tkrmx - justice/cross tkrmx (2008)

hot damn. just stumbled on this gem. anyone who's completely sick of justice can ignore this, but this is some top shelf business.

check the tracklist:

01 Genesis ft. 50 Cent
02 Let There Be Light ft. 3-6 Mafia & UGK
03 D.A.N.C.E. ft. Beanie Sigel & Beastie Boys
04 Newjack ft. Kanye West & Lupe Fiasco
05 Phantom ft. Lil Wayne
06 Phantom II ft. Lupe Fiasco
07 Valentine ft. Lupe Fiasco
08 Tthhee Pparrttyy ft. 3-6 Mafia, Youngbuck, 8-Ball & MJG
09 DVNO ft. Pitbull
10 Stress ft. Eminem
11 Waters of Nazereth ft. Kanye West
12 One Minute to Midnight ft. Wu-Tang Clan & Mobb Deep


i'd type out all the songs, but you know how i do. way too lazy.

download the entire thing right here.

-grizzly

music video: n.e.r.d. - everybody nose (remix) f/ CRS and pusha T (2008)

i just shit my pants. easily the video of the year.

-grizzly

n.e.r.d./lupe fiasco - complex magazine spreads (2008)

so our homeboys (we wish) are on the cover of complex this month, and the inside of the magazine has the freshest spreads of lupe and the star trak crew. i could dig on some posters of these. mainly because i get lonely at night. and...i like street art? yes, that's exactly it.

pictures from the spread:

n.e.r.d.:





lupe fiasco:







-grizzly

video: glastonbury festival live sets: jay-z/lupe fiasco(2008)

i just spent the last hour watching the shit out of these sets. lupe plays an incredible set and made sure to drop lines about why hip-hop is still alive. young h-o-v sets the venue on fire. he freestyles over a millie, has a wonderwall cover, and runs through a shit load of his old hits. highly recommended.

lupe fiasco - full set live at glastonbury (video)

jay-z - full set live at glastonbury (video)

-grizzly

p.s. i just watched the HOV set for the second time and it is just as revolutionary.

lupe fiasco - me and my sneakers (2008)

likewise, what is weworemasks without a lupe fiasco post? this is a new track that was meant for a-trak's running man album, that didn't make the cut. why? clearance issues. so it's being passed out on the web, of course.

download:

lupe fiasco - me and my sneakers (prod. by a-trak)

-grizzly

(i promise i didn't mean for there to be this many a-trak related posts. dude has taken over this blog.)

lupe fiasco - i keep it gutter like/gangsta's groove (200?)

i love this man. two unreleased tracks have surfaced in the past few, and all of you need to get them immediately.

lupe fiasco on myspace.

download:

lupe fiasco - i keep it gutter like f/stack bundles (r.i.p.)
lupe fiasco - gangsta's groove f/ gemini (now known as gemstones)

-grizzly

lupe fiasco - cold world (unreleased)

this unreleased lupe track is out there floating around, but what kind of blog would we be if we didn't keep up with the blogses?

pure fire. get with it.

lupe fiasco - cold world

- panda fiasco

kenna - say goodbye to love remix f/ lupe fiasco (2008)

aside from being a complete tool and ignoring this album, i got my hands on this remix and love it. it's a shame lupe's only putting out one more album. anyway, expect a post about kenna fairly soon.

kenna on myspace.

download:

kenna - say goodbye to love (remix) f/ lupe fiasco

-grizzly

lupe fiasco vs. justice - the coolest vs. let there be light (2008)

so, lupe's opening track at the glow in the dark tour (sorry jerome) was "the coolest" mashed up with justice's "let there be light." needless to say, holy shit. a dj by the name of minimaxX brought this mash-up to fruition and released it to the interwebs. despite the lower quality, i love it.

download:

lupe fiasco vs. justice - the coolest vs. let there be light

-grizzly

n.e.r.d. - everybody nose (remix) f/ CRS and pusha T (2008)

fuck my life. new n.e.r.d. track, "everybody nose." except that it's a remix with CRS aka lupe fiasco and yeezy, and pusha T. what. the. hell.
song is absolutely nuts.

link removed.

-grizzly

concert review: kanye west/the glow in the dark tour (may 2, 2008)

DISCLAIMER TO JEROME: DON'T READ THIS UNLESS YOU WANT TO CRY.



The Glow in the Dark Tour
Kanye West
with Rihanna, N.E.R.D. and Lupe Fiasco
May 2, 2008
Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, The Woodlands, TX


To consider Kanye West’s Glow in the Dark Tour epic would be an incredible understatement. The tour shuffled its way through Texas last week, including one of the few amphitheater stops at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion on May 2nd.

West had been hard at work months prior to the tour, prepping up for what was to be the summer blockbuster tour to end all tours. All creative aspects of this tour were meticulously crafted and executed by Mr. West and his production team. Everything from creating new samples by Daft Punk, to working with the Jim Henson company for animations, to constructing a spaceship for West's transportation was thought out and planned.

From the seconds the lights dimmed to the time the venue’s lights came on, the crowd was deafening. The 17,000+ capacity venue was packed to the brim with screaming and hyped fans.

As West’s set began, the crowd was introduced to Jane, which we would find out is West’s spaceship. West and Jane were on a mission to find other sources of creativity as they crash landed on another planet. Once creativity was found, the duo could find their way back home, where they would embrace the newfound creativity. Although an overall cheesy concept, it supplied very entertaining filler in between songs.

West flew through an energetic hour and a half set, blazing through the majority of Graduation, most notably “Good Morning,” “Can’t Tell Me Nothin’” and hit single, “Stronger.”

