mixtape maestro (2.0)

If Kanye calls you out as having the potential to be the second G.O.A.T. (behind Eminem, of course), best believe when he calls upon you to bless one of his tracks, the “it” better be brought.

So with that said, it’s no surprise that Nicki Minaj would attempt to drop the best verse of her still young career on the much-talked-about Kanye & Friends posse cut joint “Monster” (from the newly announced upcoming West and Jay-Z EP, Watch The Throne); what is shocking, however, is that she would end up making the rest of her brow-raising trackmates (the song rounds together not only ‘Ye, Jigga and, in a laughably brief cameo, the BAWSE, but indie god Justin Vernon of Bon Iver is employed to play hook man) seem completely irrelevant.

Using West’s sludgy fuzz-bounce as her own personal playground, Minaj adopts like seven different voices and three different flow tempos to slice-and-dice those lesser than (“Let me get this straight/ Wait I’m the rookie?/ But my features and my shows ten times your pay?/ 50k for a verse, no album out!”) and teasingly flaunt her maybe-faux/ maybe-not bisexuality (“Besides ‘Ye, they can’t stand besides me/ I think me, you and Am should menage Friday”), in the end, bringing all kinds of truth to her early boast of “Watch the queen conquer”.

Sure, Kanye earns Runner-up Prize with his naughty-clever “sarcophagus”/ “esophagus”/ “swallow-ship” rhyme, but in her wildly animated contribution, Minaj easily steals the show, re-igniting hope that when her Pink Friday solo album does finally drop this November, it’ll feature more of this playfully raw side…

…and less of the questionable bubblegum tendencies that dominate second recent leak “Check It Out”, a will.i.am production/ duet that unnecessarily twists The Buggles’ early days of MTV hit “Video Killed The Radio Star” into a typical BEP electro-hop jam for the Top 40-loving teenybopper crowd (and will likely become one of the biggest, most inescapable, radio hits of the fall season).

Sigh, Minaj. You’re so promising, yet so frustrating.

Kanye West – Monster (feat. Rick Ross, Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj & Bon Iver)

Nicki Minaj & will.i.am – Check It Out

What does “The Gooch” (a nickname that needs to catch on) have to say about “boobies like ‘Wow, oh, wow!!’” in his newly added verse to Usher‘s inescapable summer jam “OMG”? Not anything that’ll make you say “Oh my gosh” really, but it’s fun to hear how awkward Gucci sounds trying to keep up with will.i.am’s fast-paced beat.

Mane is better appreciated on that slow flow tip, thank you very much.

Grab the song, as well as Usher’s original take on the “Somebody To Love” single he eventually handed over to his protégé Justin Bieber, below.

DL: “OMG (Remix)” (alt)

BONUS DL: Usher “Somebody To Love (Original)” (alt)

Kinda making us feel a lil’ guilty for not putting more thought into the lame card and flowers we eventually copped (well, scrambled at the last minute to get) for our Maternal Ones on Mother’s Day, long-running West Coast Rapper To Watch (and Class of 2010 XXL Freshman) Jay Rock gifted his Mom’s last weekend by paying tribute to her in song for the holiday (Okay, we’re a week late…so what).

Rocking atop a slick sampling of, what else, The Intruders’ 1973 Gamble & Huff-produced classic “I’ll Always Love My Momma”, Rock’s “Love My Momma” is a touching one, tracking the gruff-voiced rapper’s undying admiration for his mother from birth (“After the doctors, the nurses wiped me off/ Your touch so soft/ I could feel the warmth of your heart through the cloth”) and childhood (“The teachers didn’t believe in me/ My Momma said the world needed me”), all the way through to his present-day adult-hood.

Expect Rock’s long-pushed back debut Follow Me Home sometime later this year.

DL: “Love My Momma” (alt)

BONUS DL: Jay Rock featuring The Game, Gorilla Zoe, Busta Rhymes, Lil’ Wayne & Will.i.am “All My Life (Remix)” (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)

Most of the fun in Milwaukee/ Chicago rapper/ singer Gerald Walker‘s new mixtape, Evening Out With Your Girlfriend, can be had in just reading the titles (samples: “You Don’t Pay A Prostitute For Sex…You Pay A Prostitute To Leave When You’re Done”; “Your Mother Made Me Change The Name of This Song So Your Father Wouldn’t Realize Who It’s About”) or figuring out the source of his backing beat choices (production “swipes” include tracks from Matt & Kim, Arctic Monkeys and Will.I.Am), which is probably why we can’t get enough of “Half of Life Is Fucking Up…The Other Half Is Dealing With It”, a featured cut set to the tune of Amy Winehouse’s “He Can Only Hold Her”. But before you get to thinking that we’re completely losing it, know that there’s more appeal to the song beyond the entertainment value of it’s title and sample.

A charming, and occasionally witty, ditty that finds his conversational flow rested well atop Mark Ronson’s retro-hued soundbed, “Half of Life…” follows Walker coming clean to his “love ‘em and leave ‘em” ways. “They sayin’ that I’m ruthless/ I’m just addicted to the newness/ Of a chick/ So after the first couple weeks of us dating/ They all get dismissed”, he confesses at one point, elsewhere cruelly finding humor in how he leaves women feeling like “whores”, or the way they “try to block my retreats” when only a short while before they “resisted my advances”.

