mixtape maestro (2.0)

Mr. Hudson might have drew the attention of critics and a couple of BBC radio playlist-makers for the acclaimed 2007 release A Tale of Two Cities (we beg you to give that one a listen), but since contributing some key moments to Kanye‘s 808s (he co-produced “Street Lights” and provided back-up vocals on “Say You Will” and “Paranoid”) and earning a spot on the G.O.O.D. Music label, interest has grown a thousand-fold in what this intriguing, X-Men supervillain-looking figure has to offer on his upcoming project, Straight No Chaser.

For lead single “Supernova”, a duet with a once-again Auto-Tuned-out Kanye, Hudson smartly extends on 808s‘ techno-hop-meets-emo-soundtracked melodrama (“Before you make the biggest mistake of your life/ Just give me a chance to get it right”), infusing it with clouds-parting strokes of epic, U2/ Coldplay-esque grandeur.

It definitely has the sound of something with major pop chart-dominating promise, yet despite it’s 80′s sonic pizazz and a script that’ll pierce the soul of anyone currently cloaked in heartache, it also manages to feel very un-extraordinary, lacking a certain something that could truly make it as great as it seems to already think it is.

MR HUDSON [FEAT KANYE WEST] – SUPERNOVA from MrHudson on Vimeo.

On the other hand, future album cut “Anyone But Him” (also featuring West) is a complete winner.

Given an unsettled edge with it’s nervy display of plinky blips and synths and needly drum machine clatter, “Anyone” grabs your undivided attention from the start as Hudson spits out an endless stream of green-eyed venom after eyeing an old love’s new choice of bedmate (“Anyone but him/ I’d rather hear you had the whole football team/ Than have to watch his filthy lips on your skin…”), the chorus finding him liquified into a pitiful blob as he pinchedly moans “Who’s gonna take you home?” over and over as if he’s hoping she’ll have a sudden change-of-heart at the last moment and realize whose arms she really should be in.

West also makes a far more effective guest star here. Under the guise of the other man, he dishes out a devastating “nyah nyah” of a sixteen that opens with “When she go Black/ She ain’t never going back” and ends with him harmonizing along to Hudson’s chorus, providing this deliciously cocky alternate spin to the “Who’s gonna take you home/ If it isn’t me?” query.

DL: “Anyone But Him” (alt)

The excitingly deathless 808′s & Heartbreak-referencing trend carries on with this latest entry: a re-handling of current single “Amazing” by producers Haskel Johnson and Derek “D.O.A.” Allen and G.O.O.D. Music signee/ Kanye cousin Tony Williams (he’s the voice behind Jay Z’s “History”, and has several ‘background vocalist’-credited gigs on West albums) that enhances the original’s dulled, menacing stomp with doses of rock bite and adult soul finesse.

Here, Johnson and Allen paste electric guitar and live drumming action on the fringes, while Williams slow things down for a ballad-y, piano-dresses mid-section that echoes Kanye’s ego-massaging tangent (“If you gon’ hate on me without a reason/ It ain’t my loss/ It’s amazing how they talk about you/ I don’t know why/ Anyone would ever want to doubt ya…”).

Yeah, some of “Amazing”‘s compelling insular feel may be lost in all of the trio’s newly added tinkerings, but we’re still huge fans of this revamp nonetheless and wish for their aid in some of the album’s other cuts.

DL: “Amazing (Remix)” (alt)

After a year that’s seen him score his very first Grammy, pen chart-topping anthems for divas Mariah Carey, Beyonce and Mary J Blige, continue his reign as one of the urban world’s top go-to hook-crafters, and drop one of the still-infant year’s best contemporary R&B albums, The-Dream deserves to do a little bragging.

Here, he blows his own horn to the tune of Kanye West’s “Amazing”, daring others to “call me ah-choo” cause “I’m sick” and dishing out over-the-top promises that album #3 will “be better than Thriller“. MM doesn’t know about that last line, but frat-boy props will be given to him for his ability to snatch up R&B/ pop cutie Christina Milian (featured here on her own verse) as his newest arm candy. Now that’s definitely something one should be boasting about.

DL: “Amazing (Kanye West Cover)” (alt)

As stated here before, it’s always nice to hear something from 808s & Heartbreak that’s been fleshed out with live instrumentation and a “real” singer, and this take on the album’s second single by anony-pop/ rockers The Fray bears a certain quasi-appeal thanks to some starry-eyed twinkling elements, ghostly background vocals and the ever-zealous Isaac Slade wringing has much angst as he can out of each “Damn her!!!!” lyric.

Ultimately, though, it ends up sounding just as bland and overly-familiar as everything else The Fray does, and past a single curioso listening you could probably care less about ever hearing it again. Hey, but at least Kanye digs it and that says something…right?

Something tells us that we should be expecting a Fray feature (taking the place of the Chris Martin/ Coldplay spot) on the next West album. Insert (groan) with a slight twinge of anticipated interest here.

