Rap Release Dates: B.o.B., Sean Paul, Juvenile, Ja Rule

by KATHY IANDOLI

The first month of 2012 brings few album releases, but there's at least one a week to look for as February brings Ja Rule and Sean Paul has an international release, while B.o.B. gets a date for "Strange Clouds."

2012 is now upon us, and as always, the first month usually drags by musically. Rappers are on their holiday hangovers (especially dropping a million mixtapes for the season) and the rest are in the studio perfecting albums for the months ahead.

This week we see Statik Selektah's collaborative project with Strong Arm Steady called StereoType. Statik has worked with the likes of Freddie Gibbs  andAction Bronson this past year, both newbies. This time though, he aligns with the veteran collective SAS. The most recent leak was the cut "Classic."  If that's any indication of the quality of this project, then this is definitely something to look out for. Ten days later, Sha Stimuli delivers what sounds like a street album, The Calling. Sha recently tackled Tupac's classic "Brenda's Got a Baby" by writing a catch up cut called "Brenda's Baby"  as if Brenda is now 20 years old.

Juvenile bumped Rejuvenation to January 17th, sharing the day with Necro's The Murder Murder Kill Kill EP. Ja Rule was slated to have a January release, but due to lack of promotion, Pain Is Love 2 will close out February on the 28th. In "world music" news, Sean Paul is dropping his album Tomahawk Technique. There's no solid release date for it yet, though it's definitely coming soon. Strangely enough, other countries have real release dates for the project, but America does not. Just goes to show where most of Sean P's money is coming from these days. Lastly, B.o.B. gets a release date of March 13th for his album Strange Clouds. Seems like Bobby Ray has been on the fast track since he flew in those "Airplanes" with Eminem.

Hopefully 2012 will bring some more albums to our ears more sooner than later.