There’s no better way to kick off the beginnings of better weather (and the arrival of spring break!!!!) than to have the good-times guitar strummings of Weezer’s “Island In The Sun” expertly merged with the locker-door slams and debaucherous dialogue of J-Kwon’s 2004 lone hit, “Tipsy”.
When listening to this excellent mash-up, the latest great achievement from the The White Panda crew, you can damn near hear jumbo sized sleeves of red plastic cups being ripped into all across the country.
…And, just to keep this whole “Island”-meets-hip hop vibe going, enjoy D.C./ Maryland/ Virginia-based quartet The Five One’s 2009 music blog-circuit fave “L.A. Girl”, which uses the same Weezer track (as well as lyrics…ahem, borrowed from Kanye West’s “Robocop”) as foundation for a tribute to spoiled lil’ Cali babes.
Currently featured, amongst a few other great remixes/ cover songs, on The Five One’s newest mixtape,Road To SXSW.
Just when our adoration for Gucci Mane’s The State vs. Radric Davis-housed tribute to all things yellow (bling, rims, booty), “Lemonade”, is at an all time high (surely, we’ll have another “best Gucci Mane track ever!!” next month, but right now we can’t get enough of the track’s manic piano tinkering and chorus of children awesomely chiming “Lemon pepper wangs and a freeze cup”), Fabolous swoops down on the Bangladesh beat to give it a different excellent flip.
The track, entitled “For The Money”, is one of the immediate highlights from Fab’s newly dropped mixtape There is No Competition – Part 2: The Funeral Service and could honestly be a hit single all on it’s own, thanks to the Brooklyn emcee changing it’s lyrical focus from singular hue obsessions to one of his own favorite radio banger topics (“shawtys” with dollar signs in their eyes) while humorously revising the hook with squeaky-voiced anony-chicks begging him to “write another song for the money” to keep their high-priced lifestyle on point.
“When the money gone/ She gon’ be the fuck gone with it,” Fab preaches, sounding not as much annoyed as mildly amused by his girl’s gold-digging obviousness: “I say ‘How many pair?’/ She say ‘Who’s countin?’”. Of course, though, it’s featured guest Nicki Minaj who ends up stealing the entire track with this LOL-worthy verse capper: “I told Fab ‘Get that Michael Knight KITT Coupe/ Before I put this pussy on your chipped tooth’”.
Grab the MP3 below, than (YOU MUST!!!) peep the song that started it all: “Lemonade”/ “For The Money”’s sample source, “Keep It Warm”, a hilarious gem by ’70’s duo Flo & Eddie (in the words of Drake, after hearing this one, you’ll definitely want to ‘thank us later’).
British electro-pop singer/ songwriter/ producer Dan Black shook up the music blog scene back in 2008 with his mash-up-to-the-next-level “HYPNTZ”, a half-sung cover of Notorious BIG’s “Hypnotize” backed by an entrancing beat that merged bits of Rihanna’s “Umbrella” with parts of the soundtrack to John Carpenter’s 1984 sci-fi flick Starman. In short, the aural patchwork was utterly brilliant, the kind of stop-you-in-your-tracks introductory record that instantly had you eager to hear more of what this genre-blurring newbie (a sort of modern-day Beck) had to offer in the future.
Two years later, on the eve of the U.S. premiere of his all-originals debut UN (due February 16th, and featuring the Kid Cudi-featured remix of his non-Biggie-”borrowing” “HYPNTZ” rewrite “Symphonies”), Black has put together six more of these dope mix-and-match creations for his new (and free!!) mixtape Weird Science.
You can fnd the entire set here, but check out a couple of our highlights, the Madonna & Kate Bush-fusing “Gimme Into The Cloudbusting” and “Slave To Paper” (a gorgeous synthesis of some hazy 80’s pop number, Dizzee Rascal’s “Stand Up Tall” and a teeny-weeny drum snippet of Missy Elliott’s “Beep Me 911″) below:
Understandably pissed after being left out of what’s become rap’s modern-day Olympics, MTV’s annual Hottest MC’s List, Lupe Fiasco has decided to make sure he makes it on next year’s rankings. This means temporarily backing away from epic, pop audience-targeting fare like this past summer’s blink-and-you-missed it “Superstar”-rewrite “Shining Down” and planting much of his focus on blessing the mixtape-hoarding crowd with stunning lyrical flexes like those found on the Jimi Hendrix-sampling beast “Fire” as well as nearly the entirety of his Thanksgiving Day-premiered set Enemy of The State: A Love Story (found in split version here).
