Pill Live at The Levi’s/FADER Fort NYC

By the time Pill took the stage at the Levi’s®/FADER Fort on Saturday, everyone had already sweated out any and all Budweiser or Southern Comfort they’d attempted to consume. So when you watch the audience going loco in this live performance of Pill’s anthem “Trap Goin Ham,” just know that you can’t blame their enthusiasm on the alcohol. Blame it on the unbridled charisma of one of the best rappers out of the A, and the rad dude posse alongside him (including Freddie Gibbs, who’d performed with him earlier in the night). And when FADER editor Felipe Delerme sprayed beer on the dancefloor like he was Puff with Moet in ‘96, he was stone cold sober, and no one was even mad because it was the perfect thing to do right at that moment. When in doubt, go ham.

Premiere: Chauffeur (Mark Ronson, Sam Sparro & Theophilus London), “Soles of Fire” MP3

The semi-secretive super group known as Chauffeur came through The Levi’s®/FADER Fort NYC last Saturday looking like The Specials, all done up in tailored suits and sharp collars and ready to pump out some mellow dance music. Due to flight schedules and the fact that they have but one song, however, they only played for like eight minutes. What an eight minutes though! Sheila E cover HELLOOOO. The one song that is theirs, it turns out, is a special ditty cooked up for Gucci’s Icon-Temporary pop-up stores as they unveil the boat-sneaker designed by Mr Ronson himself, so prepare to feel like spending a lot of money as you listen to this. Ronson has that kind of mind power.



Download: Chauffeur, “Soles of Fire”

Timbaland f. Drake, “Say Something” MP3

If only he were a few years older, Drake could have been Magoo. Imagine that dude on “Indian Flute”! Ain’t nothing smoother than a Timbaland beat circa 2003. Meeting Drake during his Southeast Asian phase would not have been a bad look for Tim or anyone else for that matter. “Say Something,” located thoroughly within the making beats with video games period still knocks, just in the way that sounds like they both should be guesting on Entourage. Now I’m at the 40/40 getting bitches tipsy Drake says, not even bragging, just saying. Yeah, Turtle would love this.



Download: Timbaland f. Drake, “Say Something”

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Clipse f. Cam’ron, “Popeyes” MP3

Right after Cam’ron emerged from his self-inflicted exile, around about the time he played us mad times in a row by not showing up for our interview appointments, someone who actually did get a microphone under him got him to admit that he’d thought about retiring. Thankfully, he did not follow through, a decision we’re sure had very little to do with ceding victory to 50 Cent after their dust-up. As far as we can tell, Cam is still very much the king of Harlem and if he wanted to be, probably New York City, but the fact that he’s somehow burrowed himself into the underground makes his appearance on “Popeyes” less the favor to message board heroes the Clipse, than a sensible alliance.



Download: The Clipse f. Cam’ron, “Popeyes”

Freddie Gibbs Live at The Levi’s/FADER Fort NYC

Leave it to Freddie Gibbs to completely dominate Room 501 at Ace Hotel New York, where we have been filming bands all week. Gibbs is a secret veteran of the rap industry, pushing through major label purgatory and coming out the other side with literally hundreds of unreleased songs and a grip of mixtapes that are as cohesive and solid as albums. This week, Gibbs has been rapping all over New York city, and here raps all over our room at the New York outpost of the Levi’s®/FADER Fort. Watch the video above.

Video: Juicy J, “Talkin’ Shit”

Juicy J is feeling solo videos these days. And not just solo because it’s not him with Triple Six, but because it’s just him walking around alone. This black and white video for “Talkin’ Shit,” a song with extremely tragic, German sounding strings, has some Blair Witch moments, only if Juicy was the witch. I ain’t never been a pussy is a great line, and we might think it was meant tongue in cheek if not delivered with a black bloc bandanna over his face. But then you notice the director’s reflection in Juicy’s sunglasses and the suspension of disbelief is kinda killed.

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Lil Wayne, “Wasted” + “Swag Surfin’” MP3

The thought of Wayne going to jail for eight months on gun charges sometime soon is ridiculous, mostly because two of rap’s living legends will be in the clink for the same thing at the same time. We’re not saying these dudes should get a pass because they’re really wealthy celebrities and need to be able to defend themselves, but if we were really wealthy celebrities we would probably consider owning a gun to protect our millions more than we do to protect our scratched up iPhones. Anyway, being locked up certainly isn’t going to slow Wayne down as he’s definitely already got a bunch of material and plans for two albums by December, the upcoming No Ceilings mixtape from which these songs come, plus whatever else he decides to record before his sentencing in February. Best of luck to him either way. Enjoy Wayne’s take on Gucci and FLY and let us know in the comments what you think about Wayne’s case.



Download: Lil Wayne, “Wasted”



Download: Lil Wayne, “Swag Surfin” (via Nah Right)

50 Cent, “Crime Wave” MP3

Before I Self Destruct, 50 Cent’s fourth studio album, is currently scheduled for release on November 23rd or what Universal is calling “Super Monday.” The album will be up against pop juggernauts like Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Jay Sean, Timbaland and also less notably, Lil Wayne’s surrogate dad/puppet master, Birdman. Since his monstrous debut, 50’s been trying to sing and dance his way into the ranks of pop super-stardom through Justin Timberlake features and Scott Storch beats. Though he’d like to believe he never abandoned the “aggressive content” of a relatively flawless mixtape career, he’s far better known for poor acting and lazering off all his tattoos than he is for threatening to ride through your neighborhood with a cocked gun hanging out the window. Which is a shame because when 50 used to threaten us, we believed him. Actually, we still do. It’s just that he doesn’t threaten us that much anymore.



Download: 50 Cent, “Crime Wave”

Lil Wayne f. Kidd Kidd, Mack Maine & Nicki Minaj, “Thinking to Myself” MP3

Anybody who thinks Lil Wayne doesn’t have soul needs to check themselves. This dude just taps into his passion pit and lets loose. Granted, it usually comes out when he is talking about punany, but the public record shows that Weezy is one fertile dude. In this one he also addresses himself (as “Self”). Might be a first for him, might not, but it’s office consensus that if we want to find out we will have to go through about 96,000 tracks and we don’t have time for that right now (got a magazine to put out and Lil Wayne’s babies to feed!), so if you know the answer, please tell us in the comments.



Download:
(via Nahright)

Young Dro, R.I.P. Mixtape

When Young Dro asks How many different kind of flows y’all gonna make me have? on “Y’all Niggas Funny,” nothing seems more true. The Dro we’ve seen in recent months is different from the Dro we remember from “Shoulder Lean,” content to make lighter, more playful songs, sometimes abandoning his bulldozer baritone in favor of something more playful. We can only assume that a portion of the songs on here come from the still unreleased P.O.L.O., and if releasing the songs across a series of mixtapes is what it takes then we’ll take it. It should be noted that Dro sounds great over “Mo Money Mo Problems” (if only he was rapping back then), sounds blasted out of his mind on “Best Pill Ever Had,” and should probably have stayed away from rapping like Cudi on “Day N Night.” Looks like we’re going to make you have as many flows as you think are necessary dude!

Download: Young Dro, R.I.P. (via Cocaine Blunts)

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