mixtape maestro (2.0)

Monica featuring Missy Elliott & Notorious B.I.G. “Everything To Me (Remix)”/ “Blackberry”

While most other mainstream R&B artists are too busy trying to keep the kids’ attention by sounding like malfunctioning robots and wannabe rappers, or awkwardly straining (and usually failing) to inject as much soul as possible in between club-happy house thumps and electro bleeps and bloops, Monica aimed to keep it simple and just saaang on her Missy Elliott co-produced lead Still Standing single “Everything To Me”, a vintage-hugging, Broadway-sized tribute to the “perfect man”.

Though the back-to-basics move has proven successful (the track is currently spending it’s third week atop the R&B/ Hip Hop singles chart, making it Monica’s first #1 in seven years), the song falls a bit on the bland side, mostly making us wish to hear the tune it samples (Deniece Williams similarly theatrical, albeit far more dynamic, ’81 classic “Silly”) more.

Slightly better is the summer jeep jam-styled remix, which again lifts it’s musical foundation from the ’80′s R&B world (this time, Rene & Angela’s “I Love You More”), as well as a completely unnecessary re-heated Notorious BIG verse from the Life After Death number “I Love The Dough” (tie-in for the confused: both songs sample the R&A joint), though we should note that the best song we’ve heard from Monica so far in 2010 was one that didn’t even officially make the album. That would be “Blackberry”, a midtempo cut that brings back the dual joys of both snap & b and Monica’s sassier side as she hits the roof after breaking the code to her man’s titular cell phone and finding out, through texts and voice mails from another chick, that he’s not being on the up-and-up. Oh, the drama.

DL: “Everything To Me (Remix)” (alt)

DL: “Blackberry” (alt)

T-Pain “Reverse Cowgirl”

It usually takes a good month or so for us for a new T-Pain single to make the transition from being just plain dumb to severely addicting (but still dumb), so it makes sense that right about now, after weeks of the Auto-Tune soul-man/ walking spoof’s latest bringing about all kinds of raging “What’s wrong with music today!?!” and “Why his this guy still around?!!” tantrums, we would start coming around to admiring “Reverse Cowgirl”.

Of course, like all the times before when it came to taking a liking to this guy’s solo material, we were drunk and “slow-dancing” (read: dry-humping some chick on the dancefloor) when we reached this epiphany, but admit it: there’s something awe-inspiring about the way T-Pain excels at making the silliest lyrics/ concepts (in this case, a certain sexual position and bleats of “Giddy up girl” and “Yee-haw”) sound SO DAMN DEEP with just a sprinkle of his yearning, “studio-sweetened” vocals.

Plus, we kinda dig the “artsy” moves of it’s video (see it below), where, especially under the influence of things we don’t feel the need to mention, watching T-Pain shake his dreads in slow motion is on par with seeing Avatar in 3-D for the first time.

DL: “Reverse Cowgirl (Young Jeezy Version)” (alt)

Next “You Are Not Alone (Michael Jackson Cover)”

More surprising than discovering that Next, the late-’90′s/ early-00′s hit R&B boy band who turned a song about getting erections on the dancefloor into a five-week #1 US pop smash, are still together and making music?

Finding out that their recently dropped cover of Michael Jackson’s “You Are Not Alone”, done in the synth-bedazzled Euro-R&B style of the inexplicably currently popular Taio Cruz/ Jay Sean/ Jason DeRulo (we know they’re different artists, but deep in our hearts we think they are all one person), is kinda-sorta not all that bad.

DL: “You Are Not Alone (Michael Jackson Cover)” (alt)

Faith Evans “I Wanna Rock (Snoop Dogg Freestyle Cover)”

The Former First Lady of Bad Boy peaks her head out of hibernation (really, where has Faith been)…with an unfortunate alter-ego tag (“Fizzy”)…to drop some boasting “rhymes” about her flow over a 2009 Snoop instrumental…and then some cat named Deuce Hanna (who?) raps.

Yeah, we don’t know what to say either…but here you go:

DL: “I Wanna Rock (Snoop Dogg Freestyle Cover)” (alt)

Lucy Pearl “Dance Tonight (Siik Remix)”

It’s another hot one from Siik, this time melding the acapella of short-lived soul supergroup Lucy Pearl‘s 2000 feelgood jam “Dance Tonight” with the seducing neo-soul grooves of the sorely under-appreciated The Foreign Exchange.

Oh, what we would do to have another LP album (with both Dawn Robinson and Joi in the mix)!!!

