Second Avenue Podcast

It's the end of an era.We're going on a break for a little bit due to some life changes so we're leaving you with a playlist full of some of the songs that come to mind when we think about the podcast and our relationship with each other. It's not a goodbye… it's a see you later.It's been real.- Jonathon & Elijah

The pod is coming to a close (or break) so it's only right we take a look at some of our favorite tracks that brought albums to a close. From Kanye to Logic to Earl Sweatshirt, tune in and hear us talk about why we love these outros and what makes them such good closers.

Second Avenue Podcast is coming to an end and we picked an awful week to miss an upload. We're back with one final aux battle and to talk about the whole Drake and Kendrick beef from Euphoria to The Heart Part 6!

This week Jonathon & Elijah each discuss three albums in their rotation right now. From Pusha T to Adele to The Weeknd, we talk about some current favorites. We hope you find a project to check out for the first time or some newfound appreciation for a familiar album. We also talk about Lyrical Lemonade Summer Smash lineup, NBA playoffs, NFL Draft, and more!

We're back with another installment of our Album of the Month series. This time we're talking about Chance the Rapper's iconic mixtape Acid Rap. We also talk about NBA playoff predictions, the latest updates from the Rap Civil War and more!

In this week's episode, we work to curate the perfect Spring playlist. From vibrant indie pop to melodic hip-hop, find a new favorite track to enjoy this Spring as the weather begins getting nicer!

We kick off the episode talking about Elijah's big move to Spotify after a fallout with Apple Music and Illinois basketball making the Elite 8. Then, we welcome our friends Mauricio and Macy, fresh off their trip to Rolling Loud Cali 2024! From favorite performances to surprise guests, tune in to hear all about their highlights and favorite moments at one of rap's biggest festivals!

In this episode, we take a trip down memory lane, pitting iconic mobile games like Angry Birds and Subway Surfers against each other in a bracket-style showdown. We also talk about this week's new music releases, headlined by Metro Boomin and Future's WE DON'T TRUST YOU and the standout track “Like That” with Kendrick Lamar's standout diss verse.

It's Selection Sunday for March Madness, so it's only right we do a bracket this week! We're diving deep into the world of music videos created by Cole Bennett's Lyrical Lemonade. Join us as we complete a bracket featuring the top 16 most viewed videos from the Lyrical Lemonade vault, limited to only the top song per artist.

To celebrate our 100th episode, we'll be picking our top five favorite songs of all time. This was an impossible list to make that might be different if you ask us tomorrow, but we hope you enjoy hearing us talk about some of our all time favorites! Let us know what your top five favorite songs of all time are!

In this month's episode of our Album of the Month series, we dive into Big Sean's monumental album, "Dark Sky Paradise." Released in 2015, "Dark Sky Paradise" marked a pivotal moment in Big Sean's career, solidifying his position as one of the most popular voices in hip-hop. From the introspective intro to the explosive anthems, we dissect notable tracks including the chart-topping singles like "Blessings" featuring Drake and "I Don't F**k with You" featuring E-40, to the deeply personal tracks like "One Man Can Change the World," featuring Kanye West and John Legend.

Spotify released their list of thirty hip-hop and R&B albums that they consider streaming era classics this week. For this week's episode we'll be drafting five modern day classics each and talking about some of our favorite songs, memories with the music, and more!

We predicted Grammy winners last week, so this week we'll be looking at the actual winners in the rap & general categories. We'll also be giving our initial thoughts on Kanye West & Ty Dolla $ign's collab album Vultures 1. We also dive into this week's other new releases, highlight some songs in our rotations this week, give our Super Bowl predictions, and more!

In this episode, we predict the winners of the 2024 Grammy Awards. From chart-toppers to emerging talents, we analyze the artists who are most deserving to take home the coveted gold gramophones. Join us as we explore the front-runners, dark horses, and the stories behind the sounds that are poised to make history at this year's Grammys. Hear our picks and see how we did for picking last night's winners and tune in next week to hear our reactions to the actual winners!

