Well today marked the leaking of Lupe‘s version, and while it’s unfair to really compare the two “Nothin’”‘s (considering Fiasco’s sounds to be in its rough draft stages and could have been completely re-hauled by the time it hit radio), it nonetheless makes for an interesting peep into the way different artists interpret a tune.
For instance, where B.o.B opted to add to Bruno’s silken chorus with even more hooky pop elements (the sing-y portions, his brain-imprinting “N-n-n-nothin’ on you babe”‘s), Lupe takes a more laid back/ straightforward rap approach, rocking a slow, halted flow that brings the special romance that Mars croons of to life with neat little simile-based lyrical bites like “She’s Venus/ And me’s Mars/ So we like on a whole ‘nother chart” and “We like Williams and Woods on tour/ Now that’s love above par”.
If this was indeed the final version (with the addition of some mastering of course), might Lupe’s “Nothin” managed to make it’s way to the upper reaches of the pop charts too? Difficult to say, but seeing as though these days you could probably score a major hit with nothing but fart noises as long as you had Bruno “Midas Touch” Mars delivering a hook, Lupe’s take would have likely received some considerable mainstream airplay.
Despite Janet Jackson’s Discipline single (and pseudo-MJ shoutout) “Rock With U” never quite becoming the ubiquitous dance jam it deserved to be, we still couldn’t imagine ever liking the under-appreciated tune with a voice attached that wasn’t JJ’s eternally-sexy sing-whispers.
So color us surprised that after coming across co-writer Ne-Yo’s leaked demo recording, we were left wishing that he could’ve somehow stripped it onto his last LP and dropped it as a single himself.
In hearing his shimmery tenor calling out the eroticism of strobe lights over the track’s pulsing Euro-R&B throb, it’s like finally having the sibling record to “Closer” we were never officially gifted with.
As pop songs go, “Fight For This Love”, the debut solo single from Girls Aloud member/ X-Factor judge Cheryl Cole is definitely an earworm, matching sturdy lessons in love (summary: romantic relationships aren’t meant to be a walk in the park, they constantly require work on both partner’s parts) with a nicely subdued lite R&B-dance production buzz that’s further heightened by string melody snippets ripped straight from K Ci & JoJo’s wedding staple “All My Life” and a percussion thump focused breakdown.
But with as many replay spins we’ve given it since first hearing it a while back, there’s always been something that annoyed us about it that we couldn’t quite put our finger on. After recently coming across the long-ago leaked demo version, performed by co-songwriter Andre Merritt (Rihanna’s “Disturbia”, Chris Brown’s “Forever”), we quickly figured out what the source of our irritation was: Cheryl Cole herself.
Cole’s a decent vocalist, but her overall contribution feels almost too anonymous, especially the icy-cold tone she brings to the verses (only Rihanna really succeeds at sounding like a dead-eyed zombie these days). Merritt’s suave tenor, on the other hand, brings a certain level of warmth to “Fight” that makes it flow so much more better, from the falsetto-lined chorus to the little R&B trills he comfortably sneaks into the verses.
What do y’all think? Peep Cheryl’s official “Fight” video here then check out a slightly humorous meshing of the same video with Merritt’s vocal (dubbed “The Perfect Love”) here and tell us which one you dig more?
Our fellow blog peeps have already deduced Cudi‘s newly leaked “That Girl” to be some sort of demo recording from long ago (and not a featured entry on his upcoming official debut), but even with it’s interlude-y, “fooling around in the studio” vibe, the track’s an enchanting one, finding the rapper sounding stoned out of his mind as he rambles on endlessly about some sexy dream babe he can’t easily shake out of his brain over some soothingly hypnotic riff-age (sample source anyone?).
All we can think about is how even more cool this would sound with Andre 3000 dropping one of those classic, forever-bar-long verses atop it.
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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After the news hit that the Bruno Mars hook and Smeezingtons-produced backing track to B.o.B’s Spring smash “Nothin’ On You” was originally meant to be graced by the pad-and-pen of Lupe Fiasco, it was only going to be a matter of time before that original take would make it’s way to the public. 
As pop songs go, 
Our fellow blog peeps have already deduced
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