West also made a point to revisit old material, as he rocked “Get Em’ High,” “Spaceship” and breakthrough single “Through the Wire” from debut album The College Dropout. From Late Registration, notables were “Diamonds (from Sierra Leone)” and set closer “Touch the Sky,” which featured a cameo from opener Lupe Fiasco, which went over very well with the Houston crowd.

The lineup on this tour was excellent, and another huge incentive to attend. Lupe Fiasco hit the stage much earlier than he should have, as the crowd was still filing in as he played. His set was showcased to a half-packed lawn and predominately empty seats, so one could imagine his disappointment.

In spite of the complications, Lupe’s 30-minute set was entertaining and comprised mostly of songs fromThe Cool. Lupe happened to bring his entourage, including Matthew Santos, Bishop G and Nikki Jean, which provided the extra energy the crowd needed to see. Another pleasant surprise was bringing Houston’s own Bun B of UGK fame on stage for a song as well.

N.E.R.D. was up next, and did an excellent job of getting the crowd involved, complete with “hell-yeahs” and chants of “N-E-R-D” throughout. Frontman Pharrell Williams knows exactly how to work a crowd and managed to captivate them enough to interact with an act that they may have slipped from their radars.

Rihanna’s set was the least enjoyable of the night. Overall, it was just an oddly-placed pop act amidst a handful of respectable hip-hop artists. Despite being a crowd favorite and a very decent cover of M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes,” Rihanna’s set was forgettable at best. And yes, she played "Umbrella."

Hands down, this was one of the best tours I have seen. Mr. West and company worked extremely hard for a complete and cohesive product, and it delivered 100 percent. It really is no wonder that Kanye West got so heated over Entertainment Weekly’s B+.


-grizzly

p.s. setlist is in the comments. don't read if you don't want to spoil it.

video: lupe fiasco - paris, tokyo (2008)

another hot ass video from lupe. dude is on top of the world.

-grizzly

video: lupe fiasco - hip hop saved my life (2008)

easily one of the best songs in modern day hip-hop. the video is incredible, and an opus to my hometown. what's not to love?

download:

lupe fiasco - hip hop saved my life (featuring nikki jean)


-grizzly

lupe fiasco - superstar (remix) featuring young jeezy and t.i. (2008)

ok, so hopefully, all of you have heard "superstar" by now. this is an excellent remix a friend sent me. all three verses are pretty incredible, but lupe lays this shit to waste.

download:

lupe fiasco - superstar (remix) f/ young jeezy and t.i.

-grizzly

the glow in the dark mixtape (2008)

for one, the glow in the dark/kanye/lupe posts will NEVER stop. jussayin.

this is a new mixtape that hit the web last week. has some really dope shit on it, and there are a handful of gems on this. see: ye's grammy version of hey mama is worth the download alone. anyway, grab this.

cover art is via lupEND @ blogspot.

download the glow in the dark mixtape 2008:



-grizzly

album review: lupe fiasco - the cool (2007)

this is merely a hype post for one of our favorite emcees, lupe fiasco. hopefully this time around, with the release of sophomore album the cool, lupe finds that fresh spot he's reserved in the hip-hop game.

the bears at weworemasks are huge fans of lupe and urge you to check out his new record.

i recently did an album review of the cool, which can be read here. (hey, if jerome can plug his band, i can plug my press!!)

i'm positive this will be another mainstream hip-hop release that flies over people's heads, but that's their loss.

the cool follows a concept of a fatherless boy, raised by two parents. one is the streets, and one is the game. lupe talked about the concept in another interview, but i'll post a healthy excerpt for you here.

I expand on the story, I introduce two other characters, the Game and the Streets. The Streets is a female. She's like the action personification of the streets, the street life, the call of the streets. The Game is the same way. The Game is the personification of the game. The pimp's game, the hustler's game, the con man's game, whatever.

Then they've got supernatural characteristics. Like the Cool, his right hand is rotted away. The only thing that rotted away was his right hand (as is shown in his video "Superstar"). It represents the rotting away of his righteousness, of his good. And the Streets and the Cool kind of have a love affair going on. So she's represented by this locket. And the locket has a key and it's on fire. And as a gift to the Cool on his rise to fame, she gave him the key. And the key represents the key to the Streets. So she wears a locket around her neck at all times.

And the way the story goes, she has given that key to tons of people throughout time. Al Capone, Alexander the Great, whatever. She's giving them the key to the Streets. Fame and fortune-- but also the prices. The Game, he's represented by a stripped-down skull, a skull with dice in his eyes and smoke coming out of his mouth. The billowing smoke is actually crack smoke. It's not a full concept album; it's more spread over like five [tracks], really abstractly.[3]

music video for "dumb it down," the first street single off of the new album:

album review:

READ.
READ.
READ.

buy the cool:


amazon.

best buy.

it's only 10 bucks. no excuse.

-grizzly

crs - us placers (2007)

crs, or more formally child rebel soldier is the brainchild of kanye west, lupe fiasco and pharrell williams, otherwise known as three artists we bears can't stop living vicariously through.

supposedly, a crs album is in the works, but things this good usually never happen, cause planet earth hates us. if an album actually does drop, hip-hop will more than likely self-destruct.

there is absolutely nothing in this song that isn't amazing. top four reasons to like this song:

1. lupe fiasco verse
2. kanye west verse
3. pharrell williams verse
4. sample of thom yorke's the eraser.

get it and love it.

download:

crs - us placers (extended)

-grs