mixtape maestro (2.0)

If the first thing we had heard from Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek’s sophomore Reflection Eternal set Revolutions Per Minute was the slightly more radio-oriented Estelle collaboration “Midnight Hour”, we might have been a tad concerned that the much-praised duo’s comeback wasn’t going to be the deliciously underground-laced and thought-provoking lyric-focused affair we had been waiting a decade for. Hearing it after RE have already kept us entertained with a recent string of excellent pre-album leaks (“Back Again”, “In This World”, “Strangers (Paranoid)” and the HOT Jay Electronica, J. Cole & Mos Def-featured “Just Begun”) though, and we can better appreciate it’s more mainstream-leaning change of pace.

Centered around a reunion between lovers following Talib being on tour for months, “Midnight Hour” has the rapper and Estelle revving eachother up for the long-delayed sex-capades about to go down once he hits the door, as Hi-Tek cooks up a bouncy beat shuffle based around perkily chopped samples of The Shirelles’ 1961 classic “Mama Said”.

“He said ‘When you get home/ Unplug the phone/ The lights is off/ You know it’s on”, Kweli teases, while Estelle edges horny-fueled implosion awaiting his return, drawing on the blissful doo-wop harmonies of girl groups past to relate her inner-anticipation: “See I’ve been going crazy thinkin’ about you late night”.

Revolutions Per Minute drops in May. Pick up the duo’s The Re:Union mixtape here.

DL: “Midnight Hour” (alt)

BONUS DL: Reflection Eternal featuring Erykah Badu “The Blast (Remix)” (alt)

Radiating a neon glow even before one’s pupils is set on it’s vibrantly-colored video clip, Idle Warship‘s “Bedroom Lites”, a highlight from their new mixtape Party Robot and the first single from their forthcoming debut album, sees the undie-supergroup aligning themselves with modern music’s over-obsession with everything ’80′s as they utilize a boxy, synth-lit electro strut to support a tale of two friends lusting after eachother in the late-night.

Res and Graph Nobel breathlessly purr their way across the tense erotic throb of “Bedroom”‘s Eurthymics/ Paisley Park-ian soundscape, convincing in their shared role of a woman on the verge of implosion as she anticipates the rings of a booty call (“The lion’s outside of the cage/ And, oh boy, I need petting, dear”; “My head is on a pillow/ And it’s getting lonely in my habitat”); Meanwhile, on the other side of town, an equally horny Talib is torn over whether or not he should even phone (“I don’t want my interest to be taken for a sex fetish”).

Will the hook-up ever happen? Despite all the heated panting on display throughout, it sounds like it won’t; but that’s okay, the chorus’ semi-somber resignation of “Turn off the bedroom lights/ I guess I’ll be alone tonight” nodding towards an “it’s probably all for the better” resolution while simultaneously indicating that some “solo” fun will have to be had as a substitute.

Grab the rest of Party Robot here.

DL: “Bedroom Lites” (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.

The never-ending reports concerning our current nightmare of an economy got you down this holiday season? Well, here’s something that might lift those spirits a bit. After spending most of the year watering the mouths of music fans with a handful of individual cuts and accompanying live dates, Idle Warship, the alt-urban side-project featuring Talib Kweli, Res and, now, Canadian singer/ rapper Graph Nobel, have plans to drop a mixtape set sometime soon.

The first taste off that project is “Steady”, a “fame isn’t all it’s cracked up to be” cautionary built on a Paisley Park hand-clap shuffle and the still-spine-tingling synth-paranoia of 80′s New Wave staple “Sunglasses At Night”. Pulling back the curtains behind the paparazzo flashes and big buck bank accounts, Idle reveal a far less glitzy wasteland filled with the trampled-on and soul-sapped. “I didn’t know the game/ I just knew I could play/ You build me up like a team/ I represented the dream,” Res reflects on her naive industry beginnings, but after veering thisclose to losing herself while in dogged pursuit of the glamorous life, she quickly revamps her life plan: “I got to fight for my name/…No more doin’ what you say”.

In addition, there’s the haunting distant cries of “Murder”, a half-singing Talib inquiring “Is it the sex or the drugs?/ Which poison you choose?” and Graph running down a mocking list of random celeb-isms while shouting out her crew and declaring, “Yeah I said it, I’m avant-garde!!”.

Another stand-out creation from this increasingly on-fire trio.

DL: “Steady” (alt)

Peep the video for Idle’s ultra-sexy “Black Snake Moan” below:

Idle Warship “Black Snake Moan” from The ICU on Vimeo.