His heartless braggadocio is probably not a laughing matter to the long line of women he’s left confused and emotionally bruised over time, but for us, it’s definitely a hoot to listen to over and over.

Check it out below alongside what’s become our second favorite Girlfriend entry: “Get Your Money”, one of two great whole song-jackings from will.i.am’s 2007 solo flop Songs About Girls. Honestly, we don’t know where will’s voice ends and Walker’s contribution begins on it, but it’s festive celebration of strippers over a sample of M.A.N.D.Y. & Booka Shade’s 2005 Ibiza staple “Body Language” definitely gets us anxious to hit the closest strip joint armed with pocketfuls of single bills every time.

Pick up the rest of Evening Out With Your Girlfriend here.

DL: “Half of Life Is Fucking Up…The Other Half Is Dealing With It” (alt)

DL: “Get Your Money” (alt)

We have a confession to make.

For the past couple weeks-starting with our delayed appreciation for “Boom Boom Pow” and continuing with a fondness for the superb “two-for-one” deal that was “Imma Be”-we’ve slowly come to terms with the fact that we actuallly might kinda love the Black Eyed Peas. GASP! SHOCK! HORROR!

Now don’t worry, we’re not entirely insane (we totally despite their “Mazel Tov”-citing new single, “I Gotta Feeling” for being just a little too damn cheery), but we’ve got to admit that two other E.N.D. tracks that have boiled to the surface recently have got us completely enraptured by the foursome’s shameless, 80′s new wave-meets-hip-pop meshings.

On “Alive”, pinings after an old love might be delivered in the vein of a SNL teen-pop spoof (Notes Fergie: “You are my best friend and boyfriend/ Now it seems like you’re my worst friend/ I gotta do soul searching/ Without you I’m a whole different person…”), but it’s the suave dance sonics subtly bumping beneath the lyrics that ultimately win you over.

That same expert juggling of (guilty)pleasure and heartached Fergie showstealing-ness is captured on the even better “Meet Me Halfway”, an amped-up ballad which bites the soaring drive of The Killers’ “When You Were Young” in it’s epic “oh-oh-oh” melody while The Dutchess commits a solid vocal performance that hints of a newly reinvigorated interest in her old, childhood Cyndi Lauper/ Madonna records.

We’re sure that once we get a full listen to the rest of The E.N.D. and the many embarrassments it’ll no doubt provide, our current kooky infatuation with will, Ferg and the other (less important) two will subside a-plenty, but for the moment, we’re officially getting in line with the millions of other BEP fanatics around the world we used to so enjoy publicly mocking before.

The E.N.D. drops June 9th. As a bonus, peep this nice “(Not Just) Knee Deep”-sampling remix of the Peas’ ’03 single “Shut Up” (found on The E.N.D. Deluxe Edition) below:

DL: “Shut The Phunk Up” (alt)

Sometimes, when discussing Black Eyed Peas shameless inanity, the top-notch production and songmaking talents of head Pea will.i.am can be overlooked. His rapping chops may not be all that great, but the man does have skills when it comes to crafting good material built off a hodgepodge of various music styles.

Take a glance at his production discography, and you may be surprised to see that he had a hand in acclaimed cuts from John Legend (“Ordinary People”, “Save Room”), Talib Kweli (“Hot Thing”) and Common (“I Want You”). Plus, let’s not forget that the fizzy instrumental behind Estelle’s Grammy-winning “American Boy” first premiered as “Impatient”, an album cut from will’s 2007 solo album, Songs About Girls.

Speaking of Girls, that set may have ended up a major commercial flop, but there were some definite treasures within it’s tracklisting. One we had almost forgot about was past MM favorite “Heartbreaker”, which we just knew would blow up the album’s sales if pushed as an official single (alas, it was never released State-side).

Thanks to BBC’s Live Lounge though, we were quickly reminded of “Heartbreaker”‘s infectious appeal when the Peas hit the studio to perform a live version of it.

Catch the performance below:

Fergie is the queen of making you like things you really don’t want to. Admit it, “Fergalicious” was utter crap, and yet, you still couldn’t resist hearing it’s kaleidoscopic fusion of electro beats, corny slang and JJ Fad attitude through the secret confinement of your Ipod speakers when working out at the gym. Hell, she even became one of the few of today’s singers worthy enough to pull off Heart’s “Barracuda”. But just when you thought Fergie’s hold over your soul would end with her releasing a self-empowerment ballad as her next single, she goes and makes it yet another deceptively irresistible tune to sing-along to.

Since she’s buddies with Will.I.Am, a man known for being quirky at all times, nothing with Fergie can be straight forward either. “Big Girls Don’t Cry” follows a wispy, acoustic guitar melody and an engaging storyline of a woman forging her own independence for the first time. For anybody else, this Cyndi Lauper-esque number would work, but it’s quite boring coming from a woman who found a way to be a lady and still dance like a ho. That’s until she throws in weird metaphors about toddler’s blankies and the joys of “jacks and Uno cards”, like she’s unable to be serious even for a good four minutes.

It’s such random childhood imagery that makes “Big Girls Don’t Cry” the latest delightfully wacky entry from the Black Eyed Peas’ cartoonish empire and another reason why we won’t ever be able to do away with “Miss Fergy-Ferg” entirely. Our resistance is futile.