mixtape maestro (2.0)

If Mariah had really wanted to boost sales and some chart longevity from the mostly public-ignored Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel (rather than quickly move on to it’s guest-laden, all-remixes sequel Angels Advocate), she would have been smart to unleash set highlight “Ribbon” as an official single: it’s seducing, slow-motion flow and chopped-n-screwed hook saw Carey and co-album collaborators The-Dream and Chris “Tricky” Stewart at the peak of their combined powers, and felt like a serious R&B smash waiting to happen.

Alas, she didn’t…but all is not lost, as the diva has only upgraded the track’s future hit potential greatly under this new Advocate revision.

It’s addictive hook sadly doesn’t make it’s first appearance until the track is half-way done, but it’s hard to fuss about that too much when the remix’ front-end is loaded with great turns at the mic from Ludacris (who, curiously, makes much more of an impact littering uzi-fire rhymes and animated vocal tricks atop “Ribbon”‘s crawling midnight groove, than he does on his own oh-so-paint-by-numbers recent material) and Dream (who, as on “My Love” and the “Touch My Body (Remix)”, continues to prove to be one of Carey’s better duet partners [especially on the fade-out here], despite the huge gap in vocal ranges between the two).

Angels Advocate arrives, exclusively through Target & iTunes, March 30th.

DL: “Ribbon (Remix)” (alt)

Isn’t it funny how “My Boo”, a thirteen year old R&B/ booty bass cut performed by an act a majority of folks (minus bloggers of course) probably wouldn’t be able to name without some Google aid, has suddenly turned into one of the most covered/ re-tooled tracks of ’09? Following DJ Solly’s chopped-up re-working of the Ghost Town DJ’s single (posted here back in July), the past few weeks has seen a few other new takes off “Boo” bubble their way to front pages all across the blog patch, and un-surprisingly, we heart every single one of them. Check ‘em out below:

American Dream Team “My Boo”

This Brooklyn-based squad of DJ’s, VJ’s, producers, designers and animators cover the record with a Cascada-esque dance-pop touch (though far less cheesy than that may sound), employing a slightly Auto-Tuned, anony-robo-female to mimic the song’s high school-age X’s and O’s sentiment in between a solid assortment of bloopety-bloop club noise. An ideal dancefloor delight.

DL: “My Boo” (alt) (American Dream Team)

Desktop “My Boo”

Desktop is an synth-pop duo out of Detroit who have released two EP’s this past year that are both chock full of fetching, keyboard-dominant tunes ’80′s pop lovers should dig (Our favorite: the work-out inspiring “Fired Up”).

Their “My Boo” remake features a faint loop of “A Milli” in the background, a killer opening groove that’s just begging to be sampled for some new crunk & b confection, a talk-box (we think) assisted breakdown that’s still got our heads spinning in circles and a heavily distorted lead male vocal that makes the longing lyrics take on a intriguing stalker-ish bent that wasn’t all that easily apparent in the original.

DL: “My Boo” (alt) (Desktop)

Mariah Carey featuring OJ Da Juiceman, Big Boi & Gucci Mane “H.A.T.E. U (Remix)”

Last but not least, Mimi busts through with this remix of her Memoirs’ slow jam ballad “H.A.T.E. U”, and we must say, anticipating entering the angry phase after breaking up with her man goes down a lot better when supported by the light bounce of a “Boo” sample and smirk-inducing guest turns from OJ Da Juiceman, Big Boi (“I’m colder than a polar bear’s toenails”) and, the “Ludacris of ’09″, Gucci Mane, in what’s probably his two-hundredth appearance on a song in the past four months alone (and yet somehow we still crave more cameos from the “Wasted” emcee).

DL: “H.A.T.E. U (Remix)” (alt)

Say what you want about it’s awkward rush to that big, key-escalating finale or, hell, the necessity of it in the first place, but be honest: Mariah Carey’s cheese-tastic cover of Foreigner’s ’80′s radio/ karaoke staple “I Want To Know What Love Is” gets the job done; if nothing else, proving that hearing a gospel choir emote the chorus couplet hasn’t at all lost it’s eye-misting effect after all these years.