DL: “Dance Tonight (Siik Remix)” (alt)

YahZarah “Why Dontcha Call Me No More”

Foreign Exchange-affiliated singer-songwriter (and former Erykah Badu vocalist) YahZarah previews her forthcoming fourth album, the enticingly titled The Ballad of Purple Saint James, with “Why Dontcha Call Me No More”, a song that finds her going through the blues over a cheating beau (“Obviously you never had a broken heart/ Or you would’ve known better than to play with someone else’s”).

Don’t think that the song is another one of those depressing slow burners though. In fact, it plays more like a mood-lightener thanks to punk-ish kiss-off dialogue like “I hope you’re happy or whatever/ On second thought…not really” and a boppy, new wave-inspired backing beat that, in our heads, would be featured as the walking-down-the-aisle soundtrack for the wedding of Prince and Janelle Monae.

DL: “Why Dontcha Call Me No More” (alt)

Purple Reign “Say Something”

Newbie girl group, and latest Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins find, Purple Reign position themselves as ones to watch in the two-thousand-and-dime on this R&B twist of Timbaland & Drake’s “Say Something”. Of special note is the acapella intro, in which they both introduce their solid three-part harmonies and give a shout out to the inspiration behind their name with a melodic swipe from Prince’s “Purple Rain”.

Head here to hear the ladies tackle Drake’s “Fear”, Waka Flocka Flame’s “O Let’s Do It” and Young Money’s “Bed Rock”.

DL: “Say Something (Timbaland & Drake Freestyle Cover)” (alt)

Summer vacations/ distractions have brought things around here to a near-standstill, but in an effort to play a bit of catch-up, check out some of these noteworthy tunes below pulled from the ever-packed in-box and various other sites we’ve been digging lately from around the Inter-Webs:

JDP featuring Chester French “She Loves Everybody (Part Deux)”

This up-and-coming Chicago indie-hopper latches onto CF’s most well-known track, the shoulda-been-bigger slut ode “She Loves Everybody”, using it to support his own adventure with a promiscous groupie who has foolishly mistaken him for being a more high profile rap star (“I suppose someone told her we rich,” he sing-song quips at one point).

A bit Flo-Rida-ish, which-at least in this case-isn’t at all a bad thing.

From his new mixtape Air Raid.

DL: “She Loves Everybody (Part Deux)”

The Honey Brothers “Demonstration”

The Honey Brothers are a quintet from New York who call their sound “new wave folk”, and while most talk of them will surely be centered on their superstar drummer (Entourage lead Adrian Grenier), the music found on their recently released Demonstration EP definitely deserves it’s own hype as it’s some of the most feel-good stuff to touch our ears in recent weeks.

Check out the title track, a groovy lil’ indie-rock number that’ll likely have you tapping your toes to it’s summer-ready shuffle within seconds of it hitting the speakers.

DL: “Demonstration”

?uestlove, The Foreign Exchange, Zo! and Carlitta Durand “Purple Flip”

Don’t let the title confuse you, this is essentially a cover of Prince’s “Take Me With You”, and boy does it hit the soul in all the right ways.

Too bad SPIN Magazine couldn’t have employed THIS crew to handle the entirety of that mostly disappointing Purple Rain tribute cover album they had to nerve to drop last month.

DL: “Purple Flip”

Golau Glau “Summer Games”

On first listen to the output from this mysterious UK-born collective, you’ll probably end up with your head cocked to the side and a confused look pasted across your face.

But give these songs some time, as repeated doses of the spell-binding ambiance of “Summer Games”, “Soft Silver Young” and the rest of the band’s uniquely weaved creations reveal a trippy charm that’s quite the soothing aural experience.

DL: “Summer Games”

Keri Hilson featuring Kanye West & Ne-Yo “Knock You Down (Chew Fu GhettoClub Fix)”

Even after hearing this billions of times (*thanks radio*), we still find this hit single oddly put together (anybody else left cold by the fact that the three headliners barely seem to recognize the efforts of one another?), but the Chew Fu crew help calm that sense of underwhelmingness a bit with this dancefloor-targeting rehaul which nicely gives a repeated spotlighting to Kanye’s “Michael Jackson” line.

DL: “Knock You Down (Chew Fu GhettoClub Fix)”

Beyonce “Ego (DJ Unique’s I Love Her Remix)”

Sasha Fierce’s newest single given a smoother R&B treatment courtesy of YouTube mash-up king DJ Unique. Kanye-free sadly, but we can still dig it.

DL: “Ego (DJ Unique’s I Love Her Remix)”