January 2008 Archives
Wayne Obliges Mary J. Blige With Chubb Rock's Baby
Tags: Lil Wayne, Mary J. Blige, Swizz Beatz
Mary J. Blige feat. Precise, Lil Wayne & Swizz Beatz: "Just Right (Remix)"
And now even Mary J. Blige can no longer say she is immune to getting stomped by Lil Wayne on a track. Swizz Beatz lifts Chubb Rock's seminal "Treat 'em Right" for this jumpy, jubilant remix and Wayne sounds more alive, energized than he has on the last 4-5 months of output. Frankly most of his recent leaks have been unmemorable and had me wondering if that glorious run (from 2004's Tha Carter through last year's great mixtape, Tha Carter 3 Sessions) was finally winding down. His "Just Fine" contribution disproves that -- the verse is just a tumble of wordplay, nips and buds and gags. But it is so infused with glee it's impossible to deny. Oh yeah, and Precise, the female rap voice you're hearing (yes, a female rap voice) is right here. Learn up.
Clipse Fight The Public Enemy
Tags: Clipse, Public Enemy, Re-Up Gang
The Re-Up Gang: "20k Money Making Brothers on the Corner"
from the forthcoming We Got It 4 Cheap 3: The Spirit of Competition (We Just Think We're Better)
Public Enemy: "By the Time I Get To Arizona"
from Apocalypse '91...The Enemy Strikes Black
Yeah, I'm not sure Chuck D is going to clear this one. Not sure this is exactly what he had in mind when he was writing "Arizona." My all-time favorite P.E. record, by the way.
Protect Your Pockets: N.E.R.D. Returns
Tags: Demphra, N.E.R.D., The Neptunes
N*E*R*D*: "Everyone Nose"
from the forthcoming N.3.R.D.
Demphra: "At Chu (Estoy Cansada)"
Anytime The Neptunes' Pharrell and Chad decide to roll out with new N.E.R.D. music, it's guaranteed to be, at the very least, interesting. "Everyone Nose" is more than that. Frenetic, funny, full of coke references and club culture ("All the girls standing in line for the bathroom!" -- obviously the most observant line of the young year), a slow, soaring breakdown -- it's packed to the gills with ideas. The drums along are worth it. Save Jay-Z's "Blue Magic" (which sounds better by the day) and a few loose non-starters (hello Twista's "Give It Up"!), the Neptunes had a very quiet 2007. News of N.3.R.D. is more than welcome, even if there is a little beat-jacking obvious inspiration going on.
Coming Soon: Kill Your Idols Again - More Killing
Tags: Kill Your Idols
As is our wont, Kill Your Idols, a weekly game of who's-got-more-random-insights-about-American-Idol between Music Editor Jon Caramanica and me, wll begin when Simon, Paula, Randy, the producers, Nigel Lythgoe's demon spirit and the Ford Motors Family have whittled the contestants down to 24. Until then, bask in season six's chatter: Kill Your Idols.
2007's Hidden Hits: Chris Brown Swoops Low
Tags: Chris Brown, Kanye West
Chris Brown feat. Kanye West: "Down"
from Exclusive (J)
America slept on this song. So did Jive.
Beat Jack: Wiz Khalifa in the House
Tags: Alice Deejay, Wiz Khalifa
Wiz Khalifa: "Say Yeah"
from his forthcoming untitled debut
Alice Deejay: "Better Off Alone"
from Better Off Alone
VIBE, like most magazines it seems, likes Wiz Khalifa probably more than we should. It's as though we see something pure, something hungry, something unfettered in his from-Pittsburgh-and-fine-with-it story. He's already been featured left, right and center, despite just one impressive independent album and three decent mixtapes to his name. Yet we've all been eagerly awaiting his major label debut sometime later this year on Warner Bros. And then, um, this leaked today.
Lifting Alice Deejay's WKTU all-day, Z100 all-night trance hit "Better Off Alone," Wiz has arrived at his first major label rite of passage: the club song with the groan-worthy sample. "Better Off Alone" has been kicking around for almost a decade and it hasn't lost any of its gloopy luster yet. Which is not to say I like it -- it is so embedded in my DNA I find it hard to articulate anything about it other than: It's probably the most Long Island song ever produced; it reeks of hairspray, Honda Civics and Bud Light. And yet, with the chunky 808s tossed underneath on "Say Yeah" I can at least tolerate it. Wiz, welcome to the bigs.
