samuel: timbaland remix.

d/l: TIMBALAND f/ KERI HILSON & D.O.E. - Way I Are (Samuel remix) (YSI)

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I am a sucker for the "Woo! Yeah!" sample. My love stems from my pre-puberty days spent shaking to "It Takes Two", but it has expanded to allow me to appreciate such recent jams as Ciara's "Make It Last Forever". If a song includes the "Woo! Yeah!" sample, I will probably listen to it. Feel free to test that theory.

Samuel's latest remix of Timbaland's "that's so 2007" international hit "Way I Are" uses said sample. In fact, it is essentially the basis of this entire remix. It's entirely simple, but I already told you-- I am a sucker for this sample.

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- site it - hype it -

medina: number man.

d/l: MEDINA - Number Man (YSI)

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It's not every day that the words "produced by Timbaland" pop up in my inbox, but that isn't the only selling point Medina has going for him. In fact, Timbaland's production is the least interesting thing about "Number Man".

I'll be honest. When most rappers pull the "my life was so hard" card, it can come off as entirely trite and "been there, heard that". Perhaps that is a problematic statement to make, but I fully acknowledge that their lives were legitimately hard. That doesn't mean they should be rapping about them. With that said, there's something really sincere about Medina's flow as he states, "Hate my mother for making me sleep in a shelter or dwell in the basement of an abandoned hotel. Why she do this shit? Locked in a mental ward, afraid she'd kill herself, they made her take out her shoelaces." Just try to ignore that those particular lines of the song don't rhyme at all. Ignore that this is (at best) a mediocre Timbaland beat. Ignore that the chorus leaves something to be desired. But please don't ignore that Medina kills it on this track when it comes to sheer flow.
Rumor has it that he's being chased by a few labels including Dr. Dre's Aftermath, and has already worked on tracks with Timbaland, Polow Da Don, Nappy Roots, Dr. Dre, Mark Batson, and (for serious press release?) Carlos Santana. On his space, you can here "The Yeah Yeah's", his latest rock-tinged single that will go over well with the Gym Class Heroes crowd without being as annoying as Gym Class Heroes. Did I mention that it will appear on the Sex and the City soundtrack? Because it will. I'm a little uncertain about this whole rock vibe he has going on, but I'll be rooting for Medina all the way to the top either way.

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bonus track: MEDINA - Even Superman Dies (YSI)
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- space it -

mocha: anyway, you can catch me any day.

MOCHA was a rapper signed to Missy Elliott's Goldmind Inc. record label.

She first appeared in 1998 on the remix to "Hit Em Wit Da Hee", in which Timbaland sampled Bjork before I was sensible enough to listen to her. The first time I really noticed her to the point of being like, "Damn, who is that chick?", was on Nicole Wray's 1998 single "Make It Hot". After that, I coincidentally* kept running into her verses on CDs I purchased-- Timbaland's "What Cha Know About This" off Tim's Bio, Gina Thompson's "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" off the soundtrack of the same name, Destiny's Child's "Stimulate Me" off the LIFE soundtrack, DJ Clue's "I Like Control" off The Professional, and Sporty Thievz's "Even Cheaper" off the single for their their TLC-response "No Pigeons". I owned most of her discography without even trying.** I didn't know anything about her solo album until my 8th-grade-girlfriend mentioned that she had a song featured on a Hot 97 mixtape. I was like, "Yo! You got to burn that shit for me!" She never did. Remember when we used to burn CDs to share music regularly? I do. And it makes me feel old. I'm totally not old enough to feel old.

In any case, I came across the song my 8th-grade-girlfriend once mentioned several months ago. In fact, I came across a few more songs that were recorded for her album Bella Mafia***. I was super excited.

While these came from an era when Timbaland's production was a bit more fun, they're surprisingly mediocre. "Runnin Shit" has a corny cartoon-esque beat that Mocha totally pulls off with her attitude, but it is accompanied by an incredibly lame chorus by Timbaland. There's something wrong with "Talkin Crazy" that I can't quite put my finger on. I think the beat may be a bit too powerful for Mocha's delivery. "Mardi Gras" sounds like a second-rate version of Eve's first single "What Yall Want".

