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On today’s Soundcheck Smackdown we’re asking the question: Who is the best MC of the new millennium? Our guests are pitting two MCs currently in the spotlight against each other: Kanye West and Pusha T. Though they may be collaborating together on West's upcoming album, we look at the questions on fans' minds: Who has the best flow? Whose lyrics have the most poetry? Whose rhymes best match the beats? Amos Barshad of New York magazine’s Vulture blog, and Jay Smooth of illdoctrine.com square off.

Let the jams begin! At the start of every summer, catchy pop songs jockey for position in a race to Labor Day weekend. The prize? The unofficial, hotly debated designation “song of the summer.”

An electro-pop about a "boom boom" and a country ballad about drinking too much beer are some of the contenders for the summer song of 2009. Today we hear these and others and talk about the power of a good summer tune, with Amos Barshad, assistant editor for NYMag.com, and ...