AdrianHopkins: My First Grad School Mixtape, Because Sharing is Caring

My boy Adrian Hopkins' first mixtape. I can vouche that he's in a league of his own on music, design, literature, etc. You may remember him from a post a while back with him rapping about his quarter-life crisis. I'll repost that vid after the jump. Check out his website though.

I've listened to the mixtape, and it's a ride.

From AdrianHopkins.com:

Earlier this week, I chronicled a bit of the musical selections that provided the soundtrack to my paper-writing adventure. Since sharing is caring, I decided to put those songs into a mix just for you!

I played each of these songs on repeat at least 15 times (Francis & The Lights' cover of Kanye's "Can't Tell Me Nothing" was the undisiputed champion with 164 plays) as I wrote about the influence of Edward Bernays' 1928 book, Propaganda, on the last 80+ years of American mass manipulation and media scholars' discussion thereof.

The tracklisting is below. Click here or on the album cover to download. Enjoy!

1. In My Dreams (Cudder Anthem) - KiD CuDi - 2009
2. The Bells (feat. Patti Labelle & The Bluebelles) - Laura Nyro - 1973
3. Can't Tell Me Nothing - Francis & The Lights - 2008
4. Everybody Touch - J*Davey - 2006
5. Eclipse - Ahmad Jamal - 1974
6. RobertaFlack - Flying Lotus - 2008
7. Paper Chase - Do Or Die - 1996
8. The Rotten Apple - Prodigy (of Mobb Deep) - 2007
9. I Wanna Know - The Foreign Exchange - 2008
10. Baby (You Know I'm Gonna Miss You) - The Montclairs - 1972
11. (Love) Lock Down - Rashid Hadee - 2009

AJay Hopkins: Quarterlife Biz

My man AJ from high school.

This is hip hop.


Lyrics:

It's A Jilla
Yep, you guessed it
I heard the beat and I just had to come and bless it
I've been well rested
Since my last verse
I hung the mic up
And thought the game needed a hearse
In 03 I retired my rhyme book
When rap dudes started changing up like sam cooke
A lotta blingin and singin
And a lotta negativity
But they forgot the creativity
Plus I was in school
Bush over Baghdad created new world rules
I switched from writing rap pages to pushing mag pages
A different type of publishing
And even thought about government
Figured out that was the wrong route
I graduated in two-thou-six and went all out
The corporate world is my scene
Infinite chase for the green
But is this what the King really dreamed?

I'm on my quarterlife biz
Dedicated to alluv my quarterlife kids
I'm on my quarterlife biz
Stay up nights thinkin, "is this all life gives?"

X2

Now I'm a New York kid
Walk the same streets all my favorite rappers did
Nasty Nas, Ghostface, Rae, and Deck
Digable Planets, gotta pay my respect
Cause they were rap pioneers to me
A down south boy wondering what big city life could be
But the apple is rotten
Some girls came on the train screamin
Saw an old man and rocked him
I mean, right in his face
He just wanted some peace after a long day in the rat race
And everyody who saw it, did nothing
That's what the city breeds, if it aint you - it's nothing
And I'm as guilty as them, homey
Even around eight million people how you still feel lonely?

This is the quarterlife biz
Dedicated to alluv my quarterlife kids
This is the quarterlife biz
Stay up nights thinkin, "is this all life gives?"

X2

So you think that a girlfriend can take you out the whirlwind
Or family can make a better man G
But you'll never be nothin without inner lovin
Always lesser like 3 vers a half-dozen
I still hear screams in my dreams
Know what I mean?
But ion't think it's depression
Just agression
My ambition crying out in exhaustion
Fighting off submission, anxiety, and caution
And I'm saying my prayers, too
Even though the road gets hard I'm still trying to be faithful
And just stay on my grind
So when it's time
I can say that I went for mine
I went for mine
So go for yours

Cause this is quarterlife biz
Dedicated to alluv my quarterlife kids
It's the quarterlife biz
Stay up nights thinkin, "is this all life gives?"
I'm on my quarterlife biz
Dedicated to alluv my quarterlife kids
I'm on my quarterlife biz
Stay up nights thinkin, "is this all life gives?"

Check out AJay at http://adrianhopkins.com