mixtape maestro (2.0)

Even if Yael Naim was never to record another song again, it’s likely her presence wouldn’t be absent from the blogosphere for too long as DJ’s, producers and rappers seem obsessed with finding new ways to spin her 2008 fluke hit “New Soul”.

On this latest twist on the Naim tune, Sydney mash-up man Lezington crafts an admittedly cheesy, but definitely likable, marriage of “New Soul” with the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s kooky classic “Got Your Money” that has embedded inside our brains the hilarious image of a Muppet-ed Big Baby Jesus slapping down felt-made groupie ho’s on the seedier side of Sesame Street.

Grab it below, alongside another one of Lezington’s simplistic-but-irresistibly fun blends: Lil’ Wayne’s “A Milli” merged with a-ha’s “Take On Me”.

DL: “Got Your New Soul (Lezington Blend)” (alt)

DL: “Take On A Milli (Lezington Blend)” (alt)

Instantly trumping the surprisingly not-awkward Pink and Rihanna collaborations as the most shocking aspect of Eminem‘s freshly leaked new album Recovery? The fact that the album’s mid-set standout “No Love”, Em’s latest team-up with his “Forever”/ “Drop The World”-trackmate Lil’ Wayne, is laced with a Just Blaze beat that samples, of all things, Haddaway’s 1993 world smash (and future Roxbury Guys’ theme song) “What Is Love”…and, dare we say, actually bangs because of it.

“No Love” is more or less a rewrite of “World”, finding the two rappers once again venomously going in after anonymous haters/ bitches/ lesser rappers/ whatevers with Lil’ Wayne contributing another ramble-heavy verse slightly redeemed by a couple LOL lines (our favorite: “Put a dick in they mouth/ So I guess it’s “Fuck what they say”) and Eminem then shutting things down with one of those excellent sixteens that gradually escalates in both speed and ferocity over it’s span.

For any outstanding lyrical achievements that are on display here though, they barely yield the same shock-and-awe spark that’s brought forth in Blaze’s production, a tense and menacing soundtrack lightly seasoned with teasing blips of “What Is Love”‘s familiar electro synth burbles and titular hook wail. When that first “Love…don’t hurt me” is heard, you won’t be able to lift your jaw off the floor, by the time the song is over, you’ll think of it as one of the greatest WTF uses of a sample this side of Jay-Z’s “Hard Knock Life”.

Hear the track below, and quickly before it gets taken down in 5…4..3..2..

Recovery drops (OFFICIALLY) on June 22nd.

We know, we know (get off Drake’s sack already!!!!!), but it’s not our fault hip hop’s current Boy Wonder is attached to so many noteworthy projects right now.

Added to that list is October’s Very Cold, a Drake/ Coldplay mash-up mixtape helmed by producer Chi Duly, which is not only great because the two acts it’s mashing-up actually sounds like an enticing musical marriage on paper (Drizzy and Chris Martin both have that whole e-mopey thing going on), but the ten-track results are all songs we wouldn’t be embarrassed to blast in our cars…with the windows rolled down (Special props to Duly and his expert chop/ blend work).

Grab our two favorites below, the sublime “Money To Fix” (“Money To Blow”/ “Fix You”) and the addicting “Forever La Vida” (“Forever”/ “Viva La Vida”), or simply cop the entire thing here.

DL: Drake & Coldplay featuring Birdman and Lil’ Wayne “Money To Fix” (alt)

DL: Drake & Coldplay featuring Kanye West, Lil’ Wayne and Eminem “Forever La Vida” (alt)

Seeing as though Nicki Minaj is not only behind some of the most memorable cameo raps of the past twelve months, but is pretty much the only female rapper anyone talks about these days, it’s unfortunate that her official solo career hasn’t gotten off to such a great start.

First we had “Massive Attack”, a tuneless earache of a record that greatly deserved it’s blink-and-you-missed-it chart tenure; but to quickly follow up that flop with the not-much-better “Your Love”, a limp R&B ballad slightly re-polished from it’s original mixtape-based incarnation? What’s really going on behind the scenes?

“Your Love” is definitely a stronger bid for crossover play thanks to its smooth sampling of Annie Lennox’ 1995 Grammy-winner “No More I Love You’s” (itself, a cover of a modest mid-’80′s UK hit by English new wave duo The Lover Speaks), but the decades-old nostalgia factor can’t really rescue what’s essentially a boring number, as Nicki is heard drifting through two drab verses that express her attraction to some thug hunk she just knows she shared the greatest love of all with in previous lives (“I think I met him in the sky/ When I was a geisha he was a samurai”. Yeah, okay).

Throw in a major lack of the crazy vocal inflections and goofy one-liners we’ve come to expect from Nicki, and an ill-advised, self-squeaked hook that grows more and more grating with each repeating, and we’re left scratching our heads wondering what the hell to make of it all. Does Nicki really think that releasing what sounds to be some old Blaque outtake from the late-’90′s is really what the people are demanding of her?

