Even if Yael Naim was never to record another song again, it’s likely her presence wouldn’t be absent from the blogosphere for too long as DJ’s, producers and rappers seem obsessed with finding new ways to spin her 2008 fluke hit “New Soul”.
On this latest twist on the Naim tune, Sydney mash-up man Lezington crafts an admittedly cheesy, but definitely likable, marriage of “New Soul” with the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s kooky classic “Got Your Money” that has embedded inside our brains the hilarious image of a Muppet-ed Big Baby Jesus slapping down felt-made groupie ho’s on the seedier side of Sesame Street.
Grab it below, alongside another one of Lezington’s simplistic-but-irresistibly fun blends: Lil’ Wayne’s “A Milli” merged with a-ha’s “Take On Me”.
Instantly trumping the surprisingly not-awkward Pink and Rihanna collaborations as the most shocking aspect of Eminem‘s freshly leaked new album Recovery? The fact that the album’s mid-set standout “No Love”, Em’s latest team-up with his “Forever”/ “Drop The World”-trackmate Lil’ Wayne, is laced with a Just Blaze beat that samples, of all things, Haddaway’s 1993 world smash (and future Roxbury Guys’ theme song) “What Is Love”…and, dare we say, actually bangs because of it.
“No Love” is more or less a rewrite of “World”, finding the two rappers once again venomously going in after anonymous haters/ bitches/ lesser rappers/ whatevers with Lil’ Wayne contributing another ramble-heavy verse slightly redeemed by a couple LOL lines (our favorite: “Put a dick in they mouth/ So I guess it’s “Fuck what they say”) and Eminem then shutting things down with one of those excellent sixteens that gradually escalates in both speed and ferocity over it’s span.
For any outstanding lyrical achievements that are on display here though, they barely yield the same shock-and-awe spark that’s brought forth in Blaze’s production, a tense and menacing soundtrack lightly seasoned with teasing blips of “What Is Love”‘s familiar electro synth burbles and titular hook wail. When that first “Love…don’t hurt me” is heard, you won’t be able to lift your jaw off the floor, by the time the song is over, you’ll think of it as one of the greatest WTF uses of a sample this side of Jay-Z’s “Hard Knock Life”.
Hear the track below, and quickly before it gets taken down in 5…4..3..2..
We know, we know (get off Drake’s sack already!!!!!), but it’s not our fault hip hop’s current Boy Wonder is attached to so many noteworthy projects right now.
Added to that list is October’s Very Cold, a Drake/ Coldplay mash-up mixtape helmed by producer Chi Duly, which is not only great because the two acts it’s mashing-up actually sounds like an enticing musical marriage on paper (Drizzy and Chris Martin both have that whole e-mopey thing going on), but the ten-track results are all songs we wouldn’t be embarrassed to blast in our cars…with the windows rolled down (Special props to Duly and his expert chop/ blend work).
Grab our two favorites below, the sublime “Money To Fix” (“Money To Blow”/ “Fix You”) and the addicting “Forever La Vida” (“Forever”/ “Viva La Vida”), or simply cop the entire thing here.
DL: Drake & Coldplay featuring Birdman and Lil’ Wayne “Money To Fix” (alt)
DL: Drake & Coldplay featuring Kanye West, Lil’ Wayne and Eminem “Forever La Vida” (alt)
Kinda making us feel a lil’ guilty for not putting more thought into the lame card and flowers we eventually copped (well, scrambled at the last minute to get) for our Maternal Ones on Mother’s Day, long-running West Coast Rapper To Watch (and Class of 2010 XXL Freshman) Jay Rock gifted his Mom’s last weekend by paying tribute to her in song for the holiday (Okay, we’re a week late…so what).
Rocking atop a slick sampling of, what else, The Intruders’ 1973 Gamble & Huff-produced classic “I’ll Always Love My Momma”, Rock’s “Love My Momma” is a touching one, tracking the gruff-voiced rapper’s undying admiration for his mother from birth (“After the doctors, the nurses wiped me off/ Your touch so soft/ I could feel the warmth of your heart through the cloth”) and childhood (“The teachers didn’t believe in me/ My Momma said the world needed me”), all the way through to his present-day adult-hood.
Expect Rock’s long-pushed back debut Follow Me Home sometime later this year.
In an effort to prove that we’re not completely out of the loop when it comes to what’s been making waves within the music blog scene in recent weeks, enjoy this quick run-through of some of the more high profile new videos/ releases we’ve missed out on commenting on due to…uh, we’ll just say “real life” (and a few WordPress issues) getting in the way:
Sleigh Bells “Tell Em”
Anything you’ll ever read about this Brooklyn boy/girl noise-pop duo (vocalist Alexis Krauss and songwriter/ guitarist/ producer Derek E. Miller) is bound to note the band’s love for insane volume levels just as much as it’ll hype how crazily infectious the tunes hidden beneath all the ear-punishing distortion are.
