mixtape maestro (2.0)

It may have taken an eternity but Keri Hilson‘s In A Perfect World finally managed to see the light of day thanks to it’s, what, eleventh pre-single/ video “Turnin’ Me On” being the one cut to trigger enough attention to become her first official solo smash. Yeah, it’s not exactly setting the music press world on fire, but, whatever, we’re just happy to see Hilson one step closer to becoming the top R&B diva she seemed destined to be years ago.

As with every other major R&B release these days though, World‘s endless tracklist reconfigurings resulted in several songs being left on the editing room floor…only to be “leaked” to the inter-webs in rapid time. One of those emerging casualties was “Hey Girl”, a T-Pain and Lil’ Jon-assisted ode to the drank that might not have been a perfect fit in Hilson’s final product, yet still deserves to be snatched up by somebody so it can get a proper club push.

A tad Pussycat Dolls-mimicking with it’s cheerleader chant elements and tabla-prominent backbeat, “Hey Girl” (a sort-of sister record to Jamie Foxx’ current jam “Blame It”) sees Keri once again pulling out the mannequin-esque monotone vocal to let the people know how she gets down when she hits the town. “I’m on Patron, tequila/ I’m drunk on Margaritas/…By the end of the night I’m-a have you so fucked up,” announces it’s winning hook.

Too bad we don’t know her, cause it seems like she would be the ideal tag-along when it comes to really painting the town red.

DL: “Hey Girl” (alt)

Rhymefest, the Grammy winning co-writer of “Jesus Walks”, has woken up on the wrong side of the bed from the sounds of this Lil’ Jon-produced track, a glimpse of what’s to come on his second album, El Che.

Pushed by Jon to “put me in the mind of some Public Enemy” over militaristic marching drum beats and murder-minded synth basslines, Rhyme busts through the suffocated production spewing pissy frustration at the public’s general silliness. “All of us is killing our children/ Sold Myspace for $500 million/ Sold Youtube for $1.6 billion/ You in the projects fighting over a building,” Kanye’s buddy spits in inflamed ire, putting gangstas to shame by idolizing what he feels are the true hardcore (Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X). Later he mocks us for shedding more tears for Anna Nicole Smith, a “whore” he matter-of-factly proclaims, than the much more tragic casualties of the on-going war.

Amping up the battle rhyme precision and politically-based lyricism that prevailed on his acclaimed, but largely ignored, debut album, Blue Collar, “Angry Black Man…” finally adds a sense of depth lost in hip hop’s current rap/ rock revival. Forget “partying like a rock star”, it’s time to truly rebel like one, Rhymefest announces on this tense cut.

Angry Black Man On A Elevator (Prod. by Lil Jon) – Rhymefest

One of the coolest new trends to arrive in hip hop this past winter season was the Andre 3000 cameo. At odds with the genre he had seemingly grew past, Dre’s future seemed to be stuck in jazzy croonings and quirky alterna-pop/ soul creations. But from out of nowhere, Andre became inspired and oddly started popping up on remixes of some of the biggest urban hits in recent memory.

After criticizing his unimpressive Southern contemporaries (“Your white tee well to me looks like a nightgown/ Make yo mama proud/ Take that thing two sizes down”) on the re-hashing of DJ Unk’s unstoppable “Walk It Out”, then perfectly screenwriting the cute beginnings of a romance to the mesmerizing tune of Spandau Ballet on Lloyd’s “You (Remix)”, Andre marks another stellar guest drop, this time kick-starting the all-star revision of Rich Boy’s addictive “Throw Some D’s”.

Blessing one of the hottest hip hop beats of the moment (subtly enhanced here by electro bursts courtesy of a Lil’ Jon co-production credit), 3000 hits the ground running (“Ain’t a hood nigga but a nigga from the ho-od/ See mama stayed on me so I turned out pretty go-od”), rocking mature, witty lyricism and a poised flow miles ahead of his co-stars’. Veering away from the originals giddy entrance into the world of big ballers, Dre wrecks vengeance on foes and conducts a shoot-out ranked in engagement somewhere between NWA’s anti-cop gangsta hyper-realism and Ghostface’s oft-violent cinematic scope.

The rest of “Throw Some D’s (Remix)” is a merely enjoyable afterthought with only Nelly and the nearly forgotten Murphy Lee’s playful sing-song interplay bearing slight interest. But none are able to top the fanboy appeal of hearing Dre killing the mic once again. To those who thought Lil’ Wayne was emerging as the new king of this rap thing, check again, because Andre has been steadily emerging as the genre’s brightest new hope and with his spirited return to the emcee-ing world, it looks like the underrated Outkast halve will soon finally be getting his just due.