After all those years of anticipation, I was kind of disappointed. At least this provides a bit of closure about why her album was never released. Since her rap career has dwindled, Mocha has had two books published. Her first novel Cash Money includes the following description-- Tanita and Freeda, best friends caught up in a game of men and fast money, struggle with a decision that could end their friendship and possibly even their lives. I totally want to read it.

dl: MOCHA f/ TIMBALAND - Runnin Shit (YSI)
dl: MOCHA f/ MISSY ELLIOTT - Mardi Gras (YSI)
dl: MOCHA - Talkin Crazy (YSI)
(late 90s, early 00s hip-hop)
- wik it -

* I say "coincidentally" because it was all entirely coincidence. While I totally liked Mocha (a lot), I never made any effort to buy albums she was on.

** I actually remember consistently holding Nicole Wray's CD in a Sam Goody and second-guessing whether I should buy it. I bought Total's 1998 album for my other 8th-grade-girlfriend and almost kept it for myself. These two purchases would put me four songs away from having all 11 songs of Mocha's pre-solo material. I don't know why I felt the need to put this information on the internet.

*** Yes. This was the title of a Lil Kim album two years later.

gotdion: missy elliott remixes.

GOTDION's contributions to Masta & GotdioN present: Missy Elliott provide a tricky bunch for critique.

As a huge Missy Elliott fan, I was hesitant to listen to these tunes. GotdioN and Masta aren't just mixing Missy...They're mixing classic Missy from Supa Dupa Fly to This Is Not a Test! (any representation from The Cookbook is strangely missing).

I can't say that I was wrong to hesitate. On the majority of this album, the instrumentals have a tendency to overpower the vocals. While Masta and GotdioN are both influenced by Timbaland, their styles of production don't necessarily work on Missy. Of course, there are exceptions.

GotdioN's version of "Hot Boyz" transforms it from boring mid-tempo R&B jam to an apocalyptic electro-rock masterpiece. The frenetic beat suits Missy and Eve on their mission to acquire these so-called "hot boys", but the song isn't entirely perfect. While a repeated chorus of "keep it movin" literally helps to keep the song moving along, an added verse by Elephant Man sounds entirely out of place. Who invited Elephant Man to this party? Not I. He is not a hot boy. And he certainly did not have what I wanted.

I'm pretty sure that GotdioN wasn't really going for an end of the world/battleground vibe on this project. However, his mix of "4 My People" makes me feel as if an army of Missy Elliotts is marching towards me, ready to destroy me if I don't join their band of party people. When Missy screams "YO, I'M ON FIRE!", I'm convinced that she may actually be on fire. Admittedly, it's a little creepy.

d/l: MISSY ELLIOTT f/ EVE & ELEPHANT MAN- Hot Boyz (GotdioN mix) (YSI)
d/l: MISSY ELLIOTT- 4 My People (YSI)
(apocalyptic Missy Elliott remixes)
- dlo it - space it - hype it -

BLOGWATCH: La New Shit brings us an Sta remix of Yelle. Sta himself has a new mixtape on his own blog. The Rich Girls are Weeping shows some love for Lil Mama's "Lip Gloss" and gives us a taste of her remix of Rihanna's "Umbrella".

unreal: can you get to heaven.

UNREAL took a random TRL freestyle from Nelly Furtado and created a relatively catchy and listenable song out of it.

Despite the fact that "Can You Get To Heaven" was produced with nothing but shitty headphones, a computer, and a MIDI keyboard...the shit sounds relatively legitimate. This created a bit of conflict on message boards when people started thinking that this was a new or unreleased song by Ms. Furtado, but honestly...do you really think she'd pop out a song about getting slurpees at 7-11? But then again, did you really think she'd pop out a song about being promiscuous? Answer to both questions: Probs not.

Think he shouldn't quit his day job? Well, he hasn't. Unreal is just an 18 year old-- "going out, working, and playing video games". Music is just his hobby. With that said, he's damn good for just being a part-time musician with a Timbaland infatuation. People who admire Timbaland tend to create poor carbon-copy imitations of his beats, but I've recently been encountering a good amount of producers who transcend above this.

Beyond "Can You Get To Heaven", I'm really loving the "Madman" beat he has bumping on his space. Also, he has some amazing remixes of the two most over-played songs of last summer-- "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley and "Promiscuous" by Nelly Furtado. By amazing, I mean that you don't have to throw back a whole box of Franzia before you find yourself dancing to these. Both of them have a little bit of that fresh '80s revival vibe that the world seems to be feeling right now.