We're joined by our friend Alex Long for a dive into the universe of J. Cole's fourth studio album, "4 Your Eyez Only." In this episode, we explore each track, examining the lyricism, themes, and story that J. Cole lays out in this album. We also talk about this week's releases, slow Coachella ticket sales, André 3000's upcoming tour, and more!

We're celebrating two years of Second Avenue Podcast this week so it's only right we kick off season two of a fan favorite series. This week, we're picking songs for these categories: Rap & Non-Rap Collab, Diamond Song, 2014 Song, Pick up girl song, Cry in car song, White cover, and Outro track. We also talk about this week's releases, JPEGMAFIA & Kanye West linking up, The Vince Staples Show getting a release date, and more!

We're back with our third annual list of artists we think are going to blow up this year. From rising artists who we think will enter the spotlight to borderline stars we think will take the leap, we're talking about some of the most interesting emerging artists in music today. We also talk about 21 Savage's new project, the Lyrical Lemonade “All is Yellow” feature list, and more!

To continue kicking off the new year, we're picking ten of our most anticipated albums of 2024. We saw some new faces running our listening rotations last year while many of the stars were quiet. This year, we're expecting big releases from some of rap's biggest stars and most exciting up-and-coming talents.

We're kicking off 2024 with a look back at all the great music we got last year. We're crowning our Rookie of the Year, Most Improved, Comeback Player, MVP, as well as picking our Bar of the Year and Feature of the Year. We also talk about our collective top 10 songs of the year, including crowning our individual Song of the Year.

Merry Christmas Second Ave fam! For today's episode, we're talking about some of our favorite Christmas memories and drafting our favorite Christmas songs! Join us as we go head-to-head, drafting the ultimate Christmas playlist and head to our Instagram to vote on who picked the better team and listen to our full Christmas playlist!

The year is coming to a close, so it's finally time to rank our top ten favorite albums of the year. Throughout the year, we thought worthwhile releases felt rare, but looking back we both found a lot to love with this year's releases. From superstars returning to the spotlight, newcomers looking to take the crown, and familiar artists reinventing themselves, there's been a lot to love in 2023!

In this week's episode, we take a deep dive into Childish Gambino's magnum opus, "Because the Internet," a decade after its initial release. Join us as we explore the album's themes of connectivity, identity, and the digital age and how they have aged over time. From the innovative production to the thought-provoking lyrics, we reflect on the impact and lasting influence of the album both musically and societally. Whether you've only heard a few songs from the project or have read the screenplay multiple times, we hope you find something new to love or appreciate about this album!

To kick off our end of the year content, we're back with a 2023 edition of Guessing the Missing Artist from our followers' Spotify Wrapped. We covered up one artist from your top five and we'll try to guess the missing artist based on the other four artists & top songs. We also take a look at our own Wrapped.

We're continuing our Album of the Month series with one of Elijah's all-time favorites: Come Over When You're Sober, Pt. 2 by Lil Peep. We take a deeper dive into the first posthumous release from one of the past decades most influential and interesting artists & heartbreaking stories. We go track-by-track to talk about our favorite songs, lyrics, and more!

It's been over ten years since GTA V released and signs are pointing to a new Grand Theft Auto game soon, so for this week's episode we revisit our favorite songs and stations from GTA V and pick some tracks we need to see in the new game. We also talk about Drake's Scary Hours Edition of For All The Dogs, Andre 3000 releasing a solo album, the new Kanye & Ty Dolla $ign track, and more!

This week, we're joined by a fan-favorite guest: Brennen Granados! We'll take a look at a bracket we found online with 16 rappers to decide which one has been the best over the past ten years. We'll see rising stars face off against legends on the last leg of their career to see which artist has had the best output since 2013. Let us know who wins your bracket and tune into our Instagram story this week to vote for your favorite artists!Fill out your own bracket here: https://bracketfights.com/create/best-rappers-this-decade-659

This week we take a look back at life ten years ago and pick our top five favorite albums from 2013. Join us for a look back at some of the albums that shaped our music taste from some of today's biggest stars.

