A G.O.O.D. Summer?

Dope pic.

Didn't have enough room to say this in the caption to the above pic, but fuck Complex...fuck their hard-on for Kobe, their hatred of LeBron/Chris Bosh, and fuck their constantly stupid comparisons (today I saw Michael Vick and Jerry Sandusky mentioned in the same sentence).  They have some dope work, like the above picture, and some good articles, but still, fuck Complex.


So it finally arrived!  After numerous delays and rumors that this would end up being entitled Cruel Autumn, we finally got the G.O.O.D. Music collaboration album Cruel Summer (disclaimer: the title really makes me think that this is gonna end up like Jay-Z's The Dynasty: Roc La Familia album, as in this will be Kanye's 6th album).  G.O.O.D. Music's line-up is actually pretty fucking ridiculous when you look at it; Kanye, Common, Mos Def, Q-Tip, Pusha T, Big Sean, John Legend, Kid Cudi, Cyhi, etc. etc. etc., they have a big roster.  So when the album leaked and there was only one mention of Common, no mention of Yasiin, no Q-Tip, etc., I was slightly disappointed.  I wanted something crazy ambitious, like a Wu-Tang album.  What we ended up getting was...well I'll give my overall thoughts later.  Additionally, for the first time, I'll have someone else's opinion on this blog!  My dude @Quentin_Haynes let me know he wanted to add his thoughts, and I graciously accepted the offer.  For the record, I welcome any form of collaboration on here, so if any reader out there has their own blog and wants to put something on here, or would like me to contribute to their blog, I'm down.  My work ethic has been fucking terrible, but I'm trying to get better (now if I could stop staying up til midnight catching up on Breaking Bad....)

http://santini-houdini.tumblr.com/post/13432651486/piss-on-youuuu-lol

1. To The World (Ft. R. Kelly) - Nah, R. Kelly isn't still doing music fam.  I know I'm hearing his voice, but that has to be Trey Songz or something.  Not gonna lie, I fuck with this though.  Still weird as hell hearing R. Kelly, but yo, Kanye really killed this IMO...not like he's dropping great bars or anything ("shittin on you, holy crap" sounds like some Wayne shit...gtfo with that) but that "I be all up in Goldman Sachs like 'these niggas tryna hol' me back! These niggas tryna hol' me back!" and "Mitt Romney don't pay no tax, Mitt Romney don't pay no tax" won me over before that wack shit.  I wouldn't have used this as an intro to a collaboration album though. - 3.5/5


2. Clique (Ft. Jay-Z and Tiny Sean) - I will NEVER capitalize Jay-Z's name.  I don't know when that shit got started, but fuck that.  This track put me in the mind of "H.A.M.," but I actually liked this one a lot more. "Yea I'm talkin bossy, I ain't talkin Kelis" LMFAO I swear that Jay and Nas stay taking little potshots at each other.  Jay's verse is hot, but like everything else Jay's dropped lately, it's not up to the level of his older shit *Kanye shrug*.  Kanye's verse is hilarious, as usual; "my girl a superstar all from a home movie" hahahahahaha he really just says whatever the fuck he wants in his verses.  Overall, my main complaint is...what is it with these tracks where the verses have little to do with their title?  Again, this is another one that I'd have liked to hear more of G.O.O.D. Music on. - 3.5/5


3. Mercy (Ft. Micrometer Sean, Pusha T, and 2 Chainz) - I've seen a lot of hate for this track on Twitter...fuck all of you, this shit bangs.  I love the entire track, man...from Sean's "ass"-libs to his "swerve" ad-lib, to Pusha's verse, to the beat change when Kanye gets on, to 2 Chainz' HILARIOUS verse. The energy is great, and the video is pretty unique as well.  This is a hit.  You've heard this 1000 times if you listen to the radio, so I don't have to get into it - 4.5/5


4. New God Flow (Ft. Ghostface Killah and Pusha T) - The original of this, without Ghostface, was already a solid track.  Throwing Ghost on it (whose "Mighty Healthy" was sampled for this track) made this a standout track.  I honestly think this is one of the top 5 tracks released this year.  Ghostface (and really the Wu as a whole) has the best forms of boasting imaginable; "I got soccer moms paying for cock, Asians get it from behind while they cleanin their wok" lmfao man, when's our next Ghostface album?  Pusha's verses are actually great, but Ghost clearly stole the show...completely.  The moment the original "New God Flow" was released, THIS is what we were thinking of. - 5/5


