mixtape maestro (2.0)

Coming off what many considered 2009’s top R&B release (Love Vs. Money), it’s hard not to be left a little underwhelmed by “Love King”, the first single and title track to The-Dream’s next (and possibly last) album.

Built atop a floaty, snap-laden midtempo groove perked with candied piano plinks and punctuating “Ey”’s, the song is nothing more than a cut-and-paste patchwork of the singer/ songwriter/ producer/ “ey”-er’s usual bag o’ musical quirks, this time tied together by a thin concept (The-Dream has tons and tons of chicks at his beck and call) that’s in dire need of much stronger goofball lyricism than “Got girls with weaves/…Girls without it” and “Got girls on my Sprint/ My AT&T/ Got girls on T-Mobile/ Metro if it’s local”.

Yeah, it’s “Shawty Is The Shit”-meets-”Rockin’ That Thing” soundbed is perfect riding-to material, but if The-Dream really wants to finally nab some Grammy nods this time around (we, the people, can only endure so many Twitter rants), he’s going to have to conclude his solo album trilogy on the high note it demands with far better offerings than watered-down regurgitations from the same stylistic template.

Love King drops in May.

DL: “Love King” (alt)

If it’s any consolation though Dream, we’re definitely digging you’re rap verse on this all-star “How Low (Remix)”:

BONUS DL: Ludacris featuring Rick Ross, Twista, The-Dream, Ciara & Pitbull “How Low (Remix)” (alt)

Uncategorized ciara, love king, ludacris, pitbull, posse cut, R&B, rick ross, southern rap, the-dream, twista

Over-the-top randiness has dominated the R&B game so much over the past couple years (thanks to so many artists doing their best to try to out-top the king of WTF sex jams R. Kelly), that it’s a bit sad that nary an eyebrow is really raised with the lyrics presented on this all-star remix of Trey Songz’ current Top 5 R&B hit “Invented Sex” featuring Usher and Keri Hilson.

Still, for the simple sake of having something new to add to your “Bump N’ Grind” playlist, this 2.0 take serves as a fine enough addition, with Ursh ordering his gal to “meet me upstairs/ So I can beat it upstairs” before quoting old Trey Songz singles (“I can’t help but wait”) and Keri dismissing missionary as “no good” while claiming that she can “have you so woozy/ You’ll think I invented X”.

DL: “Invented Sex (Remix)” (alt)

Uncategorized keri hilson, R&B, remix, sex jam, trey songz, usher

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).

Alicia’s The Element of Freedom arrives December 11th.

DL: “Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart (Maino Remix)” (alt)

DL: “Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart (Mase Remix)” (alt)

Uncategorized 80's, alicia keys, maino, mase, mixtape, R&B, remix, the element of freedom

Not to beat a dead horse, but it’s still so amazingly dumbfounding how Nina Sky continually release such great material with none of it ever able to bubble into commercial success. This past year alone they’re unleashed at least two well-acclaimed tracks (“On Some Bullshit” and their heavily remixed Major Lazer/ Ricky Blaze collabo “Keep It Goin’ Louder”) that are deserving of topping some pop single chart somewhere in the galaxy instead of just being the blog-crit/ club sect sensations they are.

Really, what do these girls have to do to score another over-ground hit? Could nicking an old hook from the Hall & Oates’ platinum-lined catalog be the answer? Probably not, but if it’s any consolation, “Here He Comes”, the “Maneater”-biting third single from B-more club hero Tittsworth’s 12 Steps, has quickly risen up the rankings of our own personal Hot 100.

Tailor-made for a club-set scene in a CW tween soap, with Tittsworth’s light R&B-house thump carrying a distant bump as if to illustrate it’s source being outside the central camera shot, “Here He Comes” hones in on the inner-thoughts of Nicole and Natalie Albino, who are quietly going nuts as their crush casually brushes past them. “Tense up my body/ Can’t talk about it/ These feelings got me, got me…”, their forlorn harmonies trail off, the breathtaking appeal of their favorite boy so overwhelming, they’re rendered speechless.

