mixtape maestro (2.0)

So Ciara has decided to split her forthcoming third album in a three-disc package, with each disc revolving around one separate vibe. Quite an ambitious task for such a singles-oriented artist, I must say. Nevertheless, one of the first of what will surely be many leaks to drop this summer is “Click, Flash”, the latest in a long line of ditties that has Ciara doing Janet better than…well, Janet.

A sparkly, ethereal groove powers this midtempo cut, which finds Ciara getting all excited by the paparazzo lens, civilian camera phones and disposable Kodak flashes targeting her. “I love it when the camera man screams out my name,” she coos in that seducing half-whispered voices of hers, while striking the fiercest pose to expose her best assets, “I feel so beautiful, picture-perfect beautiful”.

It’s the kind of record that’ll be most utilized as the background music for any girl’s pre-going out routine; you know, that much labored-over span of time that usually results in them arriving at the club so very late with only a single hour left before the bar closes. But who cares about trying to stuff as many drinks down the hatch as you can in sixty minutes, cause you’re arriving looking fresh and glamorous when all the other ladies have de-evolved into drunken slurrers stumbling around awkwardly in those painful stilettos.

Somewhere, Fergie’s throwing a temper tantrum cause she didn’t get to this one first.

DL: “Click, Flash” (YFH)

The anticipation for the Queen Bee’s long-awaited post-slammer album loses a bit more heat with newest leak “Respirator”, a very weak (and quite embarrassing) record that fails to convince us why “you need a Lil’ Kim in your life”, but brings about concern that homegirl might have gone a little crazy in her downtime.

Over a tired Middle Eastern-flavored knock that sounds like it could have been taken from Nicole Scherzinger’s shelved solo album, Kim starts off decently by hyping her looming re-arrival (“I’ve been on my grind for awhile now/ Time to attack now”); but then she starts getting all paranoid (“People swear they know Lil’ Kim/ But I’m not what they think I am”), claiming no one’s going to put her in a box and partaking in these weird, horribly-sung foreign chants. And to make matters even more strange (and unbearable), over half the song is spent with her husky voice sent through the annoyingly, ever-present talk box effect.

What the hell is going on? Is this her really bad attempt at Weezy-like eccentricity (something even he can’t quite pull off all the time)? Or have we sadly lost another female rapper to the “Lauryn Hill Descent Into Madness” syndrome? Whatever the answer, “Respirator” will surely leave many scratching their heads, wondering if all that body re-configuring she’s endlessly indulged in has begun to take a toll on her sanity.

DL: “Respirator” (YFH)

Rather than premiere with a tried-and-true puppy love ode, a slang-heavy dismissal to a dead-beat boyfriend or a giddy celebration for the oncoming summer season, buzzed-about Def Jam R&B newcomer Karina Pasian opts on a topic much deeper on intro single, “16 @ War”, a compelling exploration of the darker realities of modern day teen-life.

The song’s narrative casts Karina as a despaired youngster struggling to find light in a dire existence surrounded by frustrated single mothers, absentee fathers, racism, perverted men and the usual negative pressures of peers (“If he smoke/ Then she smoke/ I gotta smoke to”). “It’s like a disease the way y’all killin’ me,” she remarks, shaking her head at the sight of girls her age squeezing into tight outfits just to get the approval of boys who’ll only treat them as a “transaction” in the end. Images of dirt and debris throughout the inner-city streets and her inability at finding a guy that wants to know her mind and not “treat me like property” further conjure up a feeling of frustration and gloom inside her: “I’m 16/ I shouldn’t have to feel like this”.

A record to applaud, “16 & War” thankfully makes an effort to avoid alienating target young audiences (and radio programming tastemakers) not usually as receptive to message-oriented cuts by blending it’s powerful songwriting with hip, urban production (courtesy of current hitmakers Tricky Stewart and The-Dream). And while Karina doesn’t get the chance to showcase the vocals that made her a “Star Search” champion and impressed Quincy Jones enough that he took her under his wing, her controlled delivery here hints at a vocal talent that’s definitely beyond-her-years.

Could we have potential future R&B royalty in Pasian? We’ll see if she’s still as promising when her debut album, First Love, drops in August.

