mixtape maestro (2.0)

Don’t expect B.o.B.‘s sudden (but long deserved) placement in the upper reaches of the Billboard Hot 100 to end soon, as the Atlanta emcee seems to have another major hip-pop hit on his hands with “Airplanes”, a genre-bridging collaboration with Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams that sounds tailor-made for Top 40 over-saturation.

How ironic though, that right when Mr. Bobby Ray Simmons has finally broken into being an over-ground sensation, he would be heard here yearning for the simpler days before “the politics that we call the rap game/ And back when ain’t nobody listened to my mix tape”.

It’s likely a holdover from those days last year when rumors were running rampant of B.o.B’s early retirement, but whatever, we just can’t wait to hear what Eminem has to say on the topic when B.o.B.’s debut LP, B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray, arrives on April 27th boasting the Shady One-featured sequel “Airplanes (Part II)”.

“Airplanes”:

BONUS DL: Solange Knowles featuring B.o.B. “I Decided (Remix)” (alt)

For months, it’s been difficult to escape the hyping of alt-pop-meets-hip hop, Harvard grad duo Chester French. From the endless “ones to watch” music press/ blog shout-outs to the high-profile support of A-list hip hop figures like Kanye West and eventual label boss Pharrell Williams, we’ve been damn near brainwashed into becoming fans of these cats.

Thankfully, the bits of Chester French music we’ve actually heard (the ’60′s-washed first single, “She Loves Everybody”; that insanely catchy Common collabo, “What A World”; their surprisingly neat remix of Jay Z’s “Excuse Me Miss”) has helped in justifying all this early praise.

Hoping to build up an even stronger buzz for debut album Love The Future (while further highlighting their cool circle of friends), the team of Maxwell Drummey and D.A. Wallach recently dropped the pre-official release mixtape, Jacque Jams, Vol. 1 – Endurance, which tracks the on-the-rise trek of their previous six years through material both old and new, some amusing skits, and the “exclusive” inclusion of a self-produced Lady Gaga remix, not to mention a laundry list of cameo appearances that includes Diddy, Jadakiss, Bun B, Solange, Talib Kweli and Cassie amongst others.

Preview a couple of MM’s faves below:

It’s kind of sad that Janelle Monae still hasn’t quite set the world on fire with her brilliant sci-fi-soul sound (you NEED to pick up Metropolis The Chase Suite like right now), but nevertheless she makes for a great duet partner on the geeky puppy love ode “Nerd Girl”, a prance-y mix of Beatles vocal creaminess and ’80′s synth-pop tenderness.

“I wear tiny suits and bowties, some might call me strange,” she coos. Oh Miss Monae, that’s hardly a bad thing.

DL: “Nerd Girl” (alt)

Meanwhile, “Life In LA” details guest stars Pharrell Williams and Jermaine Dupri’s wild and crazy sexcapades with the City of Angels’ bottomless well of overly worked on, coke-sniffing Barbie Dolls atop old school rap drum clatter and space-age ambiance. Unfortunately, the good times are all over for the French boys, who’ve partied all their dough away and now must leave all the fun and sun behind.

DL: “Life In LA” (alt)

You can pick up the entire entertaining collection here; Love The Future, drops April 21st.

Mixtape Maestro isn’t ashamed to admit to being a proud sipper of the Solange Kool-Aid. Not only did she pull out one of ’08′s finest R&B releases, but with ONE single managed to singlehandedly best nearly the entire underwhelming (and under-selling) multi-solo album output of all of Destiny’s other children, not to mention previously multi-platinum (and now somewhat pointless) chanteuses like Ashanti.

But the praise has got to stop somewhere, and with Solange, she definitely hits a wall with this ill-advised cover of Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida”. As the American Idol judges famously sneer, this song is just too big for her, her humble chops hopelessly unable to match the track’s epic loom (and those needless melismastic runs she attempts to sneak in? Major no-no!).

When the only positive comment someone can say about your performance centers on the goofy choreography of your back-up dancers, you know you’ve pulled off a dud. Where’s the winning 60′s girl group motif when you need it?

Capping off at a disappointing #44 on the R&B singles chart (and failing to even land on the pop listings), Solange’s “I Decided”, a 2008 highlight that provided the young singer’s best chance of finally moving out from up under her big sis’ ever-looming shadow, deserved much better. Thankfully, she hasn’t completely given up on making sure it reaches as many audiences as possible.

Following the still-solid original form and it’s sequel, a bombastic Freemasons-handled revision aimed for the UK/ club scene, a third re-working sees “I Decided” attached to a slight hip hop-like feel. But don’t fret, Solange hasn’t needlessly ventured down a “crunk & b” route. No, the track’s effervescent, Supremes-meets-Vandellas classic girl group twinkle remains; it’s just now filtered through a jazzy, horn-accented stomp you could imagine those Outkast boys (or, at least Andre 3000) freaking to and featuring a satisfyingly mindless cameo from Snoop (one of the few, if only emcees, who could rhyme “Pick your ‘fro” with “Do-si-do” and make it sound so effortlessly cool).

DL: “I Decided (G-Mix)” (alt)