mixtape maestro (2.0)

A blues-rock take on Jay-Z’s “99 Problems” doesn’t sound like the most necessary thing to exist, but once the weighted, banjo-aided stomp to this semi-cover of the track by curious Roc Nation signee Hugo drops, any trace of exasperation towards just the idea of this will quickly subside.

Beck and Jack White are just a couple of the many names that will boil to the brain’s surface while listening to Hugo’s rambling, slightly addictive and “sure-to-soundtrack-the-ending-credits-to-True Blood-one-day” “Problems”, and while we aren’t completely sure we could handle an entire album’s worth of these “gangsta rock” novelties, knowing that Jigga was intrigued enough by this cat to sign him up has definitely piqued our interest in what’s to come once his debut album (Old Tyme Religion) drops later this year.

As bonus love, catch The Prince of Ballard‘s riDONKulously awesome Dap Kings-featured remix of “99 Problems” below (alongside another PoB favorite…just because):

BONUS DL: Jay Z & The Dap-Kings “99 Problems (Prince of Ballard Remix)” (alt)

BONUS BONUS DL: Rye Rye & M.I.A. “Bang (Prince of Ballard Remix)” (alt)

“Teqkilla” is one of those M.I.A. tracks that leave you feeling like you need to be under the influence of something to truly “get”. Yeah, that can describe most of Maya’s output, but usually we can find some element in her kooky, international music-informed art-pop patchworks to lovingly grasp onto while sober. In it’s twisted cacophony of synth blurts and bleets, dubstep-y tribal thump and chanted shout-outs to various alcoholic beverages, “Teqkilla”, /\/\ /\ Y /\‘s latest single, lacks that one magic ingredient to pull it all together and help transcend it from mad scientist studio experiment to off-kilter pop genius.

That is until this remix arrived, boasting a guest appearance from the one and only Nicki Minaj, one artist we’d strangely never thought of ever pairing M.I.A. with despite their similarities in mic…ahem, “animated-ness”. “It’s going d-d-d-d-d-down/ Everything slo-mo in the background”, launches Nicki at the beginning of a deliciously wacky verse inflected with that strange English-Jamaican accent she enjoys so much, instantly triggering wishes that she and Maya will hook up for an entire collaborative mixtape and vibe off each other’s respective eccentricity.

Hell, maybe with an added M.I.A. sixteen, “Massive Attack” would make some sort of sense.

/\/\ /\ Y /\ drops July 13th.

DL: “Teqkilla (Remix)” (alt)

What do you get when you cross a New York Times article painting a somewhat uncomplimentary of a blog-pop superstar, truffle french fry-related jokes and Tweet clowns from said superstar accompanied by cries of being mis-quoted? NEW NON-/\/\ /\ Y /\-AFFILIATED M.I.A. MUSIC!!!

Posted on M.I.A’s blog earlier today under the title “War Crimes and French Fries”, alongside images of NYT news clipping and audio snippets of the Lynn Hirschberg-led interview, “I’m A Singer (Haters)” finds the singer/ rapper (/chanter?) bringing the beef to the aural realm, employing the electro-riddims of Various Productions’ 2005 single “Hater” to help support her takedown of Lynn (“Why the hell would journalists be thick as shit?/ Cause lies equals power equals politics”).

How sad is our lives that we are now yearning to hear a wax response (whether rapped, sung, talk-chanted, or Auto-Tuned) from Hirschberg to really make this rivalry interesting…?

/\/\ /\ Y /\ drops July 13th.

DL: “I’m A Singer (Haters)” (alt)

Though worlds away from the raging, punk-thrash WTF that was “Born Free”, “XXXO”, the radio-friendly second single from M.I.A.‘s still-untiled third set, is just as much a shocker to hear on first listen.

More immediately accessible than about 90% of anything M.I.A. has ever set to tape, the Blaqstarr-produced “XXXO” initially sounds like a joke, as if information was somehow fumbled, and a new track from Robyn or one of the thousands of other faceless, chirpy-voiced electro-pop robo-divas that seem to pop up every two seconds was mis-tagged.

