Straight from the Ghetto - News on HipHop, pt. 22

Chamillionare’s tune “Not a Criminal” featuring Kelis is put on promo circuit by Universal Motown right now and about to hype some dancefloors with dark beats on a danger zone tip, tight flows and a kinda sing-along chorus that gets that tune an anthemic character that’ll surely be appreciated by many HipHop headz out there rollin‘ with the new school.

The next 12” taken from Nas‘ “HipHop Is Dead”-album out on DefJam is “Can’t Forget About You” featuring Chrisette Michele on mic duties coming up with weird 60‘s flava alongside the man himself, dropping his –once again – HipHop-conscious rhymes on top of phat, laid back beats and deep samples that sound like they’ve been taken off sweet love’n’moonlight romance movie from back in the very days. Interestingat first sight, but finally too candy pop for me.

Timbaland’s new album “Shock Value” is about to drop in March on Blackground Records / Interscope and the first single taken out of it is on promo circuit these days. “Give It To Me” features the vocal talents of Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake on one tracks which is defo a rare thing to be found these days. Based on typical minimalistic beats the pair of two comes up with a grounded vision of Pop meets HipHop / DigiSoul which is quality when it comes to mass appealing music but a bit too sweet and smooth for my personal taste.