mixtape maestro (2.0)

Fresh off Beyonce’s record-breaking six Grammy Award wins Sunday night (and a fiery, weave-tossing, Alanis-covering stage performance that only renewed our wishes for the diva to commit to recording an R&B-and-rock-themed album in the stylistic vein of En Vogue’s “Free Your Mind” or Janet Jackson’s “Black Cat”), Major Lazer and Elephant Man bring this cover of her Best Female Pop Vocal Performance-owning “Halo”, trading in the original lyric’s Hallmark beau praise for Elephant Man’s shower-singing growls about “haters”, “hypocrites” and “bad man”.

Yeah…we don’t get it either, though it does lead one to wondering if it means Beyonce and co-producer Ryan Tedder’s Coldplay-meets-boom-bap arrangement will become the new riddim du jour in 2010.

DL: “Halo (Beyonce Cover)” (alt)

In other Major Lazer-oriented news, someone else has taken upon themselves to give their endlessly re-tooled “Keep It Goin’ Louder” some brand new flavor. This time around, it’s those crazy Telephoned kids, chopping up and re-pasting together bits of the beloved single with re-sung elements from Whitney Houston’s “Million Dollar Bill”. Grab the results, from Telephoned’s new Off The Hook mixtape, below.

DL: Telephoned “Million Dollar Bill” (Major Lazer/ Whitney Houston Cover)” (alt)

Unfortunately for Young Money soldier/ New Orleans rapper Gudda Gudda, his hood-reppin’ Guddaville cut “Always Love You” won’t win the blue ribbon prize for Best Mixtape Use of a Chopped-Up Sample of Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” in 2009 (that honor remains with Theophilus London’s still-impressive track of the same name from a couple seasons back), but that doesn’t mean it’s not noteworthy.

Coolly weaving Houston’s over-long belt into a chill, Southern rap groove (with a brief shout out to the Dolly Parton original nicely tossed in in the opening seconds), Gudda’s “ALY” succeeds as a fine laidback jam that’s just begging for a summer season to attach itself to.

Plus, it gives us another reason to excitedly anticipate the forthcoming solo debut from Nicki Minaj, his increasingly likable rappress labelmate who steals the show here with a trip through memory lane, where she recalls her days as a young “Harajuku Barbie” sipping Italian Icees while running amuck through the concrete jungle of the “Capital Apple”.

Snatch up the cut below, as well as another Nicki-blessed treat: a No Ceilings-birthed remix to Beyonce’s “Sweet Dreams” (also featuring a somewhat needless Lil’ Wayne) in which she rocks the mic right with rewind-worthy references to Balloon Boy, Plaxico Burress and Slick Rick (and his eye-patch) all tucked into a single killer verse.

DL: “Always Love You” (alt)

DL: “Sweet Dreams (Remix)” (alt)

With early leakings “I Look To You” and “I Didn’t Know My Own Strength”, two lackluster adult-soul/ pop inspira-ballads that made Whitney Houston sound like she had never left the early ’90′s, it was beginning to look like the diva’s much-anticipated sixth studio effort I Look To You was going to be a major yawner.

What was going on? Had the multiple Grammy-winner forgotten all about the hip urban zest of 1998′s My Love Is Your Love and how, via the beat-making talents of Rodney Jerkins, Wyclef Jean, Lauryn Hill and Missy Elliott, that project had largely succeeded in pumping new life (and interest from the kids) into her career?

Thankfully someone on her team had the smarts to hire on lovebirds Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys, cause the production/ songwriting duo may have just helped saved the album from an embarrasing quick chart fade-out with their winning contribution “Million Dollar Bill”.

Undoubtedly Houston’s best offering in years, “Bill” instantly latches the ear with it’s (very un-Swizz-like) retro-tinged groove: an infectious, baked-in-sunshine nod to the feel-good sounds of ’70/ ’80′s-era R&B that damn near dares you to lace up those old roller-skates that’s been collecting dust in your closet for decades and cautiously give them a whirl around the block. That inviting groove lays the perfect foundation for the track’s future female anthem lyric, a beaming “love life post-divorce” script that begs the lady population to “say ‘oh’” and “put one hand in the air” if they’ve managed to come across a knight in shining armor that “makes you feel like a million dollar bill”.

Both fresh-sounding and age-appropriate, “Million Dollar Bill” plants Houston right where she needs to be in terms of achieving a noteworthy comeback. Hell, it’s so good that all the recent (thought not quite un-true) gab about Houston’s voice not being as strong as it once was won’t even cross the mind when immersed within it’s pleasant vibe.

Let’s just hope that when I Look To You arrives at the tail-end of this month, it will house more tracks of this refreshing ilk rather than the tired balladry goop that we were first presented with.

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)