Blave meets Jay-Z

I always knew about Jay-Z but I never really listened to him up until 4:44, this is the album that made me a fan I was in the last month of my internship, I was just getting acquainted with the whole concept of work life and growing up it was also a period in my life where I didn't have any music I actually connected with, like music that helped me understand where I am in life and where I want to be. JCole did this for me throughout college, it's like everything that he said in the songs coincided with what was going on in my life at that point, but thats a story for the JCole blog.

4:44 is about growing up, not the same way JCole or Kendrick Lamar's GKMC was about growing up but more about maturity, more about realizing how the world is set up, more about taking the highs with the lows, on 4:44 Jay-Z was handing out nothing but facts, YOUNG BLACK CHILD THIS IS LIFE, THIS IS THE GAME, THESE ARE YOUR CARDS, THIS IS MY ADVICE.

On this album and the interviews I have watched Jay offers nothing but advice, financial advice, life advice etc. but the most important thing Jay-Z did on this album was teach me that for a man family comes above everything, Jay shredded himself on this album, tore his ego apart, admited to doing things he had denied, apologised to people, called out entire communities for thier bullshit. Jay-Z even though he was still flaunting his wealth, he did it in such an energizing and truthful manner, yes Jay-Z is rich chasing a billion but he wants you to know that you can dream big too and you dont have to suck up to anyone to do it, "I told em, please don't die over the neighborhood that your momma rent in, get your drug money and buy the neighborhood, thats how you rinse it".

Blave meets J.Cole

If I had to pick a favourite artist of all time it would have to be Jermaine Cole, I have listened to alot of artists in my time and more than just metaphors and witty word play I think a connection is something I really look for in a project and JCole delivered with every song, it was insane, this man knew my life!

The first time I heard a JCole track was first year college around 2012 I think, it was something on Side Line Story, at this time I was not the biggest JCole fan, I was actually a Meek Mill fan, I cannot stress enough how big of a Meek fan I was, I will need to make an entire blog, anyways I quickly exhausted Meek Mills catalogue, albums and mixtapes, JCole was more of a fall back and I only had that one album, but I listened to it alot, it never actually made solid sense to me the way 4:44 or Good Kid Mad City made absolute sense but there was something about cole, the man could rap.

soon after I left for Malaysia and got excess to the internet 24 hours a day, all day every day, I discovered datpiff.com and some JCole mixtapes and man I was blown away, I can't really put a finger on which album is my favourite or which made Cole the default option for me but those mixtapes were amazing.
Cole was different, he wasnt talking about survival in the context that most rappers I knew were talking about survival, he had never sold drugs, owned a gun, been to jail or any of that stuff, he was a kid in college, his mother was on drugs and his older brother in prison, he moved from a small city to NYC and was trying to make it big as a rapper but still worked hard in his studies.
JCole told stories about crazy college parties, first dates, walking into class late, clowning with friends, spending all his money on stupid stuff, sending his mother money when he could and her sending him money when she could, he was on scholarship, I could go on and on but I think its evident that Cole's life closely mirrored mine and I think more than anything that drove me towards Cole, he was the kid that had fun but still some how things worked out for him, I call it luck.

Through every J.Cole album I learned a little bit more about how to navigate through my "young adult" phase and the best part is the studio albums were sort of a reflection to his younger days and this was the period I was going through, the albums explained the mixtapes, reflactions, advice, things he would have did differently, regrets etc. JCole was undisputed for me betwean the ages of 19-23 and I think more than anything JCole moulded my thought process because before Cole I was extremely hot headed and ready to go, throw hands, but after my JCole phase I started to look at life differently, there had to be more, I started looking for meaning, connection, I started learning how to appreciate simpler pleasures of life, and most importantly I started thinking about priorities.

"Because deep down every pawn just wants to be loved!".

Oh actually to think about it I think the album that I would say made me a Cole fan is Truly Yours 1&2, its an ablbum I heard well after I had decided I liked Cole's work but it was so powerful, if I had to recommend a starting point for anyone it would be Truly Yours.

"I know the hood raised you but theres bigger better things!".