Check out his remix compilation for more mixes, including Busta Rhymes, Yung Joc, Rich Boy, Jeannie Ortega, Slim Thug, Justin Timberlake, Sebastian, 50 Cent, Cassie, and Clipse.

d/l: NELLY FURTADO- Can You Get To Heaven (YSI)
d/l: GNARLS BARKLEY- Crazy (Unreal remix) (YSI)
d/l: NELLY FURTADO- Promiscuous (Unreal remix) (YSI)
(remixxxes)
- space it -

BLOGGER NOTE: The "purple people" are all fired up because of a wikipedia article with a rumored tracklisting for the next album by The Pussycat Dolls which states that they will have a song featuring Prince. (Discovered from someone who linked to my very early post on Eden's Crush.)

BLOGWATCH: Who The Bloody Hell Are They? has a new remix by Miami Horror. Fluxblog talks about a new UGK track featuring Outkast, produced by Three 6 Mafia. Not a blog, but Wu Tang Corp hooks us up with 215 unreleased/rare Wu Tang Clan tracks, link courtesy of Spine Magazine.

samuel: remix of timbalands "give it to me".

d/l: TIMBALAND f/ MS. FURTADO & J.T.- Give It To Me (Samuel remix) (YSI)
(relatively minimal mix of Timbo's latest single)
- site it - hype it / pre-order it - site it - space it - hype it - wik it -

To be entirely upfront, I was never feeling the original mix of this song. Despite my supposed hiatus, I couldn't resist posting this remix of it after I got word about it from Samuel. I guess I'm just a sucker for supporting artists that I like...and this mix is super-addictive like some Lays potato chip shit. I'll be humming this beat in my sleep.

NOTE: Samuel now enters the IT'S THE MONEY SHOT!! club house.

aaliyah: happy birthday

DOWNLOAD: PLAYA- Birthday
(strikingly eerie ballad off of Tim's Bio: Life from da Basement)
- buy it - buy aaliyah's music -

I was going to post Aaliyah's song "John Blaze" off of the same album, but I thought this song by Playa was strangely appropriate for the occasion. Despite the fact that this is a love song, the instrumental is rather ominous, hinting at sadness or mourning. Perhaps I'm reading in to it too much? Today, Aaliyah would have been 28 years old. In her short life, she made an incredible impact on young females in pop music from Ciara and beyond. Bless her.

kele le roc: so don't give away...my song

KELE LE ROC adds new depth to my last post. First off, she is a huge Prince fan. Secondly, she has accused Justin Timberlake of stealing the chorus for his hit song "My Love" from her song of the same title "My Love (Garage 10 Below Mix)". Oh snap.

This may be a stretch, but doesn't this coincidentally echo the story of Effie White in Dreamgirls? Sorry. Golden Globes are still on the mind.

Returning to Kele Le Roc, her animosity towards Timberlake is illustrated further by the posting of Mad TV's "Like I Am You" on her page. The video accuses Justin of copying the style of another of Kele's idols, Michael Jackson.

Unfortunately, Justin isn't the only person who has been accused of biting other artists in the recent news. His buddy Timbaland, master of turning obscure samples into hits, has been accused of using many aspects of Finnish musician Janne Suni's song "Acid Jazzed Evening" for Nelly Furtado's "Do It". To make matters worse, Timbaland also submitted the beat in 2005 as an "original ringtone" called "Block Party". You can watch videos featuring the clips here and here, or check out the original sound-files on somethingawful.

Frankly, I'm not sure how I feel about either of these instances. As someone pointed out on the somethingawful forums, "There's a saying in the music industry that the only true copyright for a piece of music is to make it famous before someone else does. Sorry." Sure.

It's also clear that Timbaland is a crazy sampler, particularly evident in Czar's samples of the week at The Thomas Crown Chronicles. However, in most cases, Timbaland gives credit to the original artist. You can't get away with sampling Stevie Wonder without paying the checks. The debate here is that Mr. Mosley supposedly took a track that was available for free to download and used it to produce his own "original" work. It's a tricky situation. I am conflicted inside because even if Timbaland did steal the song, I only lose an ounce of respect for him. An ounce.

But fuck. I'd be pissed if he stole my shit. Pissed.