Single officially drops June 1st, but in the meanwhile check out a remix of the track featuring (of all people) Flo Rida, as well as the new video for the Wayne/ Minaj Rebirth collabo “Knockout”.

DL: “Your Love (Flo Rida Remix)” (alt)

Kinda making us feel a lil’ guilty for not putting more thought into the lame card and flowers we eventually copped (well, scrambled at the last minute to get) for our Maternal Ones on Mother’s Day, long-running West Coast Rapper To Watch (and Class of 2010 XXL Freshman) Jay Rock gifted his Mom’s last weekend by paying tribute to her in song for the holiday (Okay, we’re a week late…so what).

Rocking atop a slick sampling of, what else, The Intruders’ 1973 Gamble & Huff-produced classic “I’ll Always Love My Momma”, Rock’s “Love My Momma” is a touching one, tracking the gruff-voiced rapper’s undying admiration for his mother from birth (“After the doctors, the nurses wiped me off/ Your touch so soft/ I could feel the warmth of your heart through the cloth”) and childhood (“The teachers didn’t believe in me/ My Momma said the world needed me”), all the way through to his present-day adult-hood.

Expect Rock’s long-pushed back debut Follow Me Home sometime later this year.

DL: “Love My Momma” (alt)

BONUS DL: Jay Rock featuring The Game, Gorilla Zoe, Busta Rhymes, Lil’ Wayne & Will.i.am “All My Life (Remix)” (alt)

For those who’ve longed for more than just a simple hook-boy contribution from Lloyd on the Young Money smash “Bedrock”, you’ll probably take a liking to this “sequel” version, which sees all of YM scrapped (except for Weezy and Drake’s original verses, of course) to give the R&B singer more of a leading role.

What does Lloyd have to say now that he’s given the spotlight? Unfortunately, more goofy metaphors that make you wish the expert at this sort of XXX-rated R&B wordplay, R. Kelly, had had a hand in the writing process.

Still, we’ll gladly take “I can beat it up like an ultimate fighter/ I can eat it up like a Siberian tiger” and “I can make your body rock/ Me no Rubble” (as in Barney Rubble) over mucho horrific Gudda Gudda quotables like “I see me with her/ No Stevie Wonder” and “I got her nigga/ Grocery bag” anyday.

P.S.: Were we the only ones to only JUST NOW figure out that Drake’s quoting some “Are You That Somebody?” in his portion? Yeah?…Oh…nevermind.

DL: “Bedrock (Part II)” (alt)

In a recent interview with MTV News, Dre, one-half of production duo Cool & Dre, touched on something in reference to the rock/ rap / Auto-tune soul experimentations found on Lil’ Wayne’s Rebirth that hit us like the biggest of epiphanies: “It’s something Rick James would bug out on”.

After letting that lone line marinate in our brains for a few seconds, we realized that, on one level, Dre was right…there is an element of Rick James’ before-it’s-time combination of sex, rock, R&B and over-exaggerated funk vocals that can be heard in some of the Rebirth material we’ve heard so far. Now, don’t get us wrong, our semi-agreement with Dre’s statement is not necessarily saying we suddenly think this whole curioso release is going to be the genius, genre boundary-breaking affair Wayne seems to think it’ll be, but absorbing Rebirth in a Rick James-ian light definitely kind of redeems it’s questionable ambition in a way that we aren’t simply waiting for it to hurry up and be released so that Wayne can steer his sole attention back towards turning out “real” hip hop anymore.

Newest single (?) “On Fire” is upgraded a couple of notches from another instant eye-roller to…um, something slightly better than that, under this new train of thought. Built on a layer of electric guitar squawkings (apparently handled by Wayne himself) and a surprisingly hot sample of the very ’80′s-sounding Scarface soundtrack cut “She’s On Fire”, “Fire” may ride a thin lyrical sketch of how bad-ass a woman is (“She hot as hell/ Let’s call her Hell-en…”), but try thinking of a modern-day Rick being the inspiration behind it’s flavor, and suddenly, the song doesn’t seem so bad.

“On Fire”:

That other recent Rebirth leak “Da Da Da” though…let’s just say, it’s not as easy to defend, no matter whose sound the people behind it were looking to emulate. Hands down, it’s the oddest cut to emerge from the album so far, it’s decent moments (a snazzy bassline, a rapid drum loop and an appreciably clear rap verse) not enough to justify Wayne’s drunken wordless meanderings and overdose on vocal modulation.

“Da Da Da”:

Rebirth arrives December 21st.

DL: “Da Da Da” (alt)

Unfortunately for Young Money soldier/ New Orleans rapper Gudda Gudda, his hood-reppin’ Guddaville cut “Always Love You” won’t win the blue ribbon prize for Best Mixtape Use of a Chopped-Up Sample of Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” in 2009 (that honor remains with Theophilus London’s still-impressive track of the same name from a couple seasons back), but that doesn’t mean it’s not noteworthy.

Coolly weaving Houston’s over-long belt into a chill, Southern rap groove (with a brief shout out to the Dolly Parton original nicely tossed in in the opening seconds), Gudda’s “ALY” succeeds as a fine laidback jam that’s just begging for a summer season to attach itself to.

