mixtape maestro (2.0)

There’s no better way to kick off the beginnings of better weather (and the arrival of spring break!!!!) than to have the good-times guitar strummings of Weezer’s “Island In The Sun” expertly merged with the locker-door slams and debaucherous dialogue of J-Kwon’s 2004 lone hit, “Tipsy”.

When listening to this excellent mash-up, the latest great achievement from the The White Panda crew, you can damn near hear jumbo sized sleeves of red plastic cups being ripped into all across the country.

“Tipsy In The Sun”:

DL: “Tipsy In The Sun (Weezer vs. J-Kwon Mash-Up)” (alt)

…And, just to keep this whole “Island”-meets-hip hop vibe going, enjoy D.C./ Maryland/ Virginia-based quartet The Five One’s 2009 music blog-circuit fave “L.A. Girl”, which uses the same Weezer track (as well as lyrics…ahem, borrowed from Kanye West’s “Robocop”) as foundation for a tribute to spoiled lil’ Cali babes.

Currently featured, amongst a few other great remixes/ cover songs, on The Five One’s newest mixtape, Road To SXSW.

“L.A. Girl”:

DL: The Five One “L.A. Girl” (alt)

Uncategorized j-kwon, kanye west, maryland, mash-up, mixtape, the five one, the white panda, virginia, washington d.c., weezer

Seeing as though we were so late in discovering the awesomeness that was the original, it’s only fitting that we would be as equally tardy in finding out the G.O.O.D. Music crew hooked up for a sequel, right?.

Whatevs. Now featuring guest turns from Kid Cudi, Common and Big Sean, as well as new verses from Con and West, this new posse-stylized rendering of the cut succinctly satisfies our wish of giving us an elongated serving of the track’s mesmerizing swirl of a hook/ beat, one of the most under-appreciated aural combinations of the year.

DL: “Whatever You Want (Remix)” (alt)

Uncategorized big sean, common, consequence, kanye west, kid cudi, posse cut, remix

Understandably pissed after being left out of what’s become rap’s modern-day Olympics, MTV’s annual Hottest MC’s List, Lupe Fiasco has decided to make sure he makes it on next year’s rankings. This means temporarily backing away from epic, pop audience-targeting fare like this past summer’s blink-and-you-missed it “Superstar”-rewrite “Shining Down” and planting much of his focus on blessing the mixtape-hoarding crowd with stunning lyrical flexes like those found on the Jimi Hendrix-sampling beast “Fire” as well as nearly the entirety of his Thanksgiving Day-premiered set Enemy of The State: A Love Story (found in split version here).

On the teasingly brief State (it tops out around twenty-two minutes), Lupe breathlessly rips through miles and miles of clever pen-and-pad-less spitting atop instrumentals new (Timbaland & Drake’s “Say Something”), not-so-new (Lil’ Wayne’s “Fireman”) and, most intriguingly, non-hip hop (Radiohead’s “The National Anthem”), giving your rewind-button trigger finger plenty of work as you struggle to absorb all the random pop culture references (Street Fighter!! Tiny Toon Adventures!!) and genius-level wordplay trickery expertly embedded throughout his rapid-fire flow.

For us, one of it’s best offerings would have to be Lupe’s take on The Blueprint 3 joint “Thank You”. Not necessarily a highlight because it showcases Fiasco at the top of his freestyle game (though that is a plus), how “Thank You” really grabs us is in it’s pairing of an actual hungry emcee with a purpose against producers Kanye West & No ID’s lush, orchestral loop.

Having such a solid beat support Jigga’s umpteenth dishing of soul-less self-back-patting (at least for the first two verses) felt like a waste of an ill backing track; but that disappointment is quickly reversed the instance Lupe touches down with lines like “I aint the bomb/ I’m the company that got the contract to rebuild during the aftermath/ Have a blast” and this insane closing gem: “I’m the whole world, nigga you’re an island/ And the seas risin’, if I keep shinin’/
You gon’ have to take submarines to the drive-in nowwww”.

DL: “Thank You (Freestyle)” (alt)

Uncategorized freestyle rap, jay-z, kanye west, lupe fiasco, mixtape, no i.d., the blueprint 3

The fourth release lifted from The Noisettes‘ excellent (and nowhere near as big as it should be) Wild Young Hearts album, “Every Now & Then” sees the London band staying in line with previous singles “Wild Young Hearts” and “Never Forget You”, doling out another magnificent fusion of ex-lover nostalgia with a ’60’s soul-pop-inspired musical frame.

But whereas those tracks hid frontwoman Shingai Shoniwa’s regrets over past romances behind perky arrangements, illustrating a sensibility that she had for the most part healed with the passing of time, “Every Now & Then” follows an opposite route, finding her still handicapped by an enormous heartache with moody guitar and swirling strings depicting her inner despair with a moving dramatic flair.

“You see we were never through/ I never said I loved you/ Even when we said goodbye/ I never thought it was the last time,” a down-in-the-dumps Shingai recalls, a single moment of solitude or a certain song being played on the radio instantly filling her mind with tearjerking memories of secret kisses in a certain former love’s bedroom and the postcards he would send inked with “stories (that) would excite me”.

