The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly (Week of 12/11-12/17)

With a new year fast approaching us I thought that it would be fun to begin my own segment of sorts for the site. As such I present The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. Its intent is to be a personal list of things, present and future, that are truly wonderful (or horrible) in the hip-hop world. Owing to the desire not to bog readers down with too many words I have decided to pick at least five (5) topics to discuss. Here goes:

1. Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded- Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded is the title of rapper Nicki Minaj’s upcoming second album, due out Valentine’s Day 2012. To be completely honest, I’m conflicted here. I am unsure of what to expect from Minaj’s sophomore effort. Judging off the title alone we’re going to be seeing A LOT more of her alter ego Roman Zolanski. By no means am I downing her creativity because that alone (along with certain verses, features, and attributes) has propelled Nicki into the stratosphere. All I am saying is that I hope this next effort from her breaks some new ground and moves out of the shadow of “Your Love” or “Moment 4 Life”.



MY TAKE: GOOD


2. Big K.R.I.T.-Is there really any stopping Big K.R.I.T.? I mean, really? This had been a damn good year for the Meridian, MS native. Let’s look at it:

•Two really excellent mixtapes out this year. The most recent is Last King 2: God's Machine, preceded by the amazing (and my personal soundtrack for part of the year) Return of 4Eva.

•Production for mixtapes, such as Chris Brown’s Boy In Detention, and for upcoming projects like T.I.’s upcoming album Trouble Man.

•Preparing his debut studio album Live From The Underground, rumored to be due out early in the first quarter of 2012.

K.R.I.T. makes me believe in hip-hop again and that’s…



MY TAKE: GOOD


3. Hip-hop videos-Where should I begin? I think we need more than just arrogant boasts, liquor promos, and someone’s half naked daughter dancing to the track. I love the female form but damn. If I see one more thick booty shaking to a video that has no need or no meaning with surpluses of naked ass around I think I may scream. A Travis Porter video, fine. Not sure what naked girls has to do with being “a boss”, though. Maybe Rick Ross or Meek Mill can explain it.



MY TAKE: BAD


4. Soulja Boy-And he’s coming out with a new album because…? Does anyone out there reading this know why? Because, honestly…I don’t. Soulja Boy and his music remind me of something, something horrible. You’ve all seen The Matrix, right? You remember what Smith said as he was threatening to crush Morpheus’ head in his hands? I do…

“…You're a plague and we are the cure.”

Yeah. He’s tentatively calling the album Promise. Make me a promise, OK? Stay gone.



MY TAKE: UGLY


5. 2012-A new year is coming. It’s full of promise, rises, falls, good (and bad) music, and politicking. I tweeted maybe a week ago about that same sort of sentiment. Here’s what I said:

@LouieLafate: Eyes looking towards 2012 as a new set of opportunities...

Hope we can all see it together…



MY TAKE: GOOD