Repeated listens to the beat’s industrial-meets-bubblegum perk and quirky lyrical soundbites (“Cause you’re Tweeting me like Tweety Bird on your iPhone”) eventually help better define it as simply another zany Maya entry, but “XXXO”‘s (gasp!) utter generic-ness (especially in light of the cut that preceded it) is still a hard one to completely wrap your head around.

Hopefully we’ll feel a bit more comfortable with it when it’s Hype Williams-lensed video premieres.

“XXXO”:

BONUS DL: M.I.A. “Fire Bam (Diplo Mix)” (alt)

M.I.A. has never not had “something to say”, but who could’ve expected her next message to come packaged like this?

Unsurprisingly worlds away from the mainstream ground achieved on “Paper Planes”, Maya’s latest, “Born Free”, sees her celebrating her inner-rebel (“I don’t wanna live for tomorrow/ I push my life today”)
atop an unforgiving, and highly exhilarating, drum and bass assault seemingly built on the stuff of your worst nightmares (in actuality it’s sinister punk chug is based off a sample of synth-pop pioneers Suicide’s 1977 classic “Ghost Rider”).

While it’ll definitely take a good listen or two for it’s riotous thrashing about to soak in, the song eventually lands as another brilliant M.I.A. anthem, with the singer-rapper’s distinctive poetics (“I don’t wanna talk about money, ’cause I got it/ And I don’t wanna talk about hoochies, ’cause I been it” stands as a highlight for us) emerging from the apocalyptic murk as some of 2010′s greatest hook-chant work so far.

Look for M.I.A.’s still-untitled third set sometime in June, then proceed to have your…well, mind blown by the thought-provoking, but soooooo NSFW video/ short film for “Born Free” (Warning: features graphic sex, nudity and some extreme displays of violence) below.

M.I.A, Born Free from ROMAIN-GAVRAS on Vimeo.

With Lil’ Mama spending less of her days rocking the mic than she is judging dance crews and inexplicably remodeling herself as more of a generic teen-pop princess, what’s a listener craving a new-generation Roxanne Shante-meets-Missy Elliott rappress to do? How about turn their attention to Rye Rye, an 18-year-old Baltimore native with a wicked flow and a promising position as the first act signed to M.I.A’s N.E.E.T. label.

For the past two years, Rye has slowly been generating buzz thanks to collaborations with blogger-approved DJ’s Diplo, Blaqstarr and The Count & Sinden, and even spent some time touring alongside her “Paper Planes”-singing CEO.

On her latest offering “Bang”, she jumps atop a previously released Blaqstarr/ MIA mixtape cut and lets loose a fiery blast of manic rhyme furor that’s in perfect compliment to the track’s tribal-like, drum-and-chant delirium. Denouncing all the lames that can’t hang with her rapid-fire rhythm and offering a stern warning to nasty little boys with their minds in the gutter (“What?/ Don’t think so slick/ If you thinkin’ opposite/ I’m-a bang your lips”) without breaking a sweat, Rye Rye delivers a self-assured performance so full of heat, it should make a lot of these other rappers (both new to the scene and firmly established) re-think whether they even want to be involved in the rap game anymore.

Let’s just hope she won’t have to face any distracting reality show gigs or have any urges to be a Britney/ Rihanna-wannabe anytime in the near-future…

DL: “Bang” (alt)

Honestly, we SHOULD all be sick to death of “Paper Planes” by now. After all of it’s various remixes and seemingly endless waves of re-popularizations, one more listen to the nearly two-year-old record’s Clash-sampling intro SHOULD have us ready to pop a cap into our respective domes. Yet every time “Planes” endures a new spin, it’s hypnotizing sway still manages to catch hold of the ear and make any resistance to it’s multi-hooks-galore presentation futile.

