Teww Talez - Hope Your Happy MIXTAPE REVIEW

Hey everyone.  J-Pegs here, back on the blog scene.  I was going to do a top 20 list of my favorite Prince songs (R.I.P.). I'll get to that, but first, here we are with with a new review of a new mixtape by an underground rapper who is probably one of my favorite people to work, the homie Teww Talez.

Teww Talez is an artist who vocally and stylistically is comparable to Big Sean with his own twist.  He is probably best recognizable for his witty, often outright funny, lines and versatility in his music.  He and I haven't done any new music in a while, but some of the songs we have done include "T.O.P. (Too on Point)," "Pogo," "Space Age Limpin'," and my personal favorite, "Got Steez."  And while none of those are on here, this is his new mixtape, Hope Your Happy (spelled that way on purpose.)

Let's not waste any more time and dive right into the music.

1. Hope You're Happy
I love the vibe of this song and how it sets the tone for the rest of the project.  The sing-songy rap style works here.  Very well put together.

2. Pounds Freestyle
More smooth vibes.  Uplifting music you can ride to.

3. 106 & Park
Phone call at the beginning reminds me of some of Drake's songs but it works.  Definitely one of the realer songs on this project, and encapsulates the whole theme of the project.  Best line: "I'm having the time of my life, even if I don't make it." I feel that.

4. Mann
The bars are back!! This is the first straight up bravado type rap song on the project, and Talez goes in.

5. Ride
I love these types of beats.  Smooth, rider music (hence the title I guess.)  Not the best hook though. I wish he would have just left that sample be the hook.

6. I Stay
Another singing/rapping track.  Seems to be a style he's going for throughout the tape.  This one's pretty good.  I'd listen to this.

7. Long Way
This one finds Talez reminiscing about his upbringing.  Nice stuff.

8. Mood
I feel this one a lot. Very emotional and touches on a lot of topics.  It's a two-parter too.  I think it coulda worked better as 2 separate songs but it's still one of my favorites on here.  I do like Part 1 better than 2 but that's just me.

9. Hella Busy (Uber Everywhere Remix) ft. Stvy Max & Yung Best
This song seems kind of out of place.  If this wasn't on the project it could arguably be considered an album.  For what it is, it's not bad, but I will say that Talez had the only notable part in my opinion.

10. Sick
Not the best song on here.  Autotune doesn't really work here, unlike on others. A couple good lines but overall it gets a skip from me.

11. Old Times ft. Tru-Dough & Rome
Hook from Rome is FIRE.  Potential radio hit right here.  Also Tru-Dough, another rapper friend of mine, is on this song, though if he wasn't credited I wouldn't have known.  I had to rewind it back like three times to see if I missed something.  His verse just didn't stick out.

12. Feel Like I'm Biggie ft. Devin Blaze
This is the banger "Sick" tried to be.  Teww's flow is spot on here, and Blaze has the best guest verse on the project.

13. Feelings Change
The piano riff sounds familiar.  Not one of my favorites but I like how he rapped over just a piano on this one.  Nice switchup from the last song, like a comedown from a wild party.

14. Woah
My favorite just-bars rap song on here.  That or Maan.  Talez is on his cocky shit here, and I'm not mad at him.

15. I Can't Believe This Almost Didn't Make the Tape
Me either, to be honest. Probably one of my favorites on this project, both because of the feel and how he spits some of the realest and dopest raps I've heard from him.  Though I will say again, he does sound kind of like Big Sean vocally, despite how he says on this song that he doesn't hear it, haha.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
Talez is really growing as an artist.  When I first met him he was already a great rapper but his songwriting skills have exponentially grown since then.  A lot of the songs are smooth and relatable, and the overall theme is dope.  Only big criticism is the featured artists seem out of place or just don't bring it like Talez does.  (No shade, just being honest.)  If Talez keeps this style up, he can move on from the comparisons that he obviously wants to separate himself from and stand out on his own.  Teww Talez is one of the few rappers on my friends list that I actually listen to, and this tape shows why.  I look forward to seeing what he does next, and to working with him on more music in the future.

