Lil’ Wayne “Prom Queen (Russ Castella Piano Remix)”/ Ciara & Justin Timberlake “Love Sex Magic (Russ Castella Remix)”
For those that are still not quite feeling “Prom Queen” or wish that Ciara and JT’s “Love Sex Magic” didn’t feel so FutureSex-like, producer/ remixer Russ Castella has come to your rescue, tinkering with both records in interesting enough ways they might reverse some listeners’ initial underwhelmed reception.
Of the two, “Prom Queen” is obviously in need of the most help, so it’s not surprising it gets the more drastic makeover. This involves Castella completely stripping away it’s “rock”-y sonic terrain, then orchestrating an entirely new backing arrangement based in moody piano dramatics.
Surprisingly, casting the song in this Evanescence AC ballad-like form ends up sounding far better than one might at first assume; but a delicate sprinkling of keys can’t really solve the major problem that is Wayne’s choked robo-vocal. The man still sounds horrid.
DL: “Prom Queen (Russ Castella Piano Remix)” (alt)
For “Love Sex Magic”, Castella simply colors within the lines of it’s taut funk strut a lil’ melodic synth groove. It’s a minor updating, but damn if it doesn’t wiggle the song out of it’s re-heated feel and elevate it to a whole new plateau of post-disco sexiness.
i think lil waynes gotta go back to his old shit like Go DJ. thats probably the best song hes got.