mixtape maestro (2.0)

It’s hard to disagree with the classy and polished R&B diva route Mary J Blige has ventured into the past decade of her career: she’s more beautiful than ever, her voice is stronger, her personal growth is inspiring. At the same time though, there’s only so many re-writes of “Be Without You” one can take.

Are we saying we yearn for Blige to revert back to the always-wronged girlfriend/ wife role she seemed glued to in the opening phases of her career? No, not necessarily. But we do miss the sheer glee that arose once her church-grown vocal gymnastics were paired with the sounds of urban music’s past via old R&B and rap samples. Let us not forget, she is the Queen of Hip Hop-Soul.

Apparently, iconic rapper/ producer Marley Marl shares that same sentiment, as he’s taken it upon himself to give Blige’s latest single “I Am” some of that What’s The 411? flavor for this old school house party-approved remix.

Stapling the song’s “Ain’t nobody gonna love you better than I am” theme to the beat of T Ski Valley’s 1981 hip hop classic “Catch The Beat” (itself, one of the billion or so tunes to reference Taana Gardner’s “Heartbeat”), while adding a lil’ golden age braggadocio mic flair (“Who’s the king of the nineties? (I am)/ Who’s the king of the grind, B? (I am)/ Since you slept on a legend, step behind me…”), Marl swiftly resuscitates a track we would have probably forgotten all about in a couple months time, while simultaneously giving the kids a lil’ taste of why we fell in love with MJB in the first place oh so long ago.

Can this throwback sound please be the overall theme for Mary’s next album?

DL: “I Am (Marley Marl Remix)” (alt)

Bonus DL: T Ski Valley “Catch The Beat” (alt)

As if having every other form of entertainment be usurped by an obsession with everything vampire-related wasn’t enough, Timbaland looks to Twlight, True Blood, and the like as a major influence on “Morning After Dark”, the official first single from his Shock Value 2 album.

Part Anne Rice-inspired sex tale, but mostly a run-through of Timb’s usual bag o’ dizzying polyrhythmic tricks with the he say/ she say treatment that’s defined most of his popular output, “Morning After Dark” sees the mega-producer enjoying a “3P” of his own with pipsqueak-voiced duo Nelly Furtado and newcomer/ Mosley Music protogee SoShy playing bob and weave to the track’s restless drum shuffle and synth sprinklings.

Unfortunately, despite the trio’s best efforts to muster up some nocturnal heat amongst themselves, none of it really lands as anything all that especially exciting or even necessary (sort of like another A-list-affiliated SV2 album leak), but we’ll at least admit to it’s Euro-goth sizzle latching onto a competent club fizz, while the spiraling hook (where Tim tackles an interesting Bootsy Collins-esque yowl) eventually needles it’s way into your brain.

“Morning After Dark”:

As an added bonus, check out this house-y remix of “MAD” from the Serotonin Thieves: “Morning After Dark (Serotonin Thieves Remix)” (alt)

One recently revealed Timbaland-produced number that is worthwhile (without the aid of repeated listenings) is “Skycap”, a Mary J Blige-led number that was originally conceived for, and eventually denied placement on, her 2007 Growing Pains album. A foolish move, we might add, since having this amongst it’s tracklisting could of easily scored that set a second major hit beyond “Just Fine”.

Atop a hypnotic beat of lively percussion/ drums and what sounds like a swarm of evil goblin children chanting “I’m falling” while being flushed down a toilet (oh, how our imagination makes us giggle sometimes), Mary J starts off throwing down like she used to back in her pre-”No More Drama” days, as she looks back on a couple of old relationships gone sour (“The first love I let inside my life/ Had me afraid to fly/ Had my head in the clouds/ And meanwhile he let me crash…”).

