mixtape maestro (2.0)

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• Mary J. Blige featuring Drake “Mr. Wrong”
• Karmin “Crash Your Party”
• Mazzy Star “Common Burn”

Mary J. Blige featuring Drake “Mr. Wrong” Posted: 27 Oct 2011 12:04 AM PDT We’ve come to learn that a Mary J./ Drake pairing isn’t always a guaranteed keeper. While they’re “Fancy” (which found the Queen of Hip Hop-Soul supporting in sampled form on the original, then providing a more extended cameo on the remix) ended up drawing acclaim as one of Thank Me Later‘s better offerings, Blige’s Drizzy-assisted “The One” (from her 2009 release Stronger With Each Tear) was a major dud, a club-focused, “Auto-Tune & B” misfire that deserved its quick trip to flop-ville. Thankfully, “Mr. Wrong”, the duo’s latest collaboration (and rumored-to-be second official single from Mary’s lengthily-titled My Life II…The Journey Continues (Act 1)), sounds like it’ll be avoiding the fate of the latter, mostly due to the mid-tempo R&B ballad casting Blige where she works best: using her pain-streaked pipes to bring weight to another tale of jerk-y boyfriends. This time though, the guy she’s speaking of isn’t some freshly kicked-to-the-curb deadbeat from her recent past, but a man in her present who she can’t seem to break away from despite the warnings of friends and her own inner voice. But what can she do? “Bad boys” might be “no good”, but “good boys are no fun”, she summarizes in a tone shaded both with tinges of regret and embarrassment of even having this opinion with the “jus’ saying” truthfulness of one who’s sampled both and knows what she’s talking about, especially when the bad boy she’s with now is satisfying her so well in the bedroom. Meanwhile, Drake proves why his signature humorless emo-raps can sometimes be deemed necessary in a intro verse that finds him fleshing out the male half of this bad romance with equal tortured broodiness: “Don't it seem like, like I'm always there when it matters/ But missing most of the other time, a terrible pattern”. My Life II…The Journey Continues (Act 1) is set to drop on November 21st. “Mr. Wrong”: Download audio file (Mary-J-Blige-Mr.-Wrong-feat.-Drake.mp3) This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Karmin “Crash Your Party” Posted: 26 Oct 2011 10:43 PM PDT Massachusetts pop duo Karmin exploded as an on-line phenomenon this past year thanks to their series of YouTube-housed covers, the most notable of which saw members Amy Heidemann and Nick Noonan crafting wildly impressive (and oh-so-awesomely white) remakes of hip hop tunes like Lil’ Wayne’s “6 Foot 7 Foot”, Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass” (featuring The Roots!!) and Chris Brown’s “Look At Me Now”, all of which highlighted Amy’s jaw-dropping mic “skills” (especially the latter with her rewind-worthy Busta verse) and earned the group tons of media coverage, millions of Web views and, most importantly, a major label record deal. With that last achievement, however, the pressure is on to see whether the band can retain their current appeal with some original material and successfully make the transition into becoming “real” pop stars…an inescapable “moment of truth” that has now arrived in the form of newly dropped single “Crash Your Party”. Cleverly, Karmin make sure they have all their bases covered in this intro outing, a take-down of annoying center-of-attention cravers that nods to their established love for hip hop with a sampled bit from Black Sheep’s ’90′s rap classic “The Choice Is Yours” and yet another quirky-fierce Amy rap break while flexing a polished pop know-how that’ll fit in quite comfortably with everything else on Top 40 right now and surely cause more than a few people to begin citing its similarities with Miley Cyrus’ “Party In The U.S.A.” or something from Jessie J. Initial listens reveal that the song isn’t as stand-out as their cover work, but as harmless shiny-happy radio fare goes, it’s a solid enough entry we could see reigning over mainstream airwaves in no time. Crossover mission accomplished. Crash Your Party by Karmin (iTunes) (Amazon) Below, see what happens when Karmin attach their cheerful little hands on “Pumped Up Kicks” for Billboard’s Mash-Up Mondays series:

Mazzy Star “Common Burn” Posted: 26 Oct 2011 07:01 PM PDT While we wouldn’t be surprised if there were a small number of people somewhere around the globe lighting a candle and saying a prayer every night in the hopes that their “favoritest band ever” ’90′s dream-pop/ alternative/ acousti-indie-folk/ pure goodness duo Mazzy Star would bless them with a comeback after fifteen years of silence, for others, it took hearing The Dum Dum Girl’s summer release “Coming Down”, a song which bore a hell of a resemblance to Mazzy’s “big hit” “Fade Into You”, to be re-reminded of how much they missed the team of David Roback and Hope Sandoval. Incidentally, only a few months after “Coming Down”‘s emergence, Mazzy Star have returned, previewing their upcoming fourth full-length, and first new album since 1996′s Among My Swan, with the release of single “Common Burn”, a blissful entity of a song that finds the group effortlessly picking up where they left off all those years ago. With its calming brew of acoustic guitar strums and mesmerizing harmonica elements and Sandoval’s echo-laden vocal and unrequited romantic longing drippings providing the creamy filling, “Burn”‘s lonesome twangy simmer easily lands as all anyone could of ever asked out of a MZ comeback effort. Single drops October 31st. Mazzy Star – Common Burn (Amazon) (via)

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