mixtape maestro (2.0)

For a guy that’s ruled the R&B scene in the eyes of plenty music crits the last couple of years, it was mighty disappointing that The-Dream chose to lead off his highly anticipated third album Love King with that very limp and been-there-heard-that title track/ first single. Thankfully, a handful of recently unleashed early leakages (including that hot, Luda-laced “Love King (Remix)”) have reassured us that King still has the potential of being another solid release from the singer-songwriter-producer.

Our favorite of the bunch for the moment? The T.I.-featured “Make-Up Bag”, which, following the lame “I got hoes in different area codes” theme of “King”, reminds one of how great(ly hilarious) Dream’s pen game can be when he’s really trying.

Bypass the main hook, a silly how-to lesson enlightening his fellow men on the best way to win an angry woman over (“If you ever make her mad/…Drop five stacks on that make-up bag”), and focus in on the drama excellently brought forth in the verses, which follow Dream stumbling home at two in the morning ready to get it on with his main lady after a night of “Patron-in”, only to instead get the hand and the boot because his clothes are marked with some other woman’s foundation and perfume.

Extra points for all the small details he peppers within the scenario, from the “Chanel No. 5″ shout-out and dig at Beyonce’s “Irreplaceable” (“She packin’ all of my shit/ Putting it all on the left”) to his hilarious need to inform the listener that the entire time the woman is flipping out, she’s clothed in nothing but panties.

Love King arrives June 22nd, but prior to that, look for Dream to drop the album-teasing mixtape Love Sessions, which features a curiously straight-forward cover of Aaliyah’s 1996 hit “One In A Million”.

DL: “Make Up Bag” (alt)

BONUS DL: “One In A Million (Aaliyah Cover)” (alt)

For those wondering if Drake‘s highly-anticpated Thank Me Later would feature more of the sleepy, slow jam balladry that presided on much of last year’s So Far Gone, your concerns have been answered with the recent leaking of the may-or-may-not-be-finalized-yet “Shut It Down”, a duet with The-Dream that plants central focus on the Canadian sensation’s crooning efforts.

More or less a repeat dosage of the nocturnal mood-setting vibe captured in Gone‘s “Houstatlantavegas” (no coincidence, producer Noah “40″ Shebib helmed both), “Shut It Down” could damn near light scented candles all by itself with it’s seducing, Prince-indebted drum machine & keyboard-dominant crawl framing Drake’s admiration of a working student’s pretty looks. “Say baby, I had to mention/ That if you were a star you’d be the one I’m searchin for/ Other girls, they got attention/ But I just always feel there in need of something you got,” he praises in that sorrowful singing voice of his, before later bringing up hope that the beauty in tribute will use the song to soundtrack her “getting ready to go out” routine (where she can “work it kinda vicious like somebody’s taking pictures” in front of a mirror’s reflection).

It’s easy to envision plenty of women doing just that and giving this a spin while they try on their “fuckin’” heels and dresses, but damn if we’re also not quickly reminded how drab Drake can get when he’s not breaking up his boudoir grooves with a slick rap verse or two. It’s not until halfway-through, when the ’80′s-inspired production temporarily switches to some plaintive piano backing and Dream’s familiar chirp pops up, instantly stealing the show with coos for the girl to “shut that mother fucker down”, that the record starts to really get interesting, but hell, by then it’s basically a Dream featuring Drake entity, leaving us wishing that the “Radio Killa” could have simply kept the track for his own forthcoming album.

A decent enough cut, but if this is indeed Thank Me Later‘s first official single (and not, as previously thought, the recently unleashed [and comparably stronger] “Over”), we pray that the version being heard here is NOT the final take, because it’s in desperate need for at least one fierce sixteen from the man to perk it up some.

Hear the cut below, followed by a bonus offering of one of the hotter remixes of “Over” we’ve come across (via).

DL: “Shut It Down” (alt)

Bonus DL: “Over (Astronote Remix)” (alt)

If Mariah had really wanted to boost sales and some chart longevity from the mostly public-ignored Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel (rather than quickly move on to it’s guest-laden, all-remixes sequel Angels Advocate), she would have been smart to unleash set highlight “Ribbon” as an official single: it’s seducing, slow-motion flow and chopped-n-screwed hook saw Carey and co-album collaborators The-Dream and Chris “Tricky” Stewart at the peak of their combined powers, and felt like a serious R&B smash waiting to happen.

