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.

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.

Listen: SoundCloud, Spotify
Download: iTunes, Google Play

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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Listen: Spotify, SoundCloud Go

DJ Khaled recruits an all-star guest list of artists for his lead single “I’m The One” off his forthcoming studio album Grateful. The song was just released as well as the video. Everyone kills it, this one will definitely be one for the summer. Happy Friday! 🙂

It’s kind of surprisingly for me to be posting this and not the other BTC author Pat, he’s the bigger Kendrick Lamar fan, but I wanted to take this one as this is the best Lamar track I’ve heard in a long time. Plus, the visuals of this music video keep you watching; from Lamar as a pope, to him laying on a table of money shooting dollar bills from a money-gun(?), to his version of The Last Supper, to his peer’s heads set aflame wrapped in gasoline-soaked rope, there’s a lot of imagery here. In his previous single The Heart Part 4, he teased these tracks may or may not be leading up to a potential project that could arrive April 7, so come back next Friday to see if something drops.

Download: iTunes, Google Play, Amazon
Stream: Spotify, SoundCloud, Apple Music

We didn’t get a post out in time for Black Beatles when it came out Sept 2016, which is now at a crazy 300+ million views on Youtube, so we’re making sure we’ve got Rae Sremmund’s follow up hit on here. 2016 was a breakout year for the two brothers, but before Black Beatles their previous 2 singles Now That I Know (too slow) and Shake it Fast (terrible video) were not nearly as good, here’s hoping they continues on this trend.

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Stream: Apple Music, Spotify

We can’t really consider this one as a “before the charts” post, but we still felt it was worthy of a write-up. Migos has the number one song on the Billboard top 100 charts this week with Bad and Bougie. The hype for the group and song has been helped by a ton of memes and a recent shoutout by Donald Glover at the Golden Globes who called Migos the “Beatles of our generation”. Their upcoming album Culture is set to drop on January 27th.

Today has been termed “Blue Monday” since it is the most depressing day of the year, so we couldn’t think of a better song to post for today. Hopefully this one gets you bobbing your head or puts a smile on your face 🙂

Macklemore has a mega hit on his hands again, this time shedding some light on how Big Pharma and crooked doctors are getting people hooked on opioids just to line their pockets. As a former addict, Macklemore teamed up with President Obama earlier this year and created a documentary on MTV about the opioid crisis. Love it when Macklemore goes hard like he does here, the topics and even it’s visuals reminds me of his 2011 hit Otherside. Living in Seattle, his hometown, I’m already regretting not taking advantage and seeing Macklemore at Bumbershoot 2016. Also, since we haven’t posted on Macklemore before, I gotta give a shoutout to my favorite track of his (especially around St. Patrick’s Day each year), Irish Celebration, less played than many of his other hits.

One of the music videos from last month I keep going back to is Jidenna’s single “Chief Don’t Run”. You probably recognize Jidenna from his 2015 hit Classic Man and the Classic Man (Remix ft Kendrick Lamar). Another one of his 2015 singles worth checking out, that Pat recommended, is Long Live the Chief.

Download: iTunes, Google Play, Amazon
Listen: Apple Music, Spotify