From the upcoming album by Kanye West (Graduation), Bittersweet is the first track released.

[youtube n_z-shZL1KU Kanye West and John Mayer recording Bittersweet]

John Mayer has a great sense of humor in this vid… Ye can do nothing but smile…

If you have a description on your website that states:

Rap Hip Hop Samples – Free hip hop drums loops kits, beats, instrumentals, original samples, breaks, samplers, crate digging, Reason, Fruity Loops

… Then every music lover’s attention is drawn.

I received note from the owner of cratekings.com : DJ Semantik (my apologies for the late mention!) and I must say that this online resource of hiphop goodies is a pleasure for eye, ear and soul!

For me this site gives splendid insight in what happens behind the curtain at some very hot producers’ studios.
Watching and reading how certain beats and loops are being created generates a lot of extra appreciation for what these people do.

Example of a nice post is “J Dilla Interview: Beats, MC’ing & Style“, where J Dilla (R.I.P., you were a genius Jay and your death is a terrible loss) teaches some nice lessons. Or the post were Kanye West shows what happens in the studio.

See for yourself: Visit CRATEKINGS and show some love!

Grammy Awards coming up: 8 nods for Mariah Carey, kanYe West & John Legend…

Seems that the rumours are getting stronger and stronger…

- Jay-Z might announce a new album where he teams up with Nas
- kanYe West would be the executive producer
- This might even be the hot rumoured come-back album for Jay-Z

Rumours, rumours… what can we say? let us wait and see…

Any additional gossip on this?

For some people it was a bummer, for some just what they expected and for some it was big news. With the presentation of the 5th gen iPods with video capabilities, the new iMacs with built-in iSight and FrontRow, and the new iTunes library, Apple re-secured their leading position.

It seems that with the tremendous sales of iPods over the last years, Steve really said it right: “It’s all about the music!”. For Apple, their growing market, not only in iPods and iTunes but also in their computerhardware, has got its enormous boost through a carrier that is music.

And lately, with performances and appearances for Apple of kanYe West, Madonna, U2, John Mayer and others, the reverse contributes too. Apple definitely knows how to market their products, whether this is directly or indirectly.

Music simply says it all… and more.

An impressive list this year for the VH1′s HipHop Honors 2005…
Not only the artist to be honoured, but also the artists that will perform to honour them.

Honorees: Notorious B.I.G., LL Cool J, Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, Ice-T, Salt-N-Peppa, Big Daddy Kane and (the movie) Boyz ‘n the Hood.

The planned performances by kanYe West, Snoop Dogg, Eve, Nelly, Common, Jazzy Jeff and Missy Elliot will be aired September 26th. Legendary sh*t in the remake…

The Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds” with acapellas and instumentals from kanYe West tracks… not bad at all…

Kanye’s quote has been remix already… Read this article and listen for yourself

Yeah, no need to mention it anymore, kanYe is in the spotlight.

Funny to see that my little remark on all the attention he gets for speaking out ["George Bush Doesn’t Care About Black People…"], had been picked up on another weblog and just has been firmed by this news on SOHH…

Album sales rise skyhigh… Hope that he will make a nice gesture towards the Katrina victims

Man, kanYe West knows how to draw attention… right after his release of Late Registration, at the NBC fundraising concert special he took the opportunity, skipped the text from the teleporter and went political at Bush. So extra discussions, which means some extra promo for Mr. West… so probably some extra attention to his latest album.

Long awaited, the follow-up of his smash debut album The College Drop-out is flying off the shelves.

Bought it myself on its release date, it has been on repeat on my iPod for some days now…
I must say. It is quite solid. It is catchy, it has some jewels of songs… rocs…

He does his thing again: Hooks from great “old” songs by big names (Bill Withers, Shirley Bassey, Curtis Mayfield) settled in well-flowing tracks, together with contradictional and conscious lyrics. And that, although not new, he does well. For some reason I can accept what he does, but still I wonder why he is hitchhiking on great artists while he appearantly has the talents to create his own stuff. That makes it somehow cheap.
In sound, it has improved and there are some sounds that needed some re-hearing before I could appreciate them. The synthesizer-like sounds. Considering the orchestration, using the string ensemble instead of Miri-Ben Ari is a big improvement (no diss). Instead of a raw sound it has created three very solid and profound tracks (‘Bring Me Down’,'Gone’ and ‘Celebration’).
His flow definitely improved, him trying to make some social and political points can only be appreciated, and then the co-ops he has on this album…

Though not in the same song, having Jay-Z and Nas on one and the same album, is quite an achievement. The list of the others is quite something: Brandy, Consequence, Cam’ron, Really Doe, Game, Keyshia Cole, John Legend, Lupe Fiasco, Jamie Foxx (the Ray-Incarnation), Paul Wall, GLC, Common and quite special for this album: Maroon5′s Adam Levine.

In all the commotion around his personality, I still think that although he might pipe down a little, kanYe is following the path he is paving himself and bloathing about… and in a way, that deserves some respect.

I sincerely hope that he starts creating more “own” music, if he succeeds in that, then he might come close to being as big as he says he is.