On the teasingly brief State (it tops out around twenty-two minutes), Lupe breathlessly rips through miles and miles of clever pen-and-pad-less spitting atop instrumentals new (Timbaland & Drake’s “Say Something”), not-so-new (Lil’ Wayne’s “Fireman”) and, most intriguingly, non-hip hop (Radiohead’s “The National Anthem”), giving your rewind-button trigger finger plenty of work as you struggle to absorb all the random pop culture references (Street Fighter!! Tiny Toon Adventures!!) and genius-level wordplay trickery expertly embedded throughout his rapid-fire flow.
For us, one of it’s best offerings would have to be Lupe’s take on The Blueprint 3 joint “Thank You”. Not necessarily a highlight because it showcases Fiasco at the top of his freestyle game (though that is a plus), how “Thank You” really grabs us is in it’s pairing of an actual hungry emcee with a purpose against producers Kanye West & No ID’s lush, orchestral loop.
Having such a solid beat support Jigga’s umpteenth dishing of soul-less self-back-patting (at least for the first two verses) felt like a waste of an ill backing track; but that disappointment is quickly reversed the instance Lupe touches down with lines like “I aint the bomb/ I’m the company that got the contract to rebuild during the aftermath/ Have a blast” and this insane closing gem: “I’m the whole world, nigga you’re an island/ And the seas risin’, if I keep shinin’/
You gon’ have to take submarines to the drive-in nowwww”.
Nothing more but a bunch of cover songs that have been bubbling around in recent weeks. Enjoy!!
Tanya Morgan “Breakadawn”/ Skillz & Colin Munroe “Baby Phat” (De La Soul Covers)
Two highlight entries pulled from Mick Boogie & Terry Urban’s latest mixtape collabo, a multi-artist tribute compilation to De La Soul’s twenty-year strong legacy entitled Le Da Soul (download the full set here): the MJ-sampling groover “Breakadawn” see the unmistakably DLS-influenced Tanya Morgan cleverly weaving in their own spin to Pos and Trugoy’s script, while Skillz (assisted by longtime MM fave Colin Munroe) gives the curvalicious female sect a nice shout-out (“I like chicks thicker/ Imagine me dating a lil’ stick figure”) in a revamp of “Baby Phat”.
Ellie Goulding & Erik Hassle “Be Mine (Robyn Cover)”
In which two current blog-pop phenoms take a break from their respective on-the-rise careers for an acoustic guitar-backed duet rendition of Robyn’s 2005 single (best known for it’s drama-tastic spoken word bridge and one of the most heartwrenching opening lines ever put to pad-”It’s a good thing, tears never show in the pouring rain/ As if a good thing ever could make up for all the pain”).
Of course, for those who have heard Robyn’s own stripped-down take, Goulding and Hassle’s re-read won’t be that much of a mind-blower, but oh does their vocals meld beautifully when harmony time comes around.
True, the folk-y swing that Irish alt-rockers Snow Patrol build to on the hook of this Top 5 Madonna smash kind of feels pathetic when compared to the explosive epiphany Maddie brought to the table, but we must be honest with at least this much: hearing “Light”’s heavy verses under the band’s earnestly melancholy arrangement catches a pleasant lullaby-like mood we wouldn’t mind being soothed with at the end of a long and hard work-day.
Though England-born indie pop-punk/ soul-ster VV Brown was given a major hype push earlier this year when she was recognized as a Top Ten finalist in the BBC’s “One To Watch” poll, Sounds of 2009, she has so far struggled in earning much pop chart love (Out of four singles released, only one has managed to chart in the UK Top 40).
Still, we say keep following her. Not only because her critically-acclaimed debut album, Travelling Like The Light, has plenty of quirked-out, retro-pop/ rock/ soul goodies to offer (contrary to radio support), but also because she’s proven to be a hoot with her on-the-fly YouTube cover creations (check out her renditions of “Crazy In Love”, “Day N Nite” and “Best I Ever Had”).
There’s nothing silly about her take on the Rolling Stones’ 1978 classic “Miss You” though, which trades in the original’s bluesy-disco strut for a despair-drenched Southern-fried soul vibe.