But before you get a chance to seriously worry over (or celebrate, depending on your stance) the soul diva regressing back to a previous era of endless tear-stained, no-good-men-littered R&B melodrama, Blige is rescued from her depression by a knight in shining armor, one who isn’t easily scared off by all of her “baggage” and brings with him “a first class love” so great, she feels like she’s soaring through the clouds above. “I don’t even wanna land/ Got myself a helluva man,” she sings, an infectious joy just beaming off her every note.

We’ll never understand why this one was left on the cutting room floor.

DL: “Skycap” (alt)

For close to two decades (!!) we’ve relied on Mary J Blige‘s raw, grainy (and, at times, off-key) whoops to help keep some semblance of true, from-the-soul authenticity alive in the contemporary R&B realm, and even though those fiery chops have gotten smoothed over in recent years, we never once thought that she would ever think of joining the “singing android” parade. Yet, there she was on the summer-leaked (and Drake-featured) “The One”, crushing plenty of hearts across the globe in her unnecessary decision to undergo the Auto-Tuned treatment.

Why MJ why, we sighed and whimpered, hoping that the track would either end up in the recycling bin, get passed onto some lesser naturally-gifted singer, or at least be given a post-”D.O.A”, vocal effect-stripped make-over before it’s official release. Unfortunately, our wishes were ignored: “The One”, minus any revisions, would ultitimately be branded as the jump-off single for Mary’s 9th studio effort, Stronger.

In a case of the video sort of making a song better though, thanks to “One”‘s heavily stylized accompanying clip, featuring Blige cutting up a rug while getting her sexy swag on under a neon-lit glow, our initial hesitations towards the record have alleviated some.

It’s plinky-plonk futuro beat may fall a tad on the generic side but it does bump (a fun vibe we actually requested from her a couple months back), the boasting lyrics are cool (“Let me break it down if you don’t get it/ Quality, I’m custom-fitted/…Boy don’t you know I’m the one”"), and the Auto-Tune is really only heard on a couple lines. Still, let it be known that we would fully appreciate it if Blige left the roboticized gimmicks to the chicks that really need it from here on out.

Stronger drops this November.

Mary J Blige’s triumphant 2005 smash “Be Without You” may have ended up being the biggest record of her career (earning two Grammy Awards, crossover adoration, and a fifteen-week reign atop the R&B singles chart), but it initially didn’t at all feel like a perfect mesh with her usually grittier street-diva style, sounding more like a Mariah Carey power ballad than anything else.

On first listen to the Queen of Hip Hop-Soul’s recently leaked “Stronger”, a slightly pop-slickened Polow Da Don-produced number featuring Chris Brown (!!) on background vocals, that same feeling of “we like it, but not necessarily for Mary” comes forth again (though trade in Mariah for someone like Keri Hilson or the Pussycat Dolls Nicole S. and her oft-muted backup crew).

Maybe it’s just that we still haven’t gotten used to the positive slant of Blige’s art, despite the fact that she’s remained aligned with this inspirational vibe for a majority of the past decade, or that we’re simply yearning for a reconnection to the hard urban-dance bop of previous smashes “Real Love” or “Family Affair”, but while “Stronger” ultimately proves to be a powerful cut that will undoubtedly end up a cherished anthem for many lovers (the rawness of her vocal certainly adds a reality-drenched weight to cliche love song lyrics like “We’ve been through the storm” and “We climbed all the mountains”), we can’t easily shake away the fact that we’re left feeling a little…um, underwhelmed by it as a Mary J Blige record.

Are we crazy or does anyone else feel the same way? At least, initially?

DL: “Stronger” (alt)

Kanye’s hilarious verse on “Because of You”‘s bootlegged remix aside, Ne-Yo didn’t completely rock the house on his last single. Something about it’s glittery homage to Off The Wall’s R&B/ disco thump and that lame love-as-drug metaphor made it sound way too easy for the noteworthy singer-songwriter. Thankfully, follow-up release “Do You” rights those wrongs, wooing you in with another dose of his tender melodicism and original twisting of staid R&B themes.

