finally came up with some, they were all taken and the crazy part is those blogs weren't even active, most of them haven't been updated for years and shit, but anyway the name I came up with recently was "ThatHipHopLife" but that was taken, so I decided to use "DatHipHopLife" instead. I even Googled it to make sure nobody else had it Lol. As far the blog goes, its gonna be everything that has to do with Hip-Hop, I have plenty of magazines, so throwback interviews from The Source, XXL and other magazines will be posted. I'm gonna write album reviews for new and older albums. I will write about other things going on in the music world as well. The blog design will  be updated as time goes by, I'm still unsure on how I want to design it, so stay tuned for that. Now that I got all of that shit out the way, the last thing I wanted to say is that the blog will be up and running this week!