On the other side of things, I would like to hear Kele's original version before I make the judgment that Justin stole her arrangement. Currently, she has made a version of her song with the original chorus over Timbaland's instrumental available, and I'm not sure how much it proves just yet. Have a listen to it, and decide for yourself.

DOWNLOAD: KELE LE ROC f/ MISTA MILL- My Love
(R&B jam sung over "original" instrumental by Timbaland)
- buy it - space it - site it -

DOWNLOAD: TIMBALAND- Block Party (ringtone)
just added!

Before I get accused of biting myself, let me give major credit to Beauty n the Beat for this post.

BLOGWATCH: Arjan Writes brings us a song by Alice Smith, who (as he says) "can solely rely on her raw talent as opposed to being dependent on Timabland-inspired big beat productions that are ruling the U.S. charts." Not a good day for Timbo it seems...On a different note, Funky16corners has a new mix up featuring Otis Redding, Betty Harris, and much more. Bigstereo has (funky fresh) bandanas for sale!

skillz: rap it up 2002-2006.

EDIT: If you are looking for the "2007 Rap-Up" as well as active links for the rap-ups from 2002-2007, please see this post!
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SKILLZ has been on the hip-hop scene since around 1992, but has yet to become a household name despite brushing shoulders with some of hip-hop's hottest (and not so hottest) stars.

You may know him by his previous name "Mad Skillz", changed with his 2002 LP I Ain't Mad No More. Perhaps you've heard one of his freestyles, or you remember him from his verse on the remix of Aaliyah's 1998 hit "Are You That Somebody?" when he talks about others crying like the baby in the background.

If that doesn't ring a bell, perhaps you have heard his words...but not his voice. Skillz is notorious as a ghostwriter for the hip-hop community. In his 2000 single "Ghostwriter" he claims to have written hits for Foxy Brown, Jermaine Dupri, Ma$e, and Diddy. If you've ever heard any of those artists rap, you'd understand why they need a ghostwriter. Diddy is the only artist who has acknowledged that Skillz has written for him in the past.

With that out of the way, let's talk about his rap-ups. Skillz has been lyrically re-capping current events in hip-hop, R&B, pop culture, and beyond since 2002. The 2006 rap-up includes such prized lines as "Gnarls Barkley dropped 'Crazy' to the web on purpose, that song was everywhere even Foxy heard it" and "Nas said 'hip hop was dead' but northern cats spit all year tryin' to bring New York back. Yall need to lighten up son, get a hug. The only time New York came back was on Flavor of Love." He delivers his flow over Dr. Dre's instrumental for Jay-Z's "Lost Ones" referencing The Stealers, Eminem, Obie Trice, Dave Chapelle, Cam'ron, Jay-Z, Three Six Mafia, Terrell Owens, Shawnna, DMX, T.I., Yung Joc, Nitti, Tom Cruise, Dick Cheney, myspace, DJ Webstar & Young B's "Chicken Noodle Soup", Russell & Kimora, Dallas Austin, youtube, Rick Ross, Rihanna, Christina Milian, Cool & Dre, Janet Jackson & Jermaine Dupri, Gnarls Barkley, Foxy Brown, Young Dro, Lil Kim, Cassie, LeToya, Wyclef, Ludacris, Ne-Yo, Bobby Brown & Whitney Houston, Kevin Federline & Britney Spears, Nas, New York of Flavor of Love, Snoop Dogg, Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, Lil Wayne & Baby, Mel Gibson, Playstation 3, Beyonce, Carmen Bryan, Unk, Michael Richards, Madonna, Justin Timberlake, J. Dilla, Gerald Levert, and others. All is tightly packaged into 4 minutes and 55 seconds of memories. Skillz keeps it real for the most part, showing props and dissing as necessary, but he throws in a tiny bit of gossip to remind us what had people talking.

I don't really intend to compile a "best of 2006" list, so this will have to do.

DOWNLOAD: SKILLZ- 2006 Rap-Up

DOWNLOAD: SKILLZ- 2005 Rap-Up
DOWNLOAD: SKILLZ- 2004 Rap-Up
DOWNLOAD: SKILLZ- 2003 Rap-Up
DOWNLOAD: SKILLZ- 2002 Rap-Up

BONUS TRACK: SKILLZ- Hip Hop Died

BUY Confessions of a Ghostwriter

BLOGWATCH: Cable & Tweed pays tribute to the great musicians we have lost this past year. The Blue Walrus has all the remixes you need to pretend you are a huge Hot Chip fan. I AM FUEL, YOU ARE FRIENDS promotes giving in the spirit of the season while bringing us back to "We Are the World". Lil Mike's Last Known Thoughts & Random Revelations gives you a complete listing of New Years gigs to check out.
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EDIT: If you are looking for the "2007 Rap-Up" as well as active links for the rap-ups from 2002-2007, please see this post!

ms. jade-- whatever happened to...?: funky fresh dressed edition.

