This week saw the announcement of the 2011 Coachella line up. The festival, which takes place in Indio California, has steadily risen to become one the biggest music events of the year; with well over 200,000 attendees expected over its three days. With festival goers braving desert temperatures of over 100 ºF, the Coachella team has a battle on their hands to ensure they keep the audience’s attention. Thankfully, they’ve once again assembled a stellar line up of musical delights, pulling in some of the world’s biggest artists. Taking the headline slots this year will be Kings Of Leon, Arcade Fire and Kanye West. 2010 was a huge year for all three – with West and Arcade Fire gaining huge plaudits from critics and fans alike for ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ and ‘The Suburbs’ respectively. While Kings Of Leon’s ‘Radioactive’ divided the opinions of critics, it did nothing to reduce their status as one of the world’s most successful bands.
Coachella will also boast an appearance from New York indie Gods, The Strokes, who will rival Animal Collective as the hipster’s choice at this year’s Coachella. Another highlight is a rather unexpected set from the reunited Death From Above 1979, who join a parade of Coachella acts on the comeback trail, Bright Eyes, Big Audio Dynamite, Suede, Lauryn Hill and Duran Duran to mention a few.
The presence of Sasha, Magnetic Man, Sven Väth and Axwell all high up on the bill, plus appearances from likes of A-Trak, Green Velvet, Andy C and Trentmøller, also ensures that there’ll be plenty for dance fans to investigate across the board.
This year’s festival takes place between 15th- 17th April, for the full line up and ticket info head to the official Coachella site.
Despite only recently releasing his last album at the tail end of 2010, KanYe West is already moving onto his next project; his much hyped joint album with Jay-Z. The first track to surface from the collaboration is ‘H.A.M’ which debuted on the pair’s Facebook page yesterday. Opening with a futuristic looped synth line, West takes the mantle first revealing that ‘H.A.M’ isn’t actually a nod to the eccentric rapper’s favourite sandwich meat, but in fact an acronym for “hard as a motherf**ker”.
It appears that neither rapper wants to take the back seat, with Jay-Z holding up his side of the arrangement by delivering a blisteringly fast verse. Bringing together two of the biggest names in the game was always going to result in something like this, buckets of swagger over a huge production by Lex Luger.
The track is taken from the album ‘Watch The Throne’ which is due for release on March 1st. Providing the album turns out to be better than ‘Best Of Both Worlds’ – the much maligned 2002 collaborative album from Jay-Z and R. Kelly – Kanye and Jay-Z’s hook up is likely to be one of the most exciting of the year.
To hear ‘H.A.M’ head to the Watch The Throne Facebook page.
We all know Christmas is the season for giving, but KanYe West’s been feeling generous all year. His ‘G.O.O.D. Fridays’ have seen him give away 15 free tracks of astounding high quality since August. Many of these, such as ‘Power’, ‘Monster’ and ‘Devil In A Dress’, were so good they made it onto KanYe’s ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ – undoubtedly one of the standout albums of the year.
KanYe’s latest offering, ‘Christmas In Harlem’, sees him getting all festive with a few of his hip-hop cohorts – namely Cam’ron, Jim Jones, CyHi Da Prynce, Musiq SoulChild and Big Sean. It’s a bona-fide Christmas song, but somehow it manages to steer clear of being overly corny or schmaltzy.
KanYe’s giving away the track at his blog for free.
From KanYe West, and indeed everyone at Shazam, we wish you a very merry Christmas.
The only artist to claim two tracks in our countdown of the year, ‘Monster’ is another highlight from KanYe West’s staggering ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’. On this track Yeezy enlists the help of some of hip hop’s most powerful illuminate, with Jay-Z, Rick Ross and Nicki Minaj all contributing verses. Surprisingly Bon Iver also lends his vocal to the track; the unlikely pair became friends after West was introduced to the folk troubadour’s track ‘Woods’ by Ed Banger boss Pedro Winter. Despite the plethora of talent on display, the tracks finest moment belongs to Nicki Minaj. The fast rising female rapper’s schizophrenic bars completely steal the show; giving us enough reason to see past her lacklustre debut album ‘Pink Friday’ - let’s just hope KanYe is free to produce her follow up LP.
After West’s infamous stage invasion at the VMA’s, where he interrupted Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech, there was only one way KanYe could win back his credibility. Despite inspiring one of the most amusing blogs of the year, West simply had to deliver the goods in order to put the episode behind him. Thankfully his fifth album stands up as one of the strongest of 2010, topping polls from such tastemakers as Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Spin, Stereogum and MTV. The video for the track is set to debut on Christmas day and certainly looks likely to live up to the ‘Monster’ title. Check out the ghoul filled preview above.
Undoubtedly the biggest Hip-Hop album released in 2010 was KanYe West’s ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’, despite only being released in late November. For KanYe and Hip-Hop fans alike, 2010 was just a countdown to the album, with a few distracting tracks released by other artists to pass the time. It was back in May this year when the repetitive yet stunning track ‘Power’ leaked creating an instant frenzy. After a remix by Swizz Beatz featuring Jay-Z, a 30 minute movie and some speculation on the album’s title, on October 4th KanYe announced the official release date of ‘MBDTF’ for November 22. KanYe’s G.O.O.D Friday campaign was well under way by this point, releasing exclusive and free tracks every Friday to the world. This viral concept wasn’t a new idea but something that Mr. West executed perfectly, leading the way once again.
