Mike Shinoda from Linkin Park has been keeping himself busy the last few months by going solo and preparing a new album for release. ‘Post Traumatic’ will feature 16 new songs and is planned for a June 15 release date. Shinoda played his first solo shows since the death of Bennington on May 12 at the KROQ Weenie Roast in Los Angeles and May 13 at the Identity LA festival, also in L.A. Shinoda mashed up some Linkin Park songs along with his solo material, singing some of Chester Bennington’s parts from songs like “Bleed It Out”. He played “In The End” on piano and let the fans sing most of Chester’s vocal parts, though at times he came in and sang his parts.

In preparation for the album, he has released several songs and videos, including Place to Start, Watching As I Fall, Over Again, Nothing Makes Sense Anymore, and most-recently, About You ft blackbear. Running From My Shadow reminds me a lot of the early Linkin Park days, where there was a lot of screaming and shouting and hard-core rapping. The way they change the beat at 2:51 and 2:59 almost sounds like a quick Chester Bennington scream. This song has me even more excited for Mike’s release.

Speaking of the late Chester Bennington, Shinoda has explained that music has helped him through the process of losing the lead singer and best friend. “Life was difficult; music was easy. The music made things easier.” While I’m sure it has been a difficult process, it’s nice to see Mike doing better and doing what feels right. We are definitely looking forward to the new album and continued success for Mike, Brad, Joe, Dave, and Rob.

Martin Garrix and David Guetta team up for a great track titled So Far Away. The song is the sixth original song of 2017 by Garrix and features vocals from English songwriter Jamie Scott, and Romy Dya, a Dutch female vocalist. Interestingly, Ellie Goulding was intended to feature on the track as the female vocal. Her vocals were replaced because her label and management were holding back the release of the track. Garrix debuted the song during his set on the Belgian EDM festival Tomorrowland, which did not please Goulding’s management and label. They decided to replace Goulding’s vocals so the song could be released.

Check out the music video below and let us know what you think

After a seven-year hiatus, N.E.R.D just released their first single titled “Lemon”. The group which consists of Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo, and Shae Haley has been off the scene since their fourth album, Nothing, in 2010. The banger features Rihanna who is rapping on the track – which is a new but awesome sound for her. Their upcoming album doesn’t have a release date yet, but its rumored title is No One Ever Really dies and will have features with stars like Kendrick Lamar, André 3000, M.I.A., Gucci Mane, Future, Wale, and Ed Sheeran.

Back in April Ludacris dropped Vitamin D, but his new single “Vices” is on another level. It had been 2 years since Luda dropped a couple tracks on par with this; Beast Mode and Call Ya Bluff. The video follow Luda as he gives into several of his own vices, from in a hotel room in Vegas, to one of his concerts, on the road, and to an after party. Hopefully this is a indication that his anticipated 9th album is in the works.

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Ester Dean made waves in the hip-hop scene in ’09 with her hit Drop it Low ft. Chris Brown and then being featured on MGK – Invincible in 2012. In 2015 she ventured into pop with a hit for the Pitch Perfect 2 soundtrack; Crazy Youngsters. Now she’s jumping into another genre, EDM, with Afrojack and David Guetta. The last big collaboration between Afrojack and Guetta was Hey Mama ft. Nicki Minaj. The video is animated by Sanghon Kim, features a robot woman, almost giving vibes of Ghost in the Shell, with the movie coming out recently.

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Tragic. Today we lost one of the most influential lead vocalists, of one of the biggest rock bands, of our generation; Chester Bennington. Just last month Patrick, myself and several of my friends attended what would turn out to be our first and last Linkin Park concert. As noted through various posts on this site, Linkin Park was Pat and I’s favorite band growing up, and there’s a mix of gratefulness that we finally got to see our favorite band perform live, and sadness that we won’t get to do it again. I also discovered today that my fiancé had also bought tickets to give to me on my birthday to see them in Seattle in October. Linkin Park’s Youtube account had released a brand new music video the same morning before the news of Chester’s passing broke, made up of tour footage, it’s now serving as a tribute to Chester, trending at #1 on Youtube.

Off his new EP album 7 Series, Kid Ink teams up with Starrah for his latest single No Strings. Starrah’s on the come up, often not getting the credit she’s due. She’s had an interesting split of serving as songwriter half the time and being a vocalist the other half the time on a slew of hits over the last 2 years. You may recognize her name from being featured on G-Easy – Order More last year. She’s worked with everyone from Drake to Rihana, The Weeknd and Calvin Harris. Keep an eye on her.

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Few people will remember this, but this is not the First Time that Kygo and Ellie Goulding have actually worked together (see what we did there?). Well, kind of; in 2014 Kygo was just breaking onto the scene when he released a High For This (Remix) of Ellie Goulding’s 2012 cover of The Weeknd. Kygo’s come a long way since then and now he gets to work with Goulding on an original track. First Time is a follow up hit to another recent collaboration Kygo did with Selenia Gomez titled It Aint Me. The last time we posted on Kygo was his hit Carry Me (2016) and Goulding was On My Mind (2015) .

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Linkin Park has now released an official music video for Good Goodbye; their latest single that dropped early last month. The video adds intro music very similar to that of the Stranger Things title sequence, as well as being shot in an similar 1980s sci-fi movie look with neon red/pink bleeding edges. The video combines Mortal Kombat with NBA Jam in a supernatural life-or-death basketball competition where NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar serves as judge and executioner. Pusha T and Stormzy from the single also make appearances in the video. The rest of the album One More Light is out May 19.

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The duo of last year’s beer pong anthem Pong Dance is back! This time Vigiland is taking over the repeat button on your Friday nights. With a very similar target audience to that of Pong Dance, their 2014 hit Shots and Squats has been their most successful hit to date.

Update May 11: Vigiland has now released the music video for Friday Night:

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