mixtape maestro (2.0)

Consequence‘s latest mixtape, Movies On Demand (a warm-up of sorts to sophomore set Cons TV), features plenty of high-profile rap names (Kanye West, Q-Tip, P Diddy, Common, Talib Kweli, Rick Ross) to guarantee heightened public interest, but anyone who’s had the chance to sample some of the Queens-born emcee’s mic skills at any point since his debut as a Tribe Called Quest hanger-on in the ’90′s knows the man needs little lyrical help on a track, a notion succinctly justified on one of the tape’s better offerings “Sounds G.O.O.D. 2 Me”.

Anchored by a laidback soul loop concocted by producer Statik Selectah, “G.O.O.D.” starts off on a rewind-worthy note, thanks to the Fiddy-flipping opening lines “Have a baby by me/ Baby, you might not get a mil/ But I won’t do you the way that Roc-A-Fella did Amil”, and never lets up in pen-game excellence over the rest of it’s near-four-minute length.

Hell, the first verse alone is packed so tight with wordplay winners (“His check as tiny as the girl who wrote ‘Scrubs’”; “They fightin’ over the kid, like I’m Debbie Rowe”; “If it’s all about money/ Send the translator home/ Cause now you speakin’ my language/ Like Rosetta Stone”), you could imagine numerous young cats currently flirting with the idea of becoming a rapper, either hitting the pad harder or quickly letting such hip hop star dreams dissipate after sampling the sixteen.

Can somebody remind us why this guy isn’t big yet?

DL: “Sounds G.O.O.D. 2 Me” (alt)

At one point we would have been more than happy to hear every rapper possible be featured on endless remixes of Consequence‘s “Whatever You Want” because the track was just…that…good. Two mixes later though, we gotta admit that that idea has lost much of it’s appeal.

Most of that weariness arises from the fact that this much-anticipated third “Whatever” installment (a Bad Boy Remix, hyping the reunion of Diddy and once-again-protégées The LOX) completely fumbles at re-creating the fun-loving air of it’s predecessors.

We get that the street-toughened LOX never settled comfortably with the glittery suits/ money flashing/ ’80′s-pop sampling goings-on that framed Bad Boy’s late ’90′s heyday (that was the whole point of them leaving the label in the first place, right?), but you would think that given this second (Third? Fourth?) chance had a career re-ignition, the boys would sound a little more inspired than they do here.

Instead, they come across like they lost some sort of bet and were forced to appear here, contributing oh-so-bored verses about living the lavish life that make being wealthy feel as entertaining as clipping your toenails. Even Diddy, King of the Monotone Mic Presence, reads fatigued, sleep-walking his way through “throw your hands in the air” hype-man orders as if distracted by the thoughts of the hundred and one other things he’d rather be doing at the moment.

What’s the point of being excited about a LOX/ Diddy reconciliation if all the members involved still sound as disinterested in the situation as they did before the split up?

DL: “Whatever U Want (Bad Boy Remix)” (alt)

Who would’ve ever thunk that the uncredited female voice that co-signed Flo Rida’s Dead or Alive & oral sex pleasure-meshing hook on “Right Round” would snatch up a solo hit of her own a couple seasons later, let alone a massively popular hit that would not only open the new year as the #1 pop single in the country, but break download sales records while there?

That’s the reality for pop newcomer Ke$ha and her debut single “Tik Tok”, an air-brainy, white girl rap concoction about on-the-budget “swagger”, Jack Daniels-assisted dental hygiene practices and spending booze-filled nights dodging “boys trying to touch my junk” at the local hot spots while in search for her ideal boy-toy: Dudes that “look like Mick Jagger” (cue puke in mouth).

It’s as unabashedly trashy as it is horrifically catchy (oh, who could deny that classic DJ-directed pop hook or the Twitter-iffically now opening line, “Wake up in the morning feelin’ like P Diddy”?) and basically pleading for some rapper to attach some equally hedonistic sixteen to it.

No surprise at all that that rapper ends up being guilty pleasure-magnet Pitbull, who fronts this remix with a verse that re-heats old ’90′s rap dialogue (“There’s some freaks in the living room getting it on and-”, yeah, we all know how that one ends) while providing other Spring Break in Cancun-centered lyrical fluff that will have your grandparents S-ing their DH’s in disgust.

Whether you dig it’s glitchy dance-pop inanity or chalk it up as Reason No. 5,864,221 why today’s music sucks balls, be prepared to hear it ad infinitum well into the Two Thousand and Dime.

Ke$ha’s debut, Animal, drops January 5th.

DL: “Tik Tok (Remix)” (alt)

The idea of Diddy tossing in his own take on contemporary music’s undying obsession with all things bridging an 80′s pop/ electro-rap sensibility with a Y4K club feel (read: his own 808′s & Heartbreak or “Boom Boom Pow”) for the forthcoming, high-concept LP Last Train To Paris felt very unnecessary from the first moment it was announced.