Beat Jack: Estelle Samples Some will.i.am
Tags: Estelle, Kanye West, will.i.am
Estelle feat. Kanye West: "American Boy"
from the forthcoming Shine
will.i.am: "Impatient"
from Songs About Girls (A&M, 2007)
This sprightly little dash of cross-culture pop just leaked out this morning and I can't help but notice a resemblance to will.i.am's "Impatient." Likely because it uses the exact same production from that song, which debuted less than one year ago. Though Estelle is a more assured, intriguing vocalist than the thin-throated vamps on Will's version, and an autopilot-cocky Kanye West is heaps more engaging than Will, this is only more proof that his Songs About Girls was one of the best-produced albums released in 2007. I suspect it'll end up a sort of hidden classic 15-20 years from now. Until then, maybe it'll be pilfered by more up and comers. Seems only natural, there are hits galore there.
2007's Hidden Hits: Mario's Go
Tags: Mario
Mario: "Music For Love"
from Go (J)
With 2008 off to a resounding non-bang, musically, in the month of January I'll be ocassionally posting album cuts from 2007 releases -- particularly from the 4th quarter -- that deserve a second (or maybe first) listen.
Mario caught a bit of a raw deal with Go, a perpetually leaked and pushed back release. Ignored by most mainstream press and overshadowed by Ne-Yo and J. Holiday in 2007, his third album is a kinetic marvel, full of keenly observed writing and jittery, jubilant production. "Music For Love," produced by Mad Scientist -- the composer of Paula Deanada's Lil Wayne-featuring half-hit "Easy" -- is a gorgeously crystalline entry in the always fascinating meta-love song movement. Mario, whose voices fluidly rises and dives down like a wounded seagull, seems unable to control his falsetto without ever slipping out of the pocket -- an amazing feat. But what grabbed me comes at the 1:51 mark, when Mario makes reference to filling up his girl's "iPod" with his "iTunes" library, a hilariously R. Kelly-ian crack capped when the music cuts out and the crooner, aided by the suddenly de rigeur talk box, blurts "COMPUTER LOVE!" a nod to Zapp and the weirdly transitioning music industry. A great pop moment, currently being ignored.
Trina: She's Just Not That Into You
Tags: Killer Mike, Mannie Fresh, Trina
Trina feat. Killer Mike: "Look Back At Me"
from the forthcoming Still Da Baddest
Trina feat. Missy Elliott: "I Got a Bottle"
from the forthcoming Still Da Baddest
Trina feat. Shonie Tyler: "Single Again"
from the forthcoming Still Da Baddest
Trina feat. Mannie Fresh: "Da Club"
from Glamorest Life (Slip-N-Slide/Atlantic, 2005)
There's something reassuring about Trina's new single, "Look Back At Me," a welcome, salacious return for Florida's meanest female MC. It as astoundingly and exhaustingly filthy as her earliest verses (she's rivalled only by the also re-emerging Lil' Kim when it comes to the plain-spoken sex-aphor), though I could probably do without without Killer Mike's "mayonnaise" allusions. Above are two more leaked tracks from Trina's upcoming Stll Da Baddest, her fourth album and they're each a bit different. "I Got a Bottle" fiddles with angular guitars and a descending, chopped horn line. It sounds more distinctly Missy than Trina, but her punchy, on-the-dime flow attacks the spare rhythm with a rare intensity. "Single Again" is probably the most alarmingly emo thing Trina has ever done, a likely rebuke to her ex Lil Wayne's rise as romantic icon. "We partied like rock stars, we sexed like porn stars," she raps, but wearily, proud of a bygone moment, almost forlorn. The wondrous "Da Club" from her last album, by contrast, sounds, if not exactly sexy, then driven.
Trina, in many ways, is a veteran now, another female MC looking to raze where other women have fizzed this decade -- she's also a veteran of Slip-N-Slide, a label that finally regained some traction after two disappointing Trick Daddy albums, with the success of Plies' shockingly good debut, The Last Testament, and a 2008 return for Rick Ross (not quite riding there). But for someone who has always sounded so starkly in command of her sexuality and all its requisite activities, Trina's current freedom sounds like a curse. One tip: Avoid shacking up with Killer Kill.
Related: Noz points to HipHopDX's sanctioned leak of Killer Mike's Ghetto Extraordinary. I keep a long list of albums I want to hear that have never dropped (Pharoahe Monch's Desire finally came off this list last year, Detox and KLC's solo album appear to reside there in perpetuity.) I can now cross this one off the list, aging production or not.
