My Top 10 Most Replayed Songs of 2018 (According to My iTunes)

"Because Repetition is the Father of Learning" - Lil Wayne

The Mere Exposure Effect

According to Science, the more you see or hear something, the more you like it. 

This explains a lot of things...

like why the radio plays the same 3 songs over and over again. Or why people are comfortable listening to the same songs and same handful of artists.

Don't just take my words for it, check out these memes:

March Madness Day 17: Drake Madness

3 of Drake's project (from top to bottom; Drake's "Take Care", Drake's "If You're Reading This It's Too Late" and Drake's "Nothing Was The Same")

Went in full Drake mode this week. I wanted perspective on him as an artist.

• Drake - Take Care

Cover art for Drake's "Take Care"

 I can see how this can easily be regarded as his best work. Take Care works as a better Views. Showcasing all sides of Drake but just in a better way. The songs hit harder, the production is more lush and the intimate moments are *really* intimate in comparison to "Views". Personally, this project has too many tracks for my taste. It just gets boring to me after the second half of the project (With the exception of "Lord Knows") I know a Drake fan is reading and is vehemently disagreeing just know that I never was a big Drake fan to begin with, I still have a few songs from this album in regular rotation till this day. I remember some reviewer saying "Take Care" would make an excellent EP and I couldn't agree more, if Drake kept the track listing to 12-14 tracks than Take Care would've been something truly special to me. But for right now, I don't care for it as much as others do.

March Madness Day 16: Beyoncé, Earl Sweatshirt, Drake & Apollo Brown

4 projects that I gave my thoughts on. (From left to right, clockwise: Beyoncé's 'Lemonade', Earl Sweatshirt's "I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside", Apollo Brown's "Clouds" and Drake's "So Far Gone")

QUICK THOUGHTS:

• Beyoncé - Lemonade

Cover art for Beyoncé's "Lemonade"

 It's diverse yet somehow really cohesive and not too long, I appreciate the instrumentals on this album more than Beyoncé actually. I love the production on songs like "Hold Up" "Formation" and "Daddy Lessons". While I'm not exactly sure what makes this project as a whole SO GREAT like people are claiming, I will say "Sandcastles" is the most raw I've ever heard Beyoncé every time she sings

"Bitch, I scratched out your name and your face"

"What is it about you that I can't erase, baby?"

That shit physically hits me, like its impossible to not feel the pain in her voice. So, while I'm not in love with every single song on here. I will say "Sandcastles" is a worthy 10/10 and one of the best songs this year. But the other songs are just ok to me. I love the production though but Beyoncé herself I just don't care for. Sorry Beyhive lol.

March Madness Day 13: Drake - Views

Cover Art for Drake's "Views" Album

Drake. You know who he is, I know who he is, he needs no introduction.

Lets’s get straight to it…

1. Keep the Family Close 

March Madness Day 4: Drake - Scary Hours EP

Cover art for Drake's "Scary Hours" (obviously edited by me, Joseph Sanker II)

On January 19th, 2018, legendary Chicago drill rapper, Fredo Santana passed away due to his heavy use of codeine. In addition to this devastating loss in the hip hop world, the United States government had also shutdown due to...well...lot's of things, but let's just say January 19th, 2018 wasn't a good news day (When is it ever a good news day?). 

However, on January 19th, 2018, Drake also reappeared in the public eye with the conveniently titled "Scary Hours" his first official project since 2017's "More Life" (which I did, in fact, review) and it seemed like Drake's timing with new music, along with the title of "Scary Hours" was almost more than coincidental, but then again, I'm never the one for conspiracy theories, but if I were, I'm 100% artists in the industry have done crazier things in the past, this is just a drop in the bucket I'm sure.

Enough of that though. With his new EP "Scary Hours", Drake has returned to re-establish his reign as "that guy" in hip hop. You know, the chart topper, hook singer, "guy you hear constantly on the radio", billboard mainstay, apple music stream record breaker...you know, the guy who turns out hits like pimps turn out hoes on the strip.

And to think, he re-establishes his dominance with only two songs and today, it's going to be talked about...

My Top 17 Favorite Guest Verses of 2017

Yes, 2017 is done and in the books. Now, that it's 2018, let's approach 2018, butt-first by looking back at the best of 2017. I know this is way later than the usual publications who publish their end of the year lists as early as the first week of December (which, I get why, but if you have major music releases coming out near the end of the year, why in the world would you snub those releases just to salvage a few extra clicks? I guess capitalism is a MF huh, gotta get that money.)

Anyway, today we'll be looking at the best "Guest Verses of 2017" where I'll be examining which rapper (or singer) came onto another artist's track and absolutely stole the show (not in a competition aspect but more in a "hey, this artist is really having a moment right now, and it so happened to be on another musician's song).

Drake - More Life: My track by track review

Cover Art for "More Life"

Drake. Does this man even need an introduction at this point? Even if you've been marginally aware of popular music in the past 7 years, then you have heard of this man before. To put in perspective how famous this man is, even my 74 year old grandmother knows who he is. Now, you may be saying "Well, just because she's older, doesn't mean she can't keep up with the times!" and if you are saying that, you have to understand something. My grandmother comes from a 3rd world country called "Belize" (as does the rest of my family), she spends the majority of her days cooking food, looking after kids, and watching movies on the lifetime television network. The closest she gets to current technology is the house phone and flip phone she uses when she's out and about. She is literally never near a radio, or watches anything related to what the current, popular music is on TV. Just lifetime network movies and cable news...and even still, a 74 year old immigrant from Belize knows who Drake is...