Mariah Carey – Honey

I am a Mariah Carey fan…..dudes be fronting like they ain’t and that’s cool, but I just had to be honest.

Can I make an appeal to bring THIS Mariah back?! Yes we understand you can sing at an incredibly high pitch, and we love that but you’re better than that. Don’t sell yourself short and do a post-Cash Money deal Busta.

It wasn’t hard to find a cause for the deterioration of Mrs Carey’s music, I’m sad to say the blame must be laid to a large extent at Terius Nash (The Dream’s) door. On Mariah’s last album ‘Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel’ released in 2009 The Dream produced/wrote 13 of the 17 songs. One of the critiques The Dream receives on his own albums is that though they’re good songs, track for track they all sound too similar. For this reason I do not think it wise for him to produce or write the body of any artist’s album.

As easy as it was to see why things took a turn for the worse, you can easily spot why things worked so well previously. E=MC *squared* was released in 2008, the writers on it ranged from Bryan-Michael Cox to Mark Debarge. The hit single ‘Touch My Body’ featured The Dream as a co-writer. In addition the producers included Jermaine Dupri, Scott Storch, DJ Toomp, Danja & Swizz Beatz. Even further back than that on Mariah’s 2005 ‘The Emancipation of Mimi’ the writers included Bobby Womack and Pharell; the producers starred Jermaine Dupri of course, Kanye West and The Neptunes.

I don’t know if Mariah and Dupri fell out or if The Dream is selling beats for cheap but I urge Mariah to go back to the So So Def influenced days. There was even a So So Def remix to this track released way back in 1997. In all honesty I think the remix is awful but Mariah does speak some very wise words in the opening seconds of the song’; she says “If Jermaine likes it…..then I like it”.

Enough chatter, this is a big track from Mrs Carey released in a time where a very strong argument could be put forward to suggest that RnB was better then than it is now. Shak’ out regardless.

I have been following Jeftuz on Soundcloud for a while now and I am always impressed with with the consistency of his production. Jeftuz captures the essence of G-Funk, fat-groovy b-lines & luscious pads etc; but more importantly he gives you a reason to play this over the original. The Dj Battlecat produced original was more similar to Rnb/Funk than G-Funk, Jeftuz’s remix injects an absent energy to the track turning a possible warm up/cool out track into a mid-set banger. The bass & pads are far more prominent in this version in fact the entire mix is more aggressive and bulky. It’s almost as if the 1999 recorded song has been going to the gym for the last 14 years and has now decided to unveil it’s self, in all it’s post-90’s buffed glory. It’s common for the drum patterns of G-Funk to be very simple, as so as not to distract from the melodies and harmonic phrases going on. It feels as though minimal effort has been made with the drums (I mean that in a good way), they simply swing you from bar to bar with the ease of Tarzan swinging from vine to vine.

For those of you who still prefer the original or haven’t heard it, here it is as well. There is nothing quite like the West Coast.

L.T.D – Love Ballad

RnB funkers L.T.D blessed the world with this one. This track has been sampled multiple times, most famously by J Dilla for De La Soul’s ‘Much More’. This mid-70’s jam should definitely be in rotation for a summer set, even if you have to sneak it in to a cool down period

Although I’m a 90’s baby, with songs like this we should all make a conscious effort to keep the 70’s alive!

Talib Kweli ft Miguel – Come Here

Talib gifts us with another well considered address to the ladies, whilst Miguel provides a sweet and soulful hook that is reminiscent of the days where he used to do the same with Cali rapper Blu. I would like to see the pair of them collab again, even better throw Talib in as well. If that record ever comes to light remember I called it first. Before I forget, shout out to Sean C & LV for the produckies…mo’ fiyah.

Enjoy!

Jesse Boykins III New Free EP

Jesse Boykins III has released a new EP which features some notable covers including Chris Brown’s ‘Beautiful People’ and Lana Del Ray’s ‘Young & Beautiful’. On a personal level I’m not sure this EP reaches the same stature of Boykins earlier EP ‘Way Of A Wayfarer’ but you could feel differently.

