Watch This: Jump Up in the Air & Stay There FEAT. Lil Wayne - Erykah Badu

The unlikely pair, Erykah Badu and Lil' Wayne, come together to take you on a psychedelic journey of purple and grey. Erykah rocks nicely-blended make up and a Michael Jackson 'fro, and Wayne swims through a purple haze of smoke. The video did the song justice by making me like it.
Erykah's second installment of her three-part New Amerykah series, Return of the Ankh. News is, the album will feature more live instruments and lyrics about love and romance. The title, New Amerykah, Part II: Return of the Ankh, tells fans that Erykah is going back to the style that made her famous in the late '90s; soulful and more easily understood.
I like how they included "Free Lil Wayne" subliminally at the end. If you didn't know, Wayne was supposed to go to jail three days ago, but his sentencing was pushed back.

Rihanna Bites M.I.A. Again

Today Rihanna's label premiered the video for her single 'Rude Boy'. Rihanna said she went back to her roots for the video. I see where she was coming from, but this video reminds me a lot of M.I.A.'s '07 video for her release, 'Boyz'. I also see a lot of ethnic patterns being used in this video. It's weird that patterns are being painted all over the mainstream today (Wait for A.Keys and Beyonce's new video to drop). That was underground before '09.
Besides biting underground artists, RiRi is exploring her sexuality and putting it all out there. We rarely see this from Miss Fenty. She's noticeably evolving from edgy to sexy since the release of Rated R.
On a positive note, RiRi is killing it in this video. It's nice to see her dance for once in her life, and the video is different. I just wish she wouldn't steal from people, especially M.I.A.

Video: Pon De Floor - Major lazer

Major Lazer "Pon De Floor" ft. Vybz Kartel and Afro Jack
Uploaded by DowntownMusic. - Watch more music videos, in HD!
It only takes about 20 seconds to realize that something in this video has gone terribly wrong. This is a great high-energy track produced by Diplo and Switch for their collaborative venture called Major Lazer. The album, Guns don't Kill People; Lazers do, was recorded in Jamaica, where they explored the dancehall/dub-step scene and created an album to reflect it. They do get extra hyper and freaky in the dancehall scene, but that's what this video is all about. It's almost unbelievable how crazy this is. I wish I knew where it came from. I think space.

Marc Jacobs Spring\Summer\\2010

This show was pretty dope. This is influenced by hipster culture.
Hipster life began in the mid-2000s. Back then, wearing florescent and patterns was cutting edge. Today, ethnic patterns and headpieces are sold at Target.
Anyone cool will buy in for a while and to reap the efforts of their years of individuality. But anyone cool is already evolving their style and looking for what's next. It's really all about being yourself.
I don't really like the men's wear in this show. It's high points were the fitted suits (I need one) and badly-cut cut offs. I get it. I did not get when some of the gentlemen were sent down the runway looking like bums.
The bags on the females were amazing. The brown leather messenger with the gold on it and matching clutch; hot. The bows on the head were a nice touch. A lot of these outfits are amazing, but you will see people walking down the street wearing this.
This is Marc's functional collection for this season. His collection for Summer 2010 (below) is a bit more avant-garde.

Crack.Rock.Approved./"Loonies to Blow" A-Trak

A-Trak remixes Birdman's "Money to Blow" for his new mash-up album. The track opens with a conch shell being blown and is immediately followed by a laser shit storm. A-Trak keeps the best part of the "Money to Blow" beat and sprinkles it in between Drake's punchlines. Wayne is completely eliminated from the track, but Birdman makes his appearance at the end. I wasn't even aware that this was his song so that's cool that A-Trak gave him his place in the remix instead of giving us another Lil-Wayne anthem to bang. This probably won't be bumping in the back of most Drake's listener's trunks, but this house/dance track will be one that will keep indie dancefloors and house parties streaked by Supra soles.

New Crack.Rock.Rating scale---> 3.5/5

Download "Loonies to Blow" HERE

Crack.Rock.Approved/Gnarsesh Photography

This post has been months in the making. A high school friend of mine from Akrontown takes pictures and he has an interesting point of view. His pictures remind me of an acid trip - a good one. He's half hipster, half amazing. His photos are like looking at the sounds of an MGMT album, and I think he takes them on his iPhone. Check out his blog E Syde///W Syde. His Twitter tag is @gnarsesh

Crack.Rock Approved: Stillness is the Move

Indie band Dirty Projectors has a created a rare jewel in form of a song. 'Stillness is the Move' is something Crack.Rock.Surprise has never heard before. It Perfectly blends its electro-rock loop with soulful harmonies sung by the band's white female lead singers. We're not racist or anything, but we have never heard white girls sing like this before (except maybe Xtina or Joss Stone, but never like this). This Band's album Bitte Orca was named one of Complex magazine's top 25 albums of 2009.
This song is a few months old. Solange Knowles even recorded a cover of the track over an instrumental of Soul Mann & The Brothers’ 'Bumpy’s Lament' (also sampled in Dr. Dre's 'Xplosive' and Erykah Badu's 'Bag Lady'). Solange's version is a lot more R&B than the original, but her song choice shows that she is trying to go a different direction in music. She was quoted saying she wants to have a career like Bjork's.