The track carries such an alluring overall mood, that the fact that it breaks no new ground for the twins stylistically (these girls have managed to successfully marry every single human emotion possible to a “in the club” setting over the years), or that fellow featured guest Pitbull somewhat mars things with his needless misogyny (“I spread legs like a gynecologist”), don’t even begin to matter…all of which only makes it a bigger shame that “Here He Comes” likely won’t ever reach the massive audience it deserves.

You can sample the original below (in addition to a bonus Tittsworth remix of a beloved ’90’s R&B classic), but don’t forget to also cop the complete single EP, featuring remixes from AC Slater, Nadastrom, Stretch Armstrong & Jaimie Fanatic and Rico Tubbs & Will Power.

DL: “Here He Comes” (alt)

Bonus DL: “Poison (Tittsworth Remix)” (alt)

Uncategorized bell biv devoe, Bmore club, dance remix, girl group, house, nina sky, pitbull, R&B, tittsworth

Poor Amerie.

Despite the fact that she consistently produces far more entertaining/ adventurous R&B than a majority of her contemporaries and continues to have the undying support of most critics, she just can’t catch a break when it comes to commercial success. Both her In Love & War lead singles, the pleasantly ’90’s throwback-ish “Why R U” and the crackling “Heard Em All” (probably the best of her endless “1 Thing” retreads) were/ are bonafide JAMS, but for whatever inexplicable reason, neither one have managed to catch fire on the charts the way they deserve.

Hopefully her label has enough confidence in her to give her one more shot at a hit single (y’know how record companies love to drop acts with the quickness these days), and if they do, we pray they plant their focus on really pushing the Trey Songz duet “Pretty Brown”, another lovely nod to ’90’s contemporary soul thanks to it’s memory-jogging sample of Mint Condition’s 1992 smash “Breakin’ My Heart (Pretty Brown Eyes)”.

Sparking from the get-go with the familiar instrumental bursts that made the Mint Condition such a cherished favorite, “Pretty Brown” manages to sustain such high levels of pleasure throughout the rest of it’s length as Amerie and Trey circle round eachother’s high-pitched pipes, trying to figure out where all the heat went to in a once-solid romance. “Is it a crime to want that old thing back?/ Can it be wrong to miss the way you used to kiss me?” goes Amerie, her desperate, edge-of-sanity vocal still one of the greatest sounds to ever pierce the ears.

Catch an “alternate” version of the track featuring Lloyd Banks below, and don’t forget to pick up In Love & War when it drops November 3rd.

DL: “Pretty Brown (Remix)” (alt)

Uncategorized '90's, amerie, in love & war, lloyd banks, mint condition, R&B, trey songz

After spending a large part of 2009 having to deal with the embarrassment of having everyone know (and freely share their opinions and concerns) about a certain Grammy night ordeal, you would think that Rihanna, one of the decade’s top singles artist, would deliver an upbeat fourth album lead-off single that was all shades of game-changing kick-ass to succinctly remind the masses of how she really became a household name in the first place.

Instead, as the first taste of the November-set Rated R, Ri-Ri has oddly chosen to give us a Ne-Yo co-penned ballad that utilizes the title “Russian Roulette” as a metaphor for taking a chance on love over a backing track that’s all intense and menacing, with rolled dice (or is that the crackle of a barrel turning?) and gun shot sound effects thrown in to add more oomph to it’s darkened moodiness.

We’ll give “Roulette” a few points for effectively illustrating the tense stand-off between the song’s two lovers, with a relentless heartbeat-like drum stomp and the occasionally haunting lyric (“…And then I get a scary thought/ That he’s here means he’s never lost”) doing enough to bring about a couple of arm goosebumps. But following the first few curious listens, it’s spooky intrigue fades, exposing it for the largely lackluster “comeback” it is.

Put simply, if we wanted noir-ish ambiance from Rihanna right now, we’d revisit her and Ne-Yo’s previous single collaboration “Unfaithful”; for goth-toned pop, we’d rather give “Disturbia” a re-spin (and if we wanted gun shot-accented R&B, Lloyd’s “Pusha” would be the ticket).

