J. Cole Announced to Headline Common's Aahh Fest!

After an all too long hiatus, Common is FINALLY (The Rock voice) bringing Aahh Fest back to Chicago! I was lucky enough to be in attendance for the inaugural event, and I am STILL reeling from all the emotions it opened up for me as a hip-hop stan fan.

AAHH Fest 2014: Set-By-Set Review

Last night, Chicago hip-hop legend Common treated his hometown to one hell of a show, and I was lucky enough to bare witness to it all (well most of it). The name: AAHH Fest. The venue: Union Park. Let's just say I got to cross a few things off my musical bucket list last night.

Here's my rundown of possibly the greatest homegrown hip-hop concert in the Windy City's history.

(Sidebar: Much love goes out to DJs Jermaine, Vince Adams, Timbuk2, and Wayne Williams who all spun masterful sets with nothing but grown folks house and hip-hop jams.)

Ride Home: 7/10/2014

After working the 9 to 5, the one thing that really calms me down is the music I listen to on the way home. My iPod is my favorite passenger. If it wasn't for that small box of heaven that Steve Jobs created, I would be a wanted man right now for a string of road rage murders.

Sometimes it takes a couple of skips for that perfect ride home playlist to formulate, other times the shuffle function knows just what daddy wants. Today was a mix of the two. Enjoy. You're welcome.

Week Sauce: 2/9/2014 - 2/15/2014

We're halfway done with February people. I can almost smell Spring (sniffs the air and makes The Rock's face). I'm sure Mother Nature will have a few parting gifts for us as we exit winter. Any who, here's the best and the worst from the past week. Seems to be more worst than best, but to quote the great Keith Murray, "it beez like that sometimes." You're welcome.

iTunes Decoded: Track 16

Alright. So a while back, we'll say 2009-ish, my desktop crashed. I ended up getting a new laptop, but at the time, I was not technical disaster ready, so I never backed up my hard drive. That's right, all my pictures, documents, and music were just lost. Through a YouTube tutorial, I discovered that I did have back up for my music in the form of my iPod.

I followed the step-by-step directions, and voila! I was able to recover all 10,000 plus of my songs and put them on my laptop. One hiccup, 25% of the tracks lost all their descriptive info (title, artist, album, etc.). They were either re-named a track number (ex: track 12) or a non-descriptive 4 letter code (ex: BVTH). Nonetheless, I was happy to have my music back, so I dealt with the missing info. In other words, I was too lazy to manually enter in all the info myself. 25% of 10,000 is a lot of damn songs.

So here I am 5 years later and I have finally grown tired of playing the guessing game. I haven't been able to find Erykah Badu's I Want You in forever, and that's one of my all-time jams. I will now update all of my unknown track info, one track at a time and document it for your reading pleasure. This is the first installment.

Tough Love: 10 Anti-Valentine's Day Tracks

No, I'm not feeling "some type of way," its just last year I assumed that all of my audience was in a happy love bubble when I hit you with Roofie Rhymes (looking back, that's a corny ass name...ah well, you live and you learn). I now understand that most of my audience is miserable, so it's only fair that I hit you with some break-up/hate jams. Get your Kleenex and alibis ready, its about to get shitty. You're welcome.

Outside the Chin: 5 Reason's I'm Glad Jay Leno is Done

When the Winter Olympics close in Sochi, Jimmy Fallon will officially become the 5th host of NBC's The Tonight Show. I welcome the change for a few reasons:

• The Roots are the shit!
• The Fallon/Timberlake connection might be the best variety show duo since Sinatra and Martin.
• Jay Leno never did it for me...he kinda sucks.

The Leno sucks reason is definitely the stand-out explanation. I'm not saying it because I'm a die-hard Jimmy Fallon fan, I'm not. Leno's entire tenure on The Tonight Show was shrouded in mediocre-ness and shadiness. Here's some of The Chin's worst moves.

Week Sauce: Year End Edition

Welcome to the year-end edition of Week Sauce (yeah, yeah...Year Sauce doesn't have a ring to it, so fuck what you think.)

2013 was not all good. A lot of people/things/events tried to ruin the year for all of us normal folk. This year-end list will expose the 10 most despicable people that tried their best to make a mockery of my intelligence. I decided against assigning each entity a ranking because, let's face it, shit is shit. In my book the number one piece of shit is no worse than the number 10.

Before we get started, I know some of you will call me a "hater" or question my sense of humor, and to that I say you can get the dilz. 

Let's get started, shall we.

November Misses

Good afternoon, people. It is once again that time to show you the music you may have missed out on in November. Considering there were only 3 posts last month (one of them being October Misses), its safe to say we missed everything.

In my defense, there were only a total of 10 songs that were bookmarked for the list, so it was a slow music month. Like them or not, here are the 10 best misses from the previous month. You're welcome.

31(ish) Horror Films in 31 Days: Day 1 - American Mary

Well, it's October. My favorite month of all the months. The leaves are donning their Autumnal outfits and preparing for their annual decent into oneness with Earth. The fall/winter clothes get taken out and the summer clothes get pushed toward the back of the drawer to begin their much-deserved peaceful slumber after another job well done. Halloween decorations are put out, whole aisles at department stores take on a black-ish\orange-ish glow and are constantly spilling over with laughing children...and I vow to only watch films containing blood, guts, axes, murder, dismemberment, mutilation, disembowelment, machetes, bare-handed strangulation, impalement, stoning, stabbing, chainsaws, demons, monsters, witches, werewolves and zombies. No wait...FUCK zombies. I'm so sick of god damn zombies already. That fad needs to die and NOT come back!