If you haven’t heard ‘Way Of A Wayfarer’ I suggest you listen to it. My favourite jam on it is produced by London’s Gold Panda.

BoA-那樣的你(Disturbance)

I have no idea what the writing on this blog says nor can I understand what they’re saying in the song but that doesn’t matter. Regardless of the language barrier it is a beautifully produced and delivered song.

New Track: “Eureka!” by NatStar

UNDRGRND NATION

NatStar is back with an all new track titled “Eureka!” off of his forthcoming project Dre^mer, which is dropping August 3rd! Check it out!

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Omar – The Man (Maddslinky Remix) & Ego Ella May

I saw Omar at the Jazz Cafe only a month ago at gig put on for the release of his new album ‘The Man’. He performed some oldies and some stuff off the new record, all of which evoked bless vibes.

It was nice to see the family present at this show as Omar’s little sister was one of the warm up acts and his brother, Grammy winning producer Scratchy Professor featured twice throughout Omar’s own setlist.

The other warm-up act was Ego Ella May who performed four tracks off her ‘The Tree’ EP. These tracks were presented in very a stripped back way and despite this I was so taken by Miss May’s voice that I bought her EP at the end of the show.
On listening to the EP at home I was delighted to find the tracks were bathed in atmospheric Jazz-Hop sounds, which were additionally scented with Neo-Soul vocals. An EP such as this could serve in the ablutions of the mind. Well worth a listen and even more deserving of a purchase, the likes of which can be done on her Souncloud and band camp page.

http://egoellamay.bandcamp.com

Maddslinksy’s remix of ‘The Man’ is perfect a accompaniment to the blazin’ weather we’ve been enjoying recently – or if you’re like me, and want to shake a leg even when it’s -1 & Hella’ foggy it simply is something to throw on to cut some shapes to.

Omar’s ‘The Man’ album is a great listen and in his years out of music not a single backwards step has been taken. Buy it you’ll see what I mean, it’s available on iTunes, CD & Vinyl.

Around this time last year Omar teamed up with Grime legend Bashy and the pair of them came up with this summer cruiser’.

Skyzoo – All Black Walls

NYC giant Skyzoo rhymes over Jay Z’s ‘Picasso Baby’. Skyzoo’s lyricism is up there with the best of them; personally I’d rather listen to Sky than Jay, but I thank Jay nevertheless for releasing ‘Picasso Baby’ which gave Skyzoo the opportunity to vocal it.

TECH N9NE’S NEW ALBUM HIT THE STREETS YESTERDAY

On a track off his new album Tech N9ne teams up once again K.dot, alongside iMAYDAY and Kendall Morgan for this bass-heavy track. The track begins differently than one would expect from a N9ne joint consisting largely of sultry vocals, this could fool one into thinking that they were listening to a bridge from an indie band. To the joy of Tech fans he delivers another multi-sylabic masterpiece which is at times reminiscent of Busta’s exquisite ‘Break Ya Neck’ flow.

In the last four bars Tech’s flow ebbs and he utters these words “You don’t really get why I’m so pissed? Understand this:
I’m an artist, and I’m sensitive about my shit”. N9ne’s feelings succinctly put.

Kendrick continues his tyranny of stupidly ill verses on other people’s track…..no seriously..he did it….again. Is it filled with the cleverest metaphors of his career? No it isn’t. Does he even seem particularly fragile as the song would have you believe? DOOT DOOT DOOT DOOT DOOT – Be serious this is K.dot not Drake. This is an irritable rant from a man who might well be able to do an 8-part harmony with his own voice due to his varying tones and pitches.

The track said featuring Kendrick Lamar…and guess what….it featured Kendrick Lamar.

Go cop Tech N9ne’s new record entitled ‘Something Else’. Looks to me like it should be a very solid body of work.