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Artist: Paper Route Gangstaz
SONG: Party PeopleARTIST: Nelly feat. Fergie
Alex Cohen grades this week’s hottest tracks.
Alex Cohen grades this week’s hottest tracks.
Alex Cohen grades this week’s hottest tracks.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>“Certain things your money can’t buy,” Jay-Z notes during his sixteen-bar cameo on Trilla. There’s no way to know for sure, but I’d like to think this is a jab at Rick Ross, the rotund rhyme-slinger who’s quickly becoming the, um, biggest joke in rap music. On his third studio release, Ross uses his wealth to buy beats (from J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League, JR Rotem, Mannie Fresh) and even a few friends (guest rappers Hova, Lil’ Wayne, T-Pain, Young Jeezy, Nelly). But money can’t buy talent for Ross.The Miami emcee has carved out a solid niche for himself in the rap game. If you need someone to say “Boss” with a bowel-shaking voice and faux accent that transforms the word into “Bowss,” Rowss is your man. He showcases this talent on the album’s second single, titled — you won’t believe this — “The Boss.” On the chorus, he bellows, “I’m the biggest boss that you’ve seen thus far.” Either that’s a clever coke-equals-weight pun on his large stature, or even Rick Ross can’t help but make jokes about Rick Ross.The sad part is that the production’s not bad on Trilla. “The Boss,” first-single “Speedin’,” Weezy-Jeezy collaboration “Luxury Tax” and Jay-Z pity track “Maybach Music” all warrant repeat listens — but only for the beats and guest verses. The rest is Ross’s trite thug justification: “Make more money, man / That’s the model for the mob / Need a blow job is my model / Get a model for the job.” Yawn.What a shame for an album whose title is a nod to Michael Jackson’s Thriller. As far as I can tell the only reference to the King of Pop comes from Jay-Z, who subtly references M.J.’s dispute with Paul McCartney over the rights to The Beatles’ musical catalogue. Fittingly, Ross is bound to make just as much off of this Bowss-brand-name excretion as Michael has by selling songs like “Hello Goodbye” to Target for its commercials. Call it karma, but it looks like Mr. Jackson — along with the thousands of dupes who buy this album — has been hit by a not-so-smooth criminal.
Alex Cohen grades this week’s hottest tracks.
Alex Cohen grades this week’s hottest tracks.
This week, Alex Cohen debuts his new column covering the week’s hottest tracks.
It doesn't take long on We Got It For Cheap Volume 3 to figure out what separates Clipse's coke-rap comrades AB Liva and Sandman -- collectively known as the Re-Up Gang -- from its peers. On the foursome's re-work of Jay-Z's celebration track "Roc Boys," it takes about 10 seconds. "First of all, wanna thank my connect," Clipse's Malice raps, mimicking Hova's original lyrics before reminding us who we're dealing with. "Hold up," he interrupts as the horns halt. "I can't do that yet." \nA little more than a year after the critically acclaimed (but commercially disastrous) Hell Hath No Fury, Clipse is anything but ready to kick its feet up, pop the champagne and thank all the people who helped the group along the way. It's not ready to put its drug-peddling past behind it, either. \nMalice continues, returning to the cocaine fixation he and younger brother Pusha T have spit about since Clipse's 2002 debut Lord Willin': "Mount Rushmore with the powder / My face etched in a brick." The themes might be the same on Volume 3. And the beats are about what you'd expect for a mixtape -- a smattering of borrowed tracks, including Kanye's "Good Morning" and some hit-or-miss originals. For a hit, see the airy boom-clapper "Dey Know Yayo." But the rappers' work ethic and tireless attention to detail keep the rhymes as dope as ever. \nTry this one from Mal: "Rotate them chickens like a weather vane / The wind blow, it come and go / It hurricane / Listen again / I hurry 'caine." From Push: "I pull from the ghosts of the dead greats / Ouija board flow, all you niggas is dead weight." AB Liva even summons Melville, claiming he's "like Ishmael with fishscale." \nClipse's latest label move -- a deal with Columbia that means the Neptunes won't be exclusively producing their albums anymore -- raises some unease about the beats backing the duo up on its upcoming full-scale album, due out in October. But lyrically, if Volume 3 is any indication, nothing's changed. "Cum laude with the coke, we're overachievers," Pusha boasts. For the hardest-working rappers in blow business, that sounds about right.