“Russian Roulette” is okay (in a third or fourth single kind of way), but as the first solo thing to emerge from the singer following all that Chris Brown drama, releasing an eardrum-rupturing club-pop confection (possibly about how much angry lil’ ex-boyfriends suck) would have been far more appreciated.

Rated R arrives November 23rd.

“Russian Roulette”:

Uncategorized diva pop, ne-yo, R&B, rated r, rihanna

While it’s nice to see Mya resurfacing on America’s pop culture radar through her gig on the ninth season of Dancing With The Stars, on one level it’s quite sad to see the singer/ dancer’s career trajectory ending up here.

Most recent media blurbs about her may only cite her involvement in 2001’s chart-topping and Grammy-winning Moulin Rouge-backed remake of “Lady Marmalade”, but let’s not forget, Mya rolled out a slew of other noteworthy pop and R&B entries throughout the late ’90’s and early ’00’s. From solid solo entries “Case of The Ex” and “My Love Is Like…Whoa” to memorable collaborations with Jay-Z (“Best of Me (Remix)”), Beenie Man (“Girls Dem Sugar”), Blackstreet (“Take Me There”) and Pras & Ol’ Dirty Bastard (“Ghetto Supastar”), Mya was on a roll there for a bit. Unfortunately, minus the brief blinding spotlight “Marmalade” brought her, she never quite managed to fully break that ceiling to superstar status, her career (at least in the US) eventually petering out as the new millennium wore on thanks to a bunch of failed singles and behind-the-scenes business politics; her last two albums, 2007’s Liberation and 2008’s Sugar & Spice, ended up only being released in Japan.

Maybe things could turn out for the better though with Mya set to build off the attention she’s re-garnering through Dancing with the release of a new mixtape, Beauty & The Streets Vol. 1. Featured cut “Ponytail” is certainly an attention-grabber, finding Mya wrapping her soft coo around a woozy cycling of backwards-moving synth sounds, as she tries to steal male attention away from pole-wrapped strippers with some seducing moves of her own.

Self-hyping that those other women don’t have “this thing I be sitting on”, Mya challenges them to a lap-dance off, shoving one guy into a chair before requesting that he pull her mane in a ponytail and make her yell. Yeah, she kind of blows her load early as far as titillating imagery goes, with the rest of her contribution here failing to muster up anything else as lip-licking good, but at least Young Money First Lady Nicki Minaj is around to keeps things a bit interesting on the back-half with her random references to “Peggy & Al Bundy” and “Crocodile Dundee” in describing the freaky way she gets down.

DL: “Ponytail” (alt)

***BONUS DL***: “Girls Dem Sugar” (alt)

Uncategorized '90's, mya, nicki minaj, R&B, sex jam

While the ‘09 VMA’s will likely be most remembered for being the show where Kanye totally did poor, sweet Taylor Swift wrong (two wagging fingers of shame directed at you, Mr. West; standing ovation and rapturous applause to you Beyonce for being a Grade-A class act!), let us not forget the other interesting-to-great moments produced by this year’s “M”TV Awards: Lady Gaga’s “death” (and her continuing climb up Mt. “WTF”); Pink managing to make a dull song like “Sober” so much more interesting thanks to a really cool (and quite uncomfortable-to-watch) high-wire act; a teary-eyed Eminem and tone-deaf Tracy Morgan reminding us once again that Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” is one of the best pop songs ever; Madonna’s surprise appearance and her touching, though somewhat awkardly Madonna-centric, tribute to the King of Pop; Asher Roth NOT winning the Best Hip Hop Video Moonman (we can’t stress how important that is)…and of course, Janet Jackson’s opening live performance of her and her bro’s “Scream”.

Perhaps like most of you, while watching JJ strut her (once again slimmed down) stuff to the aggressive dance-pop of that 1995 semi-hit, we were reminded of how much we really longed for Janet to give us something new and exciting…something that hearkened back to her reigning Control-thru-“All For You” heyday…something unlike the passable, but oh-so-far from “WOW!!!”, stuff heard on her most recent albums.

