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)

Seeing as though we were so late in discovering the awesomeness that was the original, it’s only fitting that we would be as equally tardy in finding out the G.O.O.D. Music crew hooked up for a sequel, right?.

Whatevs. Now featuring guest turns from Kid Cudi, Common and Big Sean, as well as new verses from Con and West, this new posse-stylized rendering of the cut succinctly satisfies our wish of giving us an elongated serving of the track’s mesmerizing swirl of a hook/ beat, one of the most under-appreciated aural combinations of the year.

DL: “Whatever You Want (Remix)” (alt)

“Whatever U Want”, the first single off of Queens rapper/ Q-Tip cousin/ G.O.O.D. Music signee Consequence‘s upcoming sophomore album Cons TV, leaked waaay back in the Summer, but somehow we had never come across it until we were flipping through cable channels and happened to catch it’s on-the-cheap-looking Hype-directed video (featuring a striking duo of ponytail-whipping Sasha Fierce-wannabes)…and now, we’re more than a little bummed that we have arrived so late to the party to gush over such a fantastic track.

Honestly, we could listen to Con and Kanye trade the mic back and forth over “Whatever”‘s bubbling electronic drum beat and those seducing synth sounds that mark the end of every four lines over and over without complaint. And the addition of John Legend’s romancing croon and the way the different elements to the production beautifully crash together from the mid-way point on only make the song that much more endlessly addicting.

Can this trio form a supergroup of some sort and release a mixtape, EP or album filled with more tracks like this, please?

Catch the video below, then grab a cool remix from Philly’s DJ Gregg Nyce that slaps the “Whatever U Want” vocals over the “Back To Life” beat.

Whatever U Want by Consequence f Kanye West & John Legend

Consequence | MySpace Video

DL: “Whatever U Want (Nyce Back To Life Remix)” (alt)

A buttery seduction of neo-soul smoove and cool poetic charm subtly fringed with old-school hip hop hype, Q Tip’s The Renaissance album cut “We Fight/ We Love”, like the rest of it’s trackmates, served as a welcome reminder of why Tip was so missed during that seemingly eternal between-album period.

Position nearly any aspect of it (from the vivid lyrical illustrations of it’s opening lines to the excellent second verse story of a young soldier’s tenure in Iraq (“You get to travel the world, its cheaper than college/ And you get guns, and you get knowledge/ Lookin for your soul, and WMD’s/ You can’t find nothing, cause its empty…”) to the way Tip’s relaxed flow nestles with such ease within it’s sublime groove) against about 90% of what’s currently being (over-)supported by your local rap station, and the gap in creativity presented is downright maddening.

What a sad world we live in when the beyond-corny club-pop exercises of Flo-Rida or instantly-tired frat-boy musings of “I Love College” represent to so many radio listeners what hip hop is while amazing gems like “Fight/ Love” struggle (usually unsuccessfully) for an inkling of airspace. Sigh.

Below, peep a performance of “We Fight/ We Love” from the Ellen show, then check out the remix featuring Tip’s cousin Consequence and the ever-busy Kanye West. Their appearance results in the sad omission of both original guest Raphael Saadiq and that aforementioned second verse, but the fact that West is actually rapping (YAAAAYYY!!!) here makes the changes less of a bummer.

DL: “We Fight/ We Love (Remix)” (alt)

He’s the cousin of Q Tip and the latest artist released from Kanye West’s GOOD Music clique and should’ve blown up years ago. Such a presence on Tribe Called Quest’s 1996 album Beats, Rhymes and Life that people mistook him for a new member, Consequence would earn even more recognition by way of Kanye’s College Dropout highlight, “Spaceship”. Years after the buzz has died a bit, Consequence hopes to bring back public interest with his debut album, Don’t Quit Your Day Job, and it’s throwback-sounding lead single, “Callin’ Me”.

Rocking a Younglord-produced early-’90′s rap beat that Amerie or KRS-One could easily be caught rocking to, “Callin’ Me” supports the argument that Consequence may be Kanye’s prime influence. West’s style: sing-songy delivery, dashing wit, everyman perspective and twirly wordplay all come into effect here in a much more refined way. A freeform lyrical number, Consequence spends one verse adding humour to the lifestyle of a pimp while the second spins a cleverly-constructed yarn about a club shooting and the convoluted characters involved. It rounds up as appreciated attempt to take rap back to the days of yesteryear when the results were raw and playful, not nearly as commercial-minded and threatening as they usually come off today.