Believe these words on both accounts.
“Tell Em”, the first single from the Sleigh Bells’ debut album Treats (due May 11th on Mom + Pop/ N.E.E.T.), may lead to one having early deafness, but bet you won’t be able to resist repeat doses of it’s rat-a-tat drum, turned-up-to-eleven guitar riffage and laser sound effects assault, nor Krauss’ pureform coos sweetly encouraging today’s young’uns “you can do your best today” betwixt it all.
Last summer’s chillwave/ glo-fi movement taught us the glories of music that was meek-sounding, of shitty quality and awesome; expect the upcoming warm weather season to be all about start-up bands/ acts co-signing the equally awesome louder-than-loud and shitty quality formula of the Bells.
We’ll politely decline from adding to the increasingly tiring “Is she copying Gaga?” rattle concerning Aguilera‘s new (meh) one, and just say this: when it comes to desperate slutty Christina, we’d rather give “Dirrty” a re-spin.
Is it bad that we wish we could just fast-forward to the next Aguilera album era already?
Christina’s Bionic drops June 8th.
Ciara featuring Ludacris “Ride”
Looking to get her career back on track after the commercial fumble that was her last album (2009′s Fantasy Ride), Ciara smartly hearkens back to a previous career highlight on new single “Ride”, re-heating the winning, “seductive ‘crunk & b’ crawl + Ludacris cameo” formula of “Oh” with an extra slathering of naughty sex kitten on top of it.
“I can do it up and down/ I can do circles/ To him I’m a gymnast/ This one is my circus,” she sings, nicely illustrating such bedroom talents with a slew of eye-popping body gyrations (amongst other “I’m not a little girl anymore” visuals) in the accompanying video.
Yeah, the hook claims it’s the “beat” that she’s riding “like a mother-[bleeping] freak”, but a ten-year-old could figure out what she’s really talking about.
Eminem “Not Afraid”
Capping months of track-owning guest appearances on joints alongside Drake & Kanye West, Lil’ Wayne and B.o.B (not to mention the killer freestyle track “Despicable”), Em‘s “Not Afraid”, the first taste off his next full length Recovery, lands as another lyrical stunner, with him surprisingly coming across as equally compelling when preaching positive about living a “clean” lifestyle as he does when he’s flexing his more loony and murderous-minded material.
Only problem is, while we’re excited to hear he’s become aware of how awful the various “accents” and pop star/ tabloid staple-spoofing had become, “Not Afraid” feels less and less interesting with each successive listen (maybe it’s that ’80′s arena rock-styled hook), and we’re not necessarily sure we’re ready for an entire album of Eminem getting all uplifting on us.
Surely Kim has done something scandalous in recent years to inspire at least one Recovery song that throws back to his bat-shit crazy rhymes.
Josh Ritter “Another New World”
From the critically-acclaimed folk singer-songwriter‘s newly released sixth set So Runs The World Away (currently streaming in full over at NPR.org), a seven-minute-long story song set atop beautifully sedative acoustic guitar pluckings and dreamily sirenic muted horns about an Arctic explorer and his crew and the tragic horrors that befall them in the midst of a voyage in search of the “new world”.
Doesn’t sound like your cup of tea? Take a chance and hit ‘Play’ and you’ll be surprised how misty-eyed you get once it gets to the part where the protagonist is forced to set fire to his beloved ship in order to stay alive.
Most attention concerning this final single from the nearly two-year-old I Am…Sasha Fierce will more than certainly fall on it’s strange, but definitely sexy, retro-themed video (with Bey once-again rocking the Bettie Page ’50′s pin-up look) rather than the song itself; but the cut (co-penned by sister Solange) manages to be somewhat fascinating in it’s own right with the steely-voiced diva turning herself inside-out trying to figure out why a man would choose to willfully bypass such a catch (especially one with “beauty”, “class”, “style” and, most importantly”, “ass”) to a tightly-wound ’60′s soul strut.
With all the major Top 40 noise the union of Timberlake & Timbaland have crafted in the past decade (through tracks either incredibly awesome or just so-so), one would be forgiven in somehow forgetting that the Virginia beat maestro isn’t the only A-list producer Justin shares amazing musical chemistry with.
Sure, JT’s debut solo album Justified blew up off of the Timbaland-helmed “Cry Me A River”, but the album garnered the most praise through its teaming of Justin and The Neptunes, the merging of the former ‘Nsync frontman’s slinky falsetto with Pharrell & Chad’s posh, modernized updates on ’70′s soul-pop, funk and disco being what ultimately sold the public on Timberlake’s “future new MJ”-like promise.
