mixtape maestro (2.0)

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Sondre Lerche “Countdown (Beyonce Cover)” Posted: 22 Dec 2011 06:57 PM PST With most of the appeal of Beyonce’s fan & crit-beloved 4 single “Countdown” lying in Be’s superwoman diva vocals and a thrillingly frenetic production that makes a fine modern pop-soul mess out of old-school Boyz II Men shout-outs, dizzying horn cycles, marching band percussion and bits of dancehall trickle, having the song stripped down into a sleepy coffeehouse acoustic form might not read as all that necessary on paper… …that is, until one has given an ear to this early Xmas gift of a remake by elfin Norwegian singer-songwriter Sondre Lerche, who, armed with nothing but a guitar, brilliantly proves the worth of “Countdown”‘s sweet praise of monogamy sans big-budget/ superstar gloss. Also, dude deserves some sort of prize for expertly wading his way through all of the song’s many wordy, hip hop-speak lyrical hooks without ever really falling into Corny-ville. Well played, Mr. Lerche, well played.

STS featuring Dosage “Let’s Capture This Moment” Posted: 22 Dec 2011 04:49 PM PST The “oh, snap!” rap world glory of being able to say “I’ve turned a hot lines into a hot song” hasn’t been lost on STS, an ATL/ Philly rapper (and 2012 ‘XXL Freshman’ candidate) who has cleverly opted on stretching the blog attention-grabbing, line-into-hook re-purposing tactic across a weekly series umbrella-ed under the title of GOLD Rush. Newest entry “Let’s Capture This Moment” swipes several lyrical snippets from Big Sean’s summertime heater “Marvin Gaye & Chardonnay”, and while it’s debatable whether or not any of these borrowed fragments can be considered “hot lines” on their own, the flip definitely succeeds in the “hot song” aspect. As production team MPIII cook up an infectious sonic assault built on stomp-claps, sampled “Hold up”‘s and other club-friendly beat tricks, STS, with an energetic assist by Dosage, spills a bunch of memorable WTF rhymes (“I eat rappers/ Piece of cake/ On a paper plate/ I’m a cheap date/ I’m an astronaut with an ounce of pot/ See y’all n*ggas in deep space”) that could just as well end up being future hooks for other rappers.

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