New Music Friday: Meek Mill, Drake, And Actual Albums

By Michael Cerio

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- We've reached a strange moment in music, as the biggest songs of the week were born out of a Twitter feud and released via SoundCloud and an internet radio station.

Remember when you thought it was weird to buy CD's at Starbucks?

This battle between rappers Meek Mill and Drake has escalated past social media posts, and produced now three songs in response to each other.

Drake landed the first two blows with songs "Charged Up" and "Back To Back", both knocking Meek Mill's skills and relationship to Nicki Minaj. Mill fired back with "Wanna Know" which continues to press on charges of ghostwriting for Drake, with some violent imagery and Milli Vanilli comparisons.

Gone are the days of waiting for the next album to drop to hear what they say. Now we refresh feeds and download apps. Marty McFly never told us that this is what 2015 would be like.

Elsewhere, actual albums that you can hold were released this week. They include a rock opera, some comedy rap, and a sole Stroke. This is New Music Friday.

Titus Andronicus – The Most Lamentable Tragedy

The most ambitious release of the week, probably year, is The Most Lamentable Tragedy from New Jersey band Titus Andronicus. The rock opera checks in at twenty nine songs and over ninety two minutes, and follows a character grappling with his mental health and meeting with a doppelganger. It makes their 2010 concept album "The Monitor", which was set against the back drop of The Civil War, seem like Berenstain Bears level listening. Along the way the band shifts from sneering punk, to the stomp of 80's radio rock, with a track of silence, instrumental hum, and a cover of Auld Lang Syne. Clear your schedule for this one.

Lil Dicky – Professional Rapper

David Burd is a writer, actor, and comedian from Elkins Park, PA. You might know him better as Lil Dicky. What started as a YouTube project to gain attention for his other endeavors, has become a full-fledged rap career, as he releases his album Professional Rapper today. Burd's comedic, lightning fast delivery goes bar-for-bar with some of hip hop's marquee names. He practices fiscal responsibility with Fetty Wap and Rich Homie Quan on "$ave Dat Money", explains character is more important than looks with T-Pain on "Personality", and plays a job applicant with Snoop Dogg on the title track "Professional Rapper". Comedy, but with real rhyme skills.

Albert Hammond Jr. – Momentary Masters

The guitar that drove The Strokes into the ears of a nation is back with his third solo album. The Strokes rhythm guitarist's Momentary Masters sounds more like The Strokes you love than The Strokes have in the past 5 years. Hammond Jr. tackles a lot of "big" questions and one big artist on Momentary Masters. He shows off his take on Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice". The album title itself is taken from Carl Sagan writings on our place in the universe, and lyrically Hammond Jr. follows. Most importantly though is the mathematical riffs on display. The ones that made a New York garage band the darlings of a generation fourteen years ago.

Also out this week is a coffeehouse collection of covers from "Torn" singer Natalie Imbruglia called Male, a proper debut in Yung Rich Nation from Atlanta rappers Migos, and a few deluxe edition reissues of Led Zeppelin.

Happy New Music Friday. Let's all stop fighting