FUTURE-Music Must Haves

Skip the intros, let's get straight to it.

At the top of the list is one of the nastiest, thought-provoking, out of the box lyricists of our generation, Lupe Fiasco. If you're any kind of cool, you'd know the guy made a name for himself and nerds alike by rhyming about skateboard pleasantries, as well as inciting people to re-think the world around them.

His last studio effort, "The Cool," debuted in 2007 and sold a little over 200,000 copies. Throughout the album, Lupe hinted that his next album, tentatively entitled, L.U.P.END would be his last, but the powers that be have led the west-side Chicago rapper back into the studio for his up coming album LASERS, due sometime this fall.

Next on the list is everyone's favorite prick, Kanye West. Me myself, I have no real issues with the guy. My only quarrel with 'Ye, give us the old 'Ye! We want that "College Dropout" Kanye back! Sure, I understand that as an artist, you can't stay in one spot, that you have to be willing to develop your craft, but at the same time, it seems like all of the "pissed-offisms" have led Kanye to explore sounds that are either hit or miss. Sure, his last CD, 808's and Heartbreak did over 450k in its first week of release, but I mean...eh. It took me several times of skipping, looping and listens to actually appreciate the album, not usually a habit when it comes to Kanye West projects. I understand that a lot of the album's source material came from 'Ye's personal experience, and I applaud him for that as an artist; but as a listener, I guess the presentation could have been a bit better.

Hopefully, we get a glimpse of ol' school Kanye in the long awaited "Good Ass Job" album. The released single "Power" sounds pretty good. It has the arrogance we've come to appreciate in Kanye along with a catchy track with matching chant vocals in the background. "Good Ass Job" is slatted for release on September 14.

HONORABLE MENTION: This one's going to North Carolina's own, J.Cole. I appreciate J.Cole since really all North Carolina's ever given us was Michael Jordan, Vince Carter, and Little Brother...Petey Pablo, #CMONSON!?

With J.Cole comes the resurgence of all around hip-hop. He's got a delivery that resembles 2 Pac, word play the likes of Jay-Z or Andre 3000, and the intellect of consensus rapper's Talib Kweli and Common. Overall, Emperor Hov found himself a mighty fine apprentice in young Cole (cue Darth Vader breathing). His mix-tapes The Come Up and The Warm Up are definitely worth checking out. Does he have what it takes to take the new Roc-Nation to heights unseen since the early days of Roc-A-Fella? We'll have to wait and see.

Sidenote: Whre the hell is Big Sean?!?