DL: “16 @ War” (YFH)

Kenna‘s kooky disco dazzler “Say Goodbye To Love” was an explosion of glitter-lit dance fever that didn’t get a fraction of it’s due when it was initially released last fall. But with the recent UK premiere of Kenna‘s sophomore set, Make Sure They See My Face, and the dropping of a new version of the single featuring Lupe Fiasco, it may now have a shot at finally getting the respect it missed out on the first time around.

What’s not to like about the song? It bears an infectious digitized bounce reminiscent of the Neptunes’ early work, some maniacally-sung lyrics about freeing oneself from the suffocating constraints of love and a pristine, Grade-A hook that makes “feeling like I’m nowhere” sound like the most intoxicating mindstate ever. Fiasco injects a likable new dynamic with the addition of a couple slick rap verses, but “Goodbye”‘s original main appeal remains in Kenna’s animated Rick James-meets-David Byrne phrasing and that delicious galactic groove.

DL: “Say Goodbye To Love (Remix)” (YFH)

Peep the original video (directed by the always-appreciated Hype Williams) below:

Spending their late teen years developing a fondness for the ’60′s and ’70′s pop, folk and rock records people their parents’ age held most dear, Alabama family band The Bridges (Byrd siblings Natalie, Stacey, Isaaca and Jeremy on piano, guitar, bass and drums; cousin Brittany Painter on lead vocals and acoustic guitar) took note of those influences and figured out a way to deliver pleasant, harmoney-laden tunes that evoked the timeless quality of yesteryear’s classic pop sounds.

On “Pieces”, from their upcoming Verve Forecast debut Limits Of The Sky, the quintet frame a lyric of romantic frustration (“We always find ourselves in the deepest corner/ Of the darkest hour/ We can’t get much louder than this/ We always lose our hearts in the strangest places”) with country-tinged guitar layers that flutter all over each other like fallen leaves piling on the ground below. Meanwhile, Painter proves to be a commanding lead performer with an exuberant wail that soars over the cut’s wispy blissfulness, as the occasional harmonic interjection from her angelic-voiced bandmates take the song to sunnier new heights.

An amazingly sophisticated record from a group whose individual ages range from 18-24, “Pieces” provides a strong enough introduction to initiate interest in what the rest of this promising new family act have to offer.

You can currently catch them on a nationwide tour with Rooney. Limits of The Sky drops in June (Pre-order it below).

DL: “Pieces” (YFH) (Or pick it up at iTunes here)

After all the hoopla surrounding “Touch It”‘s “everybody-and-their-mama” all-star remix, Busta amps up another one of his singles to posse status; but taking it a step further this time, he mixes his guest list with some legendary icons (Big Daddy Kane, Nas), giants of today (Lil’ Wayne, Game), an up-and-comer (Reek Da Villain) and…well, Spliff Star for the blazing “Don’t Touch Me” sequel.

Some thoughts after hearing it:

-Spliff Starr manages to impress every time he gets around to dropping a verse, so why has he not released one solo album after all these years? Would anyone even buy it?

-Reek Da Villain is nice here (and second to Busta as the one that adheres to the raucous track the best). But who is he again?

-How many watches does Game need?

-But we’ll give him props for not giving us a laundry list of name-dropping…save for a subtle Wu reference.

-The love/ hate relationship with Weezy continues. His cameo here ranks on the love side, but it wasn’t made official until the “Wayne is a flame that can live in the water” line.

-Isn’t it weird hearing Nas saying things like “See you in the club/ Wrist never on froze”?

-Big Daddy Kane might be 75 but, in the words of T-Pain, he’s still “got it”.

-We get that Flipmode is, like, a “STATE OF MIND” and everything, but does the actual group still exist?

DL: “Don’t Touch Me (Remix)” (YFH)

Slapping together electro-metal fuzz, diva R&B and old-school B-boy spunk, L.A.’s Bedtime For Toys (named one of Rolling Stone’s “25 Best Bands on MySpace” a while back), represent another one of those “kitchen sink”-hybrid acts that somehow manage to escape sounding as horrible as they might seem on paper. They’ve been dubbed the hipster version of Black Eyed Peas, a fitting tag based on their ability to create guilty pleasure pop patchworks you want to hate but can’t necessarily prevent from slinking their way into your skull, and having an appealing frontwoman in singer Marchelle Bradanini.

