mixtape maestro (2.0)

Following weeks of heavy blog/ Twitter buzz in anticipation of his newest mixtape I Want You, Brooklyn rapper/ singer Theophilus London has further solidified his promise of being the next hipster hip hop sensation to likely break big (a la Kid Cudi and B.o.B) with the unleashing of the doper-than-dope full project on Thursday.

In line with previous heralded collections JAM! and This Charming Mixtape (the latter of which housed one of our favorite overall cuts from 2009, an infectious electro-rap re-haul of Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You”), I Want You‘s display of slick, non-gangsta rhymes atop blog-baiting samples (musical references here include Ellie Goulding, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Tweet, Discovery and Vampire Weekend) offers an endlessly fascinating (and quite groovalicious) ride that should easily keep people satisfied well into next year.

Grab the entire set here (if only so you can boast of being a fan before London was enjoying multiple entries on the Hot 100, a future that seems to be a given), or simply check out some of our highlights below: the “Giving Up The Gun”-bootleg “Give It Up Dad” and the new wave-ish delight “Sorry To Interrupt”.

DL: “Give It Up Dad” (alt)

DL: “Sorry To Interrupt” (alt)

There are plenty of excitingly strange going-ons throughout Brooklyn alt-hip hop-ster Theophilus London‘s amazing new set, This Charming Mixtape (download it for FREE here). The way he is able to jump from trance-soul to drum n bass to street-centric hip hop to rock-rap spaz-outs and damn near effortlessly succeed in all of them; the way he plays fan-boy to certain records like “Ain’t No Sunshine” or Lauryn Hill’s beloved cover of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You”, letting huge chunks of them play out before sprinkling them with a bit of his personal flavor; the very random outro that finds him shower singing along to the “O Happy Day” performance from Sister Act 2.

But perhaps the mixtape’s most stupefying moment arrives with “Always Love You”, a cut based on Whitney Houston’s syllable-stretching diva staple “I Will Always Love You”. After opening with a screwed-voiced London answering back Whit’s a capella goodbye (“Get yer ass outta here,” he growls), a choppy dance beat drops, slicing-and-dicing Houston’s endless hook as Theo stutters his way through a bitter kiss-off (“No I ain’t staying with you/ I ain’t playing with you/ Six feet under homie/ See where the playing get you?”).

A genius re-take on a song we thought we never wanted to hear from again, it’s entry alone gets London Mixtape Maestro’s vote as one artist everybody needs to get familiar with.

DL: “Always Love You” (alt)