Shape What’s to Come is an online community for women to exchange blah, blah, blah — it’s a Levi’s promotion meant to target women using social media. I’ve seen far better corporate promo, even from Levi’s who laced us with a sweet Raphael Saadiq track in June. What does a women’s support group have to do with Metal Lungies? New Janelle Monae, son! On this track, Janelle skews slightly psychedelic for a jawn that’s secretly about female empowerment or something.
There must be a special strain of weed that gets the DD172 team in a zone where they can make songs like “Super Sticky” and “Sounds Of The Indo.” Focused, jazzy tracks that you can put on loop while you stare at the ceiling for an hour. Here, Trademark and DZA exchange razor edged verses over Ski’s hypnotic saxophone. The track was scrapped from Trademark’s debut album Issue 3: Rain Supreme. Sample clearance, perhaps?
Studio footage for the bizarre collab above. Some interesting Blu nuggets and insight at Passion of the Weiss. This song is old as hell and it’s missing a verse. There’s no release date in sight for Blu’s album No York. Blu recently said it would contain production from Lotus, Samiyam, Daedelus, Exile, Shafiq Husayn. The architects of Blu’s Warner Bros. deal are no longer with the company and there’s little chance of him putting out a major label album. Is No York the new Swift & Changeable?
Here are two songs from a new 7″ from British producer Paul White. Each Paul White beat is a unique character, drawing from obvious and obscure samples to constantly the surprise the listener. Don’t miss his recent Bosco remix.
Quoth Jazz, “I’m a big Mayer Hawthorne fan, so when the chance came up to do the remix, I jumped at it. It made me feel like I was at a roller disco, so I went with the roller boogie feel… I had a blast doing it.”
There you have it. I was going to say it reminded me of the senior prom episode of Saved by the Bell (Zack sabotages Kelly’s date with Matt Wilson while Slater and Jessie get locked in the boiler room), but roller disco works too.
Check after the jump for some quick footage of Mayer and Jeff performing/working on the remix.
So what’s an Amy Winehouse/Mark Ronson song doing on a Quincy Jones album? Q Soul Bossa Nostra consists of reinterpretations of Quincy Jones songs. Quincy explained his role in the project in a recent interview,
These weren’t like sessions where I’m there producing the records. I’m just observing, really. I was just there for them if they needed me. I’m never in my life going to do a record that’s a tribute to myself. I don’t need it. A lot of people have misunderstood that. This is not a tribute to myself.
Of Amy’s track, Quincy said that she was originally going to cover “You Don’t Own Me,” but she settled on “It’s My Party” — both are Lesley Gore songs. “It’s My Party” works, but I think the slightly darker “You Don’t Own Me” would have made more sense for Amy.
So many names you’d think it was pieced together by a mixtape DJ. I remember when Chris Brown was that kid who had a song with Juelz Santana.
Update: A month later, here’s the final, full, dirty version of the remix. Chris Brown released an EP today with five different combinations of the remix’s guest verses, so you can choose which douchebags you want to listen to.
Master producer Salaam Remi only pops up sporadically, but when he does, it’s always something extra special. Chrisette Michele’s tribute to Audrey Hepburn comes straight out of Amy Winehouse throwback soul territory. Miss Michele’s upcoming mixtape, Love Thy Brother, is all unreleased material and leftovers from previous albums.
Nicki’s vocal tricks and Em’s rage match up surprisingly well, even if both routines are getting old. And to his credit, Swizz Beatz provides an interesting beat that doesn’t crumble under the weight of the collaboration. Hopefully Nicki’s energy can make her debut less boring than Drake’s. The cover could have used more ass.
Update: Added an early version of the song with a different hook.