But then we remembered a few things: A) Diddy-as-musician has kinda always felt unnecessary; B) his decade-plus-strong career as admittably unleashed more than a few entries we still get giddy over every time they’re given a new spin; and C) “Last Night” was the it-shay, so an entire album somewhat based on that one single should yield a couple keepers…right? (Plus, we couldn’t help but be a tad intrigued by the still-in-construction snippets teased on his latest reality-TV guilty pleasure, Making His Band).

So, with all that said, where do we stand after finally getting a full helping of the newly leaked, maybe/ maybe-not first single “Love Comes Down”.

Well, it’s not as immediately grabbing as “Last Night” (nor, contrary to our hopes and dreams, a futurized remake of Evelyn “Champagne” King’s 1982 roller-rink gem “Love Come Down”), but it has some good moments. Notably the verses, which latch onto an ear-treating smoove groove with it’s jingly bells production and Dirty Money ladies Dawn (the ex-Danity Kane one) and Kaleena (the Estelle-looking one) sounding like a new version of late-90′s Diddy protogees Total as they relate a trite, devotional R&B lyric (“Oh babe my heart’s on overload and you’re to blame/ Lookin’ for a future with you babe/ Willin’ to give me your last name…”).

Unfortunately, all that slightly engaging build-up never leads to the gigantic, out-of-this-world hook the track demands, disappointingly fumbling it’s curioso hold over the aural cavities with a limp chorus that needlessly tacks on a sampled Jay-Z line (“Izzo (H.O.V.A.)”‘s “Show ‘em how to move in a room full of vultures”). And the less said about Diddy’s bored rap interlude, the better (this group is in dire need of a stronger emcee).

Decent stuff (at least the guy still knows how to pull off a solid enough R&B number), but “Love Comes Down” is nowhere near the mind-blowing game-changer Diddy has prepped us into anticipating, resigning us, until further leakage, to stick with our initial sense of this whole ordeal being completely “unnecessary”.

DL: “Love Comes Down” (alt)

Try as they might, the ever-busy Roots can’t always come through when a rapper yearns for a high-profile band to back them up for some major live gig. If that’s the case, those emcees in need may want to steer their attention the way of The Remix Project, a six-piece act out of North Carolina (featuring previously MM-approved The Apple Juice Kid on drums) who seem like they have the potential to do some major bid’ness real soon once more ears become familiar with their excellent live music skills.

Last week, the band premiered their mixtape…er, Mixtape (shouts to project-backers, Okayplayer and illRoots), a twenty-two song set compiling instrumental intrepretations of some of hip hop and R&B’s biggest tunes, and guess what: IT JAMS!!!

Some of the cuts are obvious delights that most local soul troupes or school marching bands have already mastered (Amerie’s “1 Thing”, Big Boi’s “The Way You Move”, Jay-Z’s “I Just Wanna Love You”); Some lock into jazzified grooves so lulling you could relax to them all day long (Outkast’s “Prototype”, Tribe Called Quest’s “Electric Relaxation”); But it’s when TRP slightly deviate from the expected (whether it’s upping the tempo to Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s blaxploitation-licious “Got Your Money”, giving Beyonce’s “Crazy In Love” a slow-burning introduction, or randomly throwing in (and murdering) Punjabi MC’s “Beware of The Boys” or Elton John’s “Bennie & The Jets”) that your socks will truly be knocked off.

With the birth of these cats, The Roots’ continued impressing and Diddy’s surprisingly intriguing “Making His Band” series all possibly driving young kids to pick up instruments, might we see an onslaught of new, actual hip hop bands bubbling forth within the next decade? Our fingers and toes are crossed with the hope that that is exactly what will happen.

Sample Mixtape below, then pick it up here.

Cassie has so many odds stacked against her (a barely there voice; disastrous live performance attempts; being the owner of one of those rare Weezy-featuring tunes that flops real hard; being more popular in 2009 for her “shocking” haircut, leaked nude pics, and the “is-she-or-isn’t-she with Diddy?” gossip rag banter than anything music-related) that it’s a wonder why she even persists on still having a singing career when she can simply just go on being low-B/ high-C-list famous for…well, being hot.

Not to say that her weightless brand of spacey R&B/ Pop isn’t appreciated (especially amongst the sects of anonymous hook singer-craving producers and “puny-voiced starlets over electro beats”-loving critics, to which her nonchalant presence holds a certain appeal), it’s just that after debuting with something as strong as her summer of ’06 seducer “Me & U”, no argument would have been made for her just as quickly disappearing back into model-land semi-obscurity and becoming this decade’s equivalent of 1990′s one-(and-a-half-)hit-wonder INOJ.

