Pop-Conscious: Drake-Take Care

From our second-favorite Degrassi alum (all praise be to Jake Epstein) comes Drake's second record, Take Care. In a year where we were not graced with Kanye West's presence (Watch the Throne does not count), Drake is an acceptable and at times magnificent substitute. The record is unsurprisingly polarizing (similar to any Ye record), and finds Drake mining his own inner thoughts to produce some of the most self-aware pop/rap/R&B that will invade the public consciousness this year. However, I can't help but be troubled by the thought that while Take Care is technically proficient and creative, it might not be all that much fun to listen to.

Pop-Conscious: Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto

Coldplay is going to sell more records and concert tickets than every other band I've talked about on here, combined.[1. It's science.] Which, in and of itself, is a good reason to take 44.1 minutes[1. According to iTunes. Again, with the science.] and give an impression of Coldplay's new record, Mylo Xyloto. Wow, that is a ridiculous album title. It's their 5th full length record, following 2008's Viva la Vida, which was terrible. Actually, I thought 2005's X&Y was pretty awful as well, so I haven't liked a Coldplay record since 2002's A Rush of Blood to the Head. I was in fucking high school when that came out. But it was good. "The Scientist" and "Clocks" are good songs. Let's see if Coldplay can recapture any of that magic...

Volume 4: Initial Thoughts

The biggest problem with Watch the Throne: Too much Jay-Z, not enough Kanye.

MTV doesn't care about Destiny's Child

As you probably read on other people's facebook status' or twitter (I'm assuming no one actually watches these things after they get out of middle school...hmm maybe should replace "assuming" with "hoping"), Kanye West made quite the impression last night after Taylor Swift won the award for Best Female Video at the MTV Video Music Awards. A quick recap: Taylor Swift wins award, says thanks in short speech, and Kanye jumps in, takes the mic, and says "Yo Taylor I'm really happy for you, I'm gonna let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time." Crowd unhappy. People mad at Kanye? My thoughts? Glad you asked.

I love Kanye. Not for his leftish-leaning politcal rants, not for his music (which is often great but falls prey to many of the same issues plaguing all rappers these days), and not for his style, but for his passion.

As for last night's event, he owes Taylor Swift an apology. No doubt. That said, he's one of my favorite artists out there because of what he did. He has opinions about music, it's not just something he does, but an integral part of his life. Last year facing the death of a family member and the loss of a fiancee, he refused to retreat, and instead put his issues into his music. I thought the album (808s and Heartbreak) was great, less because of the music, and more because of the emotion. He's a man that cannot separate his life from his music, and we're all better off for it (um, except for Taylor Swift I guess). And shit, this is even better than that--Kanye's not just passionate about his own music, but passionate about someone else's. I guarantee that Kanye's heard more music than just about every other artist that was present last night. It's hard to imagine many other musicians today getting that impassioned about someone else's work.

Point being, that fuck all of these sad sacks who have their songs and music written for them, and at the end of the day cannot wait to escape the studio or whatever so they can go take pictures for the new issue of In Touch and talk to their agent about getting into the next Hannah Montana movie. Kanye may be brazen and egotistical, but at least he gives a fuck about music. That's something I can identify with.