Back at it again with another Notable Tracks post—where I pick three tracks I’ve been listening to lately and share my thoughts. Weirdly, this is the first Notable Tracks post of 2025, so I guess I gotta make sure it’s a good one. Let’s get to it.
Kanye West is currently in the middle of another sad Kanye moment, and this recently included posting links on Twitter to three different versions of his short film titled Bully. The film features his son, Saint West, in a wrestling ring beating up wrestlers from Pro Wrestling NOAH (which actually makes sense—Ye was spotted at a NOAH event in Japan last year).
All that aside, I try not to get caught up in the rants of crazy people, but I heard the audio from Bully ripped straight from the film and was telling people that it was kinda good (glad I’m not the only one who thought so). “Preacher Man” is the first track from Bully and is probably the best song from the still-incomplete project.
Madlib is one of my favorite producers, and while I patiently wait to see if he’ll ever reunite with Freddie Gibbs for another joint album, he’s apparently formed a group with Your Old Droog called Droogie Otis (they obviously didn’t workshop the group name).
Madlib is known for his side quests, so I’m not surprised to see him link up with Your Old Droog again (they’ve worked together before). Their first release under the Droogie Otis name is “Everything Designer,” which also features one of my other favorites, Boldy James. And now I need a full project from Droogie Otis.
There are at least two official remixes of Leon Thomas’s hit song “Mutt,” but this unofficial version—laid over the instrumental of Carl Thomas’s R&B classic “I Wish”—is easily the best one. Why am I never at places where DJs spin stuff like this? Then again, I’m barely at places.