by Keri Hilson: I absolutely LOVE this track. How many tracks so you know promote safe sex while also being a club banger? This is the only one I know! I wonder why this track didn’t make it on her album because it would have been a great addition! I hope Ms. Hilson received some funds as an endorsement of Trojan condoms. If not…Keri, girl….you know your manager, label, or whoever makes those deals needs to have Trojan on the phone asap! Times are too hard to be making endorsements for free!

by Aries Spears: This has to be one of my all time favorite freestyles! I saw this video a few years ago and I continue to watch it randomly when I want a good laugh. Or, I show people this video when I want them to trip off Spears’ ability to impersonate rappers. He sounds JUST LIKE them. If you listen to the words without seeing the video you would believe that the vocals were from LL,  Snoop, DMX, and Jay, but I suggest seeing the video to believe it. The impersonation of Jay’s laugh is remarkable. The DJ is heard saying “Dude, that was awesome!” prior to the video ending. I concur!

by Vertical Horizon: I have an application on my phone called Shazam which is my favorite app on my iPhone. Today, I was in the grocery store and heard this song playing on the grocery store intercom. I used to listen to this song all the time back in the day but instead of having to look up the artist and song title when I got home, handy dandy Shazam told all. I want to create a new series called “Thanks to Shazam” in which I will include all of the songs that I tag on Shazam in unplanned locations. These will be songs that I know and songs that I don’t. They will be random, but systematically chosen due to my point of view on the song. Overall, these songs will be worthy of being posted. The following is the second song posted from Shazam, first in the series. 

by Fast Life Yungstaz (F.L.Y.): The quality of this video is definitely outside of my musical character, but I love this track. Whenever I hear it, I automatically feel the beat and want to dance. This is probably the most ‘Atlanta local’ song that has been posted on my blog. You may ask what do I mean by Atlanta local? I mean that this is a song that currently only Atlantans know primarily because the track is indicative of the area as artists who reside in Atlanta made the track. This is definitely a club banger and I’m positive, given a few months, you and the remainder of the US will be jamming to this song too.

by Eiffel 65: For some reason, this song has been in my head for the last two days. It is so random I love it! Or, maybe I love it because my favorite color is blue. After years of listening to this song and hearing the lyrics, today I finally realized what the group says and got further than “I’m blue da ba dee da ba die”. Now I can sing, “I have a blue house with a blue window. Blue is the color I thought I’d wear. Blue are the streets and all the trees are too. I have a girlfriend and she is so blue…” Hopefully, with help from my lyrics, you can reminisce and attempt to sing this throwback track.

by Kid Cudi ft. Wale: I have been listening to Kid Cudi a lot the last few days and this track justifies my reasoning. When I say this song is a beast, I mean this song needs to be on a cd in EVERY person’s car! If I had a cd with me right now, I would put this track on there to listen to it as I drive home. I have listened to this song ALL day, back to back! I know that the production on this track is BOMB and will be a great addition to the ‘riding music’ playlist that I have yet to make.

by Mistah F.A.B.: I was listening to a mixtape earlier and heard this song. I thought my ears were playing tricks on me because it sounded like Blame It by Jamie Foxx. I hit the back button for the track to start over from the beginning. Sure enough – Hit Me on Twitter – was the name of the track and the lyrics suit the title. The track starts off “I follow you, and you follow me, we can get get like one of the homies.” You may think the song is lame, but I like the song because I think it’s real. Dude says he’s “sending updates straight from [his] phone….What’s your government? I see your screen name? Is this really you? People playin teen games.” That line is the truth as people follow celebrities and assume they are the person because their handle says so. People have learned that is not always the case! More than anything, this track lets me know that Twitter is way mainstream. NOBODY has made a track about MySpace or Facebook, although both networks are mentioned in this song. While MySpace is mostly used for artists and models trying to be discovered and Facebook is mostly used for those educated and trying to network, I feel as though Twitter brings together the best of both networks + more. Now that there is a song about it, I wonder how long Twitter will really last!?!

I heard this song a few weeks and immediately liked it. I forgot that I heard this track until I heard it on my cousin’s MySpace page yesterday! I have been listening to it non-stop since then. I love Lady Gaga so it was undeniable that I would love “the creatives” remix of this track. I consider Kanye, Common, and for this track I will include Kid Kudi as a part of “the creatives” as they are original and off the wall in their rhymes. This is a playful track to bring in the summer. It is also a great song to ride to and trust I will do so with my windows down and sunroof back!

by Esmee: I think Twitter is amazing! I am such a supporter of the microblogging site as it allows people to form authentic relationships while sharing information instantaneously. Just now, I saw a tweet from @iamnovel who is a  producer/songwriter/artist. His most recent update stated that he was in the studio with Justin Timberlake working on an Esmee Record and provided a link. The link took me to the video that I have included below. It features an emerging artist from the Netherlands named Esmee who was discovered on YouTube in August 2006. Since then, she has continued uploading covers to her YouTube channel and most recently she has been signed to Justin’s record label, Tennman Records. You can tell that she has grown so much from the original videos she uploaded. When you hear her voice, one cannot deny that she has talent. She is one that would contradict my theory that music is only half of what it used to be. She has released a couple of singles, such as Follow My Lead and Outta Here, and I need to get them! Her debut album is set to release on May 22. Keep her on your radar as I predict her to be one of the best new artists with a sultry sound.

Today, there are not many albums that released that I’m interested in. I only know of Forevery in a Day by Day 26. My boyfriend has constantly been reminding me to get Round 2 by J. Holiday, whom I saw in the airport a few weeks ago, and I finally decided to get the album which was released on March 2.

Going off of first listens, Forever in a Day is very nice. The album is definitely a more mature sound than their first self-titled album. I have listened to the album from beginning to end several times, which is always a good sign! However, I can tell Que has some influence in taking some of the songs mainstream as he stated he wanted to do so via Making the Band. What makes me mad is when artists feature an artist on their song, i.e. T-pain on Day 26’s Shawty What’s Up, the track ends up sounding like the featured artist’s song vs. the original artist’s song! While the song is one that will play in the club, it’s not ‘Day 26′ to me. Same goes for Need That that features Jermaine Dupri. The true ‘Day 26′ songs are great and these are my favorite that have been on repeat already: Think of Me, Bipolar …BOMB!…but the beginning beat sounds very similar to something I’ve heard before- Man in Your Life by Joe Thomas, Girlfriend, and Then There’s You. Whichever member of the group said Willie is not the leader of the group must be trying to save face. That man’s voice leads and dominates most of the album!

On to the next. J. Holiday’s attempt at a second album is ok. The ballads are alright and there are several tracks I like such as Lights Go Out, Make that Sound, and Fly. I LOVE Wrong Lover mostly because I heard this song prior, but there are no songs that I listen to and get chills. I can envision myself listening to this album for every bit of two weeks. His first album was much better in my opinion and it makes me wonder if the problem is that he was given the wrong songs. I’m not saying that J. is the next Marvin Gaye by any means, but it seems as though if artists are not 150% marketable their labels do not give them the pick of the crop of in reference to songs and their production is only mediocre. I think he has a great voice, but he needs to be given more exposure with better a better song choice. When is the industry going to change?