That magic rears it’s irresistible head again on the newly leaked Game jam “Ain’t No Doubt About It” (it’s the first single from his forthcoming The R.E.D. Album) and basically has the rapper registering as an afterthought on his own record as Game’s two contributed verses, featuring forgettable mutterings about licorice-colored sports cars and “haters” being like “swine flu” (“You’re killing me”), prove no match for the pleasure in hearing Justin and Pharrell trade off honey-coated R&B lines in admiration of the sexy ladies atop a burbling, bloops-and-bleeps funk groove that’s reminiscent of the Neptunes’ early ’00′s hit output.
Look for The R.E.D. Album to drop on June 15th; in the meanwhile, pick up Game’s mixtape/ pre-album teaser The Red Room, with featured guests Lil’ Wayne, Jadakiss and Fabolous among others, over at XXL.
Mysterious Swedish indie-pop entity jj aren’t above tapping into the urban music pool for a little inspiration (previous entries have borrowed hooks, verses and musical signatures from the catalogues of Akon, Lil’ Wayne and The Game), so it doesn’t really come as too much of a surprise that their newest cryptic creation, “CEO Birthday”, would lift melodic and lyrical content from Jeremih’s 2009 debut smash “Birthday Sex”.
The track is no less of a head-scratching marvel though, heightening the drowsy, lullabye undertones of “Birthday Sex” through singer Elin Kastlander’s gentle, ethereal coos and an extended downbeat instrumental section that brings to mind the chilled erotica of Art of Noise’s avant-garde bedroom staple “Moments In Love”.
Ten months after being honored with a Pitchfork BNM tag for their contagious semi-politi-dance-rap juke anthem “Chi Don’t Dance” (memorable for it’s brow-arching line “MTV gave me ADD/ BET taught me to hate me” and a rowdy, Goodie Mob-referencing hook), Chicago trio BBU (Bin Laden Blowin’ Up) try to prove that they’re no one (blog-)hit wonders with the release of their cleverly-titled mixtape, Fear of a Clear Channel Planet.
Out of it’s thirteen-cut tracklisting, the one that’s sure to earn them even more Web-hype in the coming months is set highlight “Black n’ Plastic”, a dishing of occasionally cutting “What’s happening to us?” cultural commentary (“Do you really love yourself?”, they ask to all the “GQ magazine, coke fiend cover girls/ And all them other girls that wanna look like other girls”) and potentially beef-starting digs at LMFAO, Asher Roth and Lil’ Wayne, served atop a surprisingly winning mix of sparse-ish Dirty South production tricks blended with an endlessly looped sample of Aqua’s ’90′s hit “Barbie Girl”.
Yeah…you read that right, they’ve sampled “BARBIE GIRL”…and the beat rocks (or, in their case, we guess jukes) somethin’ tough.
“Like a G I hold it down for the town I’m AT/ And I flash like THAT/ Recognize I’M BACK!,” sneers T.I. on the hook to newly unleashed comeback banger “I’m Back”; if news of the Southern rap kingpin nearing the end of his year-long sentence didn’t necessarily hit you with excitement concerning his return, those punctuated peaks at the end of each of those lines definitely do the trick.
Here, as the Trackslayers production team excellently surround him with the kind of epic-sized, Southern hip hop trunk-rattler he’s crushed with so many times before, T.I. spews breathless rounds of annoyance and ire aimed at those he felt did a sucky job holding down the fort in his absence. “Tight jeans, funny haircuts, dancing on the screen/ It’s a drought of real niggas in the game so it seems,” he spits with such heat you could almost feel the saliva spraying from his mouth against your ears.
For those that thought that Lil’ Wayne’s trip into the clink would hurt the Third Coast rap scene in 2010, you needn’t at all worry any longer. The King is back, and from the sounds of things, more than ready to make up for the time he’s lost.
For all you other jailed rappers wondering how to truly mark your re-emergence into the game upon your release, this is how you stage a return to make the crowd go nuts.
For those who’ve longed for more than just a simple hook-boy contribution from Lloyd on the Young Money smash “Bedrock”, you’ll probably take a liking to this “sequel” version, which sees all of YM scrapped (except for Weezy and Drake’s original verses, of course) to give the R&B singer more of a leading role.
What does Lloyd have to say now that he’s given the spotlight? Unfortunately, more goofy metaphors that make you wish the expert at this sort of XXX-rated R&B wordplay, R. Kelly, had had a hand in the writing process.
Still, we’ll gladly take “I can beat it up like an ultimate fighter/ I can eat it up like a Siberian tiger” and “I can make your body rock/ Me no Rubble” (as in Barney Rubble) over mucho horrific Gudda Gudda quotables like “I see me with her/ No Stevie Wonder” and “I got her nigga/ Grocery bag” anyday.
P.S.: Were we the only ones to only JUST NOW figure out that Drake’s quoting some “Are You That Somebody?” in his portion? Yeah?…Oh…nevermind.
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!)
Even if Yael Naim was never to record another song again, it’s likely her presence wouldn’t be absent from the blogosphere for too long as DJ’s, producers and rappers seem obsessed with finding new ways to spin her 2008 fluke hit “New Soul”.
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