Overall score: 9/10

Best songs: I Can't Believe This Almost Didn't Make the Tape, 106 & Park, Mood

Worst songs: Sick, Ride

If you want to listen to the mixtape, check it out here.

Definitively Ranking Kanye West's Albums: Worst to Best

What more can be said about Kanye West that hasn't already been said?  You either love the man or you hate him. He's a jerk and a genius.  Both adjectives have been used time and time again, but whether or not you're a fan, you can't deny the man has made a impact on not only hip hop, but music in general.  He's taught this generation that it's okay to dress how you want and express yourself honestly in a world of flashiness and braggadocio.  His ego has been rivaled only by historical figures such as Julius Caesar.  He is truly one of a kind.

However, one discussion that is heavily talked about is, what is his best album?  So today, I am going to rank his albums from worst to best, in terms of what I like best, and what best represent his artistry.

He IS a god.  And these are his scriptures.

9. Cruel Summer (with G.O.O.D. Music)

Usually, label compilations turn out to be a mish-mash of artists with no singular direction, and with no real standout songs, other than maybe one or two.  Cruel Summer stands out on at least one of these accounts, since about half of these songs were bonafide classics before the album even came out.  Songs like "Mercy," "New God Flow," "Clique," "I Don't Like (Remix)" and "Cold" got everyone hyped for what was supposed to be something special.  Instead, what we got was something seemingly half-assed with a few GREAT songs.  Not bad for an average compilation album, but far below the standards of what Mr. West was capable of.

BEST SONGS: "Mercy (ft. Big Sean, Pusha T & 2 Chainz)," "Clique (ft. Big Sean & Jay-Z)," "Cold (ft. DJ Khaled)"

8. 808s & Heartbreak

Arguably the most game-changing album in Yeezy's catalog, this album was birthed from the ending of his pre-Kim Kardashian engagement and the loss of his mother.  Kanye took a huge risk with this album, both jumping onto the autotune bandwagon and pushing it into uncharted territories.  However, while, as a whole, this somber Kanye, filled with autotune and melodies previously untapped in hip hop does make this an album worth listening to, many of the songs individually don't stand out one by one as the album does, which kind of lessens the greatness of the album.  I can put on some of these songs and recapture the vibe, but others are best left heard a couple times and then never again.

BEST SONGS: "Love Lockdown," "Robocop," "See You in My Nightmares (ft. Lil Wayne)"

7. Late Registration

This album may be the worst of Kanye's regular rap albums.  Not to diminish how great it is, but sonically, it seems more of a building block between what he had done and what he was going to do next.  Plus, Kanye was riding high off of his debut album so he went back in and seemed to finish this one as soon as he could.  It is great, but he has done better than this album as a whole, despite there being great songs on here.

Also, "Gold Digger" is kind of overrated.  #SorryNotSorry

BEST SONGS: "Gone (feat. Consequence & Cam'Ron)," "Hey Mama," "Late"

6. Yeezus

This is an album that doesn't get as much credit as it deserves.  Yes, it's more gritty, raw, in-your-face and overall mean than the rest of his discography.  But that's the point.  Kanye wanted to be abrasive, and to make a darker album than he had ever made before.  Its roots were more punk rock than hip hop.  And it was his most divisive project yet!  Some people didn't like it at all, others (like the late Lou Reed) thought it was his best work yet!  The man did what he set out to do, which was to make the people talk.

Also, the Yeezus Tour was the best concert I have ever been to, so this album is dear to my heart so I can't slander it at all.

BEST SONGS: "Black Skinhead," "New Slaves (ft. Frank Ocean)," "Blood on the Leaves"

5. Watch the Throne (with Jay-Z)

This is the ultimate student/mentor album.  Jay-Z set Kanye into the world, and Kanye came back to give Jay some inspiration, and some collaboration.