We're back with our second album of the month: The Melodic Blue by Baby Keem. We talk about our favorite tracks, moments, and more on a project that helped cement Keem as one of the biggest rising stars in rap. We also talk about Kanye & Ty Dola $ign's upcoming stadium listening event, rumors of Rihanna's return to music, the latest music releases and more!

This week we're blind ranking rappers based on who we would beat in 1-on-1 basketball, want to have perform at our birthday party, want to have as a roommate, and want to be a guest on the podcast. We also talk about this week's upcoming releases, rumors of a Kanye listening party, Drake helping Yeat or J. Cole get a number one song, and more!

This week we're talking about our initial thoughts on Drake's new album “For All The Dogs.” We talk about our overall opinion, favorite songs, and whether Drake delivers “the old Drake” on this project. We also talk about an upcoming Post Malone & Westside Gunn collaboration, Donald Glover hinting at new Childish Gambino music, Kid Cudi revealing his upcoming album will be 40+ songs, and more!

It's October, so it feels like the perfect time to drop a new seasonal playlist. We've dropped a summer playlist the past two years, but it's finally time for our first fall playlist! Listen to the full episode for our picks of ten songs each that we think give off a fall vibe. We also talk about Damian Lillard & Jrue Holiday getting traded, the new Las Vegas Sphere, rumors of a new Kanye West album, and more!

It's the tenth anniversary of Drake dropping Nothing Was The Same in 2013 so we're kicking off our Album of the Month series by taking a look back at our favorite songs and sharing some of our memories listening to this project growing up. We also talk about this week's releases, TikTok and Billboard's new chart, the US government cracking down on ticket resellers, and more!

Football is finally back and this week we're talking about some of our favorite NFL and football references in rap songs! We also talk about the releases from the past month, Drake's “For All The Dogs” delay, Spotify's new “Daylist” feature, and more!

We're back with part two of our top 10 concerts and this episode it's Elijah's turn to talk about his top ten favorite concerts he's seen. After multiple Rolling Loud festivals in different cities, Lyrical Lemonade Summer Smash, and more shows, you won't want to miss his top 10 full of rap superstars!

Jonathon recently went to his 100th concert after seeing Kendrick Lamar at Lollapalooza in August. So it feels like the perfect time to dive into his top ten concerts he's ever seen. From surprise guests to great setlists, find out what makes these ten pass up the other 90+ concerts he's seen. Stay tuned for Elijah's top ten coming later this week!

We're finally back from vacation to give our thoughts on Travis Scott's newest release, UTOPIA. This was one of our most anticipated releases of the year so we'll talk about how it lived up to our expectations, favorite songs, features, and more! We also talk about Jonathon's trip to Lollapalooza, songs we're listening to right now, and other new projects & singles to drop.

We're back with our final pre-recorded episode of our vacation series to talk about our favorite albums of the 2020's so far. We each picked one album from 2020, 2021, and 2022 to show some love this week and for some of our favorites of 2023 so far be sure to go check out our best of 2023 episode from a few weeks back!

We're back with another shorter summer vacation episode where we're playing a game we've seen all over our TikTok FYPs. We're playing Wavelength where we'll guess a number from different hints including songs, artists, TV shows, movies, sports teams, athletes and more! We recorded this episode last week so we also discussed our pre-release predictions for Travis Scott's Utopia! Come back August 14 for our full thoughts on the album!

This week, we've each picked three albums we've had in rotation. Some are classics we used to love, while some are newer favorites, and some are essentials that never leave our speakers. Join us to reminisce on familiar tracks and hopefully you find a new favorite track along the way!

This week we're taking a look at the artists selected to be part of the 2023 XXL Freshman Class, as well as showing some love to a few artists we think deserve a spot on the list. We're also talking about Travis Scott's Utopia release at the Pyramids of Giza, Drake's “It's All a Blur” tour kicking off, and the latest new releases.

