mixtape maestro (2.0)

Following all that ’09 Grammy night/ Chris Brown mess, it was quite understandable why Rihanna would want to publicly present herself as this non-victim by giving people the dark, edgy and violence-obsessed tough girl-posturing that dominates Rated R. However, four months after it’s initial release, very little of Rated R really lingers in the brain on the same level as previous smashes “Pon De Replay”, “SOS”, “Umbrella” or “Don’t Stop The Music”, making us wish that Rihanna would’ve found a better way to marry her sudden stab at “maturity” with the sticky pop-craft that made her such an omnipresent Billboard chart force for so many years.

In other words, we would of appreciated more entries like “Rude Boy”.

Opposed to preceding Rated R singles “Russian Roulette” and “Hard”, which both, in a way, strained too…well, hard to paint Rihanna under a serious, “I’m a grown ass woman now” light, “Rude Boy”‘s attempt at separating the singer from her mostly teenybop-oriented past registers more effective because it subtly weaves it’s “adult” tendencies in while keeping in mind the reasons the singer became a household name in the first place. So while we get wink-wink taunts of “Can you get it up?” and “Is you big enough?” alerting us to the fact that we’re not dealing with the same Rihanna of years past, we also get nods to the singer’s bubblegummy rhythmic-pop roots, whether in the clubby, island-pop production (re-triggering memories of her early career output) or the track’s use of the same echoing syllable hook gimmick that stapled “Umbrella-ella-ella-ay-ay-ay” to millions of listeners’ brains (The masses seem to agree, as, this week, “Rude Boy” became Rated R‘s first [and likely last] Hot 100 No. 1).

BONUS DL: “Rude Boy (Ted Smooth Remix)” (alt)

Though it took a minute to fully swallow the seemingly bizarro reality of Degrassi: The Next Generation‘s “Jimmy Brooks” being heaped with praise as hip hop’s next great thing, after a couple months living with (and soon, obsessing over) Drake‘s mixtape So Far Gone, a 16-track collection of heart-poured, twenty-something introspection set to an amazingly versatile soundtrack that owes as much to slick Southern rap swagger and 808‘s moody digi-soul-pop as it does Hype Machine‘s popular ranking charts (cameos include blogger faves Lil’ Wayne, Lykke Li, Santigold and Peter Bjorn and John), let’s just say the Drake hype bandwagon needed to make room for one more.

This latest helping of Drake-mania sees popular So Far Gone cut “Best I Ever Had” getting a Ted Smooth twist, and while it’s beat-jacking of the naughty Akinyele classic “Put In Your Mouth” never quite fits in comfortably behind Drake’s “shawty” Valentine letter, the remix isn’t a complete throwaway, due in part to a tabloid-baiting guest appearance from Swizz Beatz.

“Wake up in the morning and my baby cooked me breakfast/ Ass naked, nothing on but a necklace,” rhymes Beatz. What’s so spectacular about that, you might ask? Fast forward a bit to when he unleashes this key line: “She gave me a party at the Guggenheim”. That’s right, he’s speaking on current boo Alicia Keys, who earned plenty of front page gossip rag coverage last year from this event (reportedly, it was the place where Alicia first publicly “out”-ed her romantic relationship with the then-still-married Swizz, all while his wife Mashonda was still under the impression that her and her hubby were going to work things out).

DL: “Best I Ever Had (Remix)” (alt)

Here’s a couple random goodies that have pierced the Maestro’s eardrums in a good way recently:

First up, the great DJ Ted Smooth gives Lady GaGa’s breakout smash “Just Dance” a nice hip hop tone, throwing in those beloved skittering drum patterns from Jay Z’s “Jigga What, Jigga Who” and a Busta Rhymes verse (“I’m back on my bullshit so much/ My bowel movement’s fucked up”) as backup to GaGa’s drunken exclamations (still love the WTF randomness of that “Where are my keys?/ I lost my phone” line).

Our lone complaint? Not enough Buss.

DL: “Just Dance (Ted Smooth Remix)” (alt)

Next, from the fingertips of DJ Fabian, comes a summer-ready blend of Jamie Foxx’ deathless “Blame It” atop the always-BBQ-friendly grooves of Arrested Development’s “Everyday People”.

Thank you Fabian, for being all too aware that you can never go wrong with a lil’ 90′s throwback vibe.

DL: “Blame It On The People (Jamie Foxx Vs. Arrested Development)” (alt)