Ladies and gentlemen, this right here is my 100th article on this website.
Let’s clap it up for that…
And now to explain my hiatus from posting anything for almost two months. On May 13th I graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a degree in Mass Communications with a concentration in digital journalism. Three days later, I left the country to start my vacation. Since then I have spent time in my home country of Morocco, visited Barcelona, London and now I’m back in my other home country of Greece. I’ve been on the constant move for just about a month and a half now. And while I’ve had an incredible time, which you can see what I’ve been doing on my Instagram @yannikouiroukidis, I am definitely starting to miss home a little bit. Music releases are a lot different now for me as well. Instead of the typical midnight releasees that I’m used to in Virginia, new albums/singles have been dropping at either 5 or 7 a.m. now. For example, I woke up expecting a Rod Wave album but instead, I saw Drake dropped a surprise dance album??? We’ll get to that in this article too. Anyway as my time across the Atlantic Ocean is coming to a close, I’d like to just let you guys in on what I’ve been listening to. This vacation has been incredible to me, but it’s time to get back to work. Let’s get into it.
1. Bad Bunny – Efecto, 2. Bad Bunny – Tarot ft. Jhay Cortez
Un Verano Sin Ti, is an album that has been running through every streaming platform with ease. It has claimed the top spot on the Billboard charts on two separate occasions and continues to be in the top 10. Bad Bunny is also currently the most streamed global artist on Spotify as of June 26th. This man simply cannot lose. One thing about Bad Bunny is when you go look at the lyrics in English you realize this man be wilding on the songs. So I’m going to put the only lyrics that aren’t super crazy as the quote.
3. Joga Essa Rabeta – MC Teuzin PV & MC Skcot
Every time I listen to this song I feel I’m barefoot in the favelas playing with Ronaldinho. Brazilian funk is the biggest genre in Brazil and it is absolute class. Whether it is this song, “Parado no Bailão” or “Desenrola Bate Joga de Ladin“, the Brazilians know how to make good music.
4. SoFaygo – Count Me Out
SoFaygo went ghost mode for a while but calmed his fans down with a quick five song EP this month. My favorite song from the project is definitely this one right here. Hopefully Faygo drops a full-length project sometime soon because we need it.
“Question your intentions, I wonder who else get it”
5. Burna Boy – Last Last
I am not going to sit here and act like I’m a die-hard Burna Boy fan, but this song goes so hard. I’ve only listened to this one and “Gbona“. Playing this on my speaker at the beach in Greece while looking at the mountains. True bliss. And since I first heard the song I’ve just been screaming these lyrics.
6. Vory – Lesson Learned, 7. Vory – CWR Interlude
My goat finally dropped his debut album. After releasing his self-title project in December 2020 and then assisting Kanye on his highly-anticipated album, “DONDA” Vory finally released his album on June 3rd with an extensive guest list of features. This man is on some different timing with some of these songs. All I know is that when it comes time to rank the albums of 2022, I’m going to have a hard time not including this one in my top five.
“You can say whatever, facts is facts, baby. Only me and God know the rest lately.”
8. Drake – Massive, 9. Drake – Sticky
This man Drake simply doesn’t miss. Like every Drake release people on social media were immediately claiming that the album was mid and bad, but those same people putting the songs on their Instagram stories as we speak. I feel like this album hit different for me because it sounds mostly like a summer dance album and with me currently being on vacation it gave it a different vibe. Playing this album on the speakers on the beach just feels right. I have been listening to this album constantly and if you follow me on socials don’t be surprised if you keep seeing it on my stories over and over again.
“King of the hill, you know it’s a steep one”
10. Giveon – Scarred
This has been a great month for music. Two of my favorite artists (Giveon & Vory) dropped their debut albums. God bless. I’ve listened to both projects in full, but it just doesn’t feel like I’ve given them the full amount of attention that I should be just because I’ve been on the go consistently for over a month and a half now. I might have to give these projects full album reviews… we’ll see how I’m feeling in about a week.
“My last love was cold. So now, I gotta be the coldest.”
Yesterday was the three year anniversary of Chris Brown’s “Indigo” album. That album is one of my top 10 favorite albums of all time and it is also my most listened to album of all time on Apple Music. That just puts everything into perspective for me. When that album dropped I was also on vacation but it was a VERY very different time in my life. I was still in community college, not knowing whether I would be able to get into VCU and I was unsure of what I wanted to do. Now three years later, I’m a college graduate and he dropped another album titled, “Breezy” this past week. Time really does fly. I’m very thankful to be in the position I am in right now. Tomorrow I will be heading back to America and I’m going to lock in. A lot of new material/content is coming soon. I”m excited for the future. Thank you all for following me on this journey. 100 articles is insane to think about. This is YSN, until next time, signing out.