With her yearning for a gust of wind to bring him back into her life and light up “this empty room” she dubs her current depressing existence, Shoniwa’s sorrow cuts so deep, you can’t help but be pulled into the doldrums alongside her, especially once the arrival of a stunning Bond theme song-like climax of swollen orchestration and piercing cries of being “down, down, down” come into play.

Catch the song’s music video below, then take a listen to one of our favorite cuts from Mick Boogie and Terry Urban’s must-have Noisettes vs. Kanye West mash-up mixtape Wild Young Heartbreak: “Saturday Night Paranoia”, Chicago production duo Christian Rich’s metallic-sleek marriage of the Noisettes’ revenge fantasy “Saturday Night” with West’s whip-crack heavy, new wave jaunt “Paranoid”.

DL: “Saturday Night Paranoia (Christian Rich Remix)” (alt)

Uncategorized 60's, christian rich, indie rock, kanye west, london, mick boogie, mixtape, noisettes, retro

“Whatever U Want”, the first single off of Queens rapper/ Q-Tip cousin/ G.O.O.D. Music signee Consequence’s upcoming sophomore album Cons TV, leaked waaay back in the Summer, but somehow we had never come across it until we were flipping through cable channels and happened to catch it’s on-the-cheap-looking Hype-directed video (featuring a striking duo of ponytail-whipping Sasha Fierce-wannabes)…and now, we’re more than a little bummed that we have arrived so late to the party to gush over such a fantastic track.

Honestly, we could listen to Con and Kanye trade the mic back and forth over “Whatever”’s bubbling electronic drum beat and those seducing synth sounds that mark the end of every four lines over and over without complaint. And the addition of John Legend’s romancing croon and the way the different elements to the production beautifully crash together from the mid-way point on only make the song that much more endlessly addicting.

Can this trio form a supergroup of some sort and release a mixtape, EP or album filled with more tracks like this, please?

Catch the video below, then grab a cool remix from Philly’s DJ Gregg Nyce that slaps the “Whatever U Want” vocals over the “Back To Life” beat.

Whatever U Want by Consequence f Kanye West & John Legend

Consequence | MySpace Video

DL: “Whatever U Want (Nyce Back To Life Remix)” (alt)

Uncategorized consequence, dj gregg nyce, east coast rap, john legend, kanye west, new york, philly

Back in 2000, Mya kicked off the release of her second album Fear of Flying with the single “Best of Me”, a Jadakiss-featured/ Swizz Beatz-produced midtempo about resisting a thug that managed a peaking of #14 on the R&B/ Hip Hop Singles Chart. Barely remember it? That’s okay, since most will only recall the remix version that would go on to dominate that year’s summer-time airwaves.

Titled “Best of Me (Part 2)” (aww, remember when urban acts had briefly stepped away from the whole ‘remix’ thing as an attempt to make their records sound like blockbuster big screen events?), the “sequel” completely wiped the memory clean of the original, thanks to one of Jay-Z’s hottest cameo appearances (“What’s a little me on top gon’ hurt?/ Maybe a little…”), it’s use of the shuffling beat behind Biz Markie’s classic debut single “Make The Music With Your Mouth Biz” and the accompanying video’s oh-so-sexy image of Mya in that North Carolina jersey dress (aww, remember THOSE!?!). With all these elements at it’s disposal, and Mya’s featherweight coo as the center, the track quickly garnered kudos as one of the better marriages of hip hop and R&B to ever arise.

Crate-digging remixer Siik (the man behind buttery smoove, soul-bathed re-hauls of “Single Ladies” and “1 Thing”) has taken it in as it latest project, and he succeeds at making it a must-have gem all over again, comfortably underlining the a capella vocals with the instrumental of Slum Village’s biggest hit, 2004’s Kanye West and John Legend-blessed “Selfish” (itself based off a sample of Aretha Franklin’s 1970 #1 “Call Me”).

Lay back and chill with the Mya/ Siik, Slum Village and Aretha Franklin cuts offered below.

DL: “Best of Me (Siik Remix)” (alt)

DL: “Selfish” (alt)

DL: “Call Me” (alt)

Uncategorized 70's, aretha franklin, jay-z, john legend, kanye west, mya, remix, siik, slum village, soul sample

After letting Jigga’s A-list-assisted “Run This Town” marinate in our brains for nearly a month now, and after finally seeing the entirety of it’s long-teased, “What in the ‘California Love’/ ‘We Don’t Need Another Hero’ Hell?”-themed accompanying video clip, we have now decided to officially stick with our initial reaction of the record: It’s…just…okay.

Since busting out of his retirement all those years ago, Jay has built a steadily growing catalogue of records (both as lead and as guest star) that puff up a lot of hype simply via his attached name, but just as soon fail to merit much long-lasting appeal beyond their highly-anticipated release. We should have gotten used to this anti-climactic routine long ago, but what can we say, he’s arguably the G (Living Emcee). O. A. T. and we long to hear him justify that honor over and over.

