mixtape maestro (2.0)

Madcon‘s “Beggin’” first began it’s ever-extending wave of success in the hip hop duo’s homeland of Norway waaaaay back in 2007, but it’s only been within the past eight months that other parts of the globe have started falling in love with the tune (with the seemingly always last-to-know US just recently starting to give it some spins). What makes the tune so damn special? Give it just one listen, and almost instantly you’ll understand why it’s slowly emerged as a major international sensation.

Based on a way ahead-of-it’s-time 1967 Top 20 Pop hit by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Madcon’s “Beggin’” taps into the mass public’s still-feverish addiction towards anything retro-soul-tinted, with singer-rappers Tshawe Baqwa and Yosef Wolde-Mariam pulling off a winning mimic of Frankie Valli’s impassioned plea for a lover’s return (“Beggin’…yo-o-ou/ Put your lovin’ hands out darlin’…”) over their impressive re-creation of the original’s infectious, “Everybody get on your feet RIGHT NOW!” swing.

Those elements alone would have made for a satisfying-enough entry, but those Madcon boys aren’t about simply tossing off a straight-forward cover, adding in a couple brief rap verses that only amplify “Beggin’”‘s widespread appeal and further make it sound like the freshest thing your local radio station has supported in a long while.

MADCON – BEGGIN

DL: “Beggin’” (alt)

As a bonus, peep this equally hot, harmony-laden Live Lounge rendition of the original by UK girl group The Saturdays:

DL: “Beggin’ (The Saturdays)” (alt)

A frothy gob of electro-pop that evokes nothing but good times and 100-degree summer weather, Royksopp‘s “Happy Up Here” (the first single from the Norwegian duo’s third set, Junior) can best be summed up as a Mariah Carey tune minus the over-bearing warbles and barely-there wardrobe, it’s happy-go-lucky charm seeming to exist in some ideal alternate universe where the peoples’ day-to-day sanity isn’t constantly being threatened by the gloomy overcast of an ever-worsening economic apocalypse.

Making good use of a sample from Parliament’s 1976 single “Do That Stuff” (though hip hop heads will recognize it as the main musical hook behind Nice N Smooth’s “Funky For You”), “Happy”‘s cotton candy swirl of a beat is made even more blissful by the featured ethereal and cyborg-sounding vocals’ joint celebration of a romantic euphoria.

Goes one line: “Whatever you do/ Whatever you say/ Nothing can push this feeling away”. And we wouldn’t dare try to mess up their high, though information on where we can get whatever these cats are smoking is definitely needed.

(Snatch up the equally infectious “Happy Up Here” remix by Little Rock rapper 607 from Ants In My Trance.)

Happy Up Here from Röyksopp on Vimeo.