In an interview with Complex, tribesman Q-Tip discusses his move to Kanye’s mighty G.O.O.D Music label and his involvement in the upcoming Cruel Summer album. “It’s [been] a long journey, but I’ve basically been signed to Universal in some way shape or form or incarnation for about 10 years. So I’ve just kind of been through the system. I still had an obligation to fill and they didn’t necessarily want to discard me for whatever reasons so I kind of had my pick of the litter. Dreamworks, Interscope, Motown, and then Def Jam… I met Kanye years ago at a show. I was working with [with him] during Watch The Throne. I was playing him beats that I was doing and he was like, “Yo, what label are you on?” And I was like, Def Jam. And he was like, “Damn you need to be on G.O.O.D”. And we were rocking, and I was like, let’s do it. It’s that simple”.
Speaking on his involvement on the upcoming Kanye West curated Cruel Summer album, Tip reveals “I’ve done beats. I’ve done rhymes. We’ll see. I didn’t mix. I’m just contributing… We are all a part of it, it’s all our thing, but [Kanye] made kind of the decision [to manage it]. I think we all make each other better… That one thing with Kanye is he’s a really smart guy, and he doesn’t call it a group. He doesn’t necessarily call it a label in a way. He doesn’t necessarily call it family in a way. It’s just a bunch of people who are alike. Even though they come from different place and different places and say different things, everybody’s drive is the same… Everybody from Kanye to Pusha to Chainz, everybody to myself to Common, everyone has their foot like this. Mashed down to the floor. We on the Autobahn though. We ain’t mashed down on the floor on 2nd Avenue running lights. Everbody’s in they lane, in they space. Everyone is moving with passion”.
The veteran rapper also talked about offering advice to younger guys in the camp like Big Sean and KiD CuDi, saying “I love to give information out. Anything that I’ve known I give; from sounds to mixes to opinions. I just try to be vocal. So I give a lot. I don’t really know what I give. But I know that I do give. I don’t keep inventory of what I give. I just do it because I enjoy it”.
2-in-1 video action. Directed by Hype Williams, DJ Khaled releases the video for his Kanye West & Rick Ross featured single ‘I Wish You Would’. But sh*t really pops off when visuals for Kanye West’s ‘Way Too Cold’ follows – watch out for that ‘surprise’ cameo from his boo Kim K too.
‘Just What I Am’ taps into the spacey sound KiD CuDi first began rapping over back in ’08. Featuring long-time collaborator King Chip (Chip Tha Ripper), this self-produced single is the first to be taken off CuDi’s forthcoming Indicud album, which according to him will mark his return to rap. After two albums and a few wayfaring side projects it sounds like KiD CuDi is focused again, hopefully his new album will feature more sh*t like this…
In other G.O.O.D Music related news, Kanye’s crew album Cruel Summer has been delayed again – it’ll now be released September 18th.
The producer behind Jay-Z & Kanye West’sbiggest hit to date and A$AP Rocky’s‘Goldie’ delivers his first solo rap mixtape titled HITstory. Featuring appearances from the likes of Kid Cudi, Big Sean, John Legend & Stacey Bathe, Hit-Boy’s tape consists of 11 originally produced songs, including ‘Busta A** Ni**gas’ featuring Chip Tha Ripper & Bun B. Listen & download the track and mixtape below…
The massively anticipated new single (clean version only) from the comeback king who almost never was, 2 Chainz, featuring ‘Ye. Trap hats, pitched snare rolls, barbaric bass, operatic OTT’ness and plenty skeet skeet – it’s all you’d want for your birthday.
Chainz’ solo Based on a T.R.U. Story drops August 14th and G.O.O.D. Music’s Cruel Summer is now expected September 4th.
Not a big fan of mash-up’ism, even official ones, but here’s how G.O.O.D. Music’s ‘Mercy’ would sound swagging over the Japanese bonus track ‘Furnace Loop’ from last year’s Satin Panthers EP. It’s been obvious since ‘Oops‘ dropped that the Glaswegian wizard really does deserve to get a more secure seat amongst the crop of Stateside urban producers (still waiting for that Rihanna/Mohawke moment). So great news it was when Kanye enlisted him for studio sessions, the result of which has HudMo credited on the original ‘Mercy‘ for playing additional instruments. Whilst his profile’s positively increased in the last year, we can also expect a second album later this year following 2009′s immense Butter.
As a long-innovative ear at developing next level programming techniques and taking Americanized sonics through their maximal paces (growing minimal and focused in the process), here’s hoping he takes further shots at the throne and at some stage achieves that crossover we’ve waited on for years.
TNGHT (the production outfit formed with Lunice) release an EP July 7th on Warp x LuckyMe. Check out our recent preview here and try not getting into a fight.
Kanye West continues to push his G.O.O.D Music with another new track featuring Pusha T off their upcoming compilation album Cruel Summer (August 7th). The song was premiered acapella during West’s performance at the BET Awards – goes without saying, this does it a lot more justice.
Last night the annual BET Awards took place in Los Angeles. Unlike previous years in recent memory, the show pulled out all the stops and racked in some mega-star names including Kanye West & Jay-Z, Beyonce, Nicki Minaj, Usher and most amazingly, D’Angelo who performed ‘Untitled (How Does It Feel)’ for the first time in America in over 10 years (he also performed ‘Sugar Daddy’, a new song her debuted during his European tour).
The night was also dedicated to those the industry had lost this past year – including Donna Summer (who was honoured by Chante Moore) and of course, Whitney Houston – who’s tribute was lead by Mariah Carey and performed by mother Cissy Houston, her brother Gary, Brandy & Monica and Chaka Khan.
Former in-house designer for the A$AP Mob, Harlem native Dominic Lord launches his solo career with ‘Pierce’, produced by the mighty Hudson Mohawke.
In all, not a bad effort – HudMo delivers what we’ve come to expect from him (makes me wonder what his rumoured work with Kanye might sound like!) and although Dominic isn’t delivering anything game changing here just yet – I can definitely appreciate what he’s doing.
Another club shaker from DJ Khaled and his go to friends for his second single off the forthcoming project Kiss The Ring due August 21st featuring a serious case of the Yeezy draawwwl and every manner of Rawse’ism.
