TylerMilan

TheWeeknd//THURSDAY

Roderick — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 04:53:47 +0000

So this mix tape dropped a couple of thursdays ago now (it’s saturday here in japan), but i’m gonna post it anyways…
Last March, TheWeeknd (either one guy – Abel Tesfaye, or a three man collective including two producers), hailing from T-dot released their debut mix tape HOUSE OF BALLOONS on their website for free… 6 months later, it’s a contender for album of the year, and TheWeeknd is not even signed to a label.
THURSDAY was unleashed in August, also on their website and features 9 more songs to zone out to.
this mix tape also features fellow Toronto star Drake on one cut.
Download the album by clicking on the cover at the top of the post.
Also, here’s a review, and check the links below to learn more about WEEKND…OVOXO

The Weeknd plays a bit like a Bret Easton Ellis novel reads, giving off a feeling that’s somewhere between hopelessness and apathy. Dealing with essentially the same ideas that appeared on their previous album (drug-abuse, jarring lust, lack of conscience, etc.), Thursday almost dares your dark side to indulge in its beautiful bleakness in an “I can’t believe you’re enjoying this, you twisted bastard” sort of way. Look no further than this line from the slow-burning “The Zone”: “So let me sip this slow/I’ll give you what you called for/just let me get in my zone/I’ll be making love to her through you/so let me keep my eyes closed.”
It’s that raw numbness toward such thematic elements that makes this album and its precursor so utterly enthralling. By way of nature, we as human beings tend to be fascinated with the forbidden and the gluttonous. So, when it’s presented in such a pretty, little package, it’s almost impossible to resist. That isn’t to say this album is a complete success; it has its minor pitfalls here and there, but they’re all in places that are obviously trying to compensate for the immense amount of shock value that this album would never have access to when compared to its jaw-dropping, straight-out-of-left-field predecessor, House of Balloons.

For instance, the quality of the production on this album is unmatched compared to that of HoB, paying an inordinate amount of attention to every detail of every bar of every song. Abel Tesfaye (aka The Weeknd) takes a backseat to the production at times, which is a well-intended move that actually works in a few select places but ultimately acts as a curse. One begins to come to the realization that maybe Tesfaye should never take a backseat to anything or anyone. His voice is far too good to be downplayed by musicianship, or anything else for that matter (not even a superb appearance by Weeknd fanboy Drake), and the fact that his voice is not the centerpiece of this album is the only reason Thursday will never be the album its elder brother was.

It’s not all bad news, though, and the album is a success by and large. When the tight production and the sheer talent of Tesfaye meet in the middle (“Life of the Party”, “The Zone”, “Gone”), it creates a new kind of bliss, one that was absent on the previous album. This is probably exactly what they were going for, overall. Rather than cranking out the same album again, they experimented sonically, which is both admirable and somewhat effective. But the absolute best moments on the album remain the moments when The Weeknd stops the show with his impeccable vocals. The amount of control this kid has over his voice is no joke. He has mastered his upper register to the point of perfection; all the way to the point that when he pushes it to the limit, it’s all eyes on Abel, no-holds-barred. When he dabbles in his falsetto during the conclusion of “The Birds Part 1”, he creates possibly the most captivating 35 seconds in music this calendar year.

Yet, despite the ridiculously high highs of this album, it fails to maintain a great pace throughout. It struggles back and forth between “good” and “great,” whereas its foregoer grabbed “great” by the balls on the first track and never let go. Regardless, the album is incredibly solid and even more successful when viewed in perspective. It received an estimated 180,000 downloads on its first day of being posted. Obviously, that is obscene for a self-released effort. It’s far from mere happenstance, though. Whether it’s his being in the right place at the right time (this year did begin as the year of James Blake and his post-dubstep cronies), or whether this kid has the sheer talent to bolster those kind of numbers is yet to be proven, but I submit that it’s a combination of the two, more so the latter. I guess we’ll all find out when the third and final part of the trilogy, Echoes of Silence, drops sometime this fall. Until then, we’ll all stay confusedly mesmerized with the enigmatic music box that is The Weeknd.
TheWeeknd links — website, tumblr, twitter and facebook
here’s my fave track on the project — ROLLING STONE

