Cruel Summer album review

In today’s blog I will be reviewing the G.O.O.D music compilation album Cruel Summer. First of all I’d like to state that I am a big fan of Kanye West’s production skills. This new album is not a Kanye West album. It is a compilation of all the G.O.O.D music artists plus more. This album is full of “goofy” punch lines and hot beats. The lyrics are decent, and offer some depth. But my favorite thing about this album is the production work. As a broadcasting student I can appreciate the time and effort put into the overall “sound” of this album. It offers hardcore rap, hip-hop, R&B, and reggae. I believe this album is worth buying if you like Kanye’s style. This is my opinion, everybody’s got one.

Here is the track/artist list:

01 – “To The World” – Kanye West feat. R. Kelly & Teyana Taylor [Prod. by Pop & Oak. Co: Hudson Mohawke, Million $ Mano, Ken Lewis, Travi$ Scott & Anthony Kilhoffer]
02 – “Clique” – Kanye West & Big Sean feat. Jay-Z & Cocaine 80s [Prod. by Hit-Boy. Co: Kanye West, Anthony Kilhoffer & Noah Goldstein]
03 – “Mercy” – Kanye West, Big Sean & Pusha T feat. 2 Chainz [Prod. by Lifted & Kanye West]
04 – “New God Flow” – Kanye West & Pusha T feat. Ghostface Killah [Prod. by Boogz, Tapez & Kanye West]
05 – “The Morning” – Pusha T, Common, CyHi The Prynce, Kid Cudi & D’banj feat. Raekwon and 2 Chainz [Prod. by IllMind & Kanye West. Co: Jeff Bhasker & Travi$ Scott]
06 – “Cold” – Kanye West feat. DJ Khaled & DJ Pharris [Prod. by Hit-Boy]
07 – “Higher” – Pusha T feat. The-Dream, Ma$e & Cocaine 80s [Prod. by Hit-Boy. Co: Kanye West & Mike Dean]
08 – “Sin City” – John Legend, Teyana Taylor, CyHi The Prynce & Malik Yusef feat. Travi$ Scott [Prod. by Tommy Brown & Travi$ Scott]
09 – ”The One” – Kanye West & Big Sean feat. 2 Chainz, Marsha Ambrosius & Cocaine 80s [Prod. by Kanye West. Co: Hudson Mohawke, The Twilite Tone, Mannie Fresh & Lifted]
10 - “Creepers” – Kid Cudi [Prod. by Dan Black]
11 - “Bliss” – John Legend & Teyana Taylor [Prod. by Hudson Mohawke]
12 - “Don’t Like (Remix)” – Pusha T, Kanye West & Big Sean feat. Chief Keef & Jadakiss [Prod. by Young Chop. Co: Kanye West, The Twilite Tone & Noah Goldstein]

Lawless Movie Review

I will give a short review of the new movie Lawless in today’s blog. First of all I will confess I am a huge Shia LaBeouf fan. I loved the movie Holes and Mr. Labeouf played an amazing role in that movie. The movie Lawless is based on Matt Bondurant's 2008 novel The Wettest County in the World about his grandfather and great-uncles in Prohibition-era Franklin County, Virginia. I am from the south and I’ve always found the Prohibition era interesting. This movie has a lot to offer from “country style” fights to “Chicago gangster” Tommy gun fights with a love story added for an interesting twist. This is a movie that you can see with your “bros” but you can also bring your “special friend” because of the depth. The ending of this movie is intense but has a since of irony too it as well. I obviously can’t give details because I don’t want to ruin it for you. But I certainly recommend spending the money to see this in the theaters.

-Will Harbin

Since I did little “new” production work over the summer my first blog will be an album review. The album I will be reviewing is Frank Oceans “Channel Orange”. The first time I heard Frank Ocean in a song was “No Church In The Wild” off of Jay-Z and Kayne’s album “Watch The Throne”. I remember asking a buddy of mine “Who is that singing?” His voice was intoxicating. I didn’t know what it was about his style but I loved it.

Fast forward a year later. “Channel Orange” Is released. This CD offers hip hop and R&B. Frank Ocean takes you through his life of love and loss. You feel his pain, you feel his joy.  One of my favorite songs is “Pyramids”. This 9 minute song is like a story. The first time I listened to this song I thought it was at least 3 different songs. This CD has a lot to offer musically and spiritually.

By: Will Harbin

How have I improved?

I feel a lot more comfortable in front of camera. I also feel like my voice overs/ radio voice have improved since the beginning of class. I still have room for improvement doing my news stand up. I have a little trouble “reading” the script sand sometimes I struggle getting all the information out.  Overall I feel like I have improved since the first class and I feel like this class has helped me feel more confident.

Inflection

I watched ESPN's Sports center. Linda Cohn was the anchor. She had a lot of upward inflection in the opening segment. She also used downward inflection at the end of the segment. When she was stating facts and stats she used slow inflection to make sure everyone could hear the numbers. She used a lot of upward inflection to keep the audiences attention.

Why I picked my scripts and why does my voice suit the script.

I picked 3 sports scripts, because I am very familiar with sports teams and players. I think my voice suits the scripts because the script was for men’s sports and most men watch sports.  I picked an A&E biography promo read, because it was simple with names that I could pronounce with ease. I think it suits my voice because the promo was pretty much unisex. The last two scripts I picked were both alcohol.  I picked those scripts because I am familiar with the products. I think they suited my voice because one script was kind of manly and the other one was short and sweet both just seemed perfect for a deep male voice.

What genre appeals to you most? How is the role of the DJ changing?

What genre appeals to you most? I like all genres of music, but my favorite would be "oldies" and hip-hop. I like oldies because when I was little I would always listen to whatever my father would listen to and his taste in “oldies” just stuck with me. I also like hip-hop because I in a way grew up with hip hop. Hip-hop was born in the late 80’s early 90’s and so was I. How is the role of the DJ changing? I think that we are shifting to less DJ talk and more music. Not everyone (myself included) wants to hear someone blab on about artists and songs; we want to hear the artists and the songs. With that said people still like to hear a little background information about the artist/song before they listen to it.