New Music Tuesdays on Wednesdays

Yesterday Common's latest album, Finding Forever (corny title) was released with more fanfare and marketing efforts behind it than any "conscious rapper" has ever had. Com had MTV locked down, Sirius radio locked down, TV locked down, and I assume regular radio was throwing him a bone in between spins of "Ay Bay Bay".

I haven't given the album a full and fair listen yet... but I was underwhelmed on my first go-round (with the exceptions of the 3 stellar singles). But, I was also not feeling Be when it first dropped. Whether or not being in Kanye's camp has helped Common, I don't know, but it has extended his career another good 5-7 years and is peaking in popularity right now, which to me, is ironic given today's hip-hop climate.

In other music news, listen to all 29 tracks of the upcoming UGK album, Underground Kingz at mtv.com.

Common, Kanye, UGK, Chamillionaire, Lupe, The Roots, 50, Weezy, Wu-Tang, Talib, Little Brother, and who know's who else, are all dropping relatively soon. Who said hip-hop is dead?

While I have you here, check out this Wu-Tang interview (courtesy of onsmash.com) with the members talking about the upcoming album and working together for all these years.