Am I the only one?

Am I the only one who thinks Mary J. Blige gets better with age? I mean, hot damn woman! I saw her in concert on her Breakthrough tour and she's still got it goin' aounhn (on). She is in total control of that tremendous voice of hers and struts the stage like it's nobody's business. In all seriousness, I hope when I'm approaching 40, I look as good as homegirl does. Get 'em, MJB! Whenever this song comes on shuffle, I can't help but sing to it at the top of my lungs. It's a lesser-known track that was only released on her anthology album Reflections: A Retrospective, entitled "We Ride (I See the Future)." Get religion with this one!



Am I the only one who thinks we need to have a wave of females back in the game? And I'm not talking about the OG's (MC Lyte, Queen Latifah, Roxanne Shante, etc.) I'm talking about the Foxy's, the Kim's, the Rah Digga's, the Chuck B-More's. I really miss that rare breed of bad chicks that were down with the dudes and did their thing, respectively. Sure, there's Jean Grae, Invincible and Shawnna, but why aren't they bigger than they are? Is it because the hip-hop game just doesn't have a place for women? Why is this? I just wanted to touch on this topic, but please believe I will delve deeper when I don't have such a bad case of A.D.D. Here's another shuffler I can't seem to get enough of: Rah Digga's "Lesson of Today"



(I know I'm going to ruffle some feathers with this one but...)
Am I the only one who doesn't think Drake is the next best thing since sliced bread? Unless you've been living under a rock for the past couple of months, you've probably heard of Drake, or at least his current single, "Best I Ever Had."

Don't get me wrong, I think dude is aight; he definitely doesn't suck. I get it, he can sing (sans autotune - which is a feat on its own these days), he can rap, he's for the ladies (not too hard on the eyes, either). But is he the second coming of Christ as some make him out to be? Definitely not. He sounds like every other commercial rapper/singer out at the moment and to put it nicely, he's average.

Granted his album is not released yet, nor is he even signed to a label. I gave his current mixtape, So Far Gone, a couple listens and honestly, I'm not blown away. It's not all negativity though, I dug the samples of artists such as Lykke Li, Santogold, Peter, Bjorn & John and even the Isley Brothers' "Between the Sheets." (It's a nice way of showing diversity. [Read: diversity does not mean originality.]) However, his flow over them eerily resembles a mixture of Kanye & Lil' Wayne, the latter of which... well, if you listen to him for pleasure you should probably consider having your hearing checked.

On the track, "Uptown" it's actually hard for me to differentiate between Lil' Wayne & Drake. (That is, until I heard that infamous squeal of a voice that is Weezy.) Luckily for us, Bun B comes along and saves the day/song. I really enjoyed the integration of Lykke Li's "Little Bit" and PB&J's "Let's Call It Off" but mostly because they are a variation of the originals. I find it rather ironic on the track, "Brand New" he repeatedly asks, "Is anything I'm doing brand new?" over a dragging, snap beat. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but sorry Drake, the answer is no. I would have to say his most polished track is (not surprisingly) his lead single, "Best I Ever Had."

There have been rumors of Drake being signed to Weezy's label, Young Money Entertainment. However, in a recent Vibe interview, he seemed to be wooed by Interscope. I've also heard Atlantic & Motown can be thrown into the mix of labels scrapping over dude. Why? I can see he definitely has potential and, as a good friend and I were discussing today, his star quality is there. Maybe if he was rhyming over some Neptunes or Yeezy beats, it would be a different ball game all together. I just feel he lacks the originality, flow-wise and production-wise, that the industry so desperately needs. His debut should be dropping sometime this year entitled, Thank Me Later. I'll definitely give him a second chance once an official album drops, in hopes that it will be a little more cohesive, but until then, I'm reluctant to jump on the Drake bandwagon.