BONUS!!! download the chopped & screwed mix tape here ——>> CHOPPED UP NOT SLOPPED UP

BlackRain

Roderick — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 06:21:13 +0000

般若 dropped his 6th album last week…6(!!), that’s amazing in any genre, to make it to that amount of records and still have a large following is something I can def. tip my hat to.
Dude commands much respect in the Japanese hiphop world, and his latest album is earning rave reviews, most ranking it above his last two LPs.
I produced 境界線～ライン～ , which means Borderline in English.
check it out here…

I placed a track on his ’09 release HANNYA (ボタンひとつ) and he called me back to contribute to this one.
Album is out now, support the music!!

NokoIsland Sunsplash 2011 – part 2

Roderick — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 20:31:58 +0000

So May came and went, the festival’s organizers stated “come rain or shine” aaannnndd…yes the concert happened

Unfortunately, as I am halfway across the world in Chile right now, I wasn’t able to make it but MOMO did perform a ‘cool’ live version of our song together ONE LOVE backed by Kyushu reggae band NoBrand.

Jay Gutta was also there, check the full performance video at the bottom. He is back stateside touring the country as part of the StayTooned Ent. collective (which feats. Rap Legend DruDown!!)

for more on MOMO, check out her site – raggapinkmomo.com
for more on Jay Gutta and StayTooned check out – staytoonedent.com
and for official pics of the 2011 sunsplash event, keep checking their homepage at – nokoisland.com, it should be updated shortly.

Music Spotlight – J NOLAN

Roderick — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 15:31:46 +0000

Something different for a change, check out 22 yr. old MC J Nolan out of Atlanta bringing a different type of hiphop vibe for the region. He just realeased his new single MORE TO COME (produced by BLIZZ CARTEL) off his forthcoming album CHAOS THEORY.

check it out, and if u like what you hear – download link below, as well as more info on how to get in contact, or basically start following his music.
Respect to independent artists making things happen for themselves.
download MORE TO COME by clicking on the cover .

http://twitter.com/J_Nolan
http://facebook.com/jnolaniscool
jnolaniscool.bandcamp.com
BIO
JAMAR NOLAN…The name that was given to me on March 20th, 1989 in New Haven, Connecticut. Some may recognize 3/20 as the equinox of our yearly season called Spring, hence the ability to shed light. Not known for many words, I prefer the universal language of music in order to resonate a voice that would otherwise be unheard in a world filled with people screaming for attention. The music of choice? HIP-HOP. I’ve been actively writing music for 8 years and began recording in 2005. I spent a few years of my youth in the bay area of California. I’ve lived in Atlanta, Georgia for the past 10 years and can honestly say that each location and culture have influenced me and shaped who I am today. J.Nolan, no more and no less. Hopefully you enjoy what it is I have to offer as a musician. If not, listen to the music again and see if you can deny it twice. If so, thank you very much for taking a chance. You will hear from me again…and soon! I plan to take this music as far as possible, wherever that may lead. Along the way, I encourage literacy and self-respect.

Tyler The Creator ft. Frank Ocean//SHE & why this blog is called TylerMilan

Roderick — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 01:04:57 +0000

OK, I’m doing this post because I noticed a lot of traffic coming through based off people doing searches on “Tyler the Creator”, or “Tyler the Creator Milan”.
I assume most of em are looking for this video?? so here is SHE, Tyler’s latest vid ft. Frank Ocean.

Also, the name TylerMilan.com comes from both my kids’ middle names. ******* Tyler and **** Milan. So there IS some reasoning behind it…

Boon5

Roderick — Tue, 31 May 2011 12:18:06 +0000

please take a few minutes to check out this cool new initiative.
On boon5 you can buy & sell micro-services called Tasks for €5. The seller keeps €3, the charity they choose to support receives €1 and the remaining €1 goes to boon5 for operating costs and PayPal fees. Whether buying or selling, everyone’s winning! boon5 is launching with 5 charities, and, as the community grows, so will the fundraisers it supports. Submit your email now, stay informed and join this fun and meaningful community!

