This feature highlights a hand-picked selection of some of the bigger tracks of the week. We have chosen a few of the tracks that landed within our top 10 most played, focusing on those that stood out, and left room for discussion.
Once again, this particular feature is cataloguing the most POPULAR songs on the site, for some of the more overlooked tracks, check out Underrated Audio.
This edition of Top Tracks features Rick Ross, Future, Trey Songz, Big Sean and more. Take a look at the list in the gallery above, and feel free to let us know your own favorite tracks in the comments.
Rick Ross- War Ready (Feat. Jeezy)
Jeezy has been taking on a lot of west coast production lately, so it's good to see him back on some menacing Atlanta production, and this one is particularly so. Mike WiLL re-envisions his minimal bassline-driven aesthetic from "Sh!t", slowing it down, and adding some pummeling brass accents.
The beat could not be taken on by just anyone, Ross and Jeezy being among those with enough of a vocal presence to go up against the aggressive, but still very spacious instrumental. Things get just a little too reminiscent of Future's track when Tracy T comes in, but Rozay and Jeezy more than make up for it.
Big Sean- Thank You (Unreleased)
This track was unearthed this week, and apparently it dates back 4 years. You can hear a lot more Kanye (and possibly some early Drake? Hard to say since Drake once had more Kanye in his flow as well) in his delivery. It's much more composed than we've heard Sean in a while, as his flow has become increasingly cartoonish in the last few years.
It's an interesting look back at how Sean has changed since we were first introduced to him, as well as a worthwhile track in its own right. It might even be nice for the rapper to get back to some more stuff in this vein.
Wale- Clappers (Remix) Feat. Rick Ross, Fat Trel, and Young Thug
Wale's unconventional strip club anthem, "Clappers" get a complete reinvention by way of Hit-Boy. The super-producer re-purposes some "Overnight Celebrity"-esque strings for the strip-club set, making for a far superior instrumental to the original outing. Present this time are the usual suspects of the Ross clan, as well as surprise success Young Thug.
Thugger is unfortunately under-utilized on the track, contributing more of an outro than a proper 16 (though there isn't really anything proper about him, anyway), but provides a necessary melodic foil to the straight ahead strip club exploits of his peers.
Trey Songz- Ordinary (Feat. Young Jeezy)
Trey Songz has been fairly absent from the game, but he's jumped right back into things with two new tracks this week. "Ordinary" finds Trey applying his classic R&B approach the minimal strip club stylings of an instrumental reminiscent of "Pour It Up" or "Bands A Make Her Dance". He flips the one-word title of the song in ways that would make Gucci Mane jealous, making for a track that is contemporary without moving outside of the singer's lane.
Future- Move That Dope (Feat. Pharrell, Pusha T, and Casino)
The anticipation of songs and albums through titles, features, and artwork has gotten out of control, to the point that people will start making calls on whether a project is good or bad before even hearing the music. As great as "Move That Dope" looked on paper, it's once again proof that you can't capture the essence of a song by simply listing those involved.
That is, there is a special collaborative element to "Move That Dope". According to Future, he and Mike WiLL excitedly played the beat for Pharrell and Push, who instantaneously demanded that they be included on the song, and that excitement is an audible element at play. Not to mention Mike WiLL's beat takes the futurism of Hit-Boy's "Clique", chops and screws it, and sends it back to the 80s in a time machine (the retro vibes of the instrumental also inspired Future's referential "push it" ad-libs).
From the feature credits alone, there is no way you could have expected Pharrell to have the stand-out verse on this, no way you could have predicted "GANDALF HAT", or the fact that Casino (who, let's be honest, you may have counted out upon seeing his name) becomes Gunplay and Waka Flocka simultaneously in his throat-shredding closing verse.
The greatest part of this song is that it was surprising. Instead of aspiring to be what it was on paper, it transcended it, something that rappers should aim to do more often, because those stitched together crew tracks are getting old.