Jay-Z - Dead Presidents 3 (prod. by Young Guru)

Jay-Z took to Twitter (rare) a few days ago for a cool Q&A session with his fans and after being asked where DP3 was, Hov decided to give Young Guru the green light to release the track.

Samsung's Magna Carta Holy Fail and Music's Battle with Exclusivity

On his latest album Magna Carta Holy Grail Jay-Z spits the line "Might crash ya Internet, and I ain't even into that" lyrics from "Somewhereinamerica" that would prove prophetic. Right around midnight on July 3rd, officially the 4th, millions (literally) of Samsung owners took to Twitter to celebrate and gloat at their apparent win over iPhone users. After years of hearing the praises of the iPhone and Apple, Android users finally had their moment in the spotlight thanks to Jay-Z and Samsung's 5 million deal. Well at least that was the idea, soon as many found out, millions of people using the same app to obtain the same album at the same time would prove problematic. Samsung users all over immediately went from ecstatic to disappointed as they stared at a blank screen or an error message as many reported.

While Samsung users were cursing the company all over social networks, iPhone users sat high and mighty on top of the mobile device world once again. As Samsung was sorting out an solution, others fled to Google for streams and leak links for the newly released album. Once learning that Funk Flex of Hot 97 was running a stream of the album, I decided that was the best of a bad situation. When Flex wasn't ranting and dropping Flex bombs (or wind sound effects as they sound to some) I was quite impressed with what I heard. After about an hour I had the album available to listen to sans Flex, while my cousin who is a Samsung owner still was on a blank white screen "patiently" awaiting for his album. That got me thinking what did Samsung exactly accomplish with this deal?

Aside from the publicity from the deal Samsung did nothing to exactly change the perception of the Android vs iPhone debate, if anything it gave fuel to the latter's side. That is how it may seem on the surface but if you really read what came with the MCHG app, Samsung might've made a win out in the long haul. Before accepting the download the permission settings for it pops up to display this and while Mike gets credit for noticing I'm sure millions of others didn't even bother to read that. Now what Samsung will do with those permission settings still remains to be seen but I'd say that would be a nice consolation price to a little public embarrassment over a crashed app.

Although one of the main things that was pushed was the exclusivity of the deal and the fact that Samsung users would be the only ones with MCHG until it was released for the rest of the world on July 7th. That too got me thinking about exclusivity when it comes to music in general. We live in a day and age where albums hit the Internet faster than they hit the retail shelves, sometimes days or weeks and in rare cases months before expected release dates. While some artists choose to ignore when their album leaks others take notice, such as when Wayne decided to create a project from the leaked material off the Tha Carter 3 into a EP appropriately entitled The Leak. Some even take to their respective social media accountants to address the leak and ask fans to still support the album if they enjoyed the leak.

Now while record labels and artists still haven't found a solution to this particular problem, digital release is widely seen as the next step in the way music is released. If Samsung and Jay-Z taught us anything with their deal it's that digital release is not the solution that some have been labeling it as and if anything it comes with its own problems. Sure the album didn't technically leak as it reached its intended digital release date but it also didn't go as smooth as I'm sure Samsung thought. Many couldn't access the album and in some cases such as mine, non Samsung owners had the album before actual Samsung owners. Imagine if those same people would've paid $10.99 for that album only to not be able to access it while others who illegally downloaded it listened. While I don't think we'll ever solve the exclusivity issue in music, at least not as long as technology evolves the way it does, I do think that if done right digital release can at least quell the issue of leaks. Exclusivity on the other hand is another issue entirely on its own...and something that even a major company and Jay-Z can't solve.

Big Sean, Jay-Z & Kanye West - Clique (prod.Hit-Boy)

Big Sean, Jay-Z and Kanye West unleash their highly anticipated single "Clique" props to Hit-Boy for the ill beat. Stunt rap at its best ladies and gentleman. Cruel Summer drops September 18th.

The Throne (Kanye West & Jay-Z) - Niggas In Paris

Directed by Kanye West

The duo known as The Throne released the video for their annoying hit single, the video itself is just concert performance footage but add some epilepsy inducing special effects and you got a music video.

Jay-Z - Glory ft B.I.C.

Download: Glory


Jay welcomes his daughter Blue Ivy Carter into the world with this track produced by The Neptunes. A really personal track from Hov, congrats to him and Beyonce on the baby.

J.Cole - Mr. Nice Watch ft Jay-Z

Download: Mr. Nice Watch


J.Cole drops what is probably the most anticipated track from his debut album Cole World: The Sideline Story, which will be released September 27th. It's not what I expected but I do like it, and besides it's J.Cole and Hova.

Sidenote: Clean version for now will update with the uncut when it's released.

Kanye West & Jay-Z - Niggas In Paris (Cover Art)

                                                                                  
Similar to the cover of Otis, the artwork for the latest single from Watch The Throne follows the red, white and blue strip pattern. I normally wouldn't just post a cover art, without the actually song available for download but...I'm told a video will be released soon so no need. Plus I'm sure everyone already has heard the song.

Kanye West & Jay-Z - Otis (Video)

Visuals for the duo's second single from Watch The Throne dropped today, check it out. This is one of my favorite videos of the year totally wouldn't expect this simple video from Jay and Kanye but it works so well.

Watch The Throne Tour Ad

Yeah.

Kanye West & Jay-Z - Otis ft Otis Redding

Otis (download)


Another joint off of Watch The Throne dropped today unfortunately with Flex bombs, I'll be sure to post up the tagless/HQ version when available.

Update: Cover art and HQ/tagless link added, enjoy.

Watch The Throne (Tracklist) - Kanye West & Jay-Z

1. No Church In The Wild f. Frank Ocean (prod. Kanye West, Mike Dean & Ken Lewis)
2. Lift Off f. Beyoncé (prod. Kanye West, Mike Dean, Jeff Bhasker, Q-Tip & Don Jazzy; Additional Vocals by Seal, Mr Hudson, Don Jazzy, Bankulli & Ricardo Louis)
3. Niggas In Paris (prod. Hit-Boy)
4. Otis f. Otis Redding (prod. Kanye West)
5. Gotta Have It (prod. The Neptunes)
6. New Day (prod. The RZA)
7. That’s My Bitch (prod. Q-Tip & Kanye West)
8. Who Gon’ Stop Me (prod. Sham “Sak Pase” Joseph & Kanye West)
9. Murder To Excellence (prod. Swizz Beatz & Symbolyc One)
10. Welcome To The Jungle (prod. Swizz Beatz)
11. Made In America f. Frank Ocean (prod. Sham “Sak Pase” Joseph)
12. Why I Love You f. Mr Hudson (prod. Mike Dean & Kanye West)
13. Illest Motherf*cker Alive (prod. Southside & Kanye West)
14. H*A*M (prod. Lex Luger & Kanye West)
15. Primetime (prod. No I.D.)
16. The Joy f. Curtis Mayfield (prod. Pete Rock & Kanye West)