div class=”separator” style=”clear: both; text-align: center;”a href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U4fqdIFYSEU/Ta1XeBWydFI/AAAAAAAAAGw/7VKphyuaKO4/s1600/FrontCover2.jpg” imageanchor=”1″ style=”margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;”img border=”0″ height=”475″ src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U4fqdIFYSEU/Ta1XeBWydFI/AAAAAAAAAGw/7VKphyuaKO4/s320/FrontCover2.jpg” width=”475″ //a/divdiv style=”text-align: justify;”br /div dir=”ltr” style=”text-align: left;” trbidi=”on”div style=”text-align: justify;”Hello world I have been gone for a minute but I’m back with a real jump off for you this time! Oh by the way, did I forget to ask you how your extended Easter holidays were? OK so how were you Easter holidays? Anyways enough of the chit chat, please walk closely with me on this one/divdiv style=”text-align: justify;”br //divdiv style=”text-align: justify;”When this particular album was sent to me, on first sight the thought in my head was and I quote, “wow Festac 77” but on a closer look at the album cover art, I could not help but admire the concept behind the design (shout out to Lloyd Cooper) – a really art inspired creation. Now my thoughts start to race as I hear murmerings of myself directed at no one in particular saying, “i hope this lives up to the expectation”. I clicked play and can I just say that the rest is history./divdiv style=”text-align: justify;”br //divdiv class=”MsoNormalCxSpFirst” style=”text-align: justify;”div style=”text-align: justify;”span lang=”EN-US”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: inherit;”21 year-oldnbsp;bB/b/spanspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: inherit;”blink/b – real name Nelson Agose – was born in Abia State (Eastern Nigeria) and raised in Lagos State until his teenage years. At age 16, he moved to America to pursue a degree in Economics, which in August 2010, he obtained from the University of Illinois Urbana champaign.nbsp;o:p/o:p/span/spanspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: inherit;”biThe World Is Small/i/b is his debut album and this album tells a story of a traveling boy, interacting with the circumstances and situations he finds himself in life and how he uses those experiences to grow into a man. The experiences which are common to most people in the same circumstance include music, culture, race, religion, education, sex, and nationality but what makes bBlink/b unique is his ability to fuse all of these into this interesting masterpiece, making good music for the ear./span/div/divdiv style=”text-align: justify;”br //divdiv class=”MsoNormalCxSpFirst” style=”text-align: justify;”div style=”margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;”div style=”text-align: justify;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: inherit;”The album kicks of with ‘bDreams of A Winner/b’ which serves as an apt beginning to thenbsp;story on biThe World Is Small./i/bnbsp;On this record, bBlink/b proclaims that he’s ready for “blast off” as henbsp;speaks to his listener about his continued journey to achieving his dreams while remaining grateful for his present blessings as he seats somewhere “on coach” where he conjures up these “international dreams”… ‘bDreams of A Winner/b’ is a really chilled-out record which speaks volume about personal motivation and did I mention that the hook on this track is hella infectious plus the mellow drum-kicks infused production by Baron Boys is just straight fire. Listen below…/spanbr /span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: inherit;”br //span/div/divdiv style=”margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;”div style=”text-align: justify;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: inherit;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size: xx-small;”b”Dreams of A Winner”:/b/span /span/div/divdiv style=”margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;”div style=”text-align: justify;”object height=”81″ width=”100%” param name=”movie” value=”http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F14060912″/paramparam name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”/paramembed allowscriptaccess=”always” height=”81″ src=”http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F14060912″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”100%”/embed /object/div/div/divdiv class=”MsoListParagraph” style=”text-indent: -18pt;”div style=”margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;”span lang=”EN-US”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”color: #69230b; font-family: ‘Handwriting – Dakota’; font-size: x-small;”o:p/o:p/span/span/div/divdiv style=”text-align: justify;”div style=”text-align: center;”bispan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size: xx-small;””I’m still dreaming like a winner/ but living like a sinner/ but my blessings are more so thank God for forgiveness”/span/i/b/div/divdiv style=”text-align: justify;”br //divdiv style=”text-align: justify;”The album moves further into a more conscious space with the song titled ‘bPay Attention/b’ and pay attention is exactly what you need to do on this drum and horns-led track produced once again by bBaron Boys/b. On this one, bBlink/bnbsp;referring to himself as an “artist and thinker” goes in on everyone and everything from selling out in his music to fake rappers to ignorant listeners to the Church to Science to the media and even down to lack of electricity in his home country, Nigeria all in little over three and a half minutes. Check it outspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: inherit;”span lang=”EN-US”nbsp;below but please make sure you ‘bPay Attention/b’./span/spanbr /span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: inherit;”span lang=”EN-US”br //span/span/divdiv style=”text-align: justify;”div style=”text-align: justify;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: inherit;”span lang=”EN-US”bspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size: xx-small;””Pay Attention”:/span /b/span/span/divdiv style=”text-align: justify;”span lang=”EN-US”bobject height=”81″ width=”100%” param name=”movie” value=”http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F14061305″/paramparam name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”/paramembed allowscriptaccess=”always” height=”81″ src=”http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F14061305″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”100%”/embed /object/b/span/divdiv style=”text-align: justify;”div style=”text-align: center;”span lang=”EN-US” style=”font-size: xx-small;”bi”The truth is a blunt u got to take a hit/nowadays u make dollars u aint gatta to make no sense/so should i bring change or make sense?”