Given the album title Growing Pains, Mary J. Blige is surprisingly natural on her latest disc, affirming her grown-woman status with positive lyrics that would make Oprah proud. Gone, however, are the days of more daring work with the likes of Jay-Z and Nas — which earned Mary her reputation as queen to Hova's king — replaced instead by tracks with Ludacris, the go-to guy for bland rap verses about curvature of the flesh, and Usher, who's always sure to make the over-35 and under-14 demographics go crazy.\nEven though she's lost contact with emcees over the years, her Rolodex is still full of top-notch producers, who give Growing Pains a modern feel, even if Mary herself refuses to adapt her style. The album starts off strong with three catchy tracks, spearheaded by the triumphant "Work That," where Mary uses the hook "work with what you got" as an anthem for being happy with your body. A reference to her ascent from the streets of Yonkers, N.Y., "Just Fine" is another guilty pleasure that could make even Toby Keith sing along while flossing in his pick-up.\nAfter a strong start, though, Growing Pains quickly loses steam. All the tracks are woven together by slick transitions, which makes the fairly homogeneous record sound even more like a polished chunk of nutrition-free pop sugar. Aside from a couple of standouts, like the Neptunes-produced funk fest "Till The Morning," the last 13 tracks are uneventful.\nLyrically, it doesn't appear Ms. Blige has matured much since middle school. If I had a dime for every time M.J.B. used "sunshine" and "rain" to refer to happiness and sadness on Growing Pains, I'd have enough money to buy the whole album on iTunes. Listen to her colorlessly describe love: "And it feels like joy, and it feels like pain / And it feels like sunshine, and it feels like rain." \nNo, it won't expand your mind, but Growing Pains, to borrow a phrase from Mary herself, is just fine.
Lupe Fiasco, who has been praised by many (including himself) as the savior of his genre, is not great because most of his songs deal with poverty, violence and the state of hip-hop. Plenty of mainstream rappers have tackled the same heavy themes with as much heart as Lupe and twice the swagger. (If you don't believe me, see Houston rapper Bun B's verse in the remix of M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes.") What makes Lupe Fiasco an important voice in rap music is his mechanics.\nThe Chicago MC's sophomore effort is a condemnation of the false idols promoted by pop culture's definition of "cool." But here's the surprise: The album is actually fun to listen to, thanks to airy jazz grooves and Lupe's equally smooth flows. Fiasco is a wordsmith, and his raps are finely crafted throughout The Cool. He brags about it on "Go, Go, Gadget Flow" with an almost inhumanly precise delivery that lives up to the track's hokey hook. On the laid-back "Paris, Tokyo," Lupe kicks it like Tribe Called Quest before practically doubling his words per minute on the rapid-fire "The Die."\nLupe moseys again on "Superstar," pondering his newfound stardom and the struggles of fame with aloof nonchalance, but the album's best tracks are those that find young Lu less cool. On the chest-thumping "Little Weapon," an impassioned Lupe channels child soldiers in Africa, rapping in staccato breaths that mimic the tinny snare drum that marches underneath him: "Cute, smileless, heartless, violent / Childhood destroyed, devoid of all childish / ways. Can't write their own names / or read the words that's on their own graves." \nLu is quick to vary styles on The Cool — from the rock-infused and overly punctuated "Hello/Goodbye (Uncool)" to the lame for-the-ladies closer "Go Baby" - with mixed results. Still, it's hard to knock him too far off his pedestal. Lupe's advantage on his peers becomes crystal clear on "Hi-Definition," a collabo with the Doggfather himself, who, while Lu raps about AIDS and urban decay, offers this high-brow ditty: "Lupe, it's Snoopy. Let's go out / Tip toe through the door and do it doggy style." \nMaybe we need Lu more than we think.
