mixtape maestro (2.0)

If the releases of official lead singles “Over” and “Find Your Love” and the seemingly endless stream of leaks that littered the Web in the weeks after taught us anything about Drake‘s Thank Me Later, it was mostly that the Canadian rapper’s much-anticipated debut wasn’t going be the instantaneously-heralded classic many had prematurely hyped it to being. If anything, it felt more and more like Later was going to be a grower, one of those albums whose true greatness wouldn’t be uncovered until one had had the chance to sit with it for awhile.

Following the “Internet premiere” of TML in it’s entirety last week (fourteen days ahead of schedule), we can now see that we were correct in our assumption, because on first listen, the album doesn’t register as anything all that special.

Chalk that initial reaction up to the album’s overall sonic dreariness. A little too over-reliant on darkly-textured soundscapes and drowsy R&B hooks and verses, even the set’s attempt at “bangers” are handicapped by an adherence to such moody detailing.

Continue to give Later spin love however (and recall that Drake’s breakthrough mixtape So Far Gone followed a similar nocturnal vibe), and it eventually becomes easier to appreciate what’s actually a solid set, impressive in it’s avoidance of typical modern rap LP hodge-podge manufacturing for a focus on cohesiveness, where all the songs follow a singular musical style and concept (strikingly intimate, diary-like accounts of the celebratory highs and heart-bruising lows of life post-fame), and the featured guest stars and producers compliment rather than steal attention away from the overall theme.

Of Later‘s many highlights that are not singles, we recommend the chilled knocker “Unforgettable”, which gets grand assists from an Aaliyah vocal snippet (via her cover of The Isley Brothers’ “At Your Best”) and Young Jeezy’s always welcome, floating-in-mid-air rap flow magic (special shouts to that “His and her firearms” line), and “Fancy”, which features Drake and T.I. throwing props at independent women (“Well aren’t you a breath of fresh air/
From all these superficial gold digging bitches in here…”) atop a hypnotically swirly, Swizz Beatz soul sample beat.

Check out the tracks below (along with a couple recent Drake remixes), and try to peel the money out of your wallet on June 15th to cop the album. Promises, while you may not immediately take to the album, odds are you’ll end up doing exactly like the man says and thanking Drake later for crafting such a strong set.

“Unforgettable”:

“Fancy”:

BONUS DL: “Find Your Love (Rosco’s Outstanding Bounce Mix)” (alt) (shouts)

BONUS DL: “Art of Over (Thriller Phil Remix)” (alt) (shouts)

After satisfying the trap-folk with his blistering street single comeback “I’m Back”, T.I. shows that he hasn’t turned his back on his other main audience (the ladies) with “Got Your Back”, a Keri Hilson-assisted mashing-up of “Whatever You Like”‘s thug-romantic theme and “What You Know”‘s sleek widescreen grandeur (producer DJ Toomp helmed both) that finds Tip expressing gratitude for those women who don’t get ghost when their men end up locked up (“They stayed home/ Waitin’ on the phone/ And on visit day/ Show up lookin’ good/ Smellin’ better, playin’ kissy-face”).

That he holds off on giving us the shower-crooning flow until the third verse (you know, that same sing-songy vocal imprint that made “Whatever” both instantly catchy and then, after what felt like five billion radio re-spins in a couple months span, extremely irritating) is very appreciated.

King Uncaged, T.I.’s seventh studio effort, drops August 17th.

DL: “Got Your Back” (alt)

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)

An unreleased/ un-mixed cut from some previous album era, this T.I./ Fergie/ Will.i.am collaboration isn’t as atrocious as you would think a song merging the three artists would be (read: with a little polish, we could actually see it being a Top 40 summer heater, a la “Whatever You Like”), but beyond Tip committing some fairly solid verses in line with the track’s groupie love concept and Will’s production work making nod-worthy use of what sounds to be a “Genius of Love” sample, “Down Like That” is never able to really shake it’s all-around meh-ness.

We wouldn’t necessarily mind some other rapper (who we aren’t expecting some super-amazing, post-prison street poetry from) tackling it though.

DL: “Down Like That” (alt)

“Like a G I hold it down for the town I’m AT/ And I flash like THAT/ Recognize I’M BACK!,” sneers T.I. on the hook to newly unleashed comeback banger “I’m Back”; if news of the Southern rap kingpin nearing the end of his year-long sentence didn’t necessarily hit you with excitement concerning his return, those punctuated peaks at the end of each of those lines definitely do the trick.

Here, as the Trackslayers production team excellently surround him with the kind of epic-sized, Southern hip hop trunk-rattler he’s crushed with so many times before, T.I. spews breathless rounds of annoyance and ire aimed at those he felt did a sucky job holding down the fort in his absence. “Tight jeans, funny haircuts, dancing on the screen/ It’s a drought of real niggas in the game so it seems,” he spits with such heat you could almost feel the saliva spraying from his mouth against your ears.

For those that thought that Lil’ Wayne’s trip into the clink would hurt the Third Coast rap scene in 2010, you needn’t at all worry any longer. The King is back, and from the sounds of things, more than ready to make up for the time he’s lost.

For all you other jailed rappers wondering how to truly mark your re-emergence into the game upon your release, this is how you stage a return to make the crowd go nuts.

DL: “I’m Back” (alt)

“Live Your Life”‘s lyrical encouragement to not let all the negativity cramp your style was nice and all, but let’s not be foolish. The main source of this record’s appeal had little to do with T.I.’s positive spewings and all to do with Rihanna’s ice queen warbles, the larger-than-life pop production and that damn “Dragostea din tei” sample.

