While it feels odd having so many grown folks go nuts in anticipation of the musical output of a fifteen-year-old, heavily hyped rap tyke Diggy Simmons (son of hip hop royalty, Run DMC’s Reverend Run) does deserve some of the praise being tossed his way: his mic skills register far more impressive than many rappers five and ten years his senior, especially considering the fact that his lyrics stay age-appropriately clean-cut.
On the spacey, sludge-crunk of “Oh Yeah”, an early preview of upcoming mixtape Airborne, Dig even manages to hold his own against, and, to a certain extent, slightly steal the spotlight from, trackmate heavyweights Lupe Fiasco and (a back in rapper mode!!) Pharrell, constructing a strikingly hypnotic call-and-response hook alongside ghoulish backing titular chants before ripping through the track’s final verse in a masterful juggling of rapid-fire pacing and clever, cutting swipes aimed at those either unconvinced or just intimidated by his abilities (“If I am such an amateur/ When I come around, what you panic for?”, “I know you think Lupe’s writing right?/ No, I’m this nice/ Foolish thoughts”).
Is it bad that we’re actually looking forward to having some doofus try to challenge this kid on wax, just so we can hear them get embarrassed by a young’n?
It seems like every three months brings about some new teen rap group emerging out of whatever regional pocket of the nation to push some new fashion/ dance/ hip hop sub-genre movement for the young’un set to heavily obsess over then just as quickly forget about a season later. Right now that group is Cali Swag District, an Inglewood quartet riding the viral sensation wave with their minimalist, cowbell-laced single/ how-to “Teach Me How To Dougie”.
Naturally, with us being grown folk and all, we’re left feeling ambivalent towards CSD and their “hit”, distracted in trying to figure out how they tie in to the New Boyz or The Pack, if at all, but we will admit to appreciating how simple the “Dougie” dance is to master, especially when compared to the overly-complex physical workout that is “jerking”.
But back to why we’re even mentioning “Teach Me How To Dougie” here in the first place: it’s all-star remix, which features Jermaine Dupri (always eager to attach himself to the latest hot kiddie rap craze), Red Cafe, Bow Wow and B.o.B, who rides the beat best here with another welcome dose of his energetic flow and charismatic rhyme-play (“I hit her with that flex/ So she get impressed/ You heard what I said/ Hit her with a text/ Then she know what’s next…”).
Catch the video to the original so you can get your “Dougie” practice on, then grab the remix afterward.
On paper, having one of our top guilty pleasure jams of 2009, the Vistoso Bosses‘ unfortunate non-hit “Delirious”, be completely sapped it of it’s appealingly Crayola-hued, “Legend of Zelda”-meets-four-square wispiness for darker electro textures doesn’t seem like it would fly.
Yet, consistently impressive remixer/ producer Doctor Rosen Rosen ultimately makes this revision work, his heavy slabs of spooky synth gloom and typewriter drum machine ticks bringing a sinister heft to lines like “When you look in my eyes/ You make me delirious”, instantly transforming what was once this cutesy (and fairly harmless), teenybop crush ode into the beginnings of an exciting “Fatal Attraction”-for-the-high-school-set big screen thriller.
Damn the Hot 100, you know you’ve got a bonafide pop hit when there’s a slew of teenagers and twenty-somethings posting bedroom-set, acoustic cover versions of your song all over YouTube.
These guitar-clutching hopefuls’ latest obsession: Drake’s inescapable “Best I Ever Had” of course, and while most do a good job recreating Drizzy’s smash into a strum-a-long puppy love lullabye, our top favorite would have to be the version delivered by the young trio of Donna, Anna & Ruby. Part Beach Boys surf ballad, part late ’90′s teen pop confection (anybody else get a lil’ LFO “Summer Girls” vibe from the rap verses?), we could see this precocious cover become a hit on it’s own easily.
To quote their best (added) line: They had us “like The Roots and Erykah Ba-du” from the first guitar pluck.