Over a striking soundbed of swift drums and sparkly piano notes punctuated by wah-wah guitar effects, “Do You” finds production team The Heavyweights courting the same winning Stargate sounds that pillowed previous Ne-Yo projects “So Sick” and “Sexy Love”. The way the singer adhered to their child-like melodies felt magical and it always seemed to bring out some of his best pen work.

The single revolves around Ne-Yo nursing the idea of getting back in contact with an ex. It’s a risky move, she’s since moved on and gotten engaged to another man, but the “Irreplaceable” writer can’t deal with the way things were left off and is looking for some closure, most importantly finding out if she still thinks of him the same way he can’t shake her from his head. Ne-Yo’s words drip with a certain sincerity and hold an attention to emotional details glazed over in most R&B tunes. He always finds a personal way to dictate these tough relationship situations, making his writing feel like thoughts pouring straight from his heart. It’s so touching the way he casually compliments her daughter whom he hasn’t yet seen (“If she looks anything like her mother/ She’s the prettiest thing in the world”) or makes sure to make her understand that he doesn’t mean to start any trouble (“Tell your fiancee he can relax”). Even with the way he elongates and stresses certain words on the chorus (“I just wo-ooonder/ Do you e-eeever/ Think of me/ Any-more/ Doooo yoooou?”), you can tell that this has been continuously brewing in his soul for a long time.

“Because of You” saw Ne-Yo trying to challenge himself as a performer with lackluster results; on “Do You”, he’s back to where he shows his most strength: sculpting moving love songs ripped straight from his private diary.

For the even-more-breathtaking remix, Ne-Yo hires Mary J Blige to take on the role of his ex. Sounding as regal as always, the fine-voiced Mary J retains the same sense of wonderment as on the original, hiding her own inner feelings for Ne-Yo from her new man. Though she tears up a letter from Ne-Yo before her suspecting fiancee can see it, it’s clear that she’s also tied up in knots over the former coupling’s unresolved breaking up.

If “Do You (Part One)” got you all creamy inside, this solid sequel is sure to turn you into a puddle.

Mary J Blige disciple Keyshia Cole is back to dole out more advice to her female brethren on her summer new single, “Let It Go”, warning her peeps not to waste their time with men who’ve lied in the past even if their heart is telling them that they can’t leave him yet. Cole, who spent a majority of her platinum debut, The Way It Is, stuck in one-sided relationships has the perfect voice to embody the role of the long-suffering girl constantly picking the wrong dudes. Her emotive alto crackled on the edge of hoarseness on several occasions as she painfully focused on presumed fairy tale romances that always seemed to turn sour right when she figured he was the one. Young women reacted strongly to her inability to escape all the hurt and pain, and when a good man finally did come around, on the striking ballad “Love”, she could barely contain her excitement, resorting in probably one of the more nuisanced vocal interpretations of the four letter word ever.

Closer to reaching Mary J’s post-No More Drama mantra of “love yourself first or you can’t love anyone else”, Keyshia tries her best to convince another female that it’s no use trying to hold on to a man who can’t keep his eyes, and groin, from swaying in someone else’s direction. “It ain’t where he at/ It’s where he wanna be”, she sings, even going as far too admit that he’s been trying to talk to her on the side as well.

That the song could find some use with the familiar midtempo strains of Mtume’s timeless ’80′s jam “Juicy Fruit”, re-popularized as Biggie’s “Juicy”, is a miracle, though not the first time Cole breathed new life into an obvious sample (remember her last album’s “Never”, which basically milked the entire instrumental of “Never Too Much”?). Girl power cameos help round out the number as Lil’ Kim drops another strong verse (she needs to drop a new album now!!) and Missy Elliott, as usual, keeps things fun by adopting Melle Mel’s chuckle and Paris Hilton’s catchphrase (“That’s hot”) while endorsing her big-boned lady lumps (“He ask how I do that that/ Fit jeans over baby fat”).

Download: “Let It Go” (Amazon)