5. The Morning (Ft. Raekwon, Pusha T, Common, Cyhi, Kid Cudi, and D'Banj) - Dog I have no idea who D'Banj is, but I guess he's the dude doing the singing in the beginning.  Earl Sweatshirt noted on Twitter that this should have been a Raekwon track...I can kinda agree, he killed this, but at the same time, the beat's not something I'd like to hear on a Raekwon album.  I'm pissed that Common's verse was short, but I guess that's what happens with a posse cut...I got over it, but when I realized later that Common didn't have any other verses, I got pissed again.  I also really didn't know that Cyhi was still with G.O.O.D. Music; I hadn't heard any tracks with him on them in a while.  I'm not terribly happy about his appearance, but I guess it's cool to know that if someone gets booted out of the crew, we'll know about it.  - 3/5


6. Cold ("Ft. DJ Khaled") - Can Khaled be a feature when all he did was talk?  Fuck Khaled Khaled lmao.  This track is another old one, with no new spin or anything...I like the track, but it's not anything special, and again, we heard this a long time ago.  It was funny that Kanye spoke so candidly about Amber Rose, Wiz Khalifa, and Kim Kardashian, but...again, I'm done with that entire situation.  This isn't bad, but it isn't great either.  - 3/5


7. Higher (Ft. The-Dream, Pusha T, Ma$e, and Cocaine 80s) - I've been seeing people say they fucked with this, and that they liked Ma$e's verse...I'm going to be honest and say I don't really like anything about this track.  Why's The-Dream on this when you have John Legend at your disposal?  Ironically, this would have been better as a Dream track.  The 2 Chainz ad-libs pissed me off because I was expecting a 2 Chainz verse!  Fuck.  It was interesting hearing Ma$e talk about Loon though...last I heard about dude, he was threatening to hit niggas with shovels.  Anyway, I could go without hearing this ever again, which is unfortunate since this was one of the new tracks.  - 1/5


8. Sin City (Ft. John Legend, Travi$ Scott, Teyana Taylor, Cyhi, and Malik Yusef) - Oh snap, Teyana Taylor's got a nice voice...I'm annoyed that they did that distortion shit on John Legend's voice, but eh.  Cyhi had a long verse on this one...which is an insult to all of us.  You have Common on your roster and Cyhi is getting verses?  FOH.  There's quite a bit of spoken word on this....which eh, I don't really fuck with that, but at least it's not Wale doing his "poetic" shit.  This really shouldn't be a bad track, and I guess it's not, but man...fuck Cyhi.  - 3/5


9. The One (Ft. Millimeter Sean, 2 Chainz, and Marsha Ambrosius) - Am I the only one who thinks you should use the talent on your roster on these things?  Again, you have Teyana Taylor...yo I fuck with Marsha, but why is she on this?  This really sounds like it's supposed to be some sort of inspirational shit, but it's really not.  Yeezy is talking Yeezy shit, Sean drops his "I'm 5'9" fuckin 9 to 5" shit, and 2 Chainz is....2 CHAAAAAAAAAINZ.  This is a lullaby track, definitely goes against all of 2 Chainz' strengths (and really those of Sean and Kanye as well). - 1.5/5


10. Creepers (Ft. Kid Cudi) - Hm.  So other than Kanye, it's Cudi who gets his own track?  I ain't mad at that at all.  Cudi said a long time ago that he's not a great rapper, so it's cool to just let him do his thing.  After the lullaby track, it's nice to have a something with a little bit of energy (even if it's Cudi-style energy).  There's no crazy bars on this; dude really said "If I had one wish, it'd be to have more wishes...duuuuuh!  Fuck tryna make it rhyme" so there's no way you expected any bars.  Nice sound though, and that's really what you're looking for with Cudi shit anyway.  - 3.5/5