Nevertheless, she’s once again returned to re-launch her long-delayed sophomore set, Electro Love, with the Mario Winans/ Bryan Michael Cox-produced “Must Be Love”, a wispy midtempo ballad that sets Cassie and guest star Diddy on opposite ends of a life-altering new romance.

Fluttery Spanish guitar strums and distant ringings give it a light and pretty ambience and there’s a certain heated undertone ‘neath Cassie’s whisper-thin musings as she comes to terms with her feelings, but damn if the song doesn’t threaten to put you to sleep at every turn, Diddy’s monotone verses lacking the burst of energy “Must Be Love” begs for.

Thankfully the Bad Boy CEO helps rescue the underwhelming number by firing up one of those all-star remixes he used to pull off so well and crowding up the listless groove with strong guest turns from Busta Rhymes, R&B boy band Day26 and underground rap favorite/ new Bad Boy signee Red Café. Yeah, when placed betwixt the male personalities Cassie feels more like an afterthought on her own record, but the sequel definitely ends up carrying more of a worthwhile heft than the original.

Catch the main version’s video below, than snatch up the remix afterward.

Electro Love is expected to be released sometime later this year (though if this record doesn’t catch on, don’t get your hopes up too high conerning an actual release).

DL: “Must Be Love (Remix)” (alt)

The current season of MTV’s increasingly soapy Making The Band has been a depressing one to watch: Danity Kane’s future feels bleak now that the quintet has been reduced to a duo; Donnie’s career seems to has ended before it even began once the public realized it didn’t need another Justin Timberlake; and show focal point, R&B boy band 112 2.0 Day26, seem to spend more time bickering than they do recording their sophomore album. All that, plus the show’s oft-overlooked reality of the music industry’s current, crumbling status, makes one wonder why Diddy hasn’t completely pulled the plug on the project (it’s doubtful that all this drama could inspire an amazing musical renaissance for the Bad Boy label).

But staying in line with the chant that their CEO has (annoyingly) repeated so many times over the years (“I thought I told you that we won’t stop”), Day26 seems to have put all the in-fighting aside and turned their attention back onto their career, this time planting their focus on dominating the club realm with Forever In A Day lead-off single, “Imma Put It On Her”.

The Southern-fried banger is arguably their best record yet, but little of it’s appeal has to do with the sleepy rap cameos from featured guests Yung Joc and Diddy (whose corny, Ciroc-laced sixteen was hopefully not ghostwritten) or the predictable R&B loverman lyrics about panty-less dimepieces hypnotizing male watchers on the dance floor.

No, the track’s main pull is it’s stimulating background going-ons: a pummeling drum beat, screwed echoes of the title, and the faint flicker of rock guitar hiding behind monstrous slabs of synth that make the song sound like it’s floating by in slow motion. If the production behind Usher’s “Love In The Club” could give birth to a child, this would be it’s offspring.

Forever In A Day drops April 14th.

For months, it’s been difficult to escape the hyping of alt-pop-meets-hip hop, Harvard grad duo Chester French. From the endless “ones to watch” music press/ blog shout-outs to the high-profile support of A-list hip hop figures like Kanye West and eventual label boss Pharrell Williams, we’ve been damn near brainwashed into becoming fans of these cats.

Thankfully, the bits of Chester French music we’ve actually heard (the ’60′s-washed first single, “She Loves Everybody”; that insanely catchy Common collabo, “What A World”; their surprisingly neat remix of Jay Z’s “Excuse Me Miss”) has helped in justifying all this early praise.

Hoping to build up an even stronger buzz for debut album Love The Future (while further highlighting their cool circle of friends), the team of Maxwell Drummey and D.A. Wallach recently dropped the pre-official release mixtape, Jacque Jams, Vol. 1 – Endurance, which tracks the on-the-rise trek of their previous six years through material both old and new, some amusing skits, and the “exclusive” inclusion of a self-produced Lady Gaga remix, not to mention a laundry list of cameo appearances that includes Diddy, Jadakiss, Bun B, Solange, Talib Kweli and Cassie amongst others.

Preview a couple of MM’s faves below:

It’s kind of sad that Janelle Monae still hasn’t quite set the world on fire with her brilliant sci-fi-soul sound (you NEED to pick up Metropolis The Chase Suite like right now), but nevertheless she makes for a great duet partner on the geeky puppy love ode “Nerd Girl”, a prance-y mix of Beatles vocal creaminess and ’80′s synth-pop tenderness.

“I wear tiny suits and bowties, some might call me strange,” she coos. Oh Miss Monae, that’s hardly a bad thing.