Plus, it gives us another reason to excitedly anticipate the forthcoming solo debut from Nicki Minaj, his increasingly likable rappress labelmate who steals the show here with a trip through memory lane, where she recalls her days as a young “Harajuku Barbie” sipping Italian Icees while running amuck through the concrete jungle of the “Capital Apple”.

Snatch up the cut below, as well as another Nicki-blessed treat: a No Ceilings-birthed remix to Beyonce’s “Sweet Dreams” (also featuring a somewhat needless Lil’ Wayne) in which she rocks the mic right with rewind-worthy references to Balloon Boy, Plaxico Burress and Slick Rick (and his eye-patch) all tucked into a single killer verse.

DL: “Always Love You” (alt)

DL: “Sweet Dreams (Remix)” (alt)

Kinda frightening to think what the rap landscape will be like once Wayne has to spend his year in prison, innit?

Even at his most irritating ubiquitous, the man has the power to heighten hip hop-themed conversation unlike very few others, with whatever new song, remix, freestyle to emerge from him destined to light up the blogosphere commentary world with record speed no matter how great or meh said product is.

Knowing Weezy though, he’ll make sure the twelve month sentence will fly by without folks getting the chance to miss him too much, as he’s probably in the lab right this moment cooking up enough freestyle dishes to ensure one new lyrical treat premieres each of the three hundred and sixty-five days. Alongside “official” joints set for planned near-future releases both solo (the long pushed-back rap/ rock question mark Rebirth, The Carter IV) and label related (Young Money Fam; solo debuts from Mack Maine and Nikki Minaj), Wayne will likely remain just as omnipresent as he has been the past few years.

But to steer focus back to what this post was really supposed to be about…Wayne’s newest mixtape, No Ceilings, has hit the Webs (four days earlier than expected), and for all those longing to hear the Young Money king slather some of the hottest hip hop beats of 2009 (from Jay’s “Run This Town” to Gucci Mane’s “Wasted” to, er, the Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling”) with his typically WTF vocabulary (you could make a drinking game out of the many creative ways he spins an “I’m the shit” boast or cleverly embeds an athlete’s name into a line)…think of this as an early Christmas present.

Catch some of our favorites below, including “Break Up”, a collaboration with Short Dawg and Gudda Gudda over the beat behind Mario’s current smash (and oh how much better that circular Bangladesh-produced loop sounds when it’s not being awkwardly used to support a R&B track), and “Throw It In The Bag”, which sees Wayne narrating the pleasures of lavish life-aided rap sex-mance (“Fuckin’ on Versace/ Napping on satin/ I love to hit it backwards, Call it Pig Latin…”) atop the seducingly hypnotic instrumental of Fabolous’ Dream-sampling “Bag” remix.

(Or you could simply save a bunch of time by downloading the entire [more often-than-not awesome mixtape] from Nahright.)

DL: “Break Up” (alt)

DL: “Throw It In The Bag (Remix)” (alt)

Weezer will likely forever more incite heated commentary from listeners on whichever album era it was when the band/ Rivers Cuomo officially “jumped the shark”, but you still have to kinda give it up for the boys for continuing to press on in the face of ever-present “why won’t they just retire?” balking, even if it’s a bit tough to disagree with that sentiment.

At least new single “If You’re Wondering If I Want You To (I Want You To)”, the lead cut from the band’s Raditude, is fun enough to temporarily distract you from pondering over the confusing entity Weezer has become over the years. It’s happy-go-lucky, “Walking On Sunshine”-like power-pop plodding making for a delightful three minute toe-tapper, “Wondering” also benefits from River’s umpteenth lyrical well-dipping into the gawky bliss of young love, it’s “boy loves girl” theme entertainingly speckled with references to “Slayer T-shirts”, viewings of Titanic, trips to Best Buy and meat loaf dinner with her parents (“I dug you so much/ I took one for the team”, Cuomo, a World’s Sexiest Vegetarian nominee, sings).

The same surprisingly likable results also emerge from the recently leaked, highly anticipated Weezer/ Weezy collabo “Can’t Stop Partying”, a brow-raising number co-written by Jermaine Dupri (!?!) that was originally heard in oddly somber acoustic demo form on Rivers’ compilation sequel Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo.

Yeah, Cuomo still sounds mega-silly vocalizing some mocking rap star fantasy that has him downing Patron and E tablets while kicking it with his “deep posse” in the hottest clubs’ VIP sections (even if it can looked at as some sort of extension of “Buddy Holly”‘s awkward “what’s with these homies dissin’ my girl?” urban-speak), but we’d be foolish in denying the guilty pleasure glee that’s stirred up in “Partying”‘s newfound glossy pop production polish (perfect for Top 40 spinning betwixt similar goof-pop entries by 3Oh3! and Cobra Starship) and Lil’ Wayne goblin-grinning his way through lines like “Party like tomorrow is my funeral/ Gotta stop mixing alcohol with pharmaceuticals”.

Raditude drops November 3rd.

DL: “Can’t Stop Partying” (alt)