Arena-ready London alt-rockers Red Light Company provide the latest addition to “Planes”‘ deathless thrill on this new Live Lounge cover. The musicians’ live re-enactment is fairly solid (with special note going towards that steady kick-drum stomp), and while lead singer Richard Frenneaux’s wiry quivers aren’t the greatest substitute to M.I.A’s wispy sing-song chanting, hearing him utter “No one on the corner has swagger like us” in that weird, emo-vampire croon of his makes for an oddly entertaining listen.

In which Jones “swagger”-jacks TI (who had, in turn, “swagger”-jacked M.I.A., who had ultimately swagger-jacked The Clash) all for the sole purpose of re-polishing his tireless complaint against the swag-lite emcee, especially ones who blasphemously mix Gucci belts and Louis Vuitton scarves (Jay, how dare you!!!).

But it’s Jim who clearly needs to be stopped after hearing this inferior take on Tip’s star-studded posse cut. Beyond a mildly appreciable re-manufactured beat (Bye-bye, bouncy shuffle; Hello, ominous street grind) and a typically killer (albeit a bid misplaced) Twista sixteen, “Swagger From Us” offers little justification as to why we should want to hear that sole M.I.A. line looped three hundred more times:

-Original “SLU” feature Lil’ Wayne pops up again here for the jump-off verse (what is he, like some hip hop double agent?) which, while thankfully doing away with his painful Auto-Tune obsession, ends up being another file in his increasingly bulging “fine, but needless, cameo” folder.

-Jones might kick off his portion with a quasi-SNAP!-worthy schoolyard sniff (“I don’t know what corner they from/ We from them corners that do it/ On my corners we make swag/ And we sell it to y’all…”); but, alas, it still holds that he doesn’t hail from the corners that teaches cats how to rap good.

-Then, there’s the much-talked about Byrdgang/ Dipset signee NOE, a quite promising Baltimore up-and-comer who delivers some good lyrical stuff here, yet remains hampered by the hard-to-ignore fact that he SOUNDS JUST LIKE JAY!! That unfortunate aspect of his mic presence takes even more wind out of Jones’ “SFU” sail, as it only re-presents the question of who’s actually swag-jacking who here?

Some advice for Jim? Give up this losing battle once and for all and stick to focusing on something that’s actually working in your favor.

DL: “Swagger From Us” (alt)

Months after rapping chanting over a chopping of Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” to polarized reaction, producer Swizz Beatz latches onto another blog favorite (this time, M.I.A.’s “Boyz”) to push his consistently lame “HA!! I’m rich and you’re not!” braggadoccio.

“I’m supposed to ball!/ Middle finger to y’all!!” he repeatedly exclaims, perhaps not realizing that his declarations of bulging bank accounts and real diamonds may not sit so well with those left sick over a BAD ECONOMY!! Shame on you for being so insensitive, Swizzy!! Double shame on you for tainting a perfectly fine M.I.A. ditty with your empty musings, and not even having a stupidly-awesome hook like “That Oprah”‘s to semi-justify it’s existence.

DL: “Big Ballin’” (YFH)

TI. Kanye West. Jay Z. Lil’ Wayne. Together on the same track!!??!! Atop a M.I.A. “Paper Planes” sample!!??!! We know we’re a bit late on this, but it still seems just too damn good to be true. Alas this box office blockbuster of 2008′s hip hop hierarchs is real, and to bite a bit off the voice modified words of Kanye: “It’s the shit and the urine”.

Of course, if you want be nit-picky, you can moan over West and Weezy’s waaaaay past tiresome T-Pain-isms, how annoying the MIA loop gets after awhile, or the fact that until TI pops up for his rightfully track-owning final verse, the rhymes previously dropped feel a little anemic. But come on, don’t act like hearing this pow-wow of adored tastemakers doesn’t give you a knot in your jeans; and we’re not talking about the kinds of “knots” that “jockin’ jockin’” Jay Z is referring to either.