We're tied up 3-3 in the all-time aux battle series so it all comes down to this game seven matchup. We both selected one category from each aux battle we lost then let our Instagram followers choose the final category. This episode, we'll be picking songs for 2000's pop, by a “lil” rapper, released in our birth month, color in title, song with no features, 2023 song, and a meme song. Head to our instagram @secondavenuepod to vote on the aux battle and help decide the winner!We also talk about Lil Uzi Vert's “Pink Tape” and other new releases, as well as the latest updates on Travis Scott's Utopia.

Last weekend, Jonathon went to Summer Smash Friday & Elijah went on Sunday. In this week's episode we recap our trips to Summer Smash, the artists we saw, and our favorite performers of the day. We also talk about this week's releases, Drake's album announcement, and more!

We're nearly halfway through 2023, so we're taking a look back at the first few months of the year and picking our favorite albums so far. Nearly every week in 2023 has seemed like the new releases were a letdown with the upper echelon of stars not dropping as often as we've seen in the past few years, but has it still been a good year so far? Listen for our thoughts and our favorite projects!

This week, we're looking back at some of the biggest tracks of summer 2013. These tracks are turning ten years old this year and we're each picking five tracks to keep from a pool of twenty of the biggest songs of that summer. But first, we talk Celtics-Heat game 7 & NBA Finals, then we welcome a surprise guest to tell us about her trip to the Taylor Swift Eras tour. To close, we talk about this week's releases, a potential shared release date for Travis Scott's Utopia & Lil Uzi Vert's The Pink Tape, and more news from this week in rap.

We're back with our sixth edition of aux battles. Jonathon leads the all-time series 3-2 and has a chance to close the best-of-seven series this week. We'll each pick tracks for 2023 Song, Certified Hood Classic, 2010's Pop, J. Cole, SoundCloud Classic, Artist we haven't talked about on the podcast, and song from a video game soundtrack.

This week we've each picked five artists for the other to guess based on Spotify's “Fans Also Like” recommended artists. Play along and see if you can figure out which artists are the correct answer! We also talk about the latest updates in Travis Scott's Utopia rollout and this week's new releases.

For this week's episode, we wanted a chance to talk about some artists and songs that we don't mention enough. So we've each picked five rappers for the other person to name the song that instantly comes to mind when you hear their name. We also give our thoughts on Jack Harlow's “Jackman”, the NBA playoffs, and Kendrick Lamar's “The Big Steppers Tour” record-setting performance.

We're back with the 2023 edition of our Summer Playlist picks. Last year we each picked ten tracks we'd add to our playlist, now we're doing a new version with updated picks. From familiar favorites to new releases, this playlist is perfect for all the vibes and activities that Summer can feature. We also talk about the recent releases including IDK, Lil Durk & J. Cole, Chase B with Travis Scott, Quavo, Don Toliver, and Ty Dolla $ign.

With Coachella weekend two wrapping up, it's officially music festival season, so that means an updated version of the Festival Lineup $15 Challenge. We each have $15 to choose artists ranging from $1 to $5 each and create their perfect festival lineup. We also discuss Frank Ocean's Coachella performance, Metro Boomin & Future's potential collab album, and this week's new music releases.

Inspired by the TikTok trend, for this week's episode, we've each picked 50 artists, songs, and albums for each other to shuffle and rank without knowing what will come next. We also talk about the past two week's releases including Daniel Caesar, Drake, Kaytraminé, and Ice Spice. Lastly, we discuss the Rolling Loud Miami and Lyrical Lemonade Summer Smash lineup, as well as our thoughts on weekend one of Coachella.

In this week's episode, we each pick our top five modern rap duos, considering quality, quantity, and personal preference. We've included official duos that have released projects together, as well as frequent collaborators. We also discuss our thoughts on Tyler, the Creator's “Call Me If You Get Lost: The Estate Sale”, Lollapalooza daily lineups, and the Mac Miller x Madlib collab album.