GOOD Music - Cruel Summer

Wow it's been over a year since my last post - so I thought I'd try and revive this dead effort hah. With super groups now seemingly becoming a trend with Young Money's success, I thought I'd talk about what I think is going to be an awesome collaboration this year in Kanye West's upcoming GOOD Music album titled Cruel Summer and give a short and sweet run down on who they are and what you can expect from them.

First, the basics:
- GOOD Music stands for Getting Out Our Dreams
- Founded in 2004 by Kanye West
- Big names include: John Legend, Common, Kid Cudi, Big Sean, Mr. Hudson, Cyhi the Prynce, Mos Def, Pusha T, and of course Kanye West
- Big name producers: Kanye West, No I.D., Mannie Fresh, and Hit Boy

The label's been around for awhile and has been successful with 7 Grammy nominations between Common and John Legend. But it's only recently come more into the spotlight as a unit with singles like Mercy and New God Flow being released this year.

Cruel Summer is going to be released in four days on September 18, and I personally think this is going to be one of the best hip-hop albums of the year. It's not going to be an album with pop songs or tracks that you might necessarily play at a party, I don't think that's what Kanye West intends. I think the sound he's going for stems really from his last album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - especially from tracks like So Apalled. I think the album will be full of beats that are unique in their sound as far as instruments, operas, choirs, cellos...and hit hard, but at the same time stay in their essence of rap and give room for each artist's voice to come out and be heard. I also don't think Big Sean and Cyhi the Prynce were picked up by Kanye just for their lyrics...those two guys have voices that really can cut through a beat - something I feel is pretty rare and really important as far as the persona/sound these guys try to go for.

The album's stacked with really creative artists and will feature guys like Jay-Z and Mase too. I'm looking forward to it.

Singles already released:
- Mercy
- New God Flow
- Don't Like
- Clique (my personal favorite)
- Cold