mixtape maestro (2.0)

On the original version of Jeezy‘s latest banger, the Drumma Boy-produced “Lose My Mind”, the Southern rapper and guest star Plies celebrate the end of a long and hard work week by getting as boozed and random vagina’d up as possible; and as nightmarish as their party-mode at times sounds (thanks to Drumma’s hauntingly slo-mo crunk crawl, Jeezy’s talk of being so drunk he feels “schizophrenic” and Plies sounding…well like Plies), the duo do well at making their weekend feel like a can’t miss event.

So it’s a shame that a verse by Drake on the remix (premiered at this year’s BET Awards) sort of dulls everything down. Not only does Drizzy sound nowhere near as delightfully deranged or super-intoxicated as Jeezy or Plies (the latter of whom he unfortunately replaces here), but his lyrical contribution is entirely forgettable, leaning far too heavily on his self-important signature (“Half a million in a week/ It’s only right I do”) when one or two doses of woozy wit would of sufficed.

We get Jeezy may have wanted to show Drake some love after being added to the Thank Me Later guest-list, but Mr. “Find Your Love” just proves an ill fit here.

DL: “Lose My Mind (Remix)” (alt)

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)

Uninterested in reuniting with the Boyz N The Hood group, Jeezy has instead decided on following the route of every other successful rapper and lead off his own pack of protogee rappers under the clever title USDA (United Streets Dopeboyz of America). With a name like that and Jeezy’s involvement, it’s clear that their main topic will unfortunately revolve around the trap game as first single “White Girl” does. Like most other groups working the same “superstar rapper and his boys” make-up, though, USDA don’t really emerge out of their lead emcee’s shadow.

Yet another slick metaphor for the cocaina, “White Girl” is typical drug kingpin braggadocio over Drumma Boy’s Southern fried beat. While it’s sad that the re-glamorization of this underworld doesn’t seem to be falling out of style anytime soon, it’s interesting to see how many ways rappers can refer to it without really referring to it. ‘White girl’ is probably one of the more creative code terms yet and the chorus’ ‘Christina Aguilera’ line is a winner that’ll guarantee the hook to be oft-repeated. But when it comes to rhyming about slanging dope, unless you’re coming to the table with the imagination of the Clipse or Ghostface (the only time such blatant immorality is acceptable) or the sense of responsibility of Reasonable Doubt-era Jay Z, you’re not doing much for the hip hop game as a whole.

USDA have the swagger and understand the concept of a catchy hook, but the verses are sub-standard at best and indistinctive from most everything else this shameless sub-genre has to offer. Jeezy would’ve done better rocking three verses all on his own than introducing us to another lame clique of amateurs who obviously haven’t found success on their own for a reason.

Download: “White Girl”