Hotter-than-hot remixer Chew Fu migrates her version to the club realm in his latest “re-fix”, garnishing it with all the usual dizzying dancefloor bells and whistles (while giving the backing choir support some extra love) with solid results.

Check out it his “Extended Club Fix” below:

DL: “I Want To Know What Love Is (Chew Fu Extended Club Fix)” (alt)

Mariah’s twelfth album, the recently leaked Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, may house much of the twinkly keyboards, echoed syllable hooks and silly lyrical turns that have lingered in her previous work with dominant Angel songwriting/ production team Chris “Tricky” Stewart and Terius “The-Dream” Nash (not to mention, the stuff they’ve crafted for themselves and others), but having those quirks on hand don’t at all prevent this collection from ranking as one of her most maturest albums to date.

Having little interest in the sample-based, cookie-cutter R&B-pop thrills of her past, Angel looms heavy with a mostly mid-tempo tracklisting that more often than not finds her dwelling in the depression of post-break-up heartache or selling a sassy kiss-off to a no-good boyfriend. Even the small number of relatively upbeat, “happy” numbers carry a denser musical tone beneath them, causing one to think that Mariah spent some time dipping back into her own catalogue, re-realized what a gem 1998′s under-appreciated Bone Thugs N Harmony collabo/ single “Breakdown” was, and then opted to record an entire album based around the track’s nocturnal-soul vibe.

If we had to pick one as an immediate favorite it would have to be mid-album cut “Ribbon”, a molasses-flowing bump & grinder that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Dream or R. Kelly album. It’s one of the few instances on the disc in which she’s celebrating love, capturing her completely lost in the charms of her lover and on the verge of a near-breakdown when she’s forced to be separated from his touch for the smallest bit of time (“It’s been about twenty good minutes since I kissed you/ Come back boo/ I miss you/ Wish I had twenty million hours to caress you/ And undress you/ To be continued…”).

It’s a puppy love sentiment we’ve heard her wax on plenty times over in the past, but here, when supported by a boudoir-ready groove and a chopped-and-screwed-styled hook that awesomely co-signs her ecstasy with demonic chants of being like a “ribbon with a bow on it”, sounding a bit more grown-up when giddy in love goes a long way.

Hear it below (you didn’t think we would have THE MAN catch us giving out a Mariah MP3 now, did you?), followed by a clip of Miss Carey-Cannon (looking all “Vision of Love”-ly) performing her surprisingly moving cover of Foreigner’s “I Want To Know What Love Is” on Oprah.

Memoirs drops September 29th.

“Ribbon”:

“I Want To Know What Love Is (Oprah Performance)”:

First off, can we just note how refreshing it is to hear a record like Drake’s “Successful” lodged amongst the ringtone-friendly goofiness currently reigning atop rap radio playlists?

The track might only be getting so much burn because Drake-mania still runs rampant across the land, but that doesn’t detract from “Successful”‘s strikingness. A pensive narrative about a rising emcee’s unflinching quest to hit it big backed by a quietly burning R&B template that does a fine job of illustrating the moody image of one man all alone in a darkened studio armed with nothing but a pen, a pad and his un-realized dreams, “Successful”‘s grasping of depth just feels so comforting when positioned against the “You’re A Jerk”‘s and “Ice Cream Paint Job”‘s, as it brings with it this small hope that mainstream rap’s future might not be so bleak after all with promising lyricists like Drizzy leading the way.

Below, check out a re-tooled version of “Successful” (newly updated with an entire Trey verse!!) that’s set to appear on Trey Songz’ upcoming third album Ready.

DL: “Successful (Version 2)” (alt)

Speaking of Trey, the ever-present R&B crooner continues his tour of taking other people’s established hits and making them better on the recently leaked “Loser”, which finds him swiping the backing track from Mariah Carey’s “Obsessed” to support a witty lyric about angry baby-daddies ready to pummel him for sexing their women.