Given props waaaayy back at the beginning of the year as a guilty pleasure crush we just knew was going to dominate the Spring, “Delirious”, by Atlanta teen duo Vistoso Bosses, unfortunately never really managed to catch fire beyond a few blog-world hypes. So we subsequently forgot about it…that is until they decided to bless the people with a recently unearthed new vid for the Soulja Boy-featured remix.
And while we wish they could have linked up with someone like Drake (imagine the tender melodies he could’ve lain here) rather than Mr. “Turn My Swag On”, who has the nerve here to claim to be like “Hov back in ’96″ (he wishes), we can’t help but A: admit how much this perfectly compliments Soulja Boy’s equally charming bubblegum-rap tune “Kiss Me Thru The Phone” and B: just be so highly stoked that “Delirious” actually has a second shot at smash hit-dom now, even if it is only because of the groan-worthy teen-rapper’s presence.
Raising “Kiss Me Thru The Phone”‘s bubblegum level of a couple more notches, this uni-sex remix sees seventeen-year-old R&B singer Karina Pasian (fresh from last year’s surprising Best Contemporary R&B Album Grammy nomination) more than eager to send smooches back to Soulja Boy through her cell phone screen.
“It’s crazy how I cannot be without your loving/ And when we’re far apart the distance’s got me buggin’”, she replies (probably) Tweets back, her silky, young woman pipes a perfect fit with the track’s nursery rhyme bounce. Aww, puppy love. Back then, being separated from a boy- or girlfriend really did seem like the end of the world, didn’t it?
Is it bad, though, that we wish this could have been her own solo song from the get-go, so that we wouldn’t have to admit to admiring another Soulja Boy record?
Remember back in the day when hip hop dances used to be easy to master? When you can pull out a decent Wop, Cabbage Patch or Running Man and earn an onslaught of cheers from your peers? Nowadays, you can get tired just watching the way kids pull off over-complicated steps and contort their bodies in odd, almost in-human like fashions. Not to mention the fact that it seems like every other hour, a new dance craze is being birthed from some different corner of the nation.
Out of Cali arises the jerkin’ movement, an urban youth sub-culture that seemingly (if understood by the many You Tube posts revolving around it) consists of hyphy-esque beats, skinny jeans, knee bends, backwards Running Man moves and having a “geeked up” swagger.
Helping give it a push into the mainstream’s light is “You’re A Jerk”, a corny, though slightly catchy, cut by L.A. teen-rap duo/ future one-hit-wonders New Boyz (a sort of Cool Kids for the “Rugrats” set). Unsurprisingly, the track doesn’t carry much depth, but if you desire trunk-rattling sparse minimalism, goofy horny boy braggadocio (“Got your girl on my swag/ She lovin’ them jerkin’ songs/ Like the new iPod, just touch it and turn her on”) and a silly titular hook that will surely be echoing throughout your brain for hours after the track ends (whether you want it to or not), think of it as an early Christmas present (that you’ll likely forget all about come December).
“You’re A Jerk”: pure for-the-moment hotness, or the latest sign that hip hop is on the verge of dying…again? Discuss amongst yourself.
With Lil’ Mama spending less of her days rocking the mic than she is judging dance crews and inexplicably remodeling herself as more of a generic teen-popprincess, what’s a listener craving a new-generation Roxanne Shante-meets-Missy Elliott rappress to do? How about turn their attention to Rye Rye, an 18-year-old Baltimore native with a wicked flow and a promising position as the first act signed to M.I.A’s N.E.E.T. label.
For the past two years, Rye has slowly been generating buzz thanks to collaborations with blogger-approved DJ’s Diplo, Blaqstarr and The Count & Sinden, and even spent some time touring alongside her “Paper Planes”-singing CEO.
On her latest offering “Bang”, she jumps atop a previously released Blaqstarr/ MIA mixtape cut and lets loose a fiery blast of manic rhyme furor that’s in perfect compliment to the track’s tribal-like, drum-and-chant delirium. Denouncing all the lames that can’t hang with her rapid-fire rhythm and offering a stern warning to nasty little boys with their minds in the gutter (“What?/ Don’t think so slick/ If you thinkin’ opposite/ I’m-a bang your lips”) without breaking a sweat, Rye Rye delivers a self-assured performance so full of heat, it should make a lot of these other rappers (both new to the scene and firmly established) re-think whether they even want to be involved in the rap game anymore.
