mixtape maestro (2.0)

“I got a box of chocolates that’ll rock the socks off any girl that wanna come my way,” teases His Purple Majesty, right before he calls on the arrival of a killer Linn-Drum strut.

For any longtime Prince fan, all it takes is these simple intro ingredients from his new single “Chocolate Box” to set them in an over-excited frenzy, as they’re once again faced with the possibility that the musical icon is delivering what has been desired for far too long: a return to his late-70’s to early-90’s pop, rock, funk and soul heights with a fresh, modern twist.

For the most part, “Box” does exactly that, pulling together several familiar Prince signatures (the orgasmic moans and squeals; a fierce synthetic funk groove; the new wave-y breakdown accented with a lil’ electric guitar spark) into an enjoyable enough whole. We even get glimpses of Prince’s clever pimp gab (at times, via the Auto-Tuned effect) as he plays mind games with some hot dame desperate for his goodies (“You can try to get it/ But I can’t let you hit it, cause you’re never gonna be the same”; “What’s the deal?/ Are you gay or poppin’ pills?/ Why you still wanna take my hand”; “You know you can’t make chocolate cake if ain’t nobody ever showed you how”), as well as a solid sixteen from featured guest Q-Tip.

Of course, it’s only when it’s compared to “Erotic City”, “Baby I’m A Star”, “Gett Off”, “U Got The Look” or any one of the other numerous delights from his heyday that “Chocolate Box” comes up short. But A: that’s a bit unfair, B: we should REALLY come to grips with the sad reality that the ass-less chaps favoring, floor-grinding Prince we loved so hard is no more, and C: we should just be thankful that “Box” isn’t another one of those boring, self-indulgent, forever-long noodlers the man has fancied so much in recent years.

From the MPLSoUND portion of his newly released three-CD set (also including LOtUSFLOW3R and protegee Bria Valente showcase, Elixer), that’s only available via Target.

Uncategorized 80's, funk, prince, q-tip, sex jam

A buttery seduction of neo-soul smoove and cool poetic charm subtly fringed with old-school hip hop hype, Q Tip’s The Renaissance album cut “We Fight/ We Love”, like the rest of it’s trackmates, served as a welcome reminder of why Tip was so missed during that seemingly eternal between-album period.

Position nearly any aspect of it (from the vivid lyrical illustrations of it’s opening lines to the excellent second verse story of a young soldier’s tenure in Iraq (“You get to travel the world, its cheaper than college/ And you get guns, and you get knowledge/ Lookin for your soul, and WMD’s/ You can’t find nothing, cause its empty…”) to the way Tip’s relaxed flow nestles with such ease within it’s sublime groove) against about 90% of what’s currently being (over-)supported by your local rap station, and the gap in creativity presented is downright maddening.

What a sad world we live in when the beyond-corny club-pop exercises of Flo-Rida or instantly-tired frat-boy musings of “I Love College” represent to so many radio listeners what hip hop is while amazing gems like “Fight/ Love” struggle (usually unsuccessfully) for an inkling of airspace. Sigh.

Below, peep a performance of “We Fight/ We Love” from the Ellen show, then check out the remix featuring Tip’s cousin Consequence and the ever-busy Kanye West. Their appearance results in the sad omission of both original guest Raphael Saadiq and that aforementioned second verse, but the fact that West is actually rapping (YAAAAYYY!!!) here makes the changes less of a bummer.

DL: “We Fight/ We Love (Remix)” (alt)

Uncategorized '90's, conscious rap, consequence, kanye west, q-tip, raphael saadiq, remix