mixtape maestro (2.0)

On Colin Munroe‘s Unsung Hero mixtape highlight “Last Cause”, the promising singer/ songwriter/ producer found himself immersed in the uncomfortable void of a pointless twenty-something existence. Soullessly making his way through the day-to-day mundane, only to score temporary satisfaction from the brief highs of coffee, films and books (“…but then I’ll wake up feeling the same”), Munroe placed his lone shot at achieving some life meaning in the hopes that a “special girl” would hear his lyrical despair and run to his rescue.

For this more urban-leaning “Cause N Effect” remix, Long Island producer/ rapper 88 Keys (Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Musiq)  strips away the original’s summer-baked guitar breeziness, better sculpting Colin’s suffocating sorrow and melancholy permanence with the un-resolved looping of a crate-dug soul sample. Keys co-signs Munroe’s longing for that ideal Valentine with a couple (literally by the sounds of it) phoned-in lines: “I can’t…afford to let you slip right through these cracks/ I betchu iChat would let me get you/ Log on!”. Mmm…okay.

Overall, it’s Reason No. 113 why Munroe deserves to have a major pop breakthrough this year.

DL: “Last Cause (Cause N Effect Remix)” (alt)