Monday, August 31, 2009

Sirens Off! Go COP it: Trey Songz - "Ready"

10 Reasons to BUY (yes...BUY) Trey Songz's new album "READY"

Before I even start this list, please know that I downloaded the album a week ago and still bought it today. Some artists just deserve the support...Some albums are just worth it.

1. It's a good album. It has a good combination of slow jams and songs that you can bump in your car. Although I loved the last album, "Trey Day", that album was a lot slower. This has a lil bit more of the Trey that goes H.A.M. on the mixtapes.

2. Trey already gave you "Anticipation" for free. Anybody who has that mixtape knows that it's great....enough said. (If you don't have it...please get your music game up.)

3. You have to hear "Say Aah"...that track is for the club. And the car. And the crib. And the iPod.

4.Honestly, I have to say that Trey's vocals are better now than they've ever been. I've heard people say that he was going through a "yodeling stage"...but I think that's over. His voice is amazing. He's one of the best R&B singers that we have out right now.

5.The album has good features: Drizzy...Loso...Gucci...some of the hottest. Great collabos.


6. I must admit...I thought that it was a little redundant for Trey to put "Successful" on his album after everybody has already worn it out on Drake's "So Far Gone." I was wrong. Trey's verse and adlibs at the end of the song make it a completely new track. I love it.

7.Trey Songz is gorgeous. If you don't buy his albums for the music, buy it for the pictures. LOL :)

8. "LOL :)" Did you hear the beat? CrAAAAzy! The creative mixtape version of Trey Songz showed up on this one. Best line of the whole song: "I sent that little face with the tongue cuz I'm nasty." Need I say more? The SayNow phone number is even catchy lol "(804) 335-0051" (you gotta hear him sing it to understand what I mean.)

9. "I Gotta Make It" reached #6 on the Billboard charts. "Trey Day" reached #2. "Ready" is better.

10. Real music lovers have to support real music.
Les is More.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

I Put On...

But shout out to Jaggon for puttin me on...

Sample Me This...

The Teena Marie track is classic. Listen to it when the time reaches 4:30 to hear the part that was sampled for Luda's chorus.



Tuesday, August 25, 2009

FlashBackTrack

Who remembers this??? (And yes, that's Keri Hilson on the hook...)

~R.I.P. Aaliyah~

I saw this on GlobalGrind...figured I'd share it...

Monday, August 24, 2009

The Least: The Ne-Yo Edition



You know who's doing the very least these days? NE-YO. How do you go from tracks like "Mirror" & "Let Me Get This Right" (for all the real Ne-Yo fans) to a track like "Your Girl is A Hoe?" It's just sad because when In My Own Words dropped in 2006, it was one of those albums that you could listen to from beginning to end...from "Stay" all the way to the "Get Down Like That Remix" with Ghostface.

Then he came out with "Because of You" to kick off his second album (by the same name as this lead single), which to me, was his first slip downwards. I hated that song. It was so unoriginal and a stereotypical track for an R&B artist who was trying to crossover into Pop. It wasn't necessarily a bad song...I just expected more from him. But after I heard "Say It", "Leaving Tonight" with Jennifer Hudson, "Make It Work" and few of the other tracks off the album, I wasn't completely disappointed. Plus, this was around the same time that he was on Fabolous' "Make Me Better"...which also saved him some cool points.

The best thing, in my opinion, about Ne-Yo is his songwriting. The worst thing about Ne-Yo is his inablilty to completely let go of the songs that he writes for other artists that become hits. I don't know if you remember, but at one point, Mario was mad because Ne-Yo was seen on multiple occasions performing "Let Me Love You." Dude, we know you wrote the song...chill. And I remember when I tried to download Rihanna's "Take A Bow," only to hit play and hear that it was a live version of Ne-Yo singing it. Not to mention that after Beyonce's "Irreplaceable" blew up, Ne-Yo snatched his track back, wrote "Go On Girl" and put the song that has the same beat on his album. On top of all that, he co-produced a song called "Single" with Polow Da Don for New Kids on the Block. You can already guess...the song ended up on his third album without the group. (I will admit, though, that Ne-Yo's version was better. That song should have never been a male duet anyway lol)


Speaking of his third album, Year of the Gentleman, ...it was aiight. It wasn't as good as the first two, which is not just my opinion, but a fact, simply because it never hit #1 on the Billboard Charts like the first albums did. I hated the first single "Closer." I thought he was trying to be too much like Michael Jackson and I wasn't a fan of all that... but "Miss Independent" was great. The production was phenomenal, his vocals were hot, and the video was even good. He followed that up with the remix, "She Got Her Own," and I thought I was about the be a real Ne-Yo fan again. But then he came out with mediocrity like "Mad" and "Part of the List" and my excitement for him faded along with the rest of his popularity.