On Oct. 30, Daft Punk played the last U.S. show of its Alive 2007 tour outside of Las Vegas. A few weeks before the performance, I envisioned the setup: the French duo's trademark pyramid -- think Egyptians with LCD technology supplied by aliens -- looming in the Nevada desert like a misplaced mountain, hoards of faithful followers showing their reverence with closed fists and gyrating hips. \nFor weeks I crunched gas mileage figures and entertained the daft idea of driving across the country to be part of the crowd of DP devotees. After hearing Alive 2007 the album -- Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo's attempt to put their multi-sensorial live show on an audio disc -- I don't regret my decision to stay home any less. \nWith an army of computers and more switches and dials than a spaceship, the boys from France take listeners on an eardrum-melting tour of their musical catalogue. Most of the hits are there, from "Robot Rock" to "Around the World" to the epic "One More Time," but they're put together into an incestuous mix of pure electronica sex. \nLike good lovers, the duo knows how to pace: For almost 90 minutes, Bangalter and de Homem-Christo build tension to the breaking point before slowing things down and leaving the audience begging for more. To take the edge off after a sweltering remix of "Too Long" and "Steam Machine" that'll leave you hot and bothered, the duo decelerates to the pace of a snail on acid and a robotic voice intones, "We gon' move." After the disappointment of Human After All -- Daft Punk's attempt to put existentialist messages into its music -- this is welcome shallowness. \nDaft Punk begins the Australian leg of Alive 2007 on Dec. 13. I'm selling all my stuff and buying a plane ticket. Who's coming with me?
They say ghosts only return to haunt the living because they have unresolved issues. With American Gangster, Jay-Z rises from the dead (again) to redeem his last comeback album and prove he's not a finished businessman; he's got unfinished business, man. \nOn Jigga's 13th studio release, he's well-aware of his other-worldly status, never hesitating to remind us that he's still the "best rapper alive." But unlike last year's disappointing brag-fest Kingdom Come, American Gangster finds Hova dropping verses that are more thought-provoking than ego-stroking. \nLike the '70s-era mobster flick it's inspired by, American Gangster tells a big-screen-worthy drug-dealer drama that's more than just a promotion of thug life. For 15 impeccable tracks, an older, wiser Shawn Carter explores the forces that shaped his ascent from the streets of Brooklyn to corporate offices in New York City. \nOn the soulful "Say Hello," Jay waxes socioeconomic: "We ain't thugs for the sake of being thugs / Nobody do that where we grew at, nigga duh ... We ain't doing crimes just for the sake of doing crimes / We move the dimes 'cause we ain't doin' fine." \nHova traces his career path back to his old stomping grounds on the Lil Wayne duet "Hello Brooklyn 2.0," a love song addressed to the city responsible for his miseducation. "Hello Brooklyn, you bad influence / Look what you had me doin', but I ain't mad at you," Jay raps over a bass-y Beastie Boys sample. \nOf course, there's still plenty of old-fashioned thug talk on American Gangster. Take the minimalist Neptunes-produced masterpiece "Blue Magic," in which Jigga pulls out enough drug puns make your head spin: "D.A. wanna indict me / 'Cause fish scales in my veins like a Pisces." The difference is that this time we actually believe him when he says he's not glorifying his blood-and-coke-soaked past with these sorts of lyrics; he's just being biographical. \nMusically, American Gangster makes good on its promise to take listeners back to the days of drug kingpin Frank Lucas. Hova does the hustle over samples of Marvin Gaye ("American Dreamin'") and Curtis Mayfield ("American Gangster"); and on the thunderous "Success," he shares a booming organ groove with former nemesis Nas. \nJay goes period again on "Roc Boys," a horn-heavy toast to his Roc-A-Fella empire. At the end of the track, CEO Carter proudly proclaims, "This is black superhero music." And while American Gangster shows that Jay-Z the rapper is nearly invincible, the album also provides listeners with an intimate glimpse into Shawn Carter, the boy from Brooklyn who was forced to play the cards he was dealt. Now, if you can't respect that, your whole perspective is wack.