11. Bliss (Ft. John Legend and Teyana Taylor) - So the two singers get their own track together...truuuu.  This is actually one of the better tracks on the album, and definitely the best "new" track.  I feel like if Teyana had been on more songs, she would've won on this album bruh...she's really better than I gave her credit for. John Legend is John Legend, so I don't have to get into him killing the shit.  This is one of those tracks that gets better every time you listen to it as well.  The singing on here is better than the rapping, smfh. - 4.5/5


12. Don't Like (Remix) (Ft. Pusha T, Chief Keef, Nanometer Sean, and Jadakiss) - Jadakiss, R. Kelly, and Ma$e on the same album...in 2012.  Sigh.  Despite that, I still like this track, the energy is great, and really, the idea of some 16 year old kid WHO CAN'T RAP being able to get Kanye on his track is ridiculous.  Chief Keef didn't seem grateful, but he won.  Pusha T stole the track from the beginning...man, I'm feeling like I should eat my words about Malice being better.  Obviously we haven't heard new music from Malice in a while, but Pusha really has bars.  Damn.  I was never a huge fan of him individually, but he won on this album.  The Ric Flair shit just made this even better.  They really didn't need Jada on the track, but I guess it's better than trying to force Cudi or Common on this.  Would have been interesting as hell to hear Yasiin Bey on this though.  - 4/5



Overall, this is a disappointment.  There's no overarching direction, most of the features are wack, the best members of G.O.O.D. Music don't even get much (or any) playing time, and I heard 5 of the 12 tracks before the album came out.  Most of the 7 new tracks weren't anything special at all.  The highs of this ("New God Flow", "Bliss") are fucking excellent.  The lows ("Higher," "The One") are skip-worthy, which is simply unacceptable considering this is a Kanye-headed project.   Similar to Watch The Throne, this project had ambitious beginnings, but ended up being a disappointment.  WTT had more than a few good tracks though, and for the most part, they came as a surprise.  Most of the good tracks on here were songs I had already heard, and I don't even listen to the radio...I can only imagine how much of the music had been heard by those who listen to the radio.  Overall, this isn't terrible, but considering the talent on the G.O.O.D. Music roster, I'm extremely disappointed.  - 2.5/5 considering the roster, 3/5 on its own merits.

My dude @Quentin_Haynes' thoughts below

"My thoughts on Cruel Summer..... a good album. Personally, I think everyone not named Cyhi Da Prince came out like winners on this album. My problem with this album is two pronged. The first is the track order. It seems like the album was just put together, instead of having an ideal order. From " To The World" to " New God Flow", I thought the album was going down this road, and "This Morning" completely flipped it, for a good way, but I felt like it flipped. From that point on, the album lacked that stability for me to zone out on. Let me say this, I love "Bliss". The way G.O.O.D Music is going with this all white thing, I could see that as a throwaway video for them.

The second issue is simple: Not enough songs. To me, this should've been a double disc album. 22 tracks of pure fire. First off, this 12 track album had 6 new songs on it. That's lazy to me. With Kanye West dropping an album next month, 2 Chainz dropping a (terrible) album a couple weeks ago, and Big Sean dropping a mixtape a couple weeks prior, I can understand their lack of work on the album if it went 18-22 tracks, but Pusha T isn't out here dropping a project anytime soon. Even though he had the most impact on this tape, there's no such thing as too much Pusha. What's Common doing? He couldn't throw two more tracks on there? Teyana Taylor and John Legend could've easily gave us a couple more choruses, and the way people talked about Kid Cudi's "Creepers", you could've given us two or three more tracks, and no complaint would've came our way. Hell, more Cyhi struggle bars. Anything to keep the album going. 

Overall, good album, but it lacked that run allowing me to zone out, and I would've liked more songs. Random note, I've never heard the Jadakiss verse on "I Don't Like". "

For the record, I concur for the most part...the strength of a Rick Ross project, for example, lies in the sequencing.  The amount of talent on this roster means it should've been longer than 12 tracks.  Since Kanye was involved with it, I was expecting a lot more, so I guess that's why I think it's less than average.  Look forward to my collaboration posts in the future, I'm still trying to figure this thing out.  I'll try harder, people




SIDE NOTE: WHAT THE FUCK, THE GIANTS ARE DEMOLISHING THE PANTHERS.