Imagine our excitement to receive something close to that…erm, “something” in “Make Me”, a “gift” she very recently posted on her website. And oh what a great present it is!!

A disco-licious R&B workout in which she coerces some guy to get up off the wall and help “save the party” by lighting up the dancefloor (and her nether-regions) with his electric moves, “Make Me” gives us everything we could possibly want from a Janet record in 2009: It’s sexy, but not pathetic-sexy (as she’s been prone to deliver for quite some time now); features her disregarding that annoying, edge-of-orgasm talk-rap thing she likes to do for some actual singing; and, most importantly, bears this buoyant, roller skate jam of a groove we can’t get enough of.

Could we FINALLY be getting the real Janet “comeback” album we’ve anticipated for what seems like forever now? From the sounds of this, maybe so…

Uncategorized '09 vma's, disco, diva pop, janet jackson, R&B

Lloyd’s new sex jam banger “Pusha” is, for the most part, a good one.

It makes fine use of re-heating one of music’s favorite metaphors (girl-as-drug) for it’s entire length, comparing her love to “cocaine” (because it’s got him “flying on a private plane”) and “ecstasy” (because “Everytime I’m with you baby, I relapse and I OD”), and rocks a hazy, bump & grind two-step stomp that sounds just delightful beneath Lloyd’s featherweight tenor and those wispy, “MJ-esque” male harmony layers. Even Lil’ Wayne contributes a better-than-average guest verse (“And this is your Wayne on drugs/ I be running around gettin’ high on love/ Too much will kill you, I know that’s right/ But she got that crack and I got that pipe…”).

Unfortunately, our enjoyment of it’s silky R&B goodness comes to a screeching halt every time it’s cringe-inducing chorus comes around. Why, you ask? The hook’s questionable decision to include the line “Cobain, Cobain (gun shot noise)/ She blows my brain”. SCCCRRRREEECCCHHH!! Wait…what!!!! We understand that a word like “cocaine” might not offer too many rhyming options and that simply having a Weezy cameo doesn’t automatically equate chart-reigning smash hit anymore (a fact realized on L&L’s last collabo, the shoulda-been-bigger “Paid In Full”-sampler “Girls Around The World”), but for real, Lloyd?

Wonder what the currently P-O’ed Courtney Love and remaining members of Nirvana will have to say about this one.

DL: “Pusha” (alt)

Uncategorized lil' wayne, lloyd, R&B, sex jam

Remember when Chris Brown was first starting out? You know, when he was winning over both young’uns and adults left and right with a debut album that birthed a string of infectious tweeny-bop R&B entries and crazy choreographed stage performances that gave older cats Usher and Justin Timberlake pause? Back when you couldn’t get through a single article about him without some writer pulling out the old “new young MJ” tag? Back before you realized what a angry lil’ sucker he was, and then listening to his music made you feel all uncomfortable inside?

That’s the only thing we can think of every time we hear “Just A Kiss”, the slowly chart-climbing single by 16-year-old R&B singer/ actor Mishon, and one that nicely taps into that early Chris Brown “Run It”/ “Yo (Excuse Me Miss)” sensibility with a lil’ Ne-Yo-esque melodicism bite to boot.

As twinkly keyboards and whooshing, backward-routed synths serve a winning R&B-for-the-playground production, Mishon uses his tender, mid-pubesceent tenor to coax some young shawty to “play a little game”; one that, refreshingly, stops just short of “going all the way” by being nothing more than an extended lip-locking session, though that may be just because the girl repeatedly makes it known that she’s not comfortable with doing anything further.

Whatever, we respect it’s realistic portrayal of what it’s like to be a horny teen in 2009, but more importantly, we’re just happy to see another cat give us some satisfying teen romance R&B that doesn’t make us feel like we should donate to some domestic abuse charity because we happened to enjoy it.

We’ll be expecting the obligatory Soulja Boy remix in 5..4..3..2..

Uncategorized bubblegum, mishon, R&B