mixtape maestro (2.0)

Despite Janet Jackson’s Discipline single (and pseudo-MJ shoutout) “Rock With U” never quite becoming the ubiquitous dance jam it deserved to be, we still couldn’t imagine ever liking the under-appreciated tune with a voice attached that wasn’t JJ’s eternally-sexy sing-whispers.

So color us surprised that after coming across co-writer Ne-Yo’s leaked demo recording, we were left wishing that he could’ve somehow stripped it onto his last LP and dropped it as a single himself.

In hearing his shimmery tenor calling out the eroticism of strobe lights over the track’s pulsing Euro-R&B throb, it’s like finally having the sibling record to “Closer” we were never officially gifted with.

DL: “Rock With U (Demo)” (alt)

Uncategorized demo, janet jackson, ne-yo, sex jam

Remember Collie Buddz? The white Bermudian had trunks rattling all across the globe waaaay back in 2007 with the release of his breakout single “Come Around”, a tokers’ anthem steeped in an old-fashioned reggae slow churn, but seemed to drop off the face of the Earth after his self-titled debut was met with less fanfare.

Well, after a few years toiling away in the more obscure corners of the mixtape scene, the singjay seems prepped for a minor comeback of sorts in 2010 with the recent unleashing of new single “Phonecall”, a Beatnick & K. Salaam-produced late-night booty call ode draped in the sensual allure of ’90’s-era slow jam R&B/ reggae.

And just as with “Come Around”, it’s “Phonecall”’s throwback-ish touch that lands as it’s greatest asset: it’s busy, albeit smoove, backing groove pleasingly triggering memories of the genre’s “Flex”/ “Mr. Lover Man” heyday as Collie croons through every steamy detail of the late-night sex session (“Said she wanna start with massage…”, “She wanna ride from side-to-side and on top…”).

Whether you smoke or not, promises you’ll be craving the comfort of a cigarette once this seductive jam has left your speakers.

DL: “Phonecall” (alt)

Uncategorized '90's, beatnik, collie buddz, k-salaam, reggae, sex jam

Seeing as though Mario’s “Break Up” spent much of the late-Summer-through-early-Winter kicking ass on urban music airwaves (coinciding with the entire length of time it took for us to finally accept it’s oddly-mashed elements as a “bonafide jam”), it’s not all that surprising that 3/4 of the single’s components (rapper Gucci Mane, singer-songwriter Sean Garrett, producer Bangladesh) would aim to recreate that chart-busting magic with the hopes of becoming hip hop/ R&B’s newest Midas Touch team.

If they continue pumping out infectious bangers like “Up In Your Heart”, a new track bearing the collaborative artistic print of the trio (from Garrett’s forthcoming second attempt at breaking out as a solo artist), such aspirations might soon become a reality.

With Bangladesh constructing another initially disorienting but ultimately addicting backing track bubbling with percussion-heavy delirium, Garrett slides through with a catchy chant of a hook: “Girl I won’t play with your head/ I wanna get up in your heart”. Which sounds sweet enough until we soon learn through his rap-sung first verse that by getting in your heart, Sean means getting so far up in you, he damn near reaches your heart: “You wonderin’ just why I like to wear a wife-beater/ Why I wear a wife beater?/ Well, uh, I like to beat her…”.

Meanwhile, Gucci coasts through a charismatic verse and a half, his flow playing hopscotch atop Bangladesh’s various drum taps as he flings out goofball one-liners at nearly every turn (“I let her shop until she drop/ And when she drop I get on top”).

A super-group in the making? It’s still too early to tell, but these three cats should keep the club floor crowded for at least another season with this one.

DL: “Up In Your Heart” (alt)

Uncategorized bangladesh, gucci mane, sean garrett, sex jam

A year after topping the Pop and R&B single charts with “Oh Shelia” (a tune so heavily smothered in The Purple One’s “Minneapolis sound”, that, to this day, many people still mistake it for being an actual Prince ditty), six-piece Flint, Michigan outfit Ready For The World managed to hit the top of the R&B lists a second time with the release of “Love You Down”, a sophomore album slow-groover about freaking up some cougar (“It never really mattered that much to me/ That you were just too damn old for me…”) that likely set the mood for plenty of prom nights in the mid-80’s.

Over twenty years later, it’s hard to deny how cheesy it all sounds now, partly because of it’s cheap-ish production quality, but mostly due to the fact of how laughable frontman Mevin Riley’s lead vocal is. Full of nasally whines, orgasmic moan-hiccups and teeth sucking noises, listening to him now makes one wonder if he could even make it five minutes into the evening without completely exploding all over himself, let alone the “all night” sex-capades he was endlessly promising.

None of that “kids pretending to be grown-up stuff” can be felt on Me’Shell Ndegéocello’s spell-binding rendition of the song, though.

Found on her latest album Devil’s Halo, Ndegéocello slightly flips the P.O.V. (it’s still directed towards a female, but here, she’s the older woman courting a younger girl), and that mature perspective can be felt all throughout her cover’s every erotic pulse, from the crashing cymbals and throbbing basslines to the languid synth squelches and Me’Shell’s hushed, “only for my lovers’ ears” vocal performance.

Hell, it’s near-two minute instrumental outro of steamy industrial soul/ rock sludge noise alone should inspire some serious boot-knocking.

“Love You Down (Me’Shell Ndegeocello)”:

Uncategorized 80's, alt-soul, cover song, grown folks R&B, me'shell ndegeocello, ready for the world, sex jam

With the return of Maxwell in 2009 giving male falsetto-led slow jam R&B it’s rightful throne-holder back, it almost feels unnecessary for Alan Thicke’s son to even be around anymore offering his comparably inferior take on the form.

