mixtape maestro (2.0)

Riding a smooth R&B-based backbeat (complete with cool Slick Rick interjections, anonymous hook-girl cooings and starry-eyed keyboards) that triggers nostalgia for the best that radio-friendly, mid-to-late-’90′s hip hop had to offer, Bow Wow’s newest single “Roc The Mic” just begs to soundtrack some long car-ride with the top down and the near-triple digit summer sun heat beaming off the top of heads. But then, one gives the lyrics a closer inspection and a tinge of awkwardness begins to settle in: are Bow and longtime mentor/ producer Jermaine Dupri REALLY bypassing the typical hoes and wheels rap banter to spit about their re-tightened “father”/ “son” bond?

Now we’re all for a little positivity in hip hop penmanship, but the brotherly love being tossed back-and-forth between these two miniature-sized emcees here ends up being a bit too close to corny ’80′s sitcom theme song territory for comfort.

In reference to the duo’s much-written-about “outs” period, JD cockily pipes in: “See I had to let him go/ Just so he can really know/ You never know what you got ’til its gone/ Welcome home”; Later, Bow calls JD “more like a Dad than just a big brother” (Awww), then giggles through an old childhood memory of wanting to “smash” all of Dupri’s pre-Janet groupies, needlessly adding, “And I did it!!” (Ewww). All of that, plus the huggy-huggy chorus chiming of “They say we talk just alike/ Walk just alike…” and a quite solid instrumental suddenly feels soured underneath all the BFF sentiment.

This is one song that perhaps should have just stayed in their respective private vault collections.