DL: “Loser (‘Obsessed’ Cover Remix)” (alt)

It was already lame that Eminem felt the need to drudge up his archaic beef with Mariah Carey on his most recent album. It’s just as lame that Mrs. Nick Cannon would be moved to respond to it, and not as a mixtape-only cut to satisfy the drama-loving blog-o-sphere (which would have been a perfectly fine move), but as the LEAD SINGLE of an actual album.

“Obsessed”, the first taste of Carey’s twelfth studio effort Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel, isn’t at all a “Dreamlover”, “Fantasy”, “Honey”, “It’s Like That” or “Touch My Body”, previous new LP jump-offs that felt like major pop events tailor-made for soundtracking good times for the next three months. Hell, it’s not even on the same level as comparably weaker lead single exercises “Heartbreaker” or “Loverboy”.

Most of that can be attributed to the fact that it’s central purpose relies far too heavily on chopping Eminem to size. MC may get some good digs in (“You’re delusional, you’re delusional
Boy you’re losing your mind/…Got you all fired up with your Napoleon complex/ See right through you like you’re bathin’ in Windex”), especially with the cool and passive way she touches on Em’s much-publicized past with drugs and drops divaliicious one-liners like “You a mom and pop, I’m a corporation” and “I’m the press conference, you a conversation”, but all this would’ve perhaps been better served within a single verse, with the rest of the song tackling a more universal slant at dissing bug-a-boos. Spending over four minutes stressing on such a singular, and uncomfortably personal, topic quickly grows tiresome, especially once you’ve gotten past that initial first listen giddiness of “I can’t believe she just said that” excitement.

Aside from the lyrics, the production contribution from The-Dream and Chris “Tricky” Stewart (currently the Jam & Lewis to MC’s Janet) sort-of bores in it’s refusal to deviate from one main setting, which can best be summed up as a slightly more denser mimicking of their signature featherweight tip-toe pounce. It’s passable and radio-friendly, but in desperate need for some major musical switch-up to add a different dynamic.

To “Obsessed”‘s credit, it’s nice to see Carey putting on the boxing gloves and showing the public that she’s no pushover, and it’s possible that the combination of it’s gossip-rag targeting core and hype as a brand new MC single will aid in granting the track a big first few weeks on the singles chart; but giving the record the weight of something more than a simple album cut just doesn’t feel like the smartest move in the grand scheme of things. Hopefully, she’ll realize this and drop something with a bit more long-lasting appeal (like the “We Belong Together” Part 2 we didn’t get on the last album) as Imperfect Angel‘s release date nears.

Catch clips of the original and Gucci Mane-featured remix below…cause we don’t have the balls to go up against Mariah and her legal team.

A few thoughts after peeping the video for the new Dream and Mariah duet, “My Love”:

-For such a high-profile collabo choice, it’s endlessly fascinating that “My Love” doesn’t really rank much hire than listenable (read: good for the time it’s playing, but completely forgotten once it fades out). This is MARIAH freakin’ Carey!!! Dream couldn’t have come up with a more interesting concept than something we had to endure ad nauseum from Ashanti/ J. Lo and (insert any popular Black R&B singer or rapper from the early-to-mid’ 00′s here).

-Speaking of “fascinating”, that hair-do that Carey is sporting is gangsta-boo glorious. But was the clip all shot in one day, or were her hairstylists simply tired after all that braiding. Come on, Mariah, Beyonce can give us twenty-hundred do’s in one video, you couldn’t have mustered up at least one more? We could have at least got a couple shots of that side pony thing on the other side of her head.

-Did anybody think Dream was about to pull a “Chris Brown” and beat the hell out of MC with that frying pan? And did being threatened with kitchenware make Carey realize that she was hungry and need to have an egg-and-hot dog omelet?

-Even after that whole crunk and “snap & b” movement, why are finger snaps still like the greatest R&B song element?

-Could Dream’s real-life ex wife, singer Nivea (of “Don’t Mess With My Man” fame), confirm that this clip is based on a true story?

-Wait…Dream has a Grammy!?! Surprised that Carey didn’t try to sneak her FIVE in a shot next to the sugar and Kool-Aid.

-Wait…Mariah drinks Kool-Aid!?!