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 25 most played, focusing on those that stood out, and left room for discussion. This edition features Drake, Fabolous, Meek Mill, French Montana, 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.
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Drake Feat. Drake- 5AM In Toronto
It's not clear whether it's the time or the city that's responsible, but Drake sounds a lot angrier here than he did on 9AM In Dallas. Everyone gets a little cranky in the early hours of the morning, but Drizzy is downright pissed. Luckily, as evidenced by last year's "Stay Schemin'" verse, Drake is at his pure rap best when he's venting. Boi-1da provides a beat that falls somewhat short of his very best work (Headlines), but far removed from his worst (Nicki's Freedom), and much like the track's predecessor, this beat allows Drizzy to spit one giant rapidfire verse, and eclipsing his 16 is another area where the rapper tends to shine. Drake leaves no page unturned in this verse, addressing those he's helped and been abandoned by, those who've vocally disapproved of him, and those who've borrowed his style in more ways than one. Of course, he names no names, but his shots are hardly veiled. Half of the lines in the track have already been quoted and meme-ified to death, with the clear favorite being the hilarious "Drake Feat. Drake" line that likely had a Kirko Bangz or two blushing. Schoolboy Q said it best when he mentioned that anytime Drizzy drops a track, everyone stops what they're doing and puts on a pair of headphones. Aside from his undeniable talent, Drake puts a certain amount of care into his work that fans have now come to expect from him, and it's this dedication to his craft that continues to make each of his tracks a pretty huge event.
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Danny Brown- #HottestMC
Danny Brown drops a topical track that tackles the much talked about "Hottest MCs In The Game" list, sort of. The song serves more of an argument that Danny belongs in the conversation of hottest MCs, with Brown not directly addressing the matter, rather flexing his rap abilities as proof of his worth. The thing is that while Danny is certainly a great rapper and could definitely be argued as one of the best in certain categories, he's always gonna be a little too much of a weirdo to be considered for a list that heavily factors popularity. This track is probably more of argument that the criteria should be more focused on skill than appeal, but at the end of the day Danny shows us that he's one of the more exciting emcees out there, and he doesn't need a list to evidence that.
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Hit-Boy- Cypher Feat. ScHoolboy Q, Casey Veggies, Xzibit, Rick Ross, Method Man, Redman & Raekwon
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Vado- Don't Make Me Do It Feat. Ace Hood, Meek Mill, French Montana & DJ Khaled
Yet another crew track from the Khaled camp. This is everything you've come to expect from “We The Best” team, who here celebrate the signing of Harlem's Vado. Ace Hood takes the reins on the autotuned hook, which he operates surprisingly well, but makes you wonder whether Future was busy visiting his family on Pluto that day. You have to admit that these Khaled tracks bring out the beast in rappers though, as evidenced by French Montana coming dangerously close to going hard.
k dot
This track gives us a brief history lesson on Kendrick's flow. While it's unclear if the 16 year old K-Dot is purposely channeling Hov on his own beat, or just happened to have a little more New York in his delivery, the rapper certainly doesn't have the singular rap style he possesses today. This doesn't mean he's not a great rapper even at this age, he is, but the track is more of an interesting look at Lamar's development as an MC than it is a definitive cut. It's cool to hear the "minor of the year" rap over a Jigga beat, and gives us a little more perspective on where his early influences lay. Kendrick has one of the most unique flows ever crafted, and we've come once step closer to dissecting it with this recorded moment.
Meek Mill- Started From The Bottom (Freestyle)
Meek Mill has one setting: Go Hard. While the rapper's incessantly yelled delivery can prove tiresome, it can also be very exciting when applied correctly. The MMG rapper replaces the low-register grunt of Drake's original take with his high pitched-yelp, and completely reinvents the track. Meek even sets the BPM a little higher to match his banger-centric flows and bookends the long string of freestyles over the beat with one of it's best.
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Fabolous- Success Is Revenge