Hip Hop Re-Cap - Roman Reloaded & California Republic

It's been a busy few weeks in the Hip Hop world. New tracks from Dr Dre with Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, Wiz Khalifa and a Stalley Mixtape. But whilst all this was going on, I forgot to note about two other projects; The Game's mixtape - California Republic and Nicki Minaj's 'Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded'.


Lets start with 'California Republic'. I think The Game realised he had to step up with this one. Artists like Wiz, Stalley and Mac Miller have brought out some solid mixtapes recently - filled with huge features and beats from producers like Clams Casino, Chad from the Neptunes...even SpaceGhostPurrp. To say that The Game stepped up would be a bit of an understatement. 24 tracks, with nearly each one featuring someone impressive - Four beats from both Cool & Dre and the Neptunes, with the other tracks being made by anyone from; Beat Bully/Tone Beats, Lex Luger, Just Blaze, Boi 1da, the tape could have featured just himself with these beats alone and i'd probably be impressed. But as you'd expect, there had to be some assistance from the industry's biggest rappers...Lil Wayne, Snoop, Pharrell, Rick Ross, Fabulous, Meek Mill....take your pick. Check out some of my favourites below, and also get the mix tape from Datpiff;









The Game: California Republic Datpiff Link



Next up...Nicki Minaj. She's had a lot of stick in the past year...collaborations with the wrong people (David Guetta and Willow Smith) have damaged her credibility as a rapper...so much so that people were claiming her verse on Drake's 'Make Me Proud' nearly ruined the album. Roman Reloaded is Nicki Minaj's way of telling everyone that she's not just a rapper. There are RnB tracks on there (Marilyn Monroe and Fire Burns) similar to 'Moment 4 Life', and even more of her hit & miss obsession with Trance (Beautiful Sinner and Pound the Alarm). But the important thing is there are some great Hip Hop songs on there, and if you need to combine that with some Pop in order to sell 250,000+ copies....then so be it. One thing I have to ask as a genuine Hip Hop Fan...WHY did Nas have to grace his lyrics on 'Champion' though!? Two ridiculous tracks featuring 2 Chainz (Beez in the Trap) and Rick Ross/ Cam'ron (I am Your Leader) make it all right though. 






Nicki Minaj: Roman Reloaded iTunes Link 

The Recipe - Dr Dre & Kendrick Lamar

If it wasn't enough that Snoop and The Game 'Passed on the West Coast Torch' in LA last year, Kendrick Lamar has just released a track with another one of the Godfathers of West Coast Hip Hop; Dr Dre. Having signed with the producers label; Aftermath/Interscope, evereyone hoped it wouldn't be long before some sort of project between L.A's new prodigal son and one of it's biggest legend's surfaced. With production from Scoop De Ville; the same man who's produced a huge amount of West Coast Hip Hop ranging from Snoop Dogg, The Game, B-Real and Fort Minor, Dre seems to have drawn for an all star Compton line - up. Aparently, Kendrick also wrote both of Dre's verses on this track...so do yourself a favour and listen to it now below. Or, if you're in America, you can buy it now here. 

Kendrick Lamar And The Game

A track I never really caught onto until now, but...I'm liking these Game collaborations with artists that you wouldn't really expect the Compton rapper to be working with. His latest project featuring none other than Kendrick Lamar, check out the making of their video below and a download link below; 


Download Link