The beginning of DJ Flufftronix's fun-in-the-sun mixtape Summer Transit Insanity Mix says it all: Obscure indie quintet Fields introduces the compilation with angst-y acoustic-guitar strumming accompanied by Geto Boys' "Damn It Feels Good to be a Gangster" sarcastically laid over the top. \nIt's an unexpected introduction to a dance mix, but it's the kind of quirky juxtaposition that, at the end of this 28-minute super-track, you come to expect from the Bloomington-based disc spinner.\nFlufftronix -- though his friends just call him Michael -- is one of the masterminds behind a burgeoning laptop DJ movement that's been making hips gyrate all over Bloomington. Graphic designer by day, disc jockey by night, Young Fluff is a man about town, appearing weekly at Jake's as part of party-franchise Daft Crunk (you get it) and making cameos anywhere rugs are cut. \nFluffy knows how to get his listeners moving, too. After four minutes of clowning on Summer Transit, Fluff Daddy gets down to business, moving seamlessly from a touchy-feely Peter Gabriel ballad to a synthesizer-rich re-work of Lil Mama's middle-school anthem "Lip Gloss": "My lip gloss is poppin' / My lip gloss is cool / All the boys keep jockin' / They chase me after school," the sassy jail-bait MC spits as Flufftronix deftly shifts into overdrive.\nThe rest of the mix packs equal parts bump and grind but from some unexpected (and some completely unheard of) sources. Fluff breathes new life into '80s rockers INXS, pitting their number-one hit "Need You Tonight" against some song called "Minuit Jacuzzi" by some French dance outfit named TEPR.\nThough the messengers vary from gangster rappers to rock 'n' roll icons to esoteric DJs, Fluffy's message is clear by the sixth minute of Summer Transit: "Shake shake shake shake shake / People on the dance floor sweat." Flufftronix makes it feel like July in November, packing enough heat to brave the cold and enough smirk-inspiring mash-ups to ward off seasonal depression.
It used to be that when it came to Jennifer Lopez, I was like Wooderson from "Dazed and Confused": I kept getting older, but J. Lo, like those high school girls, man, stayed the same age.\nNo longer.\nLopez, now 38, starts to show her years on Brave, mixing lyrics about leaving the club and settling down with dated production styles to create an album that should make the over-35 crowd go nuts.\nThat's not to say Brave doesn't offer some bounce. J. Lo certainly delivers on her promise to create a more "danceable" album than the Spanish-language disc Como Ama una Mujer, released earlier this year. "Stay Together," "Hold It Don't Drop It" and the Jackson 5-influenced "Gotta Be There" should keep you on your feet -- even if it's at a wedding reception and not la discoteca.\nDespite a remix featuring a Spanglish verse from Ludacris that should set back U.S.-Puerto Rican relations about 50 years ("Me gustan hermosas señoritas / I love how you shake your distinctive features"), "Do It Well" is the album's highlight, but it still pales in comparison to past collaborations like the Fabolous cameo "Get Right."\nThe rest of Brave features slow jams that are just as catchy and feel-good as the fast ones and, like the album's other tracks, feature beats that sound like they belong in the '90s with lyrics that are almost too cheesy to be true.\nBetween her mass-market, PG-13 pop hits and her curvaceous bod, J. Lo has never been that edgy, but this is a departure, even for her. While Jennifer Lopez the entertainer boasts more star power than ever, Brave shows that J. Lo the bodacious R&B diva is growing up and\nsettling down.
If European house purists were up in arms about DJ duo Justice's hard-nosed debut †, Oi Oi Oi just might kill them. In his first full-scale release, Boys Noize, a.k.a., German DJ Alex Ridha and his laptop, borrows the French pair's same dance-rock approach but turns the dials to 11, offering boisterous dance-floor bangers that cut rugs like 20 chain saws through 21 amplifiers.\nLoud and filthy, Oi Oi Oi has about as much finesse as a sledgehammer. Before listeners even have time to respond to the innocuous "Hello" that introduces the album, Ridha pummels them with a wall of gritty guitar riffs as a voice from above commands, "Dance, dance, dance." So much for introductions.\n"& Down," the album's first track and single, sets the tone for the rest of Oi Oi Oi, with ugly, jagged synths ground into skin-tight grooves. The formula is perfected on other standouts such as "Shine, Shine," "Let's Buy Happiness" and the hard-drive-melting "Oh!" \nExcept for a remarkable remix of "My Moon, My Man" -- in which Feist's gossamer croons provide the perfect foil for Boys Noize's full-throated digital gargles -- the album offers little in the way of vocals. Of course, this may be Ridha's way of kindly telling listeners to shut the hell up and sing along with their feet.\nAt its best, Oi Oi Oi, with its robotic chants and inhuman aloofness, is a harder, better, faster, stronger version of Daft Punk's disappointing man vs. machine concept album Human After All. But while Ridha's youthful brashness makes forefathers Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter look like fogies, his immaturity shows in the album's monotone, balls-to-the-wall clip. \nFortunately, what Boys Noize lacks in grace or variety, he makes up in pure testosterone. Sure, it may be difficult to relax and listen to Oi Oi Oi all the way through. But this album wasn't meant to be heard sitting down.
