Stickying this, good idea.
Little disappointed thus far in the new Kidz in the Hall CD. Have to listen to it 3-5 times before I make an official judgement, though.
I'm really getting tired of artists who really try to...sort of "Blueprint" their shit, coming with COMPLETELY different sounds when they aren't that established. Kidz in the Hall did that, having maybe one,two songs that you're used to from them, then having all this other shit come from everywhere else. Leave it to Jay-Z, give me more of your shit and change it when it's actually becoming a tired act.
Another artist that annoys me is Wale. I used to dig and hype this guy up really hard; then I started to listen to other artists after while. Upon returning to Wale I realize that he's just wack. He's a Pop rapper who tries WAY too hard to rap conscious (Which is why his lane is "gogo", and he sucks getting out of his lane. Besides "Shades", the songs where his flow is best and sound right are like "Ice Cream", "Sweatin Out Weaves", and "Pretty Girls", all gogo.). This should've been made apparent when Beautiful Bliss dropped and J.Cole absolutely anal-raped the shit out of him on his own track. Let a nig get 32 bars instead of 16 on your shit....shame, Wale.
About Drake peaking and falling off. Sorry, but I can't believe that just yet. I think when he first started to blow up (4-5 months after So Far Gone dropped), people just started loving him, and he because saturated, being like Lil Wayne and hopping on everyone's track (Fabolous, Jamie Foxx, etc. etc.). I don't think he's fallen off yet. The production he gets for most of his tracks is simply great, and his uber-simplistic flow, punchlines, and rhyme scheme seems to be a "one size fits all" for the beats he raps over. Thank Me Later won't be a complete bomb, but It won't make any hip-hop heads change their opinion of him because we all know he's gonna be singing over a lot of tracks.
Final opinion for now.
What the hell happened to Lupe's Right hand man Gemini/Gemstones/Demarco Castle? Troubles of the World was supposed to drop, and all we ever got from him were Untamed Beast and Testimony of Gemstones. I really think that he's like a rich man's drake in terms of Rapping and Singing. His flow is way nastier than Drake, he can sing better than Drake. Why didn't this dude blow up? Aside from the drastic change in topics of rapping between Untamed Beast and Testimony of Gemstones, his rapping skills were consistent, if not showing that he was getting better. Last I heard of him is that he retired from rap, found god, and was only gonna do Gospel music. I respect that, although for a couple years I wished that he would've blown up. Most of you aren't going to read this, so I'm just gonna drop some youtube vids of some nice Gemstones vids. If you listen to a lot of Lupe Fiasco, there's no doubt that you've heard Gemstones at LEAST once or twice.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GSDnz_fzr4"]YouTube- Gemstones a.k.a Gemini - My First 16[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJb2qtfQFkA"]YouTube- Bury Me A Gem- Gemstones[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Poie0HhRV2s&feature=related"]YouTube- GemStones - Good Morning Freestyle[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUgpbPVVMho"]YouTube- Never Give Up[/ame]
I know most of you won't read all of this, and I wouldn't be surprised to get at least 1 or 2 "Didn't Read LOL" gifs (Looking at you, Houston), but those were my random thoughts. Hope you liked the read.