mixtape maestro (2.0)

With Lil’ Mama spending less of her days rocking the mic than she is judging dance crews and inexplicably remodeling herself as more of a generic teen-pop princess, what’s a listener craving a new-generation Roxanne Shante-meets-Missy Elliott rappress to do? How about turn their attention to Rye Rye, an 18-year-old Baltimore native with a wicked flow and a promising position as the first act signed to M.I.A’s N.E.E.T. label.

For the past two years, Rye has slowly been generating buzz thanks to collaborations with blogger-approved DJ’s Diplo, Blaqstarr and The Count & Sinden, and even spent some time touring alongside her “Paper Planes”-singing CEO.

On her latest offering “Bang”, she jumps atop a previously released Blaqstarr/ MIA mixtape cut and lets loose a fiery blast of manic rhyme furor that’s in perfect compliment to the track’s tribal-like, drum-and-chant delirium. Denouncing all the lames that can’t hang with her rapid-fire rhythm and offering a stern warning to nasty little boys with their minds in the gutter (“What?/ Don’t think so slick/ If you thinkin’ opposite/ I’m-a bang your lips”) without breaking a sweat, Rye Rye delivers a self-assured performance so full of heat, it should make a lot of these other rappers (both new to the scene and firmly established) re-think whether they even want to be involved in the rap game anymore.

Let’s just hope she won’t have to face any distracting reality show gigs or have any urges to be a Britney/ Rihanna-wannabe anytime in the near-future…

DL: “Bang” (alt)

Uncategorized baltimore, blaqstarr, female rap, freestyle, lil' mama, m.i.a., mixtape, rye rye, teen rap

After a year that’s seen him score his very first Grammy, pen chart-topping anthems for divas Mariah Carey, Beyonce and Mary J Blige, continue his reign as one of the urban world’s top go-to hook-crafters, and drop one of the still-infant year’s best contemporary R&B albums, The-Dream deserves to do a little bragging.

Here, he blows his own horn to the tune of Kanye West’s “Amazing”, daring others to “call me ah-choo” cause “I’m sick” and dishing out over-the-top promises that album #3 will “be better than Thriller“. MM doesn’t know about that last line, but frat-boy props will be given to him for his ability to snatch up R&B/ pop cutie Christina Milian (featured here on her own verse) as his newest arm candy. Now that’s definitely something one should be boasting about.

DL: “Amazing (Kanye West Cover)” (alt)

Uncategorized 808s and heartbreak, christina milian, cover song, freestyle, kanye west, the-dream

You know you’re one of the hip hop world’s top dogs when everyone is scrambling to remake or reconfigure your records while they’ll still dominating the airwaves. Below, check out a couple recent instances of artists putting their own unique spin on T.I.’s 2008 double-dose of smash, “Whatever You Like” and “Live Your Life”:

-First up, head on over to Paste Magazine and peep California singer-songwriter Anya Marina serving an acoustic rendition of “Whatever You Like” that makes the over-played bouncer sound fresh again.

Reincarnating T.I.’s sing-song flow with her delicate coo and low register moans, the straight-forward cover (she retains it’s male perspective) is all kinds of cute, making us wish that she could do an entire album’s worth of these Lilith Fair-ian-styled rap remakes (until then, check out her non-T.I.-associated, yet still fine, tunes on her latest album, Slow & Steady Seduction: Phase II).

-Next up we have R&B-pop newcomer Mateo, whose recent mixtape release Underneath The Sky crafts engaging romance tales over beats both new and familiar (808s and Heartbreak is swiped from twice). Of the five cuts featured, the track making the most noise around the blogosphere is “Get Out Of My Mind”, which sees him divulging the difficulty of getting over an ex atop the instrumental to T.I.’s “Live Your Life”.

“Stay out my door/ And I’ll be just fine,” he asserts to his own lingering memory of the former lover. But that’s easier said than done, especially since he’s unable to even shake off the imagined scent of her perfume, much less the heart pangs he still suffers for her.

Download the rest of Sky here and become acquainted with even more excellent displays of Mateo’s dreamy pipes and vivid pen game (Mixtape Maestro’s favorite, the mesmerizing love ballad “Oooh N Love”, quickly positions this cat as one threat Ne-Yo should really be watching out for).

DL: “Get Out of My Mind/ ‘Live Your Life’ Freestyle” (alt)

Uncategorized acoustic, anya marina, cover song, freestyle, mateo, paper trail, T.I.

The one constant awe of Beyonce’s platinum-lined slew of hit records is the singer’s ability to turn the most challenging production schemes into phenomenon-scaling pop gold. Tell any lesser female R&B singer/ songwriter to try to build a song around the taut, melody-free beats of “Jumpin’, Jumpin’”, “Upgrade U”, “Ring The Alarm” and “Single Ladies”, and they would probably crouch in fear, completely overwhelmed by such a task.

Not only is Beyonce easily able to scribble out solid tunes to the industrial rhythms, she also jampacks them with the right amount of melisma, poly-melody and catchy hook craft (not to mention, eye-tractive video clip accompaniment) to make them worldwide pop anthems.

Her latest instance is new I Am…Sasha Fierce single “Diva”, producer Bangladesh’s R&B answer to previous concoction “A Milli”, that throws a minimalist recipe of military drum rattle, booming bottom end and dwarfish chants of “I’m-a-a diva” her way.

All hood-style Alexis Colby here, Be sing-raps “Fifty million round the world and they said I couldn’t get it/ I done got so sick and filthy with benjas I can’t spend” and alerts potential paramours that they better have “a six pack in the cooler”, all the while dismissing non-independent, money-light diva-wannabes with a quick whip of her mile-long ponytail and making fringed eye wear, hop hop’s newest fashion must have.

Diva (HQ) – Beyonce

For “Adidas”, Bangladesh steals his own track back (the first of many surely to give this beat their own lyrical seasoning, “A Milli” style), bringing the “Pac out” for a tribute to his fancy man toys and favorite shoe gear (“On my feet/ Gotta have three stripes”).

DL: “Adidas” (alt)

Uncategorized bangladesh, beyonce, crunk & b, freestyle