mixtape maestro (2.0)

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)

Drake and Nicki Minaj’s MVP mic turns and Lloyd’s candy-sweet hook on “BedRock” may provide some pleasant vocal accompaniment, but anyone with ears knows that the true star of the current Young Money smash is producer Kane Beatz.

His earworm-y, Playskool keyboard tinkerings is one of those beats that every rapper alive instantly wishes they could have had first (and one that, unfortunately, every unknown emcee and/ or singer alive looking for that big break will swipe for their bedroom-set YouTube “freestyles covers” for months come).

Of those handled by more…erm, established figures, we direct your attention to our two favorites so far: the around Christmas-leaked one from Wale (who we, somewhat sadly, enjoy a thousand-times more when he’s pushing something non-official album-associated) and a disappointingly brief turn at the bat from Twista, who, after oddly kicking things off with a “regular rap” style, makes the world right again with a quick re-adjustment to his signature, Speedy Gonzalez-like flow half-way through, landing in perfect tandem with the rapid pace of Beatz’ instrumental.

DL: Wale “BedRock (Freestyle)” (alt)

DL: Twista “BedRock (Freestyle)” (alt)

Twista speed-rhyming verses about the nastiest thing he could do to a lady isn’t anyhing new (from a distant perspective, it seems to be the main lyrical focus of about 90% of his output), but like his previous no-brainer smashes “Slow Jamz” and “Overnight Celebrity”, recent leak “I Can Make You Say” is mostly a keeper for the going-ons that surround his still ridiculous, uzi-fire flow.

In this case, a delectably chopped sampling of Prince’s 1981 late-night bedroom jam “Do Me Baby” which reduces His Purple Majesty to a loop of orgasmic falsetto yelps, the empty spaces between the diced-up groove filled in with Cali producer Doc Savage‘s somersault-like percussion tricks.

Too bad it won’t become the major hit it feels destined to be with Prince not being in the mood to officially clear the sample. Damn you and your fun-stifling ways, Mr. “Purple Rain”.

Hear the track below, than peep the video for Twista’s latest, official single “Wetter” (from the forthcoming Category F5 album) afterward. It’s nice and all (and, unsurprisingly, another sensual one), but definitely less interesting than the Prince-affiliated number.

DL: “I Can Make You Say” (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)

The sad aspect to Twista’s last album failing to make much of a commercial presence was that fewer people became acquainted with the lush album highlight “Lavish”, a collaboration between the speedy-tongued emcee and Pharrell/ Neptunes. The track sounded like heaven’s golden gates were opening, Twista and Skateboard P’s uzi-fire back-and-forth banter wrapped in a gorgeous blanket of cloud-soft pianos and synths. The two made for a great team, but the starry-eyed track never saw the light as an official single. Thankfully, they make up for that loss by hooking up for the stimulating first single off of the Chicago rapper’s newest album, Adrenaline Rush 2007.

As the Neptunes have taken a recent backseat to Swizz Beats and Timbaland as the season’s go-to-hitmaker (maybe because Pharrell’s ego was hurt after the dismal reaction to his heavily-hyped solo album, In My Mind), it’s given listeners time to miss their alt-minded, nimble blending of live instruments and computer-based constructions. Compiling signifiers of Chad and Pharrell’s classic catalogue, “Give It Up” takes the tribal bit from Nelly’s “Flap Your Wings”, the vibe of Mystikal’s “Shake Ya Ass” and tosses in some Kaleidoscope-era Atari key accents. Together, it makes this the latest urban cut to worship the percussive-heavy spunk of go-go, a genre that retains enough energy to keep up with Twista’s accelerated delivery.

The Dynamic Duo waste the lively track on trite multi-racial booty hooks (“Black girls wanna give it up/ White girls wanna give it up/ Spanish girls wanna give it up”), but the beat is so inviting and Twista makes nasty talk sound so good, that such eye-rolling subject matter can be forgiven.

Download: “Give It Up” (Amazon)