DL: “Nerd Girl” (alt)

Meanwhile, “Life In LA” details guest stars Pharrell Williams and Jermaine Dupri’s wild and crazy sexcapades with the City of Angels’ bottomless well of overly worked on, coke-sniffing Barbie Dolls atop old school rap drum clatter and space-age ambiance. Unfortunately, the good times are all over for the French boys, who’ve partied all their dough away and now must leave all the fun and sun behind.

DL: “Life In LA” (alt)

You can pick up the entire entertaining collection here; Love The Future, drops April 21st.

Leave it to Deep Dish halve Sharam Tayebi, the man who made Eddie Murphy-as-singer cool again with his club-tastic 2006 re-imagining of the comedian’s 80′s hit “Party All The Time”, to emerge triumphant in doing something as bonkers as melding classic country, dub and hip hop 2.0.

On “She Came Along” (from his new Get Wild LP), Sharam starts off by throwing some restless beat tinkerings under the somber C&W sway of Patsy Cline’s “Strange”, creating a surprisingly addictive mashing of genres that would have ultimately been fine on it’s own. Alas, we’re in for even more of a treat, as he then goes and busts the record’s appeal out of the stratosphere by stripping in current sensation Kid Cudi.

Cudi co-signs Cline’s teary-eyed whimperings (“Strange, how you stopped loving me/ How you stopped needing me/ When she came along…”), cleverly using it’s lyrics to support his own “my chick left me for another chick” rhyme. But rather than dish out a predictable dose of shock and heartache in response to the situation, Cudi instead wonders aloud why the three of them can’t find a way to work things out so he can live out the ultimate male fantasy.

The images of their potentially steamy “love triangle” sex sessions clouding up his brain, he pleas for her to stay by his side, promising “I could live life fine with two ladies” before later urging them, in that entrancing sing-rap vocal of his, to both take his hand so he can make them “feel okay”.

Sigh. There’s just too much here to love.

Get Wild, also featuring appearances from Tommy Lee, Diddy and Daniel Bedingfield, is available April 7th. Pre-order it here.

DL: “She Came Along” (alt)

2007 promised big things for Atlanta rapper Gorilla Zoe.

Brought into the Boyz N The Hood unit to replace prized-member-turned-solo-star Young Jeezy, Zoe had the good luck to be featured on two back-to-back third-quarter ’07 releases: BNTH’s sophomore album, Back Up N Da Chevy, and his own solo debut, Welcome To The Zoo. But beyond his initially intriguing Jeezy sound-alike-ness and the briefly popular, club-and-street-hugged bouncer that was “Hood Nigga”, neither album managed to make much of a lasting commercial mark.

It looked like Zoe was going to soon fade away into the ever-overcrowded sea of faceless rap entities…that is, until he began to pique some major interest with last fall’s gruffily sung (!!) “Lost”, a bleak, Drumma Boy-produced slow-crawler that saw him teetering on the edge of a mental breakdown.

Managing to become a modest hit, “Lost” re-sparked Zoe’s buzz, leading to wonders of how, or if, this slightly intriguing “new sound” would further be manifested on his forthcoming second LP, Don’t Feed Da Animals. Apparently, by the sounds of Animals‘ latest leakage “Echo”, it seems “Lost” was no one-off fluke away from his typical dope-boy musings.

An Auto-Tuned-favoring (yeah, he’s singing again) kiss-off that could easily be mistaken for an Akon or Sean Kingston number if it wasn’t for Zoe’s deep shower croon, “Echo” is definitely the rapper’s most pop-leaning track yet. Swirly, new wave-y synths apply a sleek, 80′s sheen behind mocking taunts towards an old girlfriend. “You did this to yourself/ Now you’re all by your self/ Acting like you hate me/ All because you ain’t me,” he smirks, pushing the knife in only deeper with the further ridiculing hook: “I’m gone and all you hear is your own damn echo/…No one to hear you/ There’s nobody near you”.

Ultimately, despite “Echo”‘s needing of a bit more polish, Zoe shows here that he has to know-how to craft a decent enough Top 40 hit on par with other “rappa-ternt-sanga” entries from Kanye West and T.I.; it’s listenable and deserving of a sing-along or head nod or two. But it’s also a bit disappointing to see him jump from the darkish slant of “Lost” to super-radio-friendly Flo-Rida material so fast. It would have been nice to have a bit more edge injected (maybe a break into a straight-forward rap, or at least a guttural “uh” intro) to keep it from being so blatantly mainstream sounding and serve a stronger connection to his previous material.

You can listen to the original here, but below, peep and snatch up the slightly superior remix to “Echo” featuring none other than Diddy. Is it sad that Mixtape Maestro wishes the roles were reversed and Diddy was given more of a prominent position, with Zoe just relegated to hook and bridge duties?

DL: “Echo (Remix)” (alt)