Alas, she didn’t…but all is not lost, as the diva has only upgraded the track’s future hit potential greatly under this new Advocate revision.

It’s addictive hook sadly doesn’t make it’s first appearance until the track is half-way done, but it’s hard to fuss about that too much when the remix’ front-end is loaded with great turns at the mic from Ludacris (who, curiously, makes much more of an impact littering uzi-fire rhymes and animated vocal tricks atop “Ribbon”‘s crawling midnight groove, than he does on his own oh-so-paint-by-numbers recent material) and Dream (who, as on “My Love” and the “Touch My Body (Remix)”, continues to prove to be one of Carey’s better duet partners [especially on the fade-out here], despite the huge gap in vocal ranges between the two).

Angels Advocate arrives, exclusively through Target & iTunes, March 30th.

DL: “Ribbon (Remix)” (alt)

Oh look, it’s in-box cleaning out time again.

Wale & Just Jack “Embers/ Good Girls (Phillip Martell Mash-Up Remix)”

For it’s first two-thirds, this mash-up concoction by ATL DJ Phillip Martell emerges quite effective in it’s enchanting blend of the acapella from Wale’s 2007 track “Good Girls” with a hyper-speed orchestral loop and sampled vocal snippets swiped from Just Jack’s ’09 UK hit “Embers”, but it’s in it’s final minute-and-a-half when the project truly blooms, thanks to Martell completely doing away with the JJ instrumental for a killer assault of electro-house pomp.

DL: “Embers/ Good Girls (Phillip Martell Mash-Up Remix)” (alt)

Aaliyah “One In A Million (Belief Remix)”

The third installment in L.A.-based producer Belief‘s on-going Aaliyah remix project
finds him taking on the late singer’s 1996 classic “One In A Million”, and while nothing could really come close to topping the way-ahead-of-it’s-time Y3K sonics Timbaland cooked up for the original, we’re digging the languid, neo-soul-ish incense vibe Belief brings here.

DL: “One In A Million (Belief Remix)” (alt)

Private “My Secret Lover”

First things first: Thomas Troelson, the main producer and lead singer dude of this Dutch dance-pop trio, looks a little bit freaky.

Once you get past his physical creepiness, though, you’ll likely be swept away by the pure ’80′s pop infectiousness on display in this single, an irresistible sugar packet of helium-voice mackadelics (“Girl take off your dress/ Let’s make this place a mess!!”), warped old-school B-boy-isms and glossy bubblegum-funk carved from the guilty pleasure-filled catalogue of Wham!.

DL: “My Secret Lover” (alt)

Tayma Loren featuring The-Dream “Tipsy”

This Detroit-born R&B newcomer‘s real-life brother Carlos “Los Da Mystro” McKinney has co-helmed some of the best The-Dream jams (“Shawty Is A 10″, “Rockin’ That Thing”, “Walkin On The Moon”, “My Love”), as well as hits for Usher (“Trading Places”), Trey Songz (“I Invented Sex”) and J. Holiday (“Bed”), so it’s only right that he would hook up his sister with a joint that’s just as smash-worthy.

Tayma’s debut single “Tipsy” oozes that signature Dream/ Mystro radio magic, from it’s light and lazy piano bounce to the quirky, echo vocal mini-hooks speckled throughout it. It’s most entertaining factor, however, lies in the humorous honesty of it lyrics’, which detail how a drunken, post-nightclub one night stand usually ends up being a regrettable moment in one’s life rather than the mind-blowing sexcapades event most R&B acts blow it up to be (“When you wake up/ It’s all fucked up”).

DL: “Tipsy” (alt)

Coming off what many considered 2009′s top R&B release (Love Vs. Money), it’s hard not to be left a little underwhelmed by “Love King”, the first single and title track to The-Dream‘s next (and possibly last) album.