He just comes off so arrogant and annoying now. Sometimes I wish he would just shut up, write songs, and let other artists throw their swag on it. Don't get me wrong, there a few tracks that didn't make his album (like, "Sexy In Here") that should have, and might have been beneficial to his career...but overall, your boy is slippin.

I will say that the 2009 BET Awards was a good look for Ne-Yo. His rendition of Michael Jackson's "Lady In My Life" was outstanding and honestly, I don't think that anyone else could have done it...(except maybe Usher?). It was the first time that I could appreciate his yearning to emulate MJ. His vocal game was definitely on point. (I don't know how I feel about that bald head though...)

Anyway, he's supposed to start working on his 4th album in 2010. Can we please get a new Ne-Yo?...or at least the old one? All I know is...if "Your Girl is a Hoe" is on the album, I refuse to buy it. He's doing the least and Les is more.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KOBE :-)


Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a DIE HARD Kobe Bryant fan. So I just wanted to take a lil time to show one of the greatest basketball players in the world some love on his 31st birthday. The defending champs gon be back at it again in October...LET'S GO!!!!

Friday, August 21, 2009

I Put On...

Sample Me This...

Guess who sampled this song? (This one is easy...)

Conversation: A Lil Ventilation

So, as I watching the video for "Every Girl" by Young Money yesterday, it occurred to me that the concept of a dude wanting to be with "every girl in the world" is not only ridiculous, but completely unoriginal.

When you think about it, "Every Girl" is a modern-day, more disrespectful version of Hov's "Girls, Girls, Girls." Not to come off as a feminist ('cause trust, I'm far from all that...) but the major difference between these two hip-hop hits is the value of all these girls...in the world.

While "Every Girl" is FAR MORE immersed in physicality, Jay not only talks about what these girls look like, but what their personalities are like...what they do for him...how they are an attribution (or not) to his lifestyle. He's even willing to give a young chick a chance, despite the fact that he has to "toss a couple dollars, just to shut up her holla." I mean...yea...he calls a girl a hoe in the last verse, but he laces the chorus with words like "love" and "adore." "Put ya number on this paper cuz I would love to date ya"...The YM Crew never even mentions a damn date!

Weezy gets the song poppin with "I like a long haired thick red bone..." and I swear to you, his whole entire verse is STRICTLY about how a chick looks and what they do together...sexually, of course. I mean, I can't lie, I thought it was cute when he said, "I don't think you're beautiful, I think you're beyond it," but the follow-up line quickly snatches you out of anything romantic. And honestly, the listener never gets a glimpse of a personality trait until Drake's verse, where he spits, "All they want to talk about is partyin' and fashion..." (Please note that I used to word GLIMPSE purposely, because that is thee ONLY line not physically-related in his verse.) Oh and ladies, please don't show up with your friend because then he's really confused...

Jae Millz kinda saves YM as he explains that he "ain't being disrespectful baby I'm just being Millz and I don't know how fake feels so I gotta keep it real." Then he goes on to list all of these occupations of women...which is OK...'cause at least you're lookin for somebody who's smart enough to be employed...(wait, is a "skeezer" employed???) But don't get hopeful, the song goes back downhill from there. Hoes become god's gift like Christmas and v-cards are taken from retards...THE MOST.

But despite the utter disrespect for women...I LOVE this song. The beat and melody throughout the track, which is produced by The Bizness, is hot. And plus "let's be honnnnnnest," every girl that they are talking about exist somewhere, so it's not like they're making it up. I'd only really be offended if I was her. But I'm not... Les is more ;)



Allow Me To Reintroduce Myself...My Name Is...

Leslie. I started this blog back in February, shortly after my family suffered the loss of our matriarch. Although, secretly, I've always wanted to do something like this, I didn't really have the time to keep it up as I embarked on my final semester as an undergraduate student at Temple U. But now that I don't have papers to write, shifts to cover at the library, or the duties of being Mo'Shay LaRen's assistant (which I miss...alot), I now have the time to welcome you into the world of Les Is More.

I chose that name for the blog, (not only because of the intentional pun on words of my name that I am called by those close to me), but also because it's...well...me. Sometimes people try to do too much, not realizing that less is more. Sometimes people don't know what to expect from me, not realizing that Les is more..."more than what you bargained for and nothing less than real." Ride with me...