The grocery store isn’t the first place people go to show off their wealth. For the most part, buying food is a fairly unglamorous procedure, often undertaken on a Sunday afternoon while wearing the last clean pair of clothes from the week before. But as I pushed a shopping cart through Kroger, carefully adding the price of each item I put in it, I discovered just how much an individual’s groceries say about his finances.
Maybe it's the tropical climate in Ross's hometown of Miami that adds a hint of brightness to his raps. Whatever the reason, the sun certainly shines a little light on the usually menacing MC in Rise to Power, a collection of circa-2000 tracks previously unreleased by Ross's former record label. \nTo be sure, there's plenty of thug talk on the disc. In the velvety "Strapped," for example, the Boss warns anyone who crosses him: "You'll wake up with no ribs / in a fridge in Chicago." So much for Southern hospitality. \nBut daylight peeks through on tracks such as R&B-crossover "Street Love." After a few seconds of sweet-nothing croons from special guest Next, Ross introduces the track by declaring, "Let's thug it out" before dropping a beat that sounds like it was copped from early-'90s Prince. \nFans of Ross' 2006 debut Port of Miami need not fret, though. Just as we would expect from the man best known for dealer anthem "Hustlin'" -- yeah, you know it's your ringtone -- cocaine references abound on Rise. On "B.L.O.W. (Block Life is Our Way)," the Boss trades verses (and recipes) with coke-raconteur Pusha T of Clipse, who spits over a track that plays like a nightmare-ensuring lullaby: "I seen the coldest of winters / Mountains of snow / Made fiends tremor." \nDespite other highlights such as the time-signature-bending "Dear Lord," which finds Ross dealing with his faith, and plucked-guitar groove "Simple and Plain," there's nothing on Rise to Power that matches the bare-knuckled swagger of the Boss's more recent hits. Regardless, the album should slake fans until the release of Trilla -- yes, that is a play on "Thriller" -- due out later this year from Def Jam. Maybe we'll finally get some snow this winter.
The album cover for 50 Cent's third studio release shows the rapper immersed in thought, clutching his forehead, as if contemplating the deeper meaning of life. That image, combined with the album's title, suggests Curtis might provide an intimate glimpse into the man behind the mogul. Nope.\nCurtis offers up the same old bump and grind as his first two albums and calls upon the same muses: guns, money and women.\nTracks like "My Gun Go Off," "Fully Loaded Clip" and "Straight to the Bank" show that there are only so many ways of rapping about getting cash, banging chicks and killing haters. 50 tries to mix things up a little with the euphemism-heavy "Amusement Park," which harkens back to The Massacre's "Candy Shop." 50 tells ladies, "If you wanna ride the roller coaster/ Baby, come on and ride."\n"I Get Money" is as close as Curtis gets to replicating hits from past albums. In the first verse, he hits the nail right on the head: "You can call this my new shit/ But it ain't new though."\n50 flaunts the depth of his Rolodex on the album's seven collaboration tracks, calling in verses and beats from friends both new and old.\nThe most shameless is the Timbaland-produced, Timberlake-chorused "AYO Technology," which sounds like a poor man's "My Love." 50's delivery isn't nearly as smooth as T.I.'s, and he ends up sounding like an anachronism in Tim's futuristic world.\nThe obligatory Akon cameo is relatively painless in the thunderous thug anthem "I'll Still Kill." Crooner Robin Thicke lends his vocals on the cheese-ball ballad "Follow My Lead," on which 50 shows his softer side: "If you act like a bitch, I call you a bitch, then hang up/ But I'll probably call you right back." And Eminem reliably offers fart noises and rhymes about poop on "Peep Show."\nIt's not until the 14th track that Curtis finally heats up. R&B queen Mary J. Blige lends her pipes to the soulful "All of Me," which is by far the album's highlight and one of the few tracks where 50 isn't trying to justify his thug. "Fire" brings together old friend Dr. Dre, who produced Get Rich or Die Tryin', and fellow G-Unit member Young Buck for Curtis's best club track.\n50 Cent has always prided himself more on his business savvy than his artistic adventurousness, earning his iconic status not through innovative music, but a franchise that includes movies, books, video games and even bottled water. \nAs a result, Curtis sounds less like a musical work and more like the next installation in a line of merchandise with the "50" brand name on it.