DJ Blu Fire Hip Hop Blog

When it comes to modern mixtapes Lil Wayne will always be king. In high school, it felt like every week a new Dedication or Drought mixtape came out. These mixtapes are some of my fondest and most memorable moments listening to hip-hop. At the time of their release, it felt as though Lil Wayne could do no wrong in the span of 2007-2009. If another artist put out a song with a fire beat you had to assume Lil Wayne was going to jump on that beat and body it.  I recall vividly having to update my iPod mini every few weeks and also burn a bunch of CDs so I had the newest Lil Wayne On Christmas, Weezy gave us all a gift with the release of the newest edition of his mixtape series Dedication 6. I was pleasantly surprised by the project specifically by XO Tour Life, Yeezy Sneakers, and Eureka. When I look up "Lil Wayne" on my iTunes I have over 4 hours of music with the majority being mixtapes. Here are my top Lil Wayne mixtape tracks. XO Tour Life- Dedication 6 Li

It's been a minute since I've posted but here are a few new (mostly new) hot songs I'm listening to. If Everyday was Christmas- Jim Jones Nobody Else But You- Trey Songz Top Left- Roy Woods Codeine Dreaming- Kodak Black (feat. Lil Wayne) Theme Music- Fabolous & Jadakiss (feat Swizz Beatz)  On Me- Chris Brown Rap Saved Me- 21 Savage/Offset/Metro Booming (feat Quavo) Late Night Tip- Three 6 Mafia (Throwback) Super Saiyan- Lonzo Ball Wife You Up- Russ Side Chick Anthem- K Camp Suga Suga (Acoustic Version)- Baby Bash & Frankie J Infirmary- Tha Joker Over- PLAZA Gave Your Love Away- Majid Jordan Get to Me- Ace Hood Snooze- Johnny Yukon Don't Choose- dvsn Chris Brown reaction/review is currently in the drafts. Thanks for reading, if you have any topic ideas or feedback let me know.

We all have those songs that for whatever reason never get old to us. It could be because it reminds you of when you first heard it, the lyrics could resonate with you or simply the beat is fire. Here is my short playlist of songs that I could listen to on repeat on a desert island. Dreams- Fleetwood Mac Where I (probably) was when I first heard this song:  I've always been a fan of Fleetwood Mac but more recently after purchasing a record player and getting Rumors on vinyl did I really fall in love with Dreams. Since I got my record player the majority of the time Rumors staying on. Purple Rain- Prince Where I (probably) was when I first heard this song: In the womb? Who knows as a Minnesotan admiration for Prince is in your blood. Imaginary Player- Jay Z Where I (probably) was when I first heard this song: Sitting in my basement and found this song via limewire or youtube. The second hip hop album I really liked was the Black Album by Jay Z

I've had the same laptop since before I start college in the summer of 2009. In that time period, my musical taste has constantly changed. On my hard drive, I have over 10,000 songs.Today I am going to start on the first on in my library as a starting point then on shuffle give my feelings on the 10 next songs that follow. Some may be songs I still listen to while some may be random mixtape songs that I downloaded in college. Here we go... Song 1- Real by Frank Ocean, The Lonny Breaux Collection This song is for an early Frank Ocean mixtape. I've listened to most of the songs on it but it's over 30 songs in length and this is one I missed. This is a chill ballad that I'm feeling on this lazy Sunday sitting in a coffee shop in Kansas City. Song 2- We Don't Do That by the Joker, The Casino Family Vol. 1 Anyone that spoke to me in high school and early college knows how much I loved the rapper Tha Joker. In my opinion, he still has some of the best punchlines in hip

Yesterday was Record Store Day, where people were encouraged to visit their local record store. As someone who loves music, I've always wanted a record player to play vinyl. The experience of the album art and the richer sound is something that I enjoy. With the convenience of digital streaming music, we lose the art and patience of music. So yesterday I decided to purchase a record player after years of wanting to own one. I felt a reconnection with music that I've heard numerous times before by having a different listening experience. When I put on Purple Rain onto my record player I was forced to sit and simply listen to the songs. I couldn't multitask with my headphones in or skip songs with ease. I simply sat back and listened to the songs in the order and sound that Prince meant for them to be listened in. I also purchased a few of my favorite recent albums that sound great on vinyl. The album that I got that sounds great on vinyl is House of Balloons by The Weeknd.

Gone are the days of rappers using traditional advertising to promote their next album. A few years ago we used to see artists buying billboards doing numerous media appearances. That type of traditional album promotion still happens but is not as prevalent as it was. In this blog post, I dive into how artists have changed how the gain attention for a new album or song. Soulja Boy Tricking the Internet The first artist I can remember being smart using the internet to virally marketing his music was Soulja Boy. During the late 2000s we just started seeing a boom of people switching to digital music over physical CDs. So what Soulja Boy did was name his songs after top songs of the time. People would think they were downloading 50 Cent In Da Club but really downloading a new Soulja Boy song. You can see more about that in an interview here . Rae Sremmurd Mannequin Challenge Last year Black Beatles by the duo Rae Sremmurd was a hot song but it didn't really take of

Sorry for the delay, meant to post this right after the album came out. For a visual, I'm currently eating french toast outside on a beautiful day listening to the new Drake. Here is my first reaction to Drake's new album (playlist sorry). This is posted a few weeks after the album came out but here were my first thoughts. The rules I set for myself were I couldn't look anything up and I could only write about each song for it's duration. Also no pausing the album. Here are my first reaction/thoughts. 1. Free Smoke The first song on the album starts with a gospel intro then BAM big bass drop and Drizzy goes in. Ok Drake is coming at all the wack rappers and moving to Dubai. "I'm not Kid n Play, this kid doesn't play about the flow" *insert 100 fire emojis Oh damn, this outro is trippy, who's this British dude?! 2. No Long Talk feat Giggs Ok hard bass drop with some British dude yelling WE LIT. Is Drake British now? I'm not su

About five years ago a friend told me to download the Pulto mixtape by Future. I was familiar with him from the couple of singles he had but had never listened to a full mixtape/album of his. The mixtape was filled with numerous autotuned filled ballads as well as high-energy bangers. I enjoyed the majority of the songs and something about Future's energy was extremely infectious. Fast forward to two years ago and Future solidified himself as one of my favorite rappers. In the span of less than a year Future released five projects: Monster/Beast Mode/56 Nights/Dirty Sprite 2/What a Time to be Alive. The numerous hits and anthems that came were tremendous from March Madness to Thought It Was a Drought every hip hop fan knew every word. Fast forward to this week I was extremely excited to learn that Future would release two albums in one week. With little to no warning, Future dropped the self-titled album FUTURE. The album is high energy with catchy hooks and fast-paced beats

Aubrey Grahm aka Drizzy aka October's Very Own aka Drake is no doubt a superstar. He has transitioned from child actor to a rapper on Lil Wayne's Young Money label to an icon. His music has become anthems for months and he recently hosted SNL. With this level of popularity, it's hard to imagine his music being anything close to hidden but there are a lot of great songs from Drake you may have missed. I remember listening to Ransom feat. Lil Wayne in my 98 Jetta in 2008 as a Senior in high school via cassette adapter. I am going to try and introduced your or reintroduce you to some great Drake songs you may have glossed over or simply missed. Little Bit feat. Lykke Li Check out this chill love song featuring singer Lykke Li.  I'm Still Fly One of Drake's best early songs. Stuntin' feat Lil Wayne This is a song off of Lil Wayne's Dedication 3 when we didn't know much about Drake. Congratulations Drake does a verse over some Coldpa