So with that being said, it’s not all that surprising that with a lacking of all those aforementioned elements, garage-pop-ster Just Jack‘s recent Live Lounge acoustic cover of the tune falls a bit flat (or maybe it’s simply because his consonant-omitting accent just feels totally awkward in place of T.I.’s fluid flow).

Psst…anybody else feel a need to hear some Steve Miller Band’s “The Joker” now after those guitar bits…or is that just us?

DL: “Live Your Life (TI Cover)” (alt)

You know you’re one of the hip hop world’s top dogs when everyone is scrambling to remake or reconfigure your records while they’ll still dominating the airwaves. Below, check out a couple recent instances of artists putting their own unique spin on T.I.’s 2008 double-dose of smash, “Whatever You Like” and “Live Your Life”:

-First up, head on over to Paste Magazine and peep California singer-songwriter Anya Marina serving an acoustic rendition of “Whatever You Like” that makes the over-played bouncer sound fresh again.

Reincarnating T.I.’s sing-song flow with her delicate coo and low register moans, the straight-forward cover (she retains it’s male perspective) is all kinds of cute, making us wish that she could do an entire album’s worth of these Lilith Fair-ian-styled rap remakes (until then, check out her non-T.I.-associated, yet still fine, tunes on her latest album, Slow & Steady Seduction: Phase II).

-Next up we have R&B-pop newcomer Mateo, whose recent mixtape release Underneath The Sky crafts engaging romance tales over beats both new and familiar (808s and Heartbreak is swiped from twice). Of the five cuts featured, the track making the most noise around the blogosphere is “Get Out Of My Mind”, which sees him divulging the difficulty of getting over an ex atop the instrumental to T.I.’s “Live Your Life”.

“Stay out my door/ And I’ll be just fine,” he asserts to his own lingering memory of the former lover. But that’s easier said than done, especially since he’s unable to even shake off the imagined scent of her perfume, much less the heart pangs he still suffers for her.

Download the rest of Sky here and become acquainted with even more excellent displays of Mateo’s dreamy pipes and vivid pen game (Mixtape Maestro’s favorite, the mesmerizing love ballad “Oooh N Love”, quickly positions this cat as one threat Ne-Yo should really be watching out for).

DL: “Get Out of My Mind/ ‘Live Your Life’ Freestyle” (alt)

T.I. and Ri-Ri’s “Live Your Life” might not have yet reached that point where if you hear it again you’ll shoot yourself in the head, but it’s coming dangerously close. Enter Dallas Austin, who thanks to this beefier remix of the chart-topper, pushes that imminent moment a little further in the future.

With heavy drums and blaring synths, this “turn it up to 11″ take pushes “Life” to stadium-size proportions (which, honestly, is only slightly bigger than every other T.I. single).

DL: “Live Your Life” (alt)

In which Jones “swagger”-jacks TI (who had, in turn, “swagger”-jacked M.I.A., who had ultimately swagger-jacked The Clash) all for the sole purpose of re-polishing his tireless complaint against the swag-lite emcee, especially ones who blasphemously mix Gucci belts and Louis Vuitton scarves (Jay, how dare you!!!).

But it’s Jim who clearly needs to be stopped after hearing this inferior take on Tip’s star-studded posse cut. Beyond a mildly appreciable re-manufactured beat (Bye-bye, bouncy shuffle; Hello, ominous street grind) and a typically killer (albeit a bid misplaced) Twista sixteen, “Swagger From Us” offers little justification as to why we should want to hear that sole M.I.A. line looped three hundred more times:

-Original “SLU” feature Lil’ Wayne pops up again here for the jump-off verse (what is he, like some hip hop double agent?) which, while thankfully doing away with his painful Auto-Tune obsession, ends up being another file in his increasingly bulging “fine, but needless, cameo” folder.

-Jones might kick off his portion with a quasi-SNAP!-worthy schoolyard sniff (“I don’t know what corner they from/ We from them corners that do it/ On my corners we make swag/ And we sell it to y’all…”); but, alas, it still holds that he doesn’t hail from the corners that teaches cats how to rap good.

-Then, there’s the much-talked about Byrdgang/ Dipset signee NOE, a quite promising Baltimore up-and-comer who delivers some good lyrical stuff here, yet remains hampered by the hard-to-ignore fact that he SOUNDS JUST LIKE JAY!! That unfortunate aspect of his mic presence takes even more wind out of Jones’ “SFU” sail, as it only re-presents the question of who’s actually swag-jacking who here?

Some advice for Jim? Give up this losing battle once and for all and stick to focusing on something that’s actually working in your favor.

DL: “Swagger From Us” (alt)

From the moment T.I.’s “Whatever You Like” first laid on ears, it was clear that it was going to be one of those records to get an overwhelming amount of mainstream radio spins (and thus become highly annoying in rapid time). Taking the widescreen sonic palette of previous Tip singles and pushing it to bubblegum pop-rap heights, the sing-song ditty landed as a sort of sister-like entry to Weezy’s “Lollipop” (especially with both being helmed by producer Jim Jonsin).

Re-tooling it’s cool, molasses pace for easier club floor accessibility, dance beatsmith Alan Astor underlines it with a quicker thrust while bedazzling it with even more synth layers and a celebratory mood, perfectly prepositioning the tune to become a no-brainer, strike-of-midnight New Years Day DJ staple.

DL: “Whatever You Like (Alan Astor Remix)” (YFH)