Moving on...

I hereby begin my first annual "31(ish) Horror Films in 31 Days* - Where I watch and Review One(ish) Horror Film a Day(ish) For 31 Days (excluding zombie films...because fuck zombies...)!"

Daily Throwback: Talib Kweli ft. Mos Def, Jay Z, Busta Rhymes, & Kanye West - Get By (Remix)

Since it is Sunday morning, it looks like the Shuffle God decided to hit us with a little bit of inspiration. This song was bananas, it almost made me "quit smokin' and quit drinkin'"...almost. The line-up to this remix is bonkers! We got five very legendary, very distinct, and very diverse sounds homogenizing on a beautiful Nina Simone sample. Coach K and Team USA couldn't give you a better starting 5. You're welcome.

 

Daily Throwback: Kanye West ft. GLC & Consequence - Spaceship

The Shuffle God feels my sorrow for having to work this gloomy Saturday morning, and hits us with a pre-Kardashian jam from Kanye. Spaceship beautifully describes one's thought process of grinding everyday at a 9 to 5 gig, and having bigger ambitions.  I am definitely still waiting for my spaceship.  You're welcome.

Kanye West Debuts "New Slaves" Song In Grand Fashion

Say what you want about Mr. West, but the man knows how to make an entrance. Who else would think to debut their new song by projecting a video on 66 building fronts throughout 10 different cities worldwide (Chicago, Toronto, Sydney, Paris, Berlin, London, New York, Miami, Los Angeles, & San Francisco)? The Louis Vuitton Don, that's who.

I'm speechless.  How are people supposed to top that?  Bringing a new track for Funkmaster Flex to drop a bomb on Hot 97 is no longer enough.  I now fear for my safety, rappers are going to be pulling crazy stunts to try and top 'Ye.  Jay-Z will have to debut on the moon next time.  He got in trouble for going to Cuba, what are they going to say when he goes to the moon?

Attention all rappers all music artist, fire your street teams...immediately.  Your promotional plan already sucks. From what I hear of the song, it seems politically charged and socially driven.  It sounds like Kanye is continuing his metamorphosis into Miles Davis and this album might be his Bitches' Brew. Below is a video of one of the New Slaves debuts that took place in Brooklyn. There are a few more presentations of the video tonight in Chicago. If you're interested, you can go to the official Kanye West website and get the locations and times.  You're welcome.

Daily Throwback: Kid Cudi ft. Kanye West & Common - I Make Her Say

Good morning and happy Monday.  Today, the Shuffle God presents us with the only song that I find Lady Gaga's voice tolerable.  This song was in constant rotation in my car the summer it came out, and after today it could easily find its way back.  Enjoy.  Week Sauce will be coming today, and maybe another Just Sayin'. You're welcome.

Preach: Relevancy

So, by now, many of you have heard the new Ray J song or either heard about it.  For those that have no idea what I'm talking about, Ray J (yes, Brandy's brother) has released a song called I Hit It First.  Judging from the single artwork (seen above),  the "it" Ray J is referring to is Kim Kardashian's vagina.  Some make look at this move as bold, I see it as desperate.

Who is really checking for Ray J nowadays?  Nobody.  So, how else can Ray create a buzz in an industry he never really conquered in the first place? Controversy, that's how, or as I like to call it, the "50 Cent Method."

Sure, Ray J got the buzz he wanted, but the two people that should care (Kanye and Kim) aren't listening.  Yes, Ray, chronologically, you did hit "it" first, but I really don't think Kim is holding a place in your heart for you, considering she has moved on several times since your little video.

This whole publicity stunt is L-A-M-E lame if you ask me.  Maybe if Ray J was more relevant, I wouldn't yawn as much.  I mean, c'mon, you're Ray J.  I'm sure any chick that you have hit since then has someone that has "hit it first."  Kris Humphries is trying to erase this chapter from his live, and it seems to be the only thing you got.

I understand though, one can only go so far as Floyd Mayweather's personal piano man, but let it go already.    The worst part of this ordeal is that the song is straight garbage...horrible.  I would be able take you somewhat seriously if song was somewhat catch or listenable, but it is not.  Ders from Workaholics makes better songs than you.

What are you going to do in about a week when neither Kanye or Kim respond to this infantile attempt to gain exposure?  You hooked up with a not yet famous Kardashian, take it for what it's worth and move on.  She has since upgraded from you, and I'm guessing (from the fact that she is still on your mind) that you have only downgraded.

If you are truly a musician, please concentrate on the music and less on the drama.  The song sucks, the story is old, grow up already.  You're welcome.

Justin Timberlake – The 20/20 Experience (Album Stream)

With only 8 days left until the release of one of the most highly anticipated albums of the year, JT hits us with an audio stream of The 20/20 Experience.  The stream is hosted by iTunes, and so far we seem to be free of a rant via Kanye.  You're welcome.

Justin Timberlake - The 20/20 Experience (Album Stream)