Welcome to boon5.com from boon5 on Vimeo.

WHERE SMALL TASKS MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE
boon5.com
Stay Tuned for Boon5 updates…

Reggae SunSplash 2011

Roderick — Tue, 17 May 2011 20:27:41 +0000

Here we go again…
so i enthusiastically blogged about this last year…then the event was rained out
Here’s hoping this year won’t yield the same result…:-)
So MOMO, a Japanese Pop/Reggae songstress that I worked with is inching ever closer to releasing her sophomore album.
She’s been making the promo rounds lately, w/ radio appearances and shows all leading up to the album release later this year.
Sunsplash is an annual event on Noko Island in southern Japan (far away from all the Nuclear nonsense), this year it takes place on Sunday, May 22nd starting at noon and lasting thru the night…go check it out…she’ll be performing music I made!!

For info on it go to nokoisland.com, you can see who else is performing, ticket info, etc…

raggapinkmomo.com
nokoisland.com

FrankOcean – Nostalgia,ULTRA

Roderick — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 03:24:59 +0000

Here’s another “tape” that’s been in constant rotation since it dropped a little over a month ago. While I’m not too familiar with the rest of OddFutureWolfGangKillThemAll..or..OFWGKTA for simple, outside of Tyler, The Creator – Frank Ocean, the artist formerly known as Lonny Breaux has made me a fan and curious about the rest of their work.

The Crescent City native who calls BeverlyHills his home has been living off of his Songwriting for a while now, writing for artists such as Justin Bieber, John Legend and Brandy, to name a few.
DefJam signed him as an artist a while back, but didn’t know what to do with the album. Mad at the establishment, he just posted his album as a free download on his tumblr. The rest is history (in the making). He said he’s prepping a followup album for a ‘possible’ release later this year.
My current fave on the album is SwimGood

Click on the album front cover at the top of the post to download, otherwise on the back cover below.

frankocean.tumblr.com
twitter.com/frankocean
facebook.com/frankocean

TheWeeknd – HouseOfBalloons

Roderick — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 02:01:55 +0000

This is a “tape” I been listening to a lot since it came out late last month.
TheWeeknd.
Who: The 20-year-old singer-songwriter (real name: Abel Tesfaye) from Toronto is on the forefront of an idiosyncratic new cut of R&B. Thanks in part to support from fellow Toronto native Drake, he’s been in heavy rotation since the March 21st release of his mixtape debut House of Balloons.

here’s a review from RollingStone:
Sounds Like: The Weeknd layers House of Balloons with samples (Siouxsie and the Banshees’s 1980 “Happy House,” Beach House‘s 2006 “Master of None”), electronic synths and hip-hop references, accompanied by Frank Ocean from Odd Future and How To Dress Well. There are also traces of The-Dream, Drake and Aaliyah throughout.

Girls, Girls, Girls: With its late-Nineties Timbaland feel (listen to Missy Elliott’s “Friendly Skies”), “What You Need” is the most seductive song on the mixtape. It opens with, “baby, now hold me close” – a line from Aaliyah’s 2001 “Rock the Boat.” The Weeknd proceeds to lure, singing, “I’m going to give you what you feign / I’m the drug in your veins / Just fight through your pain / He’s what you want / I’m what you need.” But on many of Balloons’ tracks The Weeknd entices and explores women, what they bring and what they leave. He sings of women that long to be held and women he longs to hold – but they never seem to be one and the same.

Famous Friends: Chaos erupted on March 6th when Drake tweeted a line from The Weeknd’s “Wicked Game” and linked to the song on his site, October’s Very Own. Ever since, Drake’s been sporadically tweeting lyrics from House of Balloons – which makes sense, since The Weeknd is almost like an emotionally magnified version of Drake. That said, The Weeknd quickly shot down rumors that producer who works close to Drake, Noah “40″ Shebib, worked on House of Balloons: “40 did not produce anything on this tape… Shout outs to 40 though!”, he wrote on Twitter. And although rumors still circulate, The Weeknd is not signed to a label, as he alludes to on the track “Loft Music”: “I’m raw motherfucker, I’m raw,” he sings.