Let’s just hope she won’t have to face any distracting reality show gigs or have any urges to be a Britney/ Rihanna-wannabe anytime in the near-future…
Damn you for that dumb ‘Tell’ Em’ part of your moniker! Damn you for making Mixtape Maestro spend far too long trying to figure out all the moves to “Crank That” (only to have the song be long past ‘played out’ when the routine was finally mastered)! Damn you for not just disappearing off the face of the planet like all the other brief ringtone rap successes! But most of all, damn you for coming up with something as likable as “Kiss Me Thru The Phone”.
Unfortunately it seems the term “one hit wonder” may not long apply to the 18-year-old, given that “Phone” has already cracked the Hot 100 Top Ten and has the potential to rank even higher. Why? It’s a pretty sturdy piece of teen-rap fluff that succeeds off the same infectious bubblegum bounce that fueled prior Jim Jonsin productions’ (“Lollipop”, “Whatever You Like”) rises into airplay ubiquity while allowing Soulja to inject another gibberish hook (in this case: “Da da dadadada da da dadadada da da..”) into our brains for future echoings at the random-est of moments.
SB may still be one of the most annoying entities in rap music today, but the overall playful charm of “Kiss Me Thru The Phone” (with major kudos falling on Sammie’s infectiously circuitous chorus) does a fine job at dulling the ire a tad.
No matter how old a listener might be, or what hipster-approved sub-genre mash is currently dominating the world wide web, bubblegummy confections about puppy love will never fall out of style, especially if said song is performed by actual teenagers. With that being said, our fingers are crossed that “Delirious”, the debut single from ATL girl duo Vistoso Bosses (17-year-old Taylor Parker and 16-year-old Kelci Ferguson) becomes the inescapable hit of the Spring.
Reminiscent of the INOJ, KP & Envyi and Lumidee singular entries that came before (which were mostly satisfying because you never felt a need to ever cop any one of their respective albums), “Delirious” marries a delightful hop-scotch-soundtracking mix of Legend of Zelda flutes and lightly skittering drum pitter-patter behind the familiar narrative of dodging a secret crushes’ glances so that one doesn’t melt into a pile of giddy mush.
As nice as it is to get free music, think of how much better your soul would feel if you purchased it the old-fashioned way.
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(MP3 posts are for promotional and/ or previewing purposes only; if any artist or their representation wish to have the links removed, contact me and I will happily comply!)
While it feels odd having so many grown folks go nuts in anticipation of the musical output of a fifteen-year-old, heavily hyped rap tyke Diggy Simmons (son of hip hop royalty, Run DMC’s Reverend Run) does deserve some of the praise being tossed his way: his mic skills register far more impressive than many rappers five and ten years his senior, especially considering the fact that his lyrics stay age-appropriately clean-cut.
Damn the Hot 100, you know you’ve got a bonafide pop hit when there’s a slew of teenagers and twenty-somethings posting bedroom-set, acoustic cover versions of your song all over YouTube.
Given props 
Raising 
Remember back in the day when hip hop dances used to be easy to master? When you can pull out a decent Wop, Cabbage Patch or Running Man and earn an onslaught of cheers from your peers? Nowadays, you can get tired just watching the way kids pull off over-complicated steps and contort their bodies in odd, almost in-human like fashions. Not to mention the fact that it seems like every other hour, a new dance craze is being birthed from some different corner of the nation.
With Lil’ Mama spending less of her days rocking the mic than she is judging dance crews and inexplicably remodeling herself as more of a generic 
Damn you Soulja Boy! 
No matter how old a listener might be, or what hipster-approved sub-genre mash is currently dominating the world wide web, bubblegummy confections about puppy love will never fall out of style, especially if said song is performed by actual teenagers. With that being said, our fingers are crossed that “Delirious”, the debut single from ATL girl duo
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