More so than a lot of other material in recent memory though, high hopes had fallen on “Run This Town” (who could deny that exciting title, or the sheer collective weight of the top-of-the-game artists upon it?), so it’s only more of a shame that, in the end, it lands as just another meh notch in Jay’s increasingly dissapointing belt.

Atop producers Kanye and No I.D.’s dramatically buzzing electric guitar sting and heavy-thudding drum march rumble, Jay and Ri-Ri commit performances that remain boringly on par with their previously well-established artistic angles. His raps are admittedly slick but carrying little “hip hop head” value, offering more eye-roll-inducing references to his bulging bank account and knowledge of high fashion folk; she continues to be the fiercest dead-eyed yodeller around in a chorus that feels twice as long with all of it’s non-catchy, street-anthem self-seriousness.

Kanye is the only one to really make this cut worthwhile, which comes as no surprise given the fact that well…he’s Kanye, and that he’s proven to be good at making these joyless, un-dance-able hip hop arrangements crackle like any other major Hot 97 banger in the past (remember “Diamonds From Sierra Leone”?). His ending verse overflows with the wit and imagination severely lacking everywhere else here, from the opening “Joe Blow/ no homo” couplet on down, which, in our heads, brings about many burning questions, like:

A) Wouldn’t it have been smarter if his verse have been placed second, to help keep cats from switching this one off early, as we assume most have by now since “Town” began infiltrating radio?

B) After hearing West’s portion, didn’t Jay feel a need to upgrade his own parts?

C) Why couldn’t Kanye have just kept this one for himself, given us an added entertaining verse and just reduced Jigga’s role to a single sixteen?

Like everyone else, we’ll still be first in line (or, more likely in 2009, on-line) to cop The Blueprint 3 when it arrives (besides, we can’t miss that Drake feature!!!), but, and we SWEAR by this, if this ends up another “one-listen-than-quit-and-wait-for-all-the-other-rappers-to-rock-it’s-instrumentals-right” affair, we’ll have to…have to…hell, sit around and wait for the next Jay-Z project to drop so we can get all overly excited all over again. Damn you Jay!!!

Pre-order Blueprint 3 here.

Uncategorized east coast rap, jay-z, kanye west, no i.d., rihanna, the blueprint 3

Despite bearing two major radio-approved names, a recession-era flashy Hype Williams-directed clip and being one of the more fizzier offerings of the summer, The-Dream and Kanye West’s futuro-disco delight “Walking On The Moon” strangely failed to really become the super smash pop hit we initially assumed it would. Hell, it couldn’t even inspire countless other rappers and singers to try to “remix” it, which, in this zip-tape-heavy day and age, marks it as a bigger “FAIL” than any modest Billboard chart peakings it claimed.

But, whatever, we still adore it, and so have nothing but praise to shower on remixers Seamus Haji and Paul Emanuel for giving the track an even stronger dancefloor bump in their ‘Club Mix’.

Stretching out “Moon”’s length to a heavenly eight-and-a-half minute time frame and sprinkling an added treatment of decorative dance glitz to it’s already perfect production sheen, Haji and Emanuel have given us “Moon” lovers quite the End of Summer gift.

DL: “Walking On The Moon (Seamus Haji & Paul Emanuel Club Mix)” (alt)

Uncategorized dance remix, kanye west, love vs. money, paul emanuel, seamus haji, the-dream

In which Jamie Foxx takes the perfectly fine as-is Intuition highlight “Digital Girl” and gives it a needless re-scrubbing, bringing in an entirely different beat, brand new lyrics and a ho-hum guest appearance from Drake.

Dubbed the “West Coast Remix” (or, in some corners of the Web, the “MJ Remix”), we can appreciate it’s BBQ-in-the-park ’90’s R&B Cali groove and Jamie’s R-rated King of Pop shout-out (“I wanna ‘beat it’/ (Like Michael)/ Cause you ‘Bad’ (Like Michael)/ ‘Billie Jean’ it (Like Michael)/ Make you ‘Scream’ It (Like Michael)”), but ultimately this “Digital Girl” 2.0 pales in comparison to the spaced-out digi-soul of the album version.

To Foxx’ people: it’s completely understandable why you might want to rush deliver this one to the necessary outlets first (Drake + MJ tribute + slight summer jam appeal = major urban airwave spins for the moment), but if we don’t get a video and a proper radio push of the far superior original (followed by a single release of Intuition’s other solid jam, the Timbaland-blessed “I Don’t Need It”), we’re gonna have a problem.

DL: “Digital Girl (West Coast Remix)” (alt)

Uncategorized jamie foxx, kanye west, R&B, remix, sex jam, the-dream, timbaland

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)”

Uncategorized 80's, beyonce, carlitta durand, chester french, chew fu, cover song, dance remix, diva pop, foreign exchange, golau glau, indie rap, indie rock, jdp, kanye west, keri hilson, mixtape, ne-yo, odds n ends, prince, questlove, remix, the honey brothers, zo!