Right-click and select 'Save Link As' to download the original HERE and download Solange's version HERE

Vintage Kim

Necole Bitchie got her jaguar mitts on some exclusive pictures from some guy named Frank. He said:

These are some rare photos from a photoshoot by Mo Daoud. They weren’t released. Lil’ Kim is the best and the rest followed her. Even Nicki Minaj wants to be a blonde now.I would really appreciate if you could show everyone the beauty of Vintage Kim -Frank

Crack.Rock.Surprise does not condone blond wigs,but these photos are amazing.

Kid Cudi - Cudderisback

cudderisback from Decon on Vimeo.

Cudi dropped a low-budget video for some track named "cuderisback." I'm down with the whole let'smakeavideofor20dollars thing. It's budget friendly and, if done creatively, could be better than most high-budget, mainstream videos released by record labels today.
We always knew Cudi was a pothead, but I'm concerned that more videos like this will have him on nation-wide police hit lists.

Crack Rock Approved: Plantlife/Nina Sky - Love 4 The World/Turnin' Me On

To download, right click Here
This is a track mixed by Diplo on his Fabric Live 24. Fabric is a hot spot for music in the London scene. This is the 24th installment of their series of compilation albums. Diplo has been doing shows there for years and is very popular with UK radio. I'm surprised I didn't hear about this earlier.
Anyways, the sizzling groove on Plant Life's "Love 4 the World" under Nina Sky's sexual voices makes this a pretty delicious track. I apologize for the ridiculously adjectives.

Who's that Girl?

That girl is Tatyana Ali also known as Ashley from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. A couple weeks ago, it was announced that the actress will star in an original situational comedy on TV One. Martin Lawrence has signed up as a producer. Hopefully, Lawrence will bring some of the humor he brought to Martin in this show.










The sitcom was created and produced on a very limited budget. It's creator, Bentley Kyle Evans, borrowed a lot of money to make his pilot and lucky for him, it was picked up by TV One.It doesn't seem to be anything special, but this is the first time TV One will air original programming.
This seems like another stereotypical black sit-com, though.
It will premiere later this year.
(Picture is from Ali's shoot in Mami magazine's January issue.)

Spring/Summer Crack Fashion: Tan Pants

Spring is near and nothing looks better in warm months than a crisp, clean look. I'm imagining pressed white button ups and soft blue cotton blowing in the wind. Nothing complements these colors better than comfort and style than khaki and tan (Second is a good jean).
Tan pants have become my new obsession.
Khaki colored jeans and a warm colored shirt = the bomb.com.

[Khaki Jeans by Levis, $54.00 at Urban Outfitters, Walnut Khaki pants by American Eagle. Shirts $48.00 by Urban Outfitters]

"There's Space For Ol Dat I See"

This is the first material dropped from M.I.A.'s upcoming album-yet to be titled. It was released via her Twitvid page.

Jazmine Sullivan "In Love With Another Man" Video. Amazing.

Not an official video, but it is officially amazing. Directed by Matthew Cherry.

M.I.A. Comin' Back With More Power

Don't call it a comeback. After a short-lived retirement,A failed world tour, giving birth, being nominated for an Oscar and not releasing an album since 2007, M.I.A. talks about her new album.
She said this album will be her most honest yet, and since she said she wanted to do country music via her Twitter page, we believe this will be a very different M.I.A. we see in 2010.
The songs will be produced by her usual partners in crime: Diplo, Switch and Blaqstarr. One song even features a collaboration with Filipino Verizon call center employees called, "I'm Down Like Your Internet Connection."
Rolling Stone named M.I.A. one of the most influential artists of the decade. She told them this is her album to accept the fact that she is a musical artist. She said her first two albums just happened and she really didn't identify herself as being a musician.

New Release: Corinne Bailey Rae

Corrine Bailey Rae has come back with more music. This beautiful UK songstress' last release was her debut Corinne Bailey Rae in February 2006. She is dropping her second album, The Sea, January 26.
Her first single, I'd do it all again, is probably about her husband, who committed suicide in 2008. The song is beautiful and so is the video see below. It was directed by director Jamie Thraves, who also directed Coldplay’s ‘The Scientist’.

Corinne Bailey Rae "I'd Do It All Again"

Corinne Bailey Rae | MySpace Music Videos

Old Rihanna News is Better Than no Rihanna News

Ri-Ri covered the January 2010 issue of GQ magazine. The image is pleasure from top to bottom. Note her her Rated R hair (blond on top and shaved on both sides), which matches the color of her skin; beautiful. She's giving you "tiger" in her eyes and mouth. She's topless, which is nice, but not surprising. Lastly, she's wearing leather booty shorts; Amazing.

Rihanna is expected to be releasing a photo book in June. We'll Crack Rock approve it for you.