Breaking through the hip hop world’s constant bubble of self-seriousness with the LOL-inducing “Lookin’ Boy”, a Yung Joc-featuring snap record-slash-roasting session, Chicago rap trio Hot Stylz (Krayzee, Meatball and Raydio G) successfully managed to make rap music silly again, a factor that had been lost (and much-missed) with the lengthy absence of Eminem.
On new cut “Yo Mama”, the group continues playing the dozens on wax, this time to the tune of a bounce-adaptation of the Jeopardy! theme song. Anyone who remembers the clowning battles during grade-school recess will instantly favor this side-splitting (albeit incredibly cruel) offering which targets that one grimy schoolmate everyone wrinkled their nose at back in the day (“Yo booty stank and you musty/ Plus your clothes dirty as hell/ Yo Air Force Ones are busted/ You had them since last year”).
While the jokes are funny, some of them will probably hit too close to home to listeners who remembered when they had “oodles of noodles for lunch and breakfast” or tried to hide that embarrasing crackhead of a mother whose “mustache was bigger than your Dad’s”. For those who were once at the receiving end of the lines heard here, don’t fret, you can just pretend you weren’t that dirty kid who got picked on everyday and laugh along with everyone else.
As American audiences slowly begin to warm up to Solange‘s new and intriguing retro-meets-alt-soul sound via the ’60′s girl group-flavored single “I Decided”, the younger Knowles has opted on giving the crowds overseas a “sequel version” that adds a little more Euro-club pizazz to the Motown-ish ditty.
Remixed by the popular Freemasons production house (Grammy-nominees for their revamp of “Deja Vu” by Solange’s superstar sib), “I Decided Part 2″ throws the singer’s raspy, early-in-the-morn vocal in a dance-y aural playground that stomps and pumps relentlessly. Unfortunately, most of the throwback pluckiness mustered up in it’s predecessor is lost in this larger-than-life version, with only the bit of disco diva punch that comes forth on the string-enhanced hook and brassed-up bridge equaling “Part 1″‘s undeniable re-play value.
Take Ra Ra Riot‘s vocalist/ keyboardist Wes Miles, throw him together with Vampire Weekend‘s keyboardist/ guitarist/ vocalist Rostam Batmanglij and what kind of side project do you get? The last style you would ever expect would be the crunk/ R&B fusion their MySpace page notes. Even more, you wouldn’t think the duo (under the guise, Discovery) would be able to tackle the genre with the likable results they achieve.
For the track “Orange Shirt”, if you close your eyes tight enough, you could easily imagine a T-Pain or Usher weaving vocals runs throughout the track’s syrupy-thick, digital soul framework, singing absurd lines like “Sleep on the train to Tokyo/ Google yourself when you get home” without a trace of irony. Then again, coming from those R&B cats, visuals of them lurking outside a neighborhood crush’s home and delivering a “promise to leave before your mama wakes up in the morning” might seem a little creepy. Through the boyishly doe-eyed vocals of Discovery, such antics come across a bit more cutesy and charming.
Hear more from Discovery (Their reggae/electro-tinged “Can U Discover” is amazing!!) via their MySpace.
Guess The Game’s latest nod to the ones that paved the way has got everyone in a nostalgic mood judging by the assortment of emcees collected on this entertaining remix. Milking the umpteenth sampling of Mtume’s ever-recycled “Juicy Fruit” (though it’s hard to complain against such a summer-friendly beat), this revision collects more fond memories of old-school playlists from our favorite rappers of today.
Interesting tidbits include Game admitting to bumping Total (“I like the lead singer, the dark one”, he confesses); Jada thinking back to the days when “my top two was Rakim and Freddie Foxxx”; Bun B recalling his search for the offices of Rap-A-Lot, label home to his heroes the Geto Boys; and Clipse’s Pusha T remembering being in awe of the heavy entourage of Teddy Riley, a notable musical figure from his homeland of Virginia. Plus, we get the mental image of Fat Joe dancing to Digital Underground while rocking some Adidas pumps and the reunion of Game with now-fellow G Unit cast-off Young Buck, who offers the brow-raising: “All of my enemies/ I don’t hate y’all/ Cause I understand that it’s ME that make y’all”.