DL: “Heartless (Kanye West Cover)” (alt)

I know, I know. Covers/ remixes of “Love Lockdown” seem so 2008 right about now, but this stripped-down rendering of the 808s & Heartbreak lead-in by buzzworthy London singer-songwriter Alan Pownall is still worth mentioning.

Effectively recreating the track with a swampy, New Orleans-styled grit that explodes into a disparate acoustic playground on the hook, Pownall’s down-home take ultimately sounds like it could have been the original (and dare we say, superior) “Lockdown” incarnation that Kanye covered instead.

If Kanye truly was as much of the musical genius he tirelessly claims himself to be, he’d use this remake as inspiration for an entire re-release of Heartbreak with other “true” singers and organically-woven framings attached. At least, before somebody else does and reaps all the critically-acclaimed benefits.

DL: “Love Lockdown (Kanye West Cover)” (alt)

It seems the people have spoken. R. Kelly might have gotten off scot-free from that forever-long child porn case, but post-trial, his dominance over urban playlists has come to a screeching halt with recent singles “Hairbraider” and “Skin” failing to muster up much chart love (despite both bearing the blueprint of becoming major hits). So what does a down-on-his-luck, one-time R&B kingpin do next? Attach himself, bootleg-style, to one of the most talked about records of the season and hope it reminds people why they adored nearly everything else he put out for well over a decade.

To Kells’ credit, he makes a better fit on the heavily Auto-Tune-shaded “Love Lockdown” than the less vocally talented Kanye (who still came off sounding underwhelming after releasing numerous track revisions), but R. also obliterates much of the original’s cool mystique in his efforts to turn “Lockdown” into a typical “R. Kelly song”. Shouting out a highlight of his old-school catalogue by dubbing this “a “version of ‘When A Man’s Fed Up’”, he needlessly fills in the lines of West’s vague laments of romance woe, spewing disdain towards a lover who just couldn’t get it right even after multiple attempts, while throwing in zany metaphors like “we used to be like a Vegas night on a winning streak” and, predictably, winding the narrative into a “picking up sexy chicks at the club” scenario.

If this version had came out first, it would be a little bit easier to get behind, but compared to West’s far-superior original (and the fact that most have already bypassed the now-passé “Lockdown” and begun indulging in the handful of other 808s & Heartbreaks leaks that have since flooded the blogosphere), this redux doesn’t really register has anything special beyond a single curioso listen.

Remember when Kells was starting R&B trends rather than tardily following them in a desperate attempt to stay relevant?

DL: “Love Lockdown (Remix)” (YFH)

While most of this year’s VMA’s oddly came across a little too sedate, the show did feature at least one performance that got folks REALLY talking the next day, whether positively or negatively. Mr. Kanye “I’ll never appear at another VMA again” West capped the night off with an extraordinary performance of neck hair-raising new single “Love Lockdown”, featuring a glow-in-the-dark heart brooch thing, shadowy tribe-men filling the air with booming drum work and some neat explosion tricks. Oh yeah, and the track saw the rapper/ producer SINGING robo-voice-styled for it’s entire length. As expected, message boards across the vast World Wide Web lit up with all kinds of extreme public reaction concerning his latest artistic move, much in the same way the masses got all uber-excited once his game-changing “Stronger” dropped last summer.

With the release of this sub-quality studio rendition, we now have the opportunity to better absorb what the hell he’s doing. Is “Love Lockdown” the best song ever, or does it’s demented soul-tronica edge come off a little underwhelming in this off-stage translation? For the time being, we’ll have to say our initial reaction lands somewhere in between the two.

Kanye manages to make nearly every one of his records a ginormous event and “Love Lockdown” ranks as one of his biggest and strangest. From the clever bass-as-heartbeat that hauntingly back-ends the track to the manic percussion explosion, freaky piano lines and animal shrieks that eventually emerge, the spooky instrumental lures you with it’s sinister mood. The lyrics feature him crooning with the weight of a heavy sadness, sounding like the ghost of a soul-man raised from his grave. “I’m not lovin’ you/ The way I wanted to,” he opens, succeeding lines echoing the same gloomed melody as he further colors the internal strife he’s found himself trapped in-betwixt (“See I wanna move/ But can’t escape from you…”; “I can’t keep myself/ And still keep you too”).

As far as smart career trajectories go, “Love Lockdown” lands as the logical next step for an artist aiming to keep challenging himself and his audience creatively. But where it slightly disappoints is in it’s failure to retain some of that edge-of-your-seat suspense demonstrated in it’s introductory VMA execution, something that’s not entirely his fault since that was the first time most of us had got a strong gist of what the song was. Thankfully, we’re given hope in that this isn’t the final version, and if we know West as much as we think we do, once the final mix is unearthed, this alt-blues confessional will truly shine as the classic stunner he most likely already thinks it is.

DL: “Love Lockdown (Studio)” (YFH)