If your excitement for Sensation Innerspace 2011 is at a lull, read this:

This summer, Sensation presents to you Innerspace – the world within. Let us guide you on a spiritual journey to enlightenment. Innerspace is an adventurous journey through the seven stages of enlightenment.

Spirituality can be found on the dancefloor: no past, no future, celebrating the now. Sharing a collective consciousness of our own inner beauty, we are presented with a Sensational experience.

Welcome to Innerspace. Hit the jump for a look at the lineup. (more…)

It’s a big day for Carolina — new albums from Phonte and 9th Wonder. Oh, and J. Cole‘s highly anticipated debut finally hit the shelves today, and it served more than an ever as a reminder of how much the money and fame aspect that accompanies the desires of making music can affect the latter. Jermaine’s been quoted as saying he understands that he’s strategically made tracks (“Work Out”) specifically to cross the boundary towards commercial appeal to gain new fans that will eventually discover his deeper material. While it’s hard to argue with this approach to an artist that’s gained as much “underground” acclaim as he as, it’s tough as a fan and not a critic to know that he could be making better shit. But that’s the nitpickin’ — this album from front to back is solid. A mix of the old, “Lights Please” & “In the Morning,” with a handful of unreleased and leaked tracks. Showcases of his lyrical skills on ‘Sideline Story,’ ‘Nobody’s Perfect,’ and ‘Rise and Shine.’ Thematically crafted songs like ‘Never Told,’ ‘Lost Ones,’ and ‘Nothing Lasts Forever.’ In fact, there’s no tracks where you’d characterize his rhymes as weak, which is something we’ve just become accustomed to when listening to any J. Cole song. The qualms will come from the expectations for him to say more than he did with his first album and to tie it together thematically more fluidly. He’s held in a similar esteem as Kendrick Lamar when it comes to lyrical ability, so, whether fair or not, Section.80 set the bar high for Jermaine to impress. I know there’s more for him to offer, it’ll just take time and less of a yearning for the spotlight that I feel has degraded the quality of music from artists like Big Sean and Lupe Fiasco. Ultimately, he came up short in creating a masterpiece — this is more of an extremely well-produced mixtape. Which won’t draw complaints from me as a fan, but leaves me looking for more from his next projects.

Check out all the lyrics to the album here.

stay up

+jangbar

Tracklist

1. “Intro”
2. “Dollar and a Dream III”
3. “Can’t Get Enough” (featuring Trey Songz)
4. “Lights Please”
5. “Interlude”
6. “Sideline Story”
7. “Mr. Nice Watch” (featuring Jay-Z)
8. “Cole World”
9. “In the Morning” (featuring Drake)
10. “Lost Ones”
11. “Nobody’s Perfect” (featuring Missy Elliott)
12. “Never Told”
13. “Rise and Shine”
14. “God’s Gift”
15. “Breakdown”

I <3 Bacon

Hello friends! It’s been a minute — I’m finally feeling somewhat settled out here in Barcelona and starting to think I may never return to the US. Beautiful women, amazing architecture, siestas, and an overflow of opportunities to see great electronic music. If they had animal fries out here that’d seal the deal. Anywho, more on the city later when I have some stuff to stimulate your ojos. For now your ears will have to take in the jams that have provided the soundtrack for the city. Hit the jump to hear ’em all. (more…)

It’s no secret we fucks with Dillon Francis around here. He’s transformed a genre from moomboring to moombahdass, taking the low BPM’s and going wild with em. I fucking love people that blaze trails with unique styles and perspectives on music and he’s one of them. (Why make music if it’s gonna be the same shit and blend in with what everyone else is making?). Anywho, he’s well on his way to becoming a household name and here are previews of his two upcoming tracks, one the remix to Digitalism‘s ‘Circles’ and the other an Original Mix, ‘IDGAFOS.’ (I Don’t Give a Fuck or Shit). I personally like giving zero fucks (IG0F) but to each his own. Enjoy and stay tuned for more.

Digitalism – Circles (Dillon Francis Remix) **TEASER** by DILLONFRANCIS

Preview for the upcoming release from our favorite ragin’ Swedes of Afrojack & R3hab‘s ‘Prutataaa.’ Sounds like they fatten up the track with some sausage (pause). They have a knack for getting people antsy for upcoming releases… stay tuned for the full version soon!

Afrojack & R3hab – Prutataaa (Dada Life Remix) [PREVIEW] by R3HAB

BONUS PREVIEW

Flux Pavilion teased us on Twitter about the new track he slipped into his BBC1 Mix a couple nights ago… here it is. Featuring SKism and Foreign Beggars. Like Gwen once said, this shit is bananas.

Drizzy Drake Aubrey released a few new songs via October’s Very Own this evening. Two produced by his main man 40 and the other a remix to Waka Flaka’s ‘Round of Applause.’ These won’t be on Take Care but interesting to hear nonetheless, kind of shows you the direction he’s going in musically right now. His transformation from rapper to pop star is still really disappointing but there’s nothing we can do about it so here’s to hoping he finds some anti-depressants, maybe a stable gal with a regular sized (sorry Nicki) ass and gets back to hittin us with raw bars.

Wacka Flocka ft. Drake – Round of Applause
Drake – Free Spirit ft. Rick Ross
Drake – Club Paradise

Here’s the full version of Kaskade’s “Turn It Down,” the track we heard a preview of yesterday. This one’s a lot harder than what I’ve come to expect from him, will definitely end up in the House Banger category. Don’t listen to the song’s title and start your Saturday night right.

Kaskade – Turn It Down