Tito and Barry Live! #17 9/13/12

I can't believe it took us this long, but we're back. With the combination of Barry being in LA and me too loyal to do a show on my own, it took Tito and Barry Live! three whole months to get back on the air. As usual, we titillate your eardrums with sports, music, social talk, and another special guest, Barry's neighbor, Pauly Deps. So sit back, relax, kick off your shoes, crack a couple frosties, and enjoy the ride.

G.O.O.D. Music's Cruel Summer Preview

My God.  In just seven short days, the wait will be over.  It is safe to say, other than the Season Five premiere of Sons of Anarchy tonight at 10 PM on FX (program plug!), this is the most excited I have been all summer.  Why, do you ask?  On September 18th, music fans will be able to go onto their iTunes account and purchase Kanye West's debut record label collaboration album, Cruel Summer.

For those who do not know, G.O.O.D. Music Record Label (Def Jam subdivision) was founded in 2004 and has had Yeezy as its captain since the inception.  John Legend's Get Lifted and Common's Be were the first two releases and since those albums dropped, G.O.O.D. Music has seen releases from both Man on the Moon I & II by Kid Cudi, among other up and coming artists.  However, other than the label serving it's purpose as a platform for new hip-hop artists, Ye has taken this shit to the next level the last couple of years, signing artists and starting talks of a collaboration album.

Like I said, Common had been around since '04 and Cudi signed in 2007.  These weren't big surprises, however, because Yeezy and Common are Chi-Town tight and Cudi is the protege to Kanye that Eminem was to Dre.  But when Pusha-T (of Clipse) signed along in 2010, Big Sean's Finally Famous was released a year later, and artists such as Raekwon, RZA, John Legend, Pusha-T, and others were scattered throughout Kanye's jaw-dropping My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, it looked as if Kanye was looking to go from G.O.O.D. to great with his still relatively small record label.

Well, leave it to Kanye to stay relevant throughout the entire summer.  With his creation of G.O.O.D. Fridays, basically a new song was released every Friday for several weeks, Pusha-T's feverish promotion of the record label collaboration album in live concerts and his two mixtapes, and three key album singles ("Mercy," "New God Flow," and "Don't Like"), Cruel Summer, in my opinion, has to be one of the most highly anticipated album releases in recent memory.  Ever?  No.  It can't top hip-hop blockbusters such as The Chronic or The Marshall Mathers LP or The Carter III because this isn't just one artist putting their face on a release; it's a collaboration.  That would be like saying an All-Star team was the greatest ever assembled when comparing it to regular organizations.  However, why is it so highly anticipated and why will it be so critically acclaimed?

Because Kanye West isn't skateboarding.  And that is the truth.  Well, that and Yeezy is putting his support around a different style.  Whereas I would have thought Lil Wayne would have gone out and contacted Pusha-T in 2008, he found Drake.  And where Weezy started talking his rhymes with Rick Ross rather than flowing them, Yeezy has been able to transform words to rhyme in and out of each other (go and listen to the first verse in the song "Dark Fantasy" to see what I am talking about).  To be frank, Kanye West stuck to hip-hop and Weezy went pop-rock for an album, ended up in jail, and still can't skate.

My excitement for this album does not stem from wanting to hear a new artist, I have a pretty good track record with each one of them.  What I can't wait for, though, is to see how Raekwon vibes off of Push or how smooth John Legend and Teyana Taylor harmonize together.  Cudi has gotten experimental with the WZRD drop, but the early samples of him on Cruel Summer sound like return to old form Cudi, which helped us all get laid at some point.  Simply put, I believe Cruel Summer has so much potential to thrive because it is something so new.  New artists performing together over new production, that is what it is all about.  So, let's throw out of Trukfit belts and yellow neon pants and look forward to hip-hop artists do what they do best, rap and get crazy.  Because after all, you do not sign Pusha-T to your record label to expect to have a mellow night.  Ever.

If you don't think my words did justice to the excitement, check out one of the three promotional releases for Cruel Summer, "Don't Like."  Basically, it is a song about shit people don't like and... well, I've said too much.  Enjoy.