Cap the festivities off with Queen Latifah offering her own vocal spin on an Indeep classic (“Last night Latifah saved my life in the club,” she sings in the fade-out) and it’s a done deal: another outstanding all-star posse cut!! (Hope that we get a video!)
Don’t know who Glasvegas are? Well, by this time next year, odds are few true music fans won’t. The Scottish band struck a chord with the late ’07 self-released “Daddy’s Gone”, a powerfully written ode about a once-happy family’s break-up and the impact it has on a son who’s father is now barely around. Attach a murky doo-wop-influenced melody and arrangement to the song’s lump-in-throat script and it felt like an instant classic, the kind of pop song artists spend entire careers trying to create. It didn’t take long until the major labels came a-calling, leading to a deal with Columbia Records.
Now, especially after the release of the equally stunning “It’s My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry” earlier this year (guilt over an affair has rarely been conveyed so well), buzz is heavy over the band’s premiere full length set to drop this Fall. Official lead-off single “Geraldine” continues the band’s seemingly set-in-stone ascension to legendary status.
A densely produced epic-rocker powered by a stormy concoction of booming drum explosions and looming guitar lines that drone on with an infinite reach, “Geraldine” injects itself into the listener’s emotional core through the story of a social worker’s dedication to the well-being of one particular client. Told from the point-of-view of the caring Geraldine, songwriter/ frontman James Allan masterfully constructs a sense of duty that transcends well beyond a professional relationship to something far more intimate (“When your sparkle evades your soul/ I`ll be at your side to console/ When you’re standing on the window ledge/ I`ll talk you back from the edge”).
Witnessing her calmed nurturing and understanding, especially when faced with the client’s lashing out (“I need to make sure you know that’s just the prescription talking”) or while steering them back from a relapse, to simply admire her fidelity doesn’t even seem like it would be praise enough. Just like calling Glasvegas an extraordinarily talented lot feels like a massive understatement.
In one instance, Allan, with that charmingly accented vocal wails out “I see you need me/ I know you do”. Little does he know (or maybe he does) how right he is.
Remember when Tyra Banks attempted to be the next J. Lo? Or how about when Naomi Campbell decided that it wasn’t enough to just cameo in music videos, she must sing in them to (alongside Vanilla Ice, no less)? Undeterred by the notion that supermodels have no business getting close to a recording studio (unless they are Grace Jones, to which we say: “Bring it on!”), NYC’s Five O’Clock Heroes employ England-born fashion world sensation Agyness Deyn to add a little “fierce”-ness to their new single, “Who”.
To anyone’s surprise, the beauty actually does a fine job here, making for a nice sweetly-toned counterpart to Heroes frontman Antony Ellis’ scruffy vocal in the very-contagious, strained romance tune. Should Agyness’ modest success here inspire Naomi to stage that musical comeback? No, Deyn wasn’t that mind-blowing; but if Campbell can come up with a killer enough song that involves cell-phone-slinging fury somewhere in the hook (and, maybe, features fellow celebrity scrapper Foxy Brown) we just might have to go ahead and let it happen.
The original “Teenage Love Affair” saw Alicia Keys emanating a fitting ’60′s girl group glow; for the track’s Swizz Beats-produced remix, the R&B influence is updated by a couple of decades, with a genius marriage of the ’80′s two top hip hop love jams: Slick Rick’s “Teenage Love” with LL Cool J’s “I Need Love”.
As a chunky sample of “Teenager”‘s drums-and-synth slow groove instantly drifts the thirty-something crowd back in time (that “don’t, don’t, don’t hurt me again” line just takes you to a special place, doesn’t it?), LL adds to the old-school festivities by reprising the low-key flow behind his first #1 single, launching off the record with a very familiar intro: “When I’m alone in my room/ Sometimes I stare at the wall…”. Later, he fondly recalls the glories of youthful romance, back “before the Louis Vuitton” when couples wore matching sweatsuits and when quarter-waters was the drink of choice cause everyone was “too broke for champagne”.
For anyone old enough to fully appreciate the dual throwback references, this remix will definitely trap you in a reminiscing haze. Thanks, Ms. Keys.
