mixtape maestro (2.0)

Snoop and Cudi go a bit “green” on this Diplo-produced collaboration for the former’s deluxe edition re-release of his Malice N Wonderland album (entitled More Malice, of course).

Beyond a slightly engaging, descending bubble-pop beat supporting the verses and one semi-humorous line from the Doggfather (“Groupies on my head like a kufi”), though, the track never quite lands as the essential release it should be, especially considering the star power it boasts. Shall we say its lacking a certain…ahem, spark? Or maybe we’re just a little too distracted by the creepy, mutated hand Snoop’s sporting in the pic seen left to even give the song a good listen. (Look at it though, aren’t his fingers weird-looking?)

More Malice, which includes five new cuts, a couple remixes and a mini-movie (!!!), drops March 23rd.

DL: “That Tree” (alt)

Speaking of Cudi, as a bonus, peep an Iron & Wine-sampling, electro-folk (?) cover of the rapper’s woozy single “Pursuit of Happiness” by L.A. newcomers Barbara that works far better than it really should.

Bonus DL: Barbara “Pursuit of Happiness (Kid Cudi Cover)” (alt)

Uncategorized barbara, cover song, diplo, electro-folk, kid cudi, malice n wonderland, snoop dogg, west coast rap

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

Taking quite a few steps back from the edge-of-campy fanged seductress role Shakira giddily portrayed on She-Wolf’s chaotic, attention grabber of a first single/ title track, follow-up single “Did It Again” finds the Colombian siren proving to be just as engaging as a vulnerable damsel participating in a casual sex-based relationship (with a married man) that she knows is no good for her sensitive heart, yet is just far too hot to easily break away from.

“I’m in trouble/ But It feels like heaven,” she confesses atop an atypically low-key Neptunes-helmed production sparked by tense staccato keyboard hits and marching band drums. But as much as she berates herself for once again getting involved with “one of those guys”, you know the ones “with the wandering eye” who quickly pocket their wedding rings once a sexy woman like her gives them an ounce of attention, she finds it oh-so-difficult to refrain from meeting him back in the hotel room for a second dose of their steamy sexcapades.

And who could blame her, when just hearing the erotic pants the duo’s carnal chemistry wills out of her, produces enough heat to inspire one to venture off into the night to find their own hit-it-then-quit-it bedroom partner.

Peep the video below, followed by Benny Benassi’s remix, a slamming electro-booty-stylized reconfiguration featuring Kid Cudi.

She-Wolf, drops State-side on November 23rd.

DL: “Did It Again (Benny Benassi Remix)” (alt)

Uncategorized benny benassi, dance remix, kid cudi, neptunes, shakira, she-wolf

Making it almost a week before it’s due date, Kid Cudi’s major label debut Man On The Moon: The End of Day has officially leaked to the ‘Net, and take it from us…after one quick run-through it unquestionably legitimizes all the anticipatory hype it’s frothed forth since “Day N Nite” first began it’s slow trickle into inescapable pop smash seemingly forever ago.

Of it’s many featured highlights sure to garner much play on iPod playlists and mix CDs well into the future (and by “many” we mean damn near the entire thing!!), Moon’s “first favorite” to us (read: the first one to inspire some replay button action) would have to be the mid-album/ “Act III”-closing stunner “Enter Galactic (Love Connection Part 1)”.

“You’ve never done this before and that’s cool and all/ But I want you to try this with me,” intros Cudder here, an invitation to some babe to zoom away with him on an drugged-out erotic trip. Rocking a near-whispered conversational flow, the Kid titillates with requests “to kiss you on your space below your navel-ette, the place that you keep neat-so moist like a towelette” before urging girl to have “just one more stem” so they can keep their psychedelic sex-perience at it’s “highest” potency.

And what a trip it is thanks to beatmakers The Illphonics, an on-the-rise production duo who bring the journey to vivid life through a gently insistent electro-disco groove that’s giddily tickled with starry-eyed keyboards and so gripping in it’s comprehension of the sleek and futuristic, you could almost believe it to be a sex-jam construction that has somehow time-travelled it’s way back from the Star Trek age (and Jay thought he knew how the future would sound).