You can download the mixtape/album by clicking on the album pic above, or visit his site.
The-Weeknd.com
Twitter.com/theweeknd
Facebook.com/theweeknd
right now The Morning gets the most spins for me

and another review:
The Weeknd arrived as if out of nowhere, with no tags or bio attached to them–a mysterious R&B group that we knew were from Toronto and, judging from Abel Tesfaye’s self-detesting, melancholic lyrics, we could assume were getting over recent heartbreak. Thanks to Toronto’s biggest sensation, Drake, who posted a few of their tracks on his OVO blog, the Weeknd exploded into the blogosphere, garnering the respect of self-indulgent hipsters, mainstream R&B fanatics, and indie kids alike. It’s rare for the r&b genre to be labeled unique or unorthodox these days, unless you’re How to Dress Well, but with the Weeknd’s debut mixtape, House of Balloons, they bring to the table the most interesting, depressing, and drug-infested R&B record in years.

The Weeknd’s originality reaches far beyond the nature of their dope, electronically infused, bass-heavy beats, merging the hip-hop genre with the current sampling fixation that so many underground DJ’s employ these days, whether Hard Mix or James Blake. The spaced-out, heavy synthesizer resonance that Drake fixates on is there as well on tracks like “The Party and the After Party” and “The Morning”. Though the production from Don McKinney and Illangelo is sufficient enough to keep House of Balloons on repeat, it’s Tesfaye’s lyrics that help separate the Weeknd from other contemporary R&B outfits. The drug discourse is ample, with opener “High For This” introducing the party lifestyle Tesfaye partakes in and “House of Balloons – Glass Table Girls” referencing cocaine on oh so many occasions. What makes The Weeknd so painstakingly real are the issues Tesfaye is discussing here. He’s not praising drugs like so many other artists in his genre do; he’s telling us the opposing side that no one dares mention: the overdoses, the cravings, the gloomy emptiness that ensues.

Halfway through House of Balloons sits what most are referring to as the album’s centerpiece, the hard-hitting “Wicked Games”; this song alone is worthy of making you feel remorseful. “Bring the love baby, I can bring the shame/Bring the drugs baby, I can bring the pain.” Tesfaye is aching for love here, even if it isn’t real love, and that takes a lot of guts to proclaim for someone who’s so new to the music scene. In an R&B market that is overly generic and dull, The Weeknd have brought something much more, something much needed: something real. Kudos.

Pusha T – Fear Of God

Roderick — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 12:13:35 +0000

Yeah, I’m a little late with this but real life has a way of getting in the way of e-life.
Pusha T, aka Terrar, aka Terrance Thornton (of the Clipse) released his first official mixtape last week, and it gives most ‘real’ albums a run for their money.
As a solo artist, Pusha is currently signed to Kanye west’s GOOD MUSIC imprint, the official solo debut should be in stores later this year.
My faves right off the bat are MY GOD prod. by Hit-Boy from SurfClub and RAID prod by the Neptunes (originally a 2007 50 Cent song).
Here’s the tracklist and download links –

Pusha T. – Fear Of God (2011)
01 – Intro
02 – My God (Hitboy)
03 – I Still Wanna feat. Rick Ross & Ab Liva (The Inkredibles)
04 – Money On My Mind (Freestyle)
05 – Feeling Myself feat. Kevin Cossom (Tha Bizness)
06 – Blow (Producer Unknown But I Am Looking For U)
07 – Cook It Down (Freestyle)
08 – Open Your Eyes (Nottz)
09 – Can I Live (Freestyle)
10 – Raid feat. Pharrell & 50 Cent (The Neptunes)
11 – Touch It feat. (Kanye West)
12 – Speakers Going Hammer (Freestyle)
13 – Alone In Vegas (Outro) (Nottz)

http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/theme/fearofgod/159

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=RFDDXNLU

not mush more to be said but if you like the above, make sure to go search for his mixtapes with his brother MALICE – the Re-Up gang’s WE GOT IT FOR CHEAP series, and then PAY to download the three damn near classic CLIPSE albums on iTunes – LORD WILLIN, HELL HATH NO FURY and TIL THE CASKET DROPS