Last week's prediction: Non-white. After this, you can bet on that.

Weird--real rap takes its turn on the iTunes free single carousel. Jay Rock is the reigning West Coast hope not named Nipsey Hussle: Blood instead of Crip, Watts instead of Compton/Crenshaw, direct instead of lyrical. A halfway Game protégé, Rock has the same gruff, no frills delivery: Buy him expensive production (Cool & Dre, here) and some decent features and let his totally undistracting presence fill in the gaps. Last year's "Lift Me Up," with its creeping, post-Dre slow-ride trunk-rattle, was pretty much the ideal for a rapper like Jay Rock, who can't quite help being boring when placed front and center.

Last week's prediction: Nothing like this again, unless iTunes wants a revolt.

Sometimes, you get a real child-slavery vibe from these young, recently formed Nashville acts. From the official Gloriana bio: "We spend most of our time rehearsing and writing at our band house in Nashville. Most nights, we play shows...Tom loves to go for long walks, but really misses his walking buddy Paris- his four year old Boxer that lives back in North Carolina." He also hopes the man who currently has a shotgun aimed at Paris will hold off for just a little bit longer.

Last week's prediction: Still can't believe this is what broke my streak of not seeing the new 90210.

Hmm--oddly appealing compact Black Crowes boogie from four Irish dudes who do their damnest to look like Led Zep in press photos. Not a popular pick in the iTunesiverse: "Like an outdated headbangers ball type of song"; "One word - 'Genero-rock'. Or is that two?"; "That was the worst song I've ever listened to," and so on. Shockingly, Grey's Anatomy-bait and bad rap does much, much better with the online cognoscenti, cementing my hard-earned impression that the primary constituency over there is a 17-year-old boy/girl who's full of rage.

Max Martin C-team band Carolina Liar got some valuable 90210 airtime a few weeks ago:

Strains of popular hit single "Show Me What I'm Looking For." Dash Snow is singing lead. His scarf provides camouflage. Set-up is revealed: it's a garden party.

Michael from The Wire, nodding enthusiastically: "Yo, how'd you get Carolina Liar to play?!"

David Simon: Frantically pitches new TV show.

James Minchin

Here's your future

Last week's prediction: From the UK?

Sorry, but aesthetics matter, no matter where you are on the globe. No coincidence that the Somalia-born K'naan learned to speak English off the phonetics on Rakim and Nas albums; talent will travel, before during and after things like rap go global. So while I like the story as much as the next man--young aspiring Kaynaan Warsame hops the last plane out of Somalia in 1991, shoots guns as a kid, lands in Harlem, then Canada, finally fulfilling, M.I.A.-like, a couple of different cultural destinies--let's also acknowledge that only in Canada does his Pharcyde-gone-Ricky Martin "flow" pass as rap. Unlike will.i.am's, K'naan's patois is assuredly real, but beyond that, both are passing air through the same rapidly leaking balloon.

Last week's prediction: Kiss My Ass.

Five guys with stage-names chasing the wobbly dream of '80s hard rock superstardom, Last Vegas bear the all important 2009 Mötley Crüe cosign, which will surely come in handy when soliciting Guitar Center endorsements. World historical developments have conspired to turn a career path that once promised hookers and blow into a career path selling the vague promise of hookers and blow to an ever-growing parade of sponsors-- Guitar Hero 2, Nascar.com, NBC Sports, UK's Kerrang Radio, MTV, MTV2, Fox, Fuel TV, Fearless TV/Radio, Q101, WLUP, The G-Hole, Camel Farm Program and as the official music of Kyle Busch Motor Sports, according to their website press kit.

Last week's prediction: 4-5 dudes gunning for that U2 money.

Aw jeez, Little Brother--erstwhile fat-guy dancers of apocalypse, rap's bad conscience, the vegans at crack-rap's church fried chick contest. Or was that someone else? The Foreign Exchange--Phonte's LB-sideline r&b messageboard combine with a Dutchman named Nicolay--have an 8.1 Pitchfork average over two records (Jamin!) and a major jones for "Devil's Pie" D'Angelo: which really, who doesn't? The gist is that Leave it All Behind, from which "Take Off the Blues" comes, makes everybody happy, because Phonte's not yelling at anyone--or rapping at anyone. Slum Village, let's go.

Last week's prediction: I hear the new Animal Collective is pretty good...

Nevada City is a Denis Johnson-type Northern California mountain town whose chief economic/cultural export is hippies, more or less: Joanna Newsome, Gary Snyder, Utah Phillips, Terry Riley, and the 25-year-old Adela Diane. This is where, as a parent, you go if your plan has a lot to do with Carter Family-inspired child-rearing/kitchen-singalong singing; as a child, you leave as fast as you can, until you choose to return and reclaim your heritage and make a folk record in your dad's recording studio. Your sophomore record marketing plan? "First 50 Orders Include A Personalized Bag of Tea From Alela."

Last week's prediction: Elizabeth Alexander/will.i.am mash-up

The Alberta-born Adam Gregory seems to be gunning for that heretofore unknown Owen Wilson-of-country cred--shaggy blond hair, prominent nose, high voice, and the faintest hint that he's secretly ballin' out of control. The "Crazy Days" video features helicopters, humvee limos, a cigarette boat, Corvettes, and one smoking hot girlfriend; the plot here is that Gregory has to hit the road, but he's coming back, and when he does, they're going to recreate the beach blanket and the backseat of his beat-up truck and whatever else Canadians do on cross-border romances with girls that look not unlike Jessica Alba. At 23-years-old, obviously, this guy has already done a lot of living.

Last week's prediction: Inauguration-themed

"Latino R&B crooner" Jean is more than a bit of an enigma--if your band name, song title, and album title (Out of the Box) are three different unGooglable clichés, you might start to wonder if you are in fact merely the last faint gasp of human intelligence at the edge of a yawning chasm, the oil slick on a warming sea of ones and zeroes. Or if your project just needs a bit more guidance, on the basic A&R level (now-extinct?)--especially when you're perfectly willing to otherwise sound like Justin Timberlake guesting on a Carlos Santana track. iTunes couldn't have gotten a preview of this morning's Yo-Yo Ma jump-off for this week's free single? Really?