It's rare to hear a R&B/rap duet wherein the singing part serves as the hard side of the hard/soft dynamic. Usually it's the other way around. But this is Drake and Mary J. Blige we're talking about, so here we are. Now, I strongly dislike Drake. (That could be a Morrissey song, "Drake, I Dislike You.") Even though I think he is an interesting writer and he raps well. And that makes me like this song even more. READ MORE

Aubrey “Drake” Graham released his sophomore album, Take Care, the other week. On it, Drake talks about many women, and sometimes a single woman, and all the ways they’ve hurt and mistreated the rapper-singer from Toronto. And, of course, there is one song on the album he reserves to sing directly to the ladies. It’s called “Make Me Proud"—and it’s his requisite Song for Women. READ MORE

"We should not unnecessarily increase the amount of conscious suffering in the universe." READ MORE

Is that Drake, in the pink shirt, tan sweater vest and bow-tie, dancing next to Jaleel White in Cee-Lo's new video? It almost could be, right?

"I'm ready to give up my old thoughts/I'ma move past what a saw/I'ma do what a want and be happy/I'm not gonna rob or kill to survive/Everything I seen was a lie/I'm not ready to die/I love myself..." — Lil B, "I Hate Myself." READ MORE

1) I've had ice-cream four times this week
2) I've had diarrhea four times this week
3) I saw Something Borrowed in the theater twice
4) I've been wearing the same socks since Tuesday
5) I brushed my teeth with just water this morning
6) I clipped my toenails in the bed and I'm pretty sure I didn't find all the parings when I tried to sweep them up
7) I watched both cases in an episode of "Judge Judy" yesterday while eating peanut butter and Nutella straight out of the jars with a spoon
8) The cat threw up on the couch and I just turned the cushion over
9) A piece of cheese fell down into the crack between the counter and the oven
10) I peed in the plant again
11) I was eating the peanut butter and Nutella with the same spoon, and some Nutella got mixed into the peanut-butter, I saw it there, but I closed the jar and put it back into the cabinet like that anyway

I was jogging by the East River this morning, listening to David Comes to Life, the new album by the Toronto rock band called Fucked Up, marveling at how awesome it is, how the drumming is like a stampede of wild horses, and how well the band's guitarists (there are three of them, like Molly Hatchet) hone and manipulate these giant waves of feedback and distortion, thinking that the sound reminds me more of Husker Du than anything I've heard since Husker Du, and that, if these guys had come out when I was in college, I would have probably wanted to tattoo some sort of sworn allegiance to them on my chest, when I noticed that the fuzz-tone wail was getting louder and louder in my headphones. Strangely louder. And then I realized that the loudness was actually coming from outside my headphones, and turned to see that a pontoon plane was landing on the river nearby. That's always cool to see, an airplane landing on water, the splash and the glide and the waves that it makes. And it seemed to fit the music so well, the power of it, and since the plane was coming from the north, I thought, huh, wouldn't that be cool if it was coming from Canada, maybe carrying Fucked Up down to the city to play a show. And that thought, and the image of the plane landing on the water from Canada, made me remember one of the less-great albums ever made by the greatest Canadian feedback-and-distortion rocker of them all. And that even though it was one of his less-great albums, there were still some songs on it that I liked. READ MORE

Two new projects are sparking a lot of discussion right now about the current state of R&B. The first is by The Weeknd, a mysterious singer (or group?) who has enjoyed a quick rise to critical-darling status since releasing the free debut album House of Balloons last week. The second is by Frank Ocean, the lone singer in Rap Group of the Moment, Odd Future. Ocean's album, nostalgia,Ultra, also excellent, also free, came out mere weeks before The Weeknd's project, so the two acts are getting joined together as poster children for what's being called a new wave of R&B. The terms being thrown around to describe this new wave are "hipster R&B" and—half-jokingly, half-seriously—"PBR&B." Some have also pointed to So Far Gone, the emotional rap mixtape (featuring a lot of singing!) by Drake, released in 2009, as a major influencer, an initiator of sorts, to this new sound. READ MORE