Built atop a floaty, snap-laden midtempo groove perked with candied piano plinks and punctuating “Ey”‘s, the song is nothing more than a cut-and-paste patchwork of the singer/ songwriter/ producer/ “ey”-er’s usual bag o’ musical quirks, this time tied together by a thin concept (The-Dream has tons and tons of chicks at his beck and call) that’s in dire need of much stronger goofball lyricism than “Got girls with weaves/…Girls without it” and “Got girls on my Sprint/ My AT&T/ Got girls on T-Mobile/ Metro if it’s local”.

Yeah, it’s “Shawty Is The Shit”-meets-”Rockin’ That Thing” soundbed is perfect riding-to material, but if The-Dream really wants to finally nab some Grammy nods this time around (we, the people, can only endure so many Twitter rants), he’s going to have to conclude his solo album trilogy on the high note it demands with far better offerings than watered-down regurgitations from the same stylistic template.

Love King drops in May.

DL: “Love King” (alt)

If it’s any consolation though Dream, we’re definitely digging you’re rap verse on this all-star “How Low (Remix)”:

BONUS DL: Ludacris featuring Rick Ross, Twista, The-Dream, Ciara & Pitbull “How Low (Remix)” (alt)

Last May, we took notice of New York duo Telephoned and their awesome “postmodern takes” on rap hits from Soulja Boy and T-Pain, and drooled over their promise that more of these reinterpretations were to come.

Well, quite some time later, Maggie Horn and Sammy Bananas have finally fulfilled on that promise with this newest entry, a semi-cover of The-Dream’s woozy club jam “Rockin’ That Thang” that finds Horn cooing bite-sized lyrical snippets of the original atop a blissed out disco-house club soundbed.

Good stuff, even if we’re a lil’ bit disappointed Maggie couldn’t have blessed us with at least one go at the track’s “We beat it up like gorillas” line.

Telephoned’s self-titled debut EP arrives January 19th on Fool’s Gold.

DL: “Rockin’ That Thang (The-Dream Cover)” (alt)

Kinda frightening to think what the rap landscape will be like once Wayne has to spend his year in prison, innit?

Even at his most irritating ubiquitous, the man has the power to heighten hip hop-themed conversation unlike very few others, with whatever new song, remix, freestyle to emerge from him destined to light up the blogosphere commentary world with record speed no matter how great or meh said product is.

Knowing Weezy though, he’ll make sure the twelve month sentence will fly by without folks getting the chance to miss him too much, as he’s probably in the lab right this moment cooking up enough freestyle dishes to ensure one new lyrical treat premieres each of the three hundred and sixty-five days. Alongside “official” joints set for planned near-future releases both solo (the long pushed-back rap/ rock question mark Rebirth, The Carter IV) and label related (Young Money Fam; solo debuts from Mack Maine and Nikki Minaj), Wayne will likely remain just as omnipresent as he has been the past few years.

But to steer focus back to what this post was really supposed to be about…Wayne’s newest mixtape, No Ceilings, has hit the Webs (four days earlier than expected), and for all those longing to hear the Young Money king slather some of the hottest hip hop beats of 2009 (from Jay’s “Run This Town” to Gucci Mane’s “Wasted” to, er, the Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling”) with his typically WTF vocabulary (you could make a drinking game out of the many creative ways he spins an “I’m the shit” boast or cleverly embeds an athlete’s name into a line)…think of this as an early Christmas present.

Catch some of our favorites below, including “Break Up”, a collaboration with Short Dawg and Gudda Gudda over the beat behind Mario’s current smash (and oh how much better that circular Bangladesh-produced loop sounds when it’s not being awkwardly used to support a R&B track), and “Throw It In The Bag”, which sees Wayne narrating the pleasures of lavish life-aided rap sex-mance (“Fuckin’ on Versace/ Napping on satin/ I love to hit it backwards, Call it Pig Latin…”) atop the seducingly hypnotic instrumental of Fabolous’ Dream-sampling “Bag” remix.

(Or you could simply save a bunch of time by downloading the entire [more often-than-not awesome mixtape] from Nahright.)