/i/b/span/div/div/divdiv style=”text-align: justify;”div style=”text-align: justify;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: inherit;”span lang=”EN-US”bbr //b/span/span/div/divdiv style=”text-align: justify;”div style=”text-align: justify;”The 16-track album also features loads of exceptionally good bHip-Hop/b tracks such as the thumping and bass heavy “The Countdown”, the incredibly catchy and infectious banger “a href=”http://iamblink.bandcamp.com/track/super”bSuper/b/a” which sees bBlink/b and bThe Baron Boys/b on 100% top form plus the braggadocious “bEverywhere I Go/b”, “bRoad to Riches/b” which features G.o.d jewels and the solemn, hard-hitting and very profound “ba href=”http://iamblink.bandcamp.com/track/blanket-of-dreams”Blanket of Dreams/a/b” which is backed by heavy keyboard arrangements and vocal from SLV. The song sheds an in-depth light on the problems and troubles facing his home country bNigeria/bnbsp;and asks the poignant question of where the nation is going after 50 years of independence – a worthy listen by all accounts.br /br /However, the final track I’ve decided to share (only because I’ve simply fallen in love with the tune) is the smooth and soulful key board-driven ‘Jet To Lagos’ backed by lush drum kicks and features Nigerian rappernbsp;bLynxx/b and singernbsp;bTeeklef/b (can I hear you say “utunu”) and ispan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: inherit;”n Blink’s own words,nbsp;/spanbr /blockquote style=”text-align: center;”bspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size: xx-small;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: inherit;””E/spanspan lang=”EN-US”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: inherit;”iven though I have experienced four winters in America, I’m still not used to the Illinois cold or the Chicago wind… Since the first time I came to America, I spent every Christmas break from school back in Lagos Nigeria. This song describes what my experience on the way back home is typically like and what life on the good side is like back home…nbsp;Jet to Lagos/i”/span/span/span/b/blockquotespan lang=”EN-US”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: inherit;”b/bInbsp;could relate to this song in every aspect of it as this reminds me so much of home and any one in diaspora will get this “catch a plane back home” feeling once you hear this record, especially if you are African… Still missing home? OK click play below and “bJet to Lagos/b”…/span/spanbr /span lang=”EN-US”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: inherit;”br //span/span/divdiv style=”text-align: justify;”span lang=”EN-US”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: inherit;”bspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size: xx-small;””Jet to Lagos”:/span/b /span/span/divdiv style=”text-align: justify;”span lang=”EN-US”object height=”81″ width=”100%” param name=”movie” value=”http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F14061552″/paramparam name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”/paramembed allowscriptaccess=”always” height=”81″ src=”http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F14061552″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”100%”/embed /object/spanbr /span lang=”EN-US”br //span/div/divdiv style=”text-align: justify;”div style=”text-align: justify;”biThe World is Small/i/b makes for a very good listen especially for a debut album and at a point where a lot of so-called “hip-hop” albums are laced with meaningless party songs, true Hip-Hop heads andnbsp;aficionadosnbsp;will love this album as it addresses relevant individual, community and world issues while still keeping thatnbsp;braggadocionbsp;as Blink tells a good story that fuses culture, politics, sex, education and religion into one very G.O.O.D record. The young emcee sums up the album nicely in his own choice words and we will close out this piece with them:br /blockquote style=”text-align: center;”bispan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size: xx-small;””Ispan lang=”EN-US”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: inherit;”nbsp;am not a conscious rapper, I am a semi informed citizen of this world. It helps to THINK and ASK before you BELIEVE anything. Just a simple way to keep TABs on real life – The World is Small.” – Blink/span/span/span/i/b/blockquotespan lang=”EN-US”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: inherit;”Purchase: a href=”http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-world-is-small/id429033863″Blink – The World Is Small (iTunes)/anbsp;// a href=”http://iamblink.bandcamp.com/album/the-world-is-small”Bandcamp/a/span/span/divdiv style=”text-align: justify;”span lang=”EN-US”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: inherit;”br //span/span/divspan lang=”EN-US”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: inherit;”/span/spanbr /div style=”text-align: justify;”div style=”margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;”div style=”text-align: justify;”span lang=”EN-US”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: inherit;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 15px;”Keeps Tabs on BLINK:nbsp;a href=”http://www.blinkairport.com/”Website/anbsp;//nbsp;a href=”http://twitter.com/#!/iamblink”Twitter/anbsp;// a href=”http://www.facebook.com/blinkissuper”Facebook/a/span/span/span/div/div/divdiv style=”text-align: justify;”div style=”margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;”div style=”text-align: justify;”span lang=”EN-US”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: inherit;”br //span/span/div/div/divdiv style=”text-align: justify;”div style=”margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;”div style=”text-align: justify;”span lang=”EN-US”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: inherit;”Until the Next Time…nbsp;/span/spanbr /span lang=”EN-US”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: inherit;”br //span/spanbr /span lang=”EN-US”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: inherit;”I am KingKC* and I love G.O.O.D Musicnbsp;/span/span/div/div/div/divdiv style=”text-align: justify;”br //divdiv class=”MsoListParagraph” style=”mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;”span lang=”EN-US”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”color: #69230b; font-family: ‘Handwriting – Dakota’; font-size: x-small;”o:p/o:p/span/span/div/div/div
