mixtape maestro (2.0)

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)

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)

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.

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)

Back in the day, you were damn near guaranteed something special everytime Busta Rhymes dropped a new record. His penchant for rousing hooks, otherworldly beatscapes built from obscure samples and kooky eye-popping music videos with multi-million dollar budgets awarded listeners with a slew of left-field bangers that still snatch up major props to this day. Unfortunately, as the years wore on, he seemed to lose some of that magic. His precious speedy flow remained intact and he could still pump out a hot chorus every once in awhile, but with the beats taking a sad turn towards the radio-friendly and his videos looking cheaper and cheaper (not to mention the image-tainting of numerous bouts with the law), what was once an extraordinary rap icon soon morphed into just another ordinary hip hop entity.

With the big bank bravado and drunk-friendly hysterics of new single “Arab Money” (a sort of companion piece to producer Ron Browz’ other Auto-Tune slathered current fave, “Pop Champagne”), Busta Rhymes had begun inching his way back onto the nightlife circuit; but the record was riddled with some major handicaps. Yeah, it carried the minimum requisite of song elements to conquer the dancefloor, but seeing as though any other rapper could have recorded it and came out with similar results, it definitely paled in comparison to the man’s heyday achievements. Even worse, “Money” held a hard-to-ignore offensive tinge in it’s make-up that drew head-scratching reactions from a lot of people.

But the promise of a career-reigniting track has proven too big a grab to let slip away, so Busta has opted to continue to push the record. What’s the obvious next step? An over-crowded remix featuring all the usual suspects so they don’t have to waste time rushing out their own bootlegged “freestyles” before the cut loses it’s heat.

Tardily attempting to appease the balkers, the remix sees Busta replacing the nonsensical hook of the original (one of the main sources of the controversy) with real Arabic words and the correct pronunciation of the word “Arab”, even getting his track-mates to pull out some authentic phrases on their own verses. It also serves the typical wealthy braggadocio of Diddy (“Bout to buy Dubai and swim in the shark section”), robo-voiced goofball antics of both halves of T-Wayne and an extended appearance by Browz (who has quickly leap-frogged over Pain, Weezy and Kanye as the worst artist ever to over-lean on the Auto-Tune).

Is it a solid enough addition within this Era of the Posse Cut Overkill? We’ll give it that. But revising a chorus and hiring on an A-list line-up probably won’t be enough to woo over those who despise the original, or just wish that Busta could stop fiddling around with all this sub-par material he’s been unleashing recently and really focus on figuring out a way to tap back into that mid-90′s appeal.

DL: “Arab Money (Remix)” (alt)

Tired of being a “Best Week Ever” joke, it seems Diddy’s former umbrella holder, the cruelly named Fonzworth Bentley, has decided to actually follow through with the rapping thing, signing a deal with Kanye’s G.O.O.D. Music imprint and coming up with a funktastic acronym Outkast would kindly approve of (C.O.L.O.U.R.S, the name of both his debut album and new single stands for “Cool Outrageous Lovers Of Uniquely Raw Style”). But that’s not the only nod to the ATLien duo found on the hip hop butler’s premiere musical stint; the track’s otherworldly style: a sideways, “Alice In Wonderland”-like lullaby beat bears enough oddball melodicism to be a filler Andre 3000 solo cut.

Doing for rap what Paris Hilton does for pop, Bentley isn’t much of an emcee but understands the basics enough to slide by. Mining all of his material from his uppity, “fashionisto” persona, Bentley uses this alluring, “So Fresh So Clean” redux to primp his own style, not flowing as much as he’s bragging on his personal style (Him rolling through Bankhead in an Isuzu Trooper? Never!!) in a lazy, conversational cadence. He doesn’t add much to the track, a forgettable opening “verse” to make room for the real talent he’s summoned to assist.

Pimp C sounds as comfortable as always, his thick Southern accent floating with ease amidst the distant finger snaps and woozy piano plinks as he talks of his utter distaste of generic jogging suits and the joys of Chinese groupies servicing him on his G4. From Weezy, we get the coolly absurd opening line “Microphone check twelve or just one-two” (Where DOES he get this stuff from!?!) before some creepy robo-chick cuts through the haze to try to remind us what the hell we were listening to in the first place. Neither drop anything truly killer for the Fonz, instead addressing old, throwaway rhymes they had probably scratched out of their notebooks years ago, like they were doing the guy a favor just breathing alongside him on wax.

An abstract-minded tune whose quick fade into oblivion leaves you struggling to grasp it’s purpose, “C.O.L.O.U.R.S.” ultimately dictates that Bentley will never be taken seriously either as a rapper or important celebrity. He’s smart to align himself with appreciated rhyme slingers and unorthodox production, but in the end, there’s nothing here that will ever get Fonzworth to be thought of as anything else than the man who used to wipe Diddy’s sweaty brow.

Whether it was Diddy’s strange glam-rock vocal, Keyshia Cole’s earnest soul singing or that bizarre ’80′s throwback sound that made you melt, “Last Night” became the little song we didn’t think The-Artist-Formerly-Known-As-Too-Many-Aliases-To Name could bring to the table. Slowly, but surely, it emerged as the winning hit from the ridiculously good Press Play album, giving the disc a new shelf life well after it’s previous singles had failed to become the guest-heavy pop smashes they were built to be. Knowing how to build off a good thing and remind us that he had “invented” the remix, Diddy launched several updatings of the tune including an all star posse cut that featured the likes of Rich Boy and Big Boi among others. Now, he’s upped the ante with probably the most hyped one of the bunch, thanks to a reunion with Lil’ Kim that sort of reclaims the magic the duo once shared with Biggie.

Dipping further into the original’s 80′s haze, “Last Night (Remix Part 2)” milks a sample of Prince’s B-side classic “Erotic City” for all it’s worth, accenting the track’s sparse electro-funk with pretty organ touches and humorous pleas to make this your new ringtone. All ears are on Lil’ Kim here who proves that a year in a slammer just made her nicer with the pen. She answers Diddy’s pitiful voice mail messages with irritated precision, acknowledging that he never once mailed her a letter while she was behind bars and finding secret joy in him experiencing the same lonely pain she had just put behind her. But don’t sleep on Busta either, who backs up the song’s male role with an equally intoxicating guest appearance.

The kind of A-list Bad Boy remix that the label graciously offered in the past, this killer “Last Night” revision finds Diddy remarkably bouncing back from the worthless underwear stain he had become. Now the promise of him putting his musical identity to bed real soon suddenly seems sad. How crazy is that?!