Sample the track below, but make sure to cop Man On The Moon when it truly arrives on September 15th (we know we will!!), if only cause the last thing we need is an amazing talent like Kid Cudi threatening to retire early (yet again) because the industry hasn’t figured out how to keep their product locked up tight.

DL: “Enter Galactic (Love Connection Part 1)” (alt)

Uncategorized electro-hop, kid cudi, sex jam, sex-rap, the illphonics

Our fellow blog peeps have already deduced Cudi’s newly leaked “That Girl” to be some sort of demo recording from long ago (and not a featured entry on his upcoming official debut), but even with it’s interlude-y, “fooling around in the studio” vibe, the track’s an enchanting one, finding the rapper sounding stoned out of his mind as he rambles on endlessly about some sexy dream babe he can’t easily shake out of his brain over some soothingly hypnotic riff-age (sample source anyone?).

All we can think about is how even more cool this would sound with Andre 3000 dropping one of those classic, forever-bar-long verses atop it.

DL: “That Girl” (alt)

Uncategorized alt-hip hop, demo, kid cudi

Rich Hil likes to call his sound “electric street music”. Going by the druggy, synth-heavy flourishes that dominate “Girls, Sounds & Colors”, a prematurely unleashed joint featuring an unsurprisingly ace guest rap from Kid Cudi, we’d probably label it electro-urban-psychedelia.

Disagreements in taggings aside, this acid trip of track is an intriguing one, leaving us both puzzled and mildly fascinated by the lead artist, who has apparently been doing the music thing for a few years now and also happens to be…(drum roll please)…TOMMY HILFIGER’S SON!! Interesting… (we say in our worst accented Bond villain voice while stroking our chins).

Hear/ snatch up the track below, followed by a video to the equally bewildering/ captivating cut “O’s”, then grab Hil’s The Lonely Limo mixtape from his No Limos blog here.

DL: “Girls, Sounds & Colors” (alt)

Rich Hil – O’s from The Famous Firm on Vimeo.

Uncategorized alt-hip hop, kid cudi, mixtape, rich hil

On this semi-cover (Cover remix? R&B freestyle? Swag swipe?) of “Day N Nite”, Sammie, otherwise-known-as the late nineties’ “new young Michael Jackson” or highlight of “Kiss Me Thru The Phone”, saps the Cudi record of it’s unique “lonely stoner” perspective and transforms it into a more traditional, modern-day sex jam, complete with obligatory Patrón endorsements and R. Kelly shout-outs and lyrical images of “nasty” girls who have sex with their high heels on.

While it’s definitely a blander alternative to the original, we have to admit, if we had heard it first, we would’ve probably given it some serious bump. Maybe it’s the fact that after beating hit over the head so many times over the past year with T-Pain’s Auto-Tuned croons, Akon’s louder-than-loud trumpet-yelps and The-Dream’s echoing chirps, it’s just refreshing to hear a low-key male R&B vocal that isn’t so overtly gimmicky-feeling.

But then again, maybe we just like it because of that one line where he rhymes ‘quiver’ with ‘Twitter’.

DL: “Girl Tonight (‘Day N Nite’ Cover Remix)” (alt)

Uncategorized cover song, kid cudi, sammie, sex jam

Not too many rappers could open up a song by stating “I can’t see ‘em coming down my eyes, so I gotta make this song cry” and then proceed to pull off just that with such flawlessness, but that’s just what Jay Z accomplished with The Blueprint’s introspective rap ballad “Song Cry”, one of the many moments of his career where all the elements seemed to come together perfectly.

Longtime up-and-coming R&B singer/ songwriter/ producer/ rapper Novel (who Mixtape Maestro has been a fan of since his early “I can eat a peach for an hour” days) taps into that Jigga classic on “Song Cry II” and it’s equally as mesmerizing.