Blave meets Lauryn Hill

Miss Hill, wow.. This lady is life. I started listening to Lauryn Hill because I was reading up on a JCole's song Cole Summer and somewhere he said "this sample was yelling loop me, miss Hill please dont sue me.", so I went and tried to find out who this Miss Hill is and I quickly found Lauryn Hill and she had an album called 'The misseducation of Lauryn Hill', its crazy how vivid this memory is, I had the top bunk, I think it was 2nd year 1st semester, I downloaded the album and placed it in VLC and it was a well crafted project.

I went on a few weeks of nothing but the misseducation and soon I wanted more but I couldnt find anything, this is when I found out that Lauryn Hill had actually spent some time in jail and she came out extremely distant and stuff but the way she went to jail was pretty messed up something about tax evassion, which again she is a musician, you can't really hold her accountable for tax evassion. I also learned that her label sued her for her own music or something like that, its a messy story, long story short them people dan did miss Hill wrong.

I later found her MTV unplugged and man did I not fall inlove for a second time, this was the first ever unplugged I had ever heard and I loved it so much, the album was nice but this was real, there was so much rawness and you can sense her distrust in the media but it was a beautiful tape, from that day on Lauryn Hill was forever engraved into my personal Hall of fame.

I LOVE YOU MISS HILL

Blave meets Kendrick Lamar

Kendrick Lamar.. Kenny was one of those artists you listened to because everyone listebed to them but didnt really get him like that, he was good and you could here it in his singles and Good Kid Maad City but I never really understood the story he was telling up until one morning, I think I went to bed listening to albums on youtube or something and when I woke up GKMC was just starting, now I am human I do my fair share of lying there for 15 minutes scrolling through 9gag waiting for my mind body and sould to boot up.

So I am there lying in bed, just relaxed and for some reason GKMC just starts to make absolute sense, evey song is like an episode in show, every song tells a different story but its all relavent to the entire project and they are in order, its was a crazy realisation but if that wasnt enough it turns out the album is broken down into 3 parts.

• 1. Kendrick is young and dump, parties, back seat freestyles, hanging with the hommies etc
• 2. Self realisation, after Kendricks friend gets killed he see's that theres no life in the streets and he can go further if he focuses his energy in music or something else constructive
• 3. The happy songs with super star features, Kendrick made it

realising that the album is structured like this helped me understand and fall inlove with this project, I listened to it over and over again, always in order, I think Kendrick's Good Kid is the reason why I only listen to albums now, it was so well put together I realised this is the only way to listen to music and I try to find structure in albums now, Kendrick changed the way I listen to and understand music and that instantly put him in my personal hall of fame.

After GKMC I went on to experiment with his mixtapes and I really liked Section80 and OD, I am not really into his new work but I can appreciate it.

Blave meets Kanye West

Yeezy!! Kanye West was a different type of vibe, I started listening to Kanye in high school, I think it was my final year of high school, I am 18 and my cousin hands me 'Graduation', now I have always known about Kanye but at this point I was still listening to single and whatever was on TV.
I got a Kanye Graduation CD and a small boom box, put it on and the first thing I heard was "Ah Good morning" and wow was that line refreshing, the beat, the tone Kanye used, the content he wrote about, it was just so different from what I was listening to at the time. Ye's Graduation was the first time I actually listened to an entire album in one sitting and replayed it, I listened to Graduation for weeks, I remember sitting in my math finals unable to concentrate because I kept singing the songs in my head, I became I Kanye fan instantly.

I went on to listen to college dropout, late registration, 808s, MBDTF... I was listening to anything Kanye and the man had a brilliant catalogue, unlike most artists I listen to I didnt really google Kanye alot and try to figure out alot about him but the content on the tapes was so honest I didnt even have to do that.

The only Kanye album I didnt listen to at all was Yeezus, I dont know why but I just didnt.

Blave meets Tracy Chapman

Miss Tracy.. I love miss Tracy.. Tracy Chapman was one of those artists I would never think I would end up liking, she is an amazing singer with a soothing voice.

Blave meets Chance The Rapper

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Blave meets SZA

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Blave meets Meek Mill

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Blave meets DVSN

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Blave meets Frank Ocean

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Blave meets Young Thug

I am really into thugger right now but I am yet to listen to a complete album.

Blave meets XXXTentacion

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