Still, we’ll give Robin this: his fourth album lead single/ title track “Sex Therapy” slithers and seduces in all the right places, blending yet another retread of the steady-pulsing late-night R&B groove behind Ciara’s “Promise” (producer Polow Da Don helmed both), a brief lyrical nod to Twilight, and a hook inspired by Lesley Gore’s 1963 No. 1 “It’s My Party” (“It’s your body/ We’ll go hard if you want to/ As hard as you want to…”) with far more successful (and less hilarious) results than a merging of the three might seem on paper.

For the inevitable guest rap-laden remix, Thicke even has the smarts to employ Ludacris, who, even as he edges long-in-the-tooth rapper status, still manages to come out with goofy XXX winners like “Got the banana/ Now let me split you” that the tween-aged schoolyard set can no doubt appreciate.

Sex Therapy is in stores now.

DL: “Sex Therapy (Remix)” (alt)

Uncategorized blue-eyed soul, grown folks R&B, ludacris, remix, robin thicke, sex jam, sex-rap

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

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

Jay-Z tried, but sadly his grumpy old rapper efforts were, it seems, for naught.

As if “D.O.A” never meant anything (which, to be honest, it kinda didn’t about a nanosecond after first hearing it), T-Pain, one of the bigger faces of the “Auto-Tune” movement that’s suffocated the pop, R&B and rap music scenes in recent years, has polished off his BIG ASS CHAIN and begun his march back to ubiquity. Leaks from his forthcoming fourth album RevolveЯ have already started to surface all across the Web, but the tracks that will likely trigger more interest amongst the masses would have to be the couple of high-profile remix gigs found below that he’s smartly lined up to aid in creating buzz for his…guess you could say “comeback”.

The first re-pairs him with R&B kindred spirit of-sorts R. Kelly in a 2.0 take of what’s become Kellz biggest hit in two years, the currently chart-climbing “Number One”. And like their previous collaborations (the remixes to “Same Girl” and “I’m A Flirt”), it’s another memorable joint of the minds between the two modern soul freakazoids.

Featuring Keyshia Cole in place of Keri Hilson and dubbed a “remix for the clubs” despite the fact it bears the same slow groove tempo of the original, the song births plenty of great lyrical snippets to add to both men’s already very lengthy lists of awesomely WTF!! songwriting nuggets, from Pain’s “I’m-a put that BMI all over your ASCAP” to Kelly’s “Baby girl I guarantee once I get up in you/ I will make that pussy speak to me in Auto-Tune” making for what could best be described as robot-icized sex jam heaven!!

DL: “Number One (Remix)” (alt)

For his other remix appearance, T-Pain is inserted into a “re-configured for urban airplay” version of Shakira’s “She-Wolf” that ticks all the necessary boxes to realize it’s goal with it’s disco beat stifling, generic ‘09 hip-pop production overhaul (listening to it, you nearly expect Flo-Rida to pop up with some corny club rap banter at some point).

Unnecessary? Totally, though some slight entertainment value can be found in Mr. Pend-Her-Ass-Down’s aping of Shakira’s vocal melody. But it did get us to thinking of how cool would it have been if he had found a way to bring his boy R. Kelly in here. Having the “R” in R&B spout out some naughty verse about a fanged seductress would have really brought this revamp to the next level.

DL: “She-Wolf (T-Pain Remix)” (alt)

Uncategorized auto-tune, keyshia cole, r. kelly, remix, sex jam, shakira, t-pain

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

Making it almost a week before it’s due date, Kid Cudi’s major label debut Man On The Moon: The End of Day has officially leaked to the ‘Net, and take it from us…after one quick run-through it unquestionably legitimizes all the anticipatory hype it’s frothed forth since “Day N Nite” first began it’s slow trickle into inescapable pop smash seemingly forever ago.

Of it’s many featured highlights sure to garner much play on iPod playlists and mix CDs well into the future (and by “many” we mean damn near the entire thing!!), Moon’s “first favorite” to us (read: the first one to inspire some replay button action) would have to be the mid-album/ “Act III”-closing stunner “Enter Galactic (Love Connection Part 1)”.

“You’ve never done this before and that’s cool and all/ But I want you to try this with me,” intros Cudder here, an invitation to some babe to zoom away with him on an drugged-out erotic trip. Rocking a near-whispered conversational flow, the Kid titillates with requests “to kiss you on your space below your navel-ette, the place that you keep neat-so moist like a towelette” before urging girl to have “just one more stem” so they can keep their psychedelic sex-perience at it’s “highest” potency.

And what a trip it is thanks to beatmakers The Illphonics, an on-the-rise production duo who bring the journey to vivid life through a gently insistent electro-disco groove that’s giddily tickled with starry-eyed keyboards and so gripping in it’s comprehension of the sleek and futuristic, you could almost believe it to be a sex-jam construction that has somehow time-travelled it’s way back from the Star Trek age (and Jay thought he knew how the future would sound).

Sample the track below, but make sure to cop Man On The Moon when it truly arrives on September 15th (we know we will!!), if only cause the last thing we need is an amazing talent like Kid Cudi threatening to retire early (yet again) because the industry hasn’t figured out how to keep their product locked up tight.

DL: “Enter Galactic (Love Connection Part 1)” (alt)

Uncategorized electro-hop, kid cudi, sex jam, sex-rap, the illphonics