Tomorrow is the last day of the year 2009 and everywhere you look there is media telling you what the top 10 everything was. This song might not make any of those lists but it’s got that nice casual flow that Kid Cudi excels with. The Vampire Weekend instrumentals work really well too. Let’s hope no one’s New Year’s eve ends as abruptly as this song does.

Kid Cudi feat. Vampire Weekend – Cudderisback

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After a generously extended holiday break, this blog was reminded about the true meaning of Christmas via the excellent selection of Hip Hop featured on the Montreal CKUT program the Lion’s Den. For those of you in Montreal, you can find CKUT at 90.3 FM on the radio. For everyone else you can hear and download the archives of the show here. Some of my favorites from last week’s show included the track “I’m Ill” by Red Cafe feat. Fabulous and a Euphoria from Rakim. If either of these songs strikes you as an odd choice of soundtrack for the holidays, then you’ve already missed out on having a hip hop christmas or hanukkah but now you’re more than ready for 2010.

Red Cafe Feat. Fabolous – I’m Ill

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Rakim – Euphoria

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Chiddy Bang is making a lot of noise on the mixtape circuit with their newest tape The Swelly Express. This reboot of the Sufjan Stevens song Chicago is particularly indicative of the Philly hip hop group’s ability to produce more than just your typical hipster mashup. If this is the direction hip hop is moving in, we can all rest easily.

Chiddy Bang – All things go (w/ Sufjan Stevens)

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Good things always happen when Wale and Mark Ronson get together. Look for a post on the new Wale album “Attention Deficit” coming soon.

Wale – 90210

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Just a heads up that Gonzales will be performing this Saturday in Montreal at Excentris. For those who were at his last show at La Tulipe, it’s not a surprise that he’s playing a movie theater. For those who need a glimpse of the theatrics of a Gonzales show, check this ridiculous video of Feist and Gonzales doing a rap at Trash in London.

Get tickets here.

A week’s worth of listening to Kid Cudi’s new album Man on the Moon: The End of Day has been good to me. I’m not sure whether to call it hip hop or pop music and I expect the truth lies someplace in between. The mark of a great lasting album for me is oftentimes when I can’t remember any of the names of the songs. What I mean is that A) all the songs are really great B) it listens like an album not like 3 singles with filler material. The End of Day is like this. I had a lot of trouble choosing a few songs to post because they really need the full body of work to be appreciate. Up Up & Away I included specifically because it sounds more like a pop song than anything else. But it’s really catchy and I don’t feel too guilty enjoying it. There are also two songs featuring Ratatat, which standout with great production and instrumentals.

Kid Cudi – Alive [feat. Ratatat] (zshare)

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Kid Cudi – Up Up & Away (zshare)

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I was down in Boston a few weeks ago and there was an awkward moment involving Drake. I was riding around with a couple local Bostonians and the driver turned around and asked, “so being Canadian, you all must be into the Drake right?” We all gave him blank stares and he lost his shit. So let me update you on this so that it doesn’t happen you too.

If you ever watched Degrassi: The Next Generation you might remember him as Jimmy Brooks. If your like me and never watched that show, he’s a Canadian rapper / r&b artist making a lot of noise on Lil’ Wayne’s Young Money Records. I hesitate to call him rap as much as I do calling him r&b.

Suffice to say if you’re not into Kanye West and more particularly 808’s and heartbreak you probably won’t get into Drake. On his 2009 EP So Far Gone, he raps over songs from Peter, Bjorn and John, Santigold and Lykke Li. On the other hand his single from that album “Best I Ever Had” sounds like a straight up top 40’s radio hit. His first full length album is scheduled to come out in 2010 and is entitled Thank Me Later.

The track Forever has been getting a lot of attention lately, considering it is a rework of a mixtape song from last summer. It features Drake along with Kanye West, Lil’ Wayne and Eminem. This much hip hop star power could only the be result of something like…a Lebron James documentary! It’s called More Than a Game. The song itself pretty formulaic but I thought it was worth mentioning anyways.

Drake – Ignant Shit [feat. Lil' Wayne] (zshare)

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Drake – Unstoppable [feat. Santogold] (zshare)

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We’ve been waiting for a new Wale mixtape since his last “Mixtape about nothing”, the beautiful Seinfeld homage. Back to the feature is out, once again in collaboration with a clothing company, this time LRG. The tracks are pretty great, and it’s free. Get it on his myspace, or here.

The tape is predominately produced by 9th wonder and features collabs with Peter, Bjorn and John, Talib Kweli, Memphis Bleek, Young Chris, Freeway and even Lady Gaga.

Wale – New Soul [Feat. Yael Naim] (zshare)

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Wale – Life’s a Bitch [Feat. Talib Kweli & Joell Ortiz] (zshare)

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Illustrator: Alex Davis

For many people, the very mention of a concept album will have them rolling their eyes. Visions of a generation of Dad’s and their teen sons who have fetishized albums like The Dark Side of the Moon ad nauseam dance in the head. It is understandably tempting to write off the concept album as nothing more than a vehicle to chauffeur the egos of the Abbey Road greats. Often thought of as the polar opposite to rock, hip hop music has historically been ingested on a song-by-song basis. But the hip hop concept album is alive and well. It has been lurking in the annals of the genre’s short history, only making the briefest of appearances in the mainstream and seldom getting its due.

To read the full feature I wrote for Snap Magazine, click here.

Here are some tracks from the albums I talk about in the story.

Deltron 3030 – Madness (zshare)

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Handsome Boy Modeling School – If It Wasn’t For You (zshare)

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Prince Paul – More Than U Know [Feat. De La Soul] (zshare)

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Last week Mos Def released a new album called The Ecstatic which features collabs with black star alum Talib Kweli as well as Slick Rick himself. On my first few listens I was pleased to see that Mos Def is still having fun being himself. If you didn’t already know he’ll be playing Montreal for the Jazz festival on July 10th at Théâtre Maisonneuve. He`s playing with hip hop influenced jazz pianist Robert Glasper and you can get tickets here.

Mos Def – History [Feat. Talib Kweli] (zshare)

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Mos Def – Auditorium [Feat. Slick Rick] (zshare)

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