At #9 in Shazam’s countdown of 2010’s top tracks is ‘Runaway’. Taken from ‘MBDTF’, the track varied from 3 to 5 minutes in length depending on which blog you fed from. Once the album was released, the whole 9 minute version was available. Riddled with a dusty piano riff, very personal anecdotes and obscure samples; the track was one of the stand outs from Yeezy’s much discussed and critically acclaimed album. The final product, including a deluxe version with the daring and blunt artwork, is available to buy now. Not one to procrastinate, KanYe has recently released a festive freebie of a Christmas carol. The track – ‘Christmas In Harlem’ – features a handful of his favourite rappers and is available to listen to here.
Never a man to do things by halves, KanYeWest accompanied his single ‘Runaway’ with a ridiculously overblown 35 minute short film in which he runs over a female ‘phoenix’ in his car before trying to introduce her to cannibalism and eventually getting it on with her (naturally). While the film may be a perfect example of style over substance, fortunately the same cannot be said about the music which is without question where his strengths lie. ‘Runaway’, the film’s title track, is the third single from West’s fifth album ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ and captures him in a sarcastic mood; berating himself and others in a dark down-tempo number. Combining a haunting piano riff, ominous bass, a beat as crunchy as fresh celery and West’s less than perfect singing voice; ‘Runaway’ manages to instil a truly atmospheric sense of menace.
You can check out the full length ‘Runaway’ video here. It’s mind boggling in both its length and subject matter.
It had appeared the attention surrounding British synth pop duo La Roux was beginning to die down. Flame haired singer Elly Jackson and behind the scenes co-writer Ben Langmaid have been busy in the studio working on the follow up to their eponymous debut, but it appears one celebrity fan was keen to revisit their Mercury Prize nominated album. A new remix of ‘In For The Kill’ has surfaced, with Kanye West adding a typically boisterous rap, announcing his arrival with “I’m going in and I’m going hard”. It seems Kanye has been watching a few too many Twilight movies, as the tracks title inspires a vampire obsessed theme to his verse.
While it will be hard to top Dubstep pioneer Skream’s remix of ‘In For The Kill’, Yeezy has certainly given the track a further lease of life. There’s no word on a release for the remix, but fans will have another opportunity to hear Elly Jackson collaborate with the rapper on his forthcoming album track ‘All The Lights’ – which features a plethora of musical talent including Sir Elton John, Alicia Keys, Rihanna, John Legend and Black Eyed Peas’ Fergie. Look out for it when Wests’ ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ is released later this month.
No one could accuse KanYe West of resting on his laurels. Since news heralding the arrival of his fifth studio album – whose title, formerly believed to be ‘Good Ass Job’, has yet been confirmed – the superstar has flooded the world with a tsunami of multimedia activity, revealing himself as a true master of anticipation. Two months ago, the first single ‘Power’ topped our US most tagged new release chart. Since then, the rapper promised he would be giving away a free track every Friday until the record release. Most of the tracks would not be part of the final tracklisting, which has also yet to be confirmed.
He named the initiative G.O.O.D. Fridays, after his own record label and management company G.O.O.D. Music and so far seven tracks have been punctually given away. However, earlier this week an unfinished version of one of the most awaited tracks from the album, the Bon Iver sampling ‘Lost In The Woods’, was leaked. This was rumoured to have infuriated the artist, who via his fuming Twitter account announced he would be suspending this week’s offering.
Although the ever mercurial temper of Mr. West always leaves room for a change of mind. Now is a good time to recap and look back at what he’s offered us to date.
Whatever you think about KanYe West, there’s no denying his ability to surprise.
A year after KanYe’s super ego pushed him into an ill advised stage invasion during Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards – an act that prompted Barack Obama to call him a “Jackass” – KanYe was back at the scene of the crime. However, rather than berating Taylor Swift as he had the year before, he was exchanging sickly sweet tributes with the country singer: the pick of which came from Swift who spouted this gem whilst performing an emotional ballad. “Thirty-two and still growing up now, who you are is not what you did, you’re still an innocent. Everyone of us has messed up too, I hope you remember today is never too late to be brand new.” An act which prompted KanYe to apologise to the public once again for last year’s indiscretions.
If you find West’s new found humility surprising you should check up the lineup of talent on his new single, ‘Monster’. The record features the talents of Hip Hop heavy weights Rick Ro$$, Jay-Z and hottest ticket in town, Nicki Minaj. Nothing out of the ordinary there you may think, until you see that the record also features the talents of Justin Vernon – A.K.A bearded folk warbler Bon Iver. Apparently KanYe sought out the talents of Bon Iver after hearing his breakthrough track ‘Woods’. This resulted in Bon Iver packing up his bags, flying to KanYe’s studio in Miami to lay down some tracks in between enjoying herbal cigarettes with hip hop’s glitterati – which must be the absolute antithesis of the usual day in the life of a respected folk minstrel.
‘Monster’ is potentially KanYe’s most exciting single yet. What’s most surprising is Nicki Minaj’s mind blowingly dexterous verse that mixes the ragga style growl of Lady Saw with the cutesy baby voice of Marilyn Monroe to create one of the most original vocal styles the hip hop world has heard in years.
‘Monster’ will be included in KanYe’s forthcoming album ‘Dark And Twisted Fantasy’ due for release November 16th
KanYe West recently posted another new track, ‘See Me Now’ from his forthcoming album on his blog. The song features his favourite video makin’ homie, Beyoncé along with Charlie Wilson. There is an obvious calm in his performance, you can almost feel the smile in his voice. His lyrical humour is spot on, see the line – “If you fall on the concrete, it’s your asphalt.” So true.
Get over to Weezy’s blog before he changes his mind and deletes the link (he has it up for download, for now). And for good measure, the rapper has recently signed up to the micro-blogging phenomena that is Twitter. Follow here for his crucial tweets and no doubt more information on tracks from his new album.