Check out their MySpace and you’ll become enamored with tunes like “Mona Lisa Pt. 2″ (a cautionary tale about stardom-seeking L.A. newbies with a heavy rock/ rap crunch and “Genius of Love” melody theft) or “Cold Fever” (which makes a collaboration between Gwen Stefani and Korn seem somewhat plausible). A R&B covers EP, BfT iz Punk n’ B (featuring radical reinventions of Earth Wind & Fire’s “September” and Bobby Brown’s “Don’t Be Cruel”), meanwhile, feels like a promising must-have.

Here’s the video for “Cold Fever”, the first single from Bedtime For Toys upcoming EP, Appetite For Corruption:

Listen to their cover of Bobby Brown’s “Don’t Be Cruel”:

DL: “Don’t Be Cruel (Bobby Brown Cover)” (YFH)

Back in the day, the worst kind of disrespect was when somebody stepped on your precious Air Jordans, especially after you had made it your life’s purpose to make sure they stayed looking brand spankin’ new. Nelly, no stranger to revolving entire songs around his favorite accessories (“Air Force Ones”, “Grillz”), pays tribute to the shoe obsession on his newest release “Stepped On My J’s”.

“We used to ditch school and head straight up to the mall/ Just so we could be the first ones wit em’ on,” the rapper fondly remembers atop a stomp-heavy rhythm that recalls the poppy grit of his Country Grammar introduction. The topic of choice might be heavily middle-school-ish, but after the downward spiral of recent ill-advised singles that saw him struggling to keep hold of his relevance, “J’s”, with it’s infectiously irritated hook (“Man, these just came out/ He done stepped on my J’s”) and “Tipsy”-referencing bits, provides a welcome reminder to why he became such an instant sensation in the first place.

Is it bad, though, that we wish for featured guest Ciara to serve a “Stepped On My J’s” sequel featuring just her?

DL: “Stepped On My J’s” (YFH)

Brooklyn duo Purple Crush flash back to the squeaky-voiced, pre-iconic days of Madonna on their cover of “Physical Attraction”, part of Buffetlibre‘s increasingly exciting collection of revamped ’80′s favorites, Rewind.

The 1983 original was one of Maddie’s first club hits, a hooky (though when listened to today, a bit flimsy-sounding) dance-pop ditty that found the singer immersed in the type of carnal desires we would hear more of in the coming, world-conquering years. Purple Crush’s new take is just as grabbing, lacing busy electro bits and a quicker tempo around some hyping vocal stutters and an ethereal lead performance from singer Isla Cheadle.

Rewind is slated for a July 1st release.

DL: “Physical Attraction (Madonna Cover)” (YFH)

Here I Stand‘s lead-off cut “Love In This Club” might have eventually emerged as a comeback smash, but it’s eventual success did little to alleviate criticism that it had Usher following modern R&B trends rather than starting new ones. While the whole ’80′s soul-revival shtick he plays with on the gleeful funk romp “This Ain’t Sex” isn’t all that revolutionary either, it’s a more exciting “new” direction for Usher to be taking rather than another trip through the Southern Rap-inflected urban contemporary or plush ballad pop he seems too afraid to distance himself from.

For “This Ain’t Sex”, Usher melds the slick sleaze-chic of Morris Day with the malleable vocal and effervescent harmony work of late ’70′s MJ, stretching lines like a piece of chewed-up bubble gum trapped between his fingers as he informs his lady to the late-night show about to pop off (“I’m gon’ do you up and then/ I’m gon’ do you down/ I’m gon’ have that body baby floatin’ all around”). But don’t mistake the succeeding events to be just any old booty call. They’re not simply having sex, he alerts, but engaging in “a symbol of the true makings of love”.

On the production side, the collaborating team of Tricky Stewart and Jazze Pha do a fine job recreating the feel good spirit of yesteryear post-disco soul. The “grown n sexy” groove they build is easily inviting, and the peppering of falsetto notes and background “oohs” and “aahs” throughout it only further escalate the record’s jovial allure.

An entertaining shift from his norm, “This Ain’t Sex” represents the kind of unexpected artistic moves a superstar like he should be concentrating on at this point in his career. Far more acceptable than trying to find new ways to re-write “Yeah!”.