Mumford & Sons “I’m Not Alone (Calvin Harris Cover)”
Part of the same London folk scene that has birthed the likes of Noah and The Whale and Laura Marling, the four-piece Mumford & Sons caught plenty of ears with their debut single, “Little Lion Man”, an enrapturing cut seething with self-loathing (“I really fucked it up this time/ Didn’t I my dear?”) and an edge-of-apocalypse hoedown rattle.
That same pluck-heavy furor is called upon for their surprisingly decent Live Lounge rendition of Calvin Harris’ ’90’s-dance tribute “I’m Not Alone”, their woodsy slant working wonders in an impressive mimicking of the same soft vocals/ loud music dichotomy that made the original so enticing.
Toronto-based indie label Paper Bag Records turned seven this month (Happy birthday PB!!), and to help celebrate this event, they’ve unleashed the covers compilation, The Seven Year Itch, for free from their site.
Amongst it’s twelve-song tracklisting, plenty of fascinating grabs can be found (including Josh Reichmann’s rustic campfire take on Bat For Lashes’ “Daniel” and CFCF’s ’80’s new wave & vocoder-baked treatment of OMC’s quirky international fave “How Bizarre”), but the one perched atop our highlight picks would have to be a cover of Andre 3000’s The Love Below-housed tribute to the classy female, “Behold A Lady”, as handled by Canadian-born noise-art eccentric Slim Twig.
Sludging up the original’s lean digi-funk with a dense garage stomp and kooky, vampiric vocals that sound like they’re being emitted from a broken-down loudspeaker, Twig charmingly re-brands the song with a brush of his own unique “ice cold” cool, providing belated props to an oft-overlooked Below gem.
Pixie Lott “When Love Takes Over (David Guetta/ Kelly Rowland Cover)”
Where David & Kelly’s original aimed to split open the heavens from it’s opening moments with all of it’s big dance diva grandeur, this Live Lounge version by English singer-songwriter Lott goes for a more organic lift-off.
Opening on a slow and meditative tip that plants a pleasant spotlight on the grainy squiggles of soul embedded in Pix’ pipes, the remake makes a better play at illustrating love taking over, growing more and more bold with each added layer of (mostly Coldplay-nicked) instrumentation and upgraded tempo notch until it explodes in a fireworks-like display of romantic euphoria.
Alicia Keys‘ last single “Doesn’t Mean Anything” delivered all the Grammy-baiting things we’ve come to expect from the singer in terms of poised showmanship and inspirational pop majesty, but it was also kinda boring (and a bit too similar to her last album’s lead single “No One” in it’s plodding piano foundation), so it’s nice to see her quickly moving on with the release of a follow-up jam that at least doesn’t immediately come across as your Typical Alicia Keys Ballad.
Heavily shadowed in this ominous ’80’s R&B slow jam haze that employs some of Bonnie Tyler’s old lightning sound effects and, at times, threatens to swallow the singer whole into it’s dense black hole sway, “Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart” stands as one of Alicia’s most musically enthralling cuts to date. At it’s core, a grand lyric about the post-break-up blues (“Have you ever tried sleeping with a broken heart,” she asks, before quickly adding the devastating “Well you could try sleeping in my bed”) and the self-help strengthening one must go through to break free of it’s debilitating shackles (“Tonight, I’m gonna find a way to make it without you”).
The song’s most appreciated touch? Alicia taking a much-appreciated break from all that top-of-her-lungs belting she’s relied too heavily on on recent material, and opting to bring most of “Try”’s tear-stained narrative to life in a whispery, smoky vocal that sounds like she’s been up all night trying to gather the inner-courage needed to finally move on past the shattered romance.
Catch the video below, followed by TWO remixes of the tune, one with Brooklyn rapper Maino (“Hi Hater”) solidly tackling the heartbreaker role (“Pushing for commitment/ I’m running from commitment/ Scared to open up/ And you wonder why I’m distant…”) and another featuring…um, Mase (off his new mixtape, I Do The Impossible).
The fourth release lifted from The Noisettes‘ excellent (and nowhere near as big as it should be) Wild Young Hearts album, “Every Now & Then” sees the London band staying in line with previous singles “Wild Young Hearts” and “Never Forget You”, doling out another magnificent fusion of ex-lover nostalgia with a ’60’s soul-pop-inspired musical frame.
