Okay, so I f’ed up. I’ve been busy and I forgot to write my final entry in the D’Angelo Remix Tuesdays. But I wanted to do D justice by posting my final writeup of D’Angelo Remix Month today, even though today is the first day of August. Ah well.

If you missed the previous 3 instalments of the series:

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

“Cruisin’” was released as Brown Sugar‘s 2nd single in 1995. It’s a cover of Smokey Robinson’s 1979 single. D’Angelo produced the song himself, employing an impressive string section, including violin, viola and cello. Shakers and light drumming are used for the understated percussion, with sleigh bells entering on the chorus. D’Angelo’s version is fairly faithful to the original in terms of the basic chords and lyrics, but it’s a fair bit longer; at 6:26, the longest song on Brown Sugar. Gentle guitar figures and organ accompany D’Angelo’s graceful falsetto singing. “Cruisin’” is a great song for driving on a summer day.

On its 12′ release, “Cruisin’” was edited down to 5 minutes and 24 seconds and remixed by R&B production maven Dallas Austin. Austin strips the song of most of its instrumentation and replaces the live drums and shakers with programmed, 90s R&B style snares and hi-hats. He loops a short snippet of the guitar from the original into a catchy little riff and keeps the string arrangements from the original.

I was actually pleasantly surprised with the Dallas Austin remix. As much as I like the original, I can see Austin’s remix going over much better in the clubs or at parties, whereas the original would sound better in the car or at home. Let me know what you think of both versions in the comments!

Download: D’Angelo – Cruisin’ (Brown Sugar, 1995)

D’Angelo – Cruisin’ (Dallas Austin Remix) (Cruisin’ 12?, 1995)

And this marks the end of my month of covering D’Angelo songs exclusively for Remix Tuesdays. I’ve now covered every single released off Brown Sugar. Did you, the reader, enjoy the focus on one artist for a month? What did you think of D’Angelo Month (not the official title)?

The loop digga is back with his new album for the BBE Beat Generation series. This new project has a bunch of features and many of the tracks are only produced by Madlib with no rhyme input.

I really enjoyed this new album even though I only got part of it for this review (Holla at me BBE!!). I’ll go track by track.

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Aaron teased you about it, now the cat is out of the bag.. looks pretty damn solid.

1.) Its Time (Produced by Easy Mo Bee)

2.) Watch How It Go Down (Produced by DJ Premier)

3.) Respect My Walk (Produced by Buckwild)

4.) Hood Shit f/ Prodigy of Mobb Deep (Produced by The Alchemist)

5.) Float (Produced by Nottz)

6.) Please Don’t Go (Produced by Nottz)

7.) How We Rock f/ Bun B of UGK (Produced by DJ Premier)

8.) Drugs Crime & Gorillaz f/ Sheek Louch & Freeway (Produced by Nottz)

9.) In The Streets f/Lil Fame of M.O.P. (produced by Hi-Tek)

10.) So Amazing (Produced by DJ Premier)

11.) Sorry I Lied (Produced by Large Professor)

12.) We Killin Ourselves (Produced by Pete Rock)

13.) The Chosen (Resurrecting The Game) (Produced by Havoc)

In stores 9.30.08.

2Dope posted this a few weeks back but even though its labeled CDQ it doesn’t sound mastered, luckily the mastered version just came through (and I wanted to use the above pic):

Download (Mp3): B.G. Ft. Juvenile, Lil Wayne & Trey Songz – Ya Heard Me.

Shout out to the Bone Marrow connect RG for the link. The voice overs seal the deal.

Bun B. DJ Ayres. Free. Do you need any more words? Kinda wish I was in the south right now..

Upcoming Scion “Live Metro” dates and locations:

• August 18, 9:30 p.m. – 2:00 a.m.: Raleigh at Cat’s Cradle
  300 E. Main St., Carrboro, NC 27510
• August 19, 9:30 p.m. – 2:00 a.m.: Atlanta at The Loft
  1374 W. Peachtree St., Atlanta, GA 30309
• August 20, 9:30 p.m. – 2:00 a.m.: Houston at Warehouse Live
  813 St. Emanuel St., Houston, TX 77003
• August 22, 9:30 p.m. – 2:00 a.m.: Austin at The Parish
  214 E. Sixth St., Austin, TX 78701

To check out this free event, attendees must be 21 or older and RSVP at www.scion.com/livemetro.

Baltimore based club DJ legend Scottie B who we recently spotted at the past artscape shows you around Baltimore.

I am sending out a mandate that this becomes everyone’s wedding song.

After many years, looks like Angelous (who has only been mentioned around these parts in Buhizzle’s classic fable) is still around, still kinda sounding like Jay-Z. He has a new mixtape out called Angelous Reloaded X series 7 aka the most complex mixtape title ever.

Here is a new track I got:

Download (Mp3): Angelous Ft. J. Boogie – Old School

Angelous’ MySpace

Bishop Lamont gets real comfortable on some beats for nearly ten minutes on Shade 45. Vodka in the morning, Bishop?

via Nah Right