by Frank Ocean: R&B has had an interesting turn the last few weeks. My cd player fell in love with Frank Ocean. The singer, song-writer, producer has delivered exactly what the music scene is missing. The words to one of his tracks, We All Try, got me hooked the first time I listened. More than the normal song topics of dating girls, going to the club, and popping bottles, Nostalgia, Ultra covers the controversial topics of abortion, sinning, and the not-so real fairytale American Wedding.

The super-creative type goes beyond traditional R&B chords to sampling songs by The Eagles, Coldplay and MGMT. The best sample, in my opinion, is B*tches Talkin which features Radiohead’s Optimistic. Although only a interlude, the track should have been a complete single.

The beauty of this album is that you can play it from beginning to end and feel something new everytime you listen. There are songs that you may only like and end up loving. Then, there are the songs that you think are a little weird and you find yourself singing allllll day. With a mixture of sounds and talent that reminds me of Ryan Leslie, Frank Ocean has a long future ahead of him. Check out one of my favorite tracks, Songs for Women, below and you can download the full album here.

P.S. Frank Ocan can never become first name status. “Frank” sounds whack. It sound’s like the name of somebody’s uncle. Frank Ocean is better. Frank O is dope

Today’s #MusicMonday was all about Ryan Leslie. I guess he was top of mind after I watched his live streaming chat last Thursday. When I walked into the office this morning, he was the first and only music I wanted to listen to. Ryan’s self-titled album + Zer0 7’s Destiny was the extent of my #MusicMonday until I reached 2pm and listened to BeeHiveFM.com (post coming soon about how this online radio station is changing the game).

I’m STILL mad that MySpace has not fully integrated Imeem playlists into their platform. I still have no way to embed a full album playlist that someone else created…As I sit here and struggle, trying to determine a video to include below, I chose one that shows how talented Ryan is to play the instruments in the background of the song, sing, AND produce the track! The video is bananas! At the end, when Ryan is playing the keyboard and says he will have a 60 piece orchestra behind him playing, ahhhhh it made me want to go to one of his shows SO BAD! I knew he was talented, but not like this. I’ll be looking up his schedule *right now*!

I have been getting the urge to blog a lot lately. I haven’t been focused on listening to new music like I used to so I felt the need to download some albums. I spent part of my day today looking to see what I have been missing out on and these are the albums that I got: Ryan Leslie’s self-titled album, In a Perfect World by Keri Hilson, Love vs. Money by The-Dream, In My Radio by Musiq Soulchild, It’s Not Me, It’s You by Lily Allen, and All I Ever Wanted by Kelly Clarkson. I’m glad I have some new tunes to listen to this week. I’ll keep you updated on which albums I love, hate, and recommend you getting.

by Ryan Leslie ft. Cassie & Fabolous: Ryan Leslie is one of the best kept secrets! His self titled album is expected to release on October 21st and you can bet that I will have an advance copy of this! This particular song has been out for a while, but being that I LOVE Ryan Lelie’s production, I had to support him by posting this newly released video. Jaslene from America’s Next Top Model is featured in the video and makes like the video even more. Surprisingly, Cassie is not in the video. Not really sure of the reasoning behind her lack of appearance and I find it suspect because Cassie is not in the original version of the video either. Hmmm…After listening to the track a few times, I realized the track samples Michael Jackson’s I Can’t Help It. MJ has to be the most sampled artist in history!?!

by Ryan Leslie: Thinking of Cassie, my mind automatically reminisces of Ryan Leslie, the producer of her first album. He has produced songs for numerous A-list artists including Cheri Dennis, Danity Kane, Donnell Jones, Beyoncé, New Edition, Nina Sky, and the list continues. Similarly to other producers, he came from behind the production table to release his own tracks. He’s like other artists that make music for the now and not the future. However, I love his style. If you listen to this song he has a unique use of instruments, making beat machines sound futuristic. Whatever the source, I like it! It’s different than the normal snares.