But whereas those tracks hid frontwoman Shingai Shoniwa’s regrets over past romances behind perky arrangements, illustrating a sensibility that she had for the most part healed with the passing of time, “Every Now & Then” follows an opposite route, finding her still handicapped by an enormous heartache with moody guitar and swirling strings depicting her inner despair with a moving dramatic flair.
“You see we were never through/ I never said I loved you/ Even when we said goodbye/ I never thought it was the last time,” a down-in-the-dumps Shingai recalls, a single moment of solitude or a certain song being played on the radio instantly filling her mind with tearjerking memories of secret kisses in a certain former love’s bedroom and the postcards he would send inked with “stories (that) would excite me”.
With her yearning for a gust of wind to bring him back into her life and light up “this empty room” she dubs her current depressing existence, Shoniwa’s sorrow cuts so deep, you can’t help but be pulled into the doldrums alongside her, especially once the arrival of a stunning Bond theme song-like climax of swollen orchestration and piercing cries of being “down, down, down” come into play.
Catch the song’s music video below, then take a listen to one of our favorite cuts from Mick Boogie and Terry Urban’s must-have Noisettes vs. Kanye West mash-up mixtape Wild Young Heartbreak: “Saturday Night Paranoia”, Chicago production duo Christian Rich’s metallic-sleek marriage of the Noisettes’ revenge fantasy “Saturday Night” with West’s whip-crack heavy, new wave jaunt “Paranoid”.
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.
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.)
Most of the fun in Milwaukee/ Chicago rapper/ singer Gerald Walker’s new mixtape, Evening Out With Your Girlfriend, can be had in just reading the titles (samples: “You Don’t Pay A Prostitute For Sex…You Pay A Prostitute To Leave When You’re Done”; “Your Mother Made Me Change The Name of This Song So Your Father Wouldn’t Realize Who It’s About”) or figuring out the source of his backing beat choices (production “swipes” include tracks from Matt & Kim, Arctic Monkeys and Will.I.Am), which is probably why we can’t get enough of “Half of Life Is Fucking Up…The Other Half Is Dealing With It”, a featured cut set to the tune of Amy Winehouse’s “He Can Only Hold Her”. But before you get to thinking that we’re completely losing it, know that there’s more appeal to the song beyond the entertainment value of it’s title and sample.
A charming, and occasionally witty, ditty that finds his conversational flow rested well atop Mark Ronson’s retro-hued soundbed, “Half of Life…” follows Walker coming clean to his “love ‘em and leave ‘em” ways. “They sayin’ that I’m ruthless/ I’m just addicted to the newness/ Of a chick/ So after the first couple weeks of us dating/ They all get dismissed”, he confesses at one point, elsewhere cruelly finding humor in how he leaves women feeling like “whores”, or the way they “try to block my retreats” when only a short while before they “resisted my advances”.
His heartless braggadocio is probably not a laughing matter to the long line of women he’s left confused and emotionally bruised over time, but for us, it’s definitely a hoot to listen to over and over.
Check it out below alongside what’s become our second favorite Girlfriend entry: “Get Your Money”, one of two great whole song-jackings from will.i.am’s 2007 solo flop Songs About Girls. Honestly, we don’t know where will’s voice ends and Walker’s contribution begins on it, but it’s festive celebration of strippers over a sample of M.A.N.D.Y. & Booka Shade’s 2005 Ibiza staple “Body Language” definitely gets us anxious to hit the closest strip joint armed with pocketfuls of single bills every time.
Pick up the rest of Evening Out With Your Girlfriendhere.
As nice as it is to get free music, think of how much better your soul would feel if you purchased it the old-fashioned way.
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(MP3 posts are for promotional and/ or previewing purposes only; if any artist or their representation wish to have the links removed, contact me and I will happily comply!)
There’s no better way to kick off the beginnings of better weather (and the arrival of spring break!!!!) than to have the good-times guitar strummings of Weezer’s “Island In The Sun” expertly merged with the locker-door slams and debaucherous dialogue of J-Kwon’s 2004 lone hit, “Tipsy”. 
The fourth release lifted from 
Unfortunately for Young Money soldier/ New Orleans rapper 
Plus, it gives us another reason to excitedly anticipate the forthcoming solo debut from 
Kinda frightening to think what the rap landscape will be like once Wayne has to spend 
Most of the fun in Milwaukee/ Chicago rapper/ singer
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