Song of the Day

**2/1/10

Talib Kweli - I Try

------------I try to vary the music that I walk around town to everyday, but today I found myself listening to Common's entire catalog. Since I don't like to repeat artists on this blog, I handed my hip-hop driven mind to Pandora to point me in a similar direction. Kweli came on, and I'm more than satisfied.

After a night of glitzy and glamorous playtime at the Grammys, I wanted something a little more pensive (and an album that's a bit mature for music turnaround) to welcome the new month and a new year of music. Talib Kweli teams up with Mary J. Blige on the stark confessional, "I Try," with razor-sharp rhymes slicing through thoughts on heritage, and the status quo of music. The Beautiful Struggle, is the Brooklyn emcee's 2004 project.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUMvqAtAFL4

Song of the Day

**1/5/09

J. Cole - Grown Simba

----------I can appreciate a rapper who doesn't mind making a Walt Disney character roar with the ryhme "I was like a young Simba/couldn't wait to be the King." J. Cole, a rapper from Fayetteville, North Carolina, relocated to the Empire State in 2003, and his rhymes were picked up by Jay Z's label, Roc Nation, in 2008.

J. Cole is a minimalist rapper - the beats and samples aren't dressed up because his words are already fresher than an Armani suit. Hope he looks fly whenever he tours his home state. Get "Grown Simba" from The Warmup Mixtape.

Key Tracks: I Get Up, Lights Please

http://myspace.com/jcole