Novel gives off a lil’ Al Green/ D’Angelo vibe here as he expresses the stifled woe of a young man hardened by inner city living: “I don’t cry/ Cause there’s something inside sayin’ ‘Don’t cry’”. But like the hip hop song he references, he does a good job illustrating that pain through the cut’s smooth, soul-sampled-enriched production and a vocal performance that finds him impressively weaving in and out of a moving falsetto.

An instance where the overly-repeated “one to watch” cliché holds some true weight.

While you eagerly anticipate the release of Novel’s debut The Audiobiography (set to drop sometime later this year), grab “Song Cry II” below, followed by the “making of” clip and final product of his “Soul Version” cover of Kid Cudi’s “Sky Might Fall”.

DL: “Song Cry II” (alt)

DL: “Sky Might Fall (Kid Cudi Cover)” (alt)

Uncategorized cover song, grown folks R&B, jay-z, kid cudi, novel, soul sample

The ever-busy Kid Cudi is sure to continues his dominance over all things Web with “I Poke Her Face”, a new (whispers) BJ anthem that wittily samples Lady Gaga’s…erm, interesting acoustic version of “Pokerface” (you know, the quirky, piano-supported rendition she played at the beginning of last week’s “American Idol” performance that probably left millions of viewer’s scratching their heads in confusion).

Bridged by a clever hook (“I make her say (Oh oh oh, oh oh oh)/ When I (po-po-po-poke her face, po-po-poke her face)”), Cudi and trackmates Kanye West and Common keep the giggles going on with their respective naughty verses. Out of the three, it’s West who steals the cut (as usual), opening his contribution with that all-too-important ID check (“Hold up/ Born in ‘88?/ How old is that?/ Old enough”) while later beading together the killer ending line rhymes of “skull-iosis”, “cum-atosis” and “osmosis”.

But hands down, the winner of the most alarming single line has to go to Common with this to-the-point eyebrow-raiser: “But they say ‘You be on that conscious tip’/ Get your head right and get upon this conscious dick”. Tsk tsk Common, now we demand you wash your mouth out with some hemp soap this instant!

Can’t wait to see what Miss Ga Ga has to say in response to this, or better yet, what other rapper is dying to swagger-swipe this joint for their own freestyle riffing (cause you know a thousand and one of those are already currently being recorded).

DL: “I Poke Her Face” (alt)

Uncategorized common, kanye west, kid cudi, lady gaga, posse cut

Leave it to Deep Dish halve Sharam Tayebi, the man who made Eddie Murphy-as-singer cool again with his club-tastic 2006 re-imagining of the comedian’s 80’s hit “Party All The Time”, to emerge triumphant in doing something as bonkers as melding classic country, dub and hip hop 2.0.

On “She Came Along” (from his new Get Wild LP), Sharam starts off by throwing some restless beat tinkerings under the somber C&W sway of Patsy Cline’s “Strange”, creating a surprisingly addictive mashing of genres that would have ultimately been fine on it’s own. Alas, we’re in for even more of a treat, as he then goes and busts the record’s appeal out of the stratosphere by stripping in current sensation Kid Cudi.

Cudi co-signs Cline’s teary-eyed whimperings (“Strange, how you stopped loving me/ How you stopped needing me/ When she came along…”), cleverly using it’s lyrics to support his own “my chick left me for another chick” rhyme. But rather than dish out a predictable dose of shock and heartache in response to the situation, Cudi instead wonders aloud why the three of them can’t find a way to work things out so he can live out the ultimate male fantasy.

The images of their potentially steamy “love triangle” sex sessions clouding up his brain, he pleas for her to stay by his side, promising “I could live life fine with two ladies” before later urging them, in that entrancing sing-rap vocal of his, to both take his hand so he can make them “feel okay”.

Sigh. There’s just too much here to love.

Get Wild, also featuring appearances from Tommy Lee, Diddy and Daniel Bedingfield, is available April 7th. Pre-order it here.

DL: “She Came Along” (alt)

Uncategorized 60's, country, dance remix, deep dish, kid cudi, retro, sharam