This might be the most fun album either of these guys have released.  There was no pressure, no politics, no overblown pop hits, it was just a fun album about two MCs coming together, doing what they love, and rapping about what they love: ballin' so hard motherfuckers wanna find them.

This album is luxury rap at its finest, and, while often imitated, unfortunately may never be duplicated (although I hope I'm wrong... #WeWantWTT2)

BEST SONGS: "Otis," "No Church in the Wild (ft. Frank Ocean)," "New Day"

4. The Life of Pablo

Given Kanye's antics right before this new album came out, the album COULD have been his first true dud.  He was hyping it up SO much as this fantastic album, that there was NO WAY he could defy EVERY expectation.

Well, he did.  It may not be the best album of all time, but it may be the best album in a long time.

While this may be his most schizophrenic album sonically, it does prove to be ambitious in its own right by bringing in songs that show him channeling his early days to songs that show him reflecting the trends of nowadays, albeit in his own way.  He also delivers on the gospel elements he promised in interviews, as he examines himself as a god and as a man of the Christian god he worships, in many forms and fashions.  This is especially shown in the intro, "Ultra Light Beam," which is one of the best, most emotional songs he's ever released.  Also, lyrically, this may be his smartest in a while, showing his range from humble ("Real Friends," "30 Hours") to humorous ("Feedback," "Famous") and everything in between.  This album proves that Kanye finally knows the Kanye he wants to be, and isn't letting this revelation escape anytime soon.

BEST SONGS: "Ultra Light Beam (ft. Chance the Rapper, The-Dream, Kelly Price & Kirk Franklin)," "30 Hours (ft. Andre 3000)," "Highlights (ft. Young Thug & The-Dream)"

3. Graduation

Now here's where things get tricky.  Kanye has released so many classics that even a top 3 is hard.  Alas, I must put his 3rd album, the album that essentially killed gangsta rap as we knew it, in the #3 spot.

It's not easy to put this here.  This album is a certified classic hip hop album, and showed a respectable increase in maximalism in his production, which paved the way for his future sound.  I can't really say anything bad about this album.  I can just say that I find the remaining two to be better.

BEST SONGS: "Stronger," "Can't Tell Me Nothing," "Barry Bonds (ft. Lil Wayne)"

2. The College Dropout

Ahh, here we go.  The album that made Mr. West a proven capable rapper.  This album isn't his best in terms of technical rap skills, but it does possibly have his most heartfelt moments, as well as his most lighthearted, both of which he would come to be known for.  This is perhaps Mr. West's most human work, and with the help of the consistent soul beats, and the skits that tied it together, one of his most cohesive sonically.  It's a great album that launched the career of a great artist.

BEST SONGS: "Never Let Me Down (ft. J-Ivy & Jay-Z)," "Get 'em High (ft. Talib Kweli & Common)," "We Don't Care" 

1. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

And so we come to the #1 spot, which, in my opinion, is the best produced, best rapped, most cohesive, and overall BEST album in Kanye West's catalog.

This album was made when Kanye was at his most under pressure time frame ever, after interrupting Taylor Swift's acceptance speech (which, in retrospect, seems ridiculous that he got so much scrutiny for it).  He knew he had to show and prove with his next album.  And show and prove he did.  He upped the lyricism, the emotion, the subject matter, and even the promotional tactics to keep the audience on the edge of their feet to see what Kanye would do leading up to this album.

It didn't disappoint at all.  And, with this album, Kanye West showed the world that he'll be damned if he's going anywhere anytime soon.

So, sorry Taylor Swift, I'm really happy for you, and I'ma let you finish, but Kanye West made one of the best albums (and best discographies) of ALL TIME with this.

BEST SONGS: "Lost in the World (ft. Bon Iver)," "Runaway (ft. Pusha T)," "Devil in a New Dress (ft. Rick Ross)"

So, there's my list.  What order would yours be in?  Let me know, and why.

And remember to praise Yeezus every day, for he is our lord and savior.

LOL, JK (or am I?????)