Most of the charm of the Mystery Jets’ John Hughes-ian teen crush ditty “Two Doors Down” was how much it paid homage to ’80′s guilty pleasure pop. Stress your imagination a bit, and it could easily be a part of the Simple Minds, Thompson Twins or even Whitney Houston catalogue from twenty-five years ago. On this commendable “Live Lounge” performance of the tune, though, the Jets do away with the cheese-tastic dance-rock influence of the studio version to prove just how great of a pop song it is no matter what the decade.
Superbly re-fashioning “Doors” as a ballad-y folk jig, the London band enhance the lyric’s “longing-from-afar” set-up, subduing the lovely guitar and bass flutters and starry-eyed synthesizer bits alongside a graceful humming of strings. The quieter arrangement also allows for a better listen to singer Blaine Harrison’s coy croon; with it’s slight quiver inflections, his vocal beautifully illustrates the painful shyness of the song’s main character, validating why he has such a hard time working up the nerve to reveal his romantic feelings to the neighbor girl.
That same “Live Lounge” session unearthed another re-imagined gem in a stunning cover of Leona Lewis’ global monster “Bleeding Love”. Blaine might not be able to match the early-Mariah-reminiscent glassy diva wailings of Lewis, but his understated performance (matched with an instrumental that slyly references the old-school R&B sway of “Stand By Me”) definitely makes the power ballad bristle with a timelessness that isn’t quite encapsulated on the dated early ’90′s strain of the original.
As the on-going soap opera that is G Unit continues (it’s current A-story involves taped phone conversations and teary Tennessee emcee breakdowns), 50 Cent takes a breather from all the hip hop drama to play over-excited fan-boy on his campy new mixtape, Sincerely Yours, Southside. The charmingly lo-fi collection (it sounds like old teenage-era freestyles that Fiddy recorded in his bedroom) imagines the G Unit CEO as a guest rapper/ hype man on late ’70′s and ’80′s R&B joints from the likes of Stevie Wonder (“That Girl”), Rick James (“Moon Man”), The Tom Tom Club (“When I Get Out”) and Shalamar (“This Is For You”).
The lyrics aren’t particularly amazing, but the project provides an endlessly fun ride through memory lane and lands as a definite go-to soundtrack for those Saturday morning house-cleaning sessions. Plus, the idea of the beefcake-y rapper getting his two step-on on to Anita Ward’s “Ring My Bell” evokes some priceless mental imagery.
Highlights include:
“When I Get Out”: 50 relates some fresh out-the-clink vengeance to the bubblegum throb of Tom Tom Club’s “Genius of Love” (“I’m-a tell you what I’m gon’ do when I get out of jail/ I’m gonna get my gun”)
“I Wanna Be Your Favorite”: Probably the last place you’d expect to hear 50 dishing out rhymes, alongside the porno promises of Prince’s “I Wanna Be Your Lover”
If you’ve been paying attention to the string of hit, R&B-leaning singles unleashed from Southern emcee Plies, you’re probably very aware that dude is a freak, with sex a topic that probably never exits his brain. Regardless of how nasty he gets, though, the ladies continue to love him, and like the horny lasses they are, they’ll surely eat up his latest bedroom-ready hit, “Please Excuse My Hands”.
Featuring the dual vocal presence of Jamie Foxx and The-Dream, “Excuse” see Plies attempting to evade a potential sexual harassment lawsuit by claiming that when it comes to his incessant groping, he’s not the culprit…the blame should land solely on his hands instead (“I apologize they have a one track mind”). His rhymes in support of the simultaneously dumb/ genius topic are at times clever (“My hands don’t like to be unemployed/ They like to work”), though mostly borderline 2 Live Crew-ish (“Can you please face the wall you bout to get strip searched/ My hands talkin ‘to me, they want now what’s under yo skirt”), but he’s got a winning formula down, smartly wrapping his nearly too-raunchy lyrics in the radio-friendly packaging of a smooth, R&B midtempo production and the honey-toned contributions of the song’s guest talents (especially, the always “ey”-armed Dream).
Another nasty-based record sure to sustain Plies’ surprisingly consistent chart dominance (who knew we would still care about the man behind “Shawty” nearly a year later), I can already see the writers behind “Law & Order” scrambling to pen a next-season script around it’s preposterous concept now.
As nice as it is to get free music, think of how much better your soul would feel if you purchased it the old-fashioned way.
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(MP3 posts are for promotional and/ or previewing purposes only; if any artist or their representation wish to have the links removed, contact me and I will happily comply!)
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