DL: “Break Up” (alt)

DL: “Throw It In The Bag (Remix)” (alt)

If any other rapper touched the mic with some nonsense like “I beat it up like Harpo”, it would likely register as an instant FAIL. Have those same six words delivered via the slippery flow of Snoop though, and the cornball line magically ranks as yet another one of Mr. Dogg’s genius, casually tossed-off poetics.

Beyond that lyrical niblet and a brief shout-out to True Blood (making the HBO vamp soap that much cooler), not much else in Snoop’s verbal contribution to “Gangsta Luv” (the first single off his December-due tenth LP, Malice N Wonderland) really merits a double take, but don’t let that dissuade you: just hearing the man’s familiar drawl supported here by the summer-toned breeziness of Tricky Stewart’s synth-stabbed and bongo-accented production and a decent, if a bit paint-by-numbers, hook from The-Dream is all that’s needed to make this sorta-“Beautiful”-rewrite a welcome addition to the MP3 player library and easy fall-season radio success.

Mariah’s twelfth album, the recently leaked Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, may house much of the twinkly keyboards, echoed syllable hooks and silly lyrical turns that have lingered in her previous work with dominant Angel songwriting/ production team Chris “Tricky” Stewart and Terius “The-Dream” Nash (not to mention, the stuff they’ve crafted for themselves and others), but having those quirks on hand don’t at all prevent this collection from ranking as one of her most maturest albums to date.

Having little interest in the sample-based, cookie-cutter R&B-pop thrills of her past, Angel looms heavy with a mostly mid-tempo tracklisting that more often than not finds her dwelling in the depression of post-break-up heartache or selling a sassy kiss-off to a no-good boyfriend. Even the small number of relatively upbeat, “happy” numbers carry a denser musical tone beneath them, causing one to think that Mariah spent some time dipping back into her own catalogue, re-realized what a gem 1998′s under-appreciated Bone Thugs N Harmony collabo/ single “Breakdown” was, and then opted to record an entire album based around the track’s nocturnal-soul vibe.

If we had to pick one as an immediate favorite it would have to be mid-album cut “Ribbon”, a molasses-flowing bump & grinder that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Dream or R. Kelly album. It’s one of the few instances on the disc in which she’s celebrating love, capturing her completely lost in the charms of her lover and on the verge of a near-breakdown when she’s forced to be separated from his touch for the smallest bit of time (“It’s been about twenty good minutes since I kissed you/ Come back boo/ I miss you/ Wish I had twenty million hours to caress you/ And undress you/ To be continued…”).

It’s a puppy love sentiment we’ve heard her wax on plenty times over in the past, but here, when supported by a boudoir-ready groove and a chopped-and-screwed-styled hook that awesomely co-signs her ecstasy with demonic chants of being like a “ribbon with a bow on it”, sounding a bit more grown-up when giddy in love goes a long way.

Hear it below (you didn’t think we would have THE MAN catch us giving out a Mariah MP3 now, did you?), followed by a clip of Miss Carey-Cannon (looking all “Vision of Love”-ly) performing her surprisingly moving cover of Foreigner’s “I Want To Know What Love Is” on Oprah.

Memoirs drops September 29th.

“Ribbon”:

“I Want To Know What Love Is (Oprah Performance)”:

Despite bearing two major radio-approved names, a recession-era flashy Hype Williams-directed clip and being one of the more fizzier offerings of the summer, The-Dream and Kanye West’s futuro-disco delight “Walking On The Moon” strangely failed to really become the super smash pop hit we initially assumed it would. Hell, it couldn’t even inspire countless other rappers and singers to try to “remix” it, which, in this zip-tape-heavy day and age, marks it as a bigger “FAIL” than any modest Billboard chart peakings it claimed.

But, whatever, we still adore it, and so have nothing but praise to shower on remixers Seamus Haji and Paul Emanuel for giving the track an even stronger dancefloor bump in their ‘Club Mix’.

Stretching out “Moon”‘s length to a heavenly eight-and-a-half minute time frame and sprinkling an added treatment of decorative dance glitz to it’s already perfect production sheen, Haji and Emanuel have given us “Moon” lovers quite the End of Summer gift.

DL: “Walking On The Moon (Seamus Haji & Paul Emanuel Club Mix)” (alt)