Timbaland's Beat Club Records was created ca. 1999/2000, but around 2004 the label dissolved. This forced most of the artists to venture alone into the music industry for a new home. You may remember some of these artists. Hell, some of them may still be playing on your radio. Some of them.

Bubba Sparxxx ("Ugly"): Despite a mediocre debut and his critically acclaimed, commercially ignored sophomore slump, Mr. Sparxxx is getting some radio play with "Ms. New Booty" and "Heat It Up" thanks to Big Boi of Outkast's Purple Ribbon Label.

Petey Pablo ("Raise Up"): Petey was last heard on Ciara's song "Goodies". He also had a minor hit with the Lil-Jon produced single "Freek-a-Leek". Currently, Mr. Pablo is signed to Death Row Records and will be releasing his third album Same Eyez on Me in late 2006 or early 2007.

Tweet ("Oops, Oh My"): Due to mismanagement and promotional problems over at Atlantic Records, Tweet's second album It's Me Again did not do as well as it should have. Tweet has been working on collaborations with Monica, Jessica Betts, Fantasia Barrino, and possibly Chili of TLC. Her new album will feature a duet with Whitney Houston and production by Missy Elliott, Timbaland, Dre & Vidal (Usher's "Caught Up"), Kanye West, and possibly Rich Harrison (Beyonce's "Crazy in Love").

Sebastian (featured on "All Yall"): Sebastian is actually Timbaland's little brother Garland Mosley. In his early career, Garland was a ghostwriter for Timbaland. He has never released an album, but was featured on several songs. You can actually find him over at the space.

Ms. Jade ("Feel This Girl", "Big Head"): Hailing from Philadelphia, Ms. Jade struggled to enter the rap game because of comparisons to fellow Philly native Eve. By sheer luck and hard work, she was signed to Beat Club Records. Once she got there, she built herself upon respect for her skills (not her body) stating, "I’ve never been the type of person to fit in. I’m not into the sexual bandwagon. I want somebody to listen to my music because they like it, not because they think I’ve got nice breasts and a big butt. I want them to like my music because I’m nice. It’s as simple as that. I’m not a copycat. There’s not another female rapper like me. I’m nice, so respect it.” She hoped to land movie roles, support her family, and become a fashion mogul...but apparently her "niceness" was not enough. Though her album produced three singles, included a collaboration with Jay-Z, and led to a tour with Nelly Furtado & Ludacris...Ms. Chevon Young essentially fell off the planet around 2002.

Google her. Wikipedia her. There is no information about where Ms. Jade went off to. Did she decide to make use of her beauty school diploma or is she back in Philly peddling fake Gucci bags? Though Ms. Jade never produced a Top 40 single, her flow was critically acclaimed by both the industry and the streets. If she was so determined to make it in the game, why isn't she still making music with or without Timbaland? On that note, if Timbaland once said, "You don't understand, I didn't like no female rappers until I heard you"...then why hasn't he picked her back up for his new label, The Mosley Music Group? Is she still alive? Is she still rapping? Did she ever exist?

Call home Chevon. We're worried about you!

LAST HEARD: MISSY ELLIOTT f/ MS. JADE- Funky Fresh Dressed
LAST SEEN: Video for "Gossip Folks" with "Funky Fresh Dressed" interlude

NOSTALGIA: MS. JADE- Feel This Girl
NOSTALGIA: MS. JADE- She's a Gangsta
NOSTALGIA: Watch music video for "Ching Ching" featuring Nelly Furtado & Timbaland

BUY Girl Interrupted, BUY Under Construction

BLOGWATCH: This is a looooong overdue shoutout to shitparade for Max's awesome June DANCEPARTYSCENESTER MIX.

CORRECTIONS: "Big White Spaceship" by Pharrell Williams is not actually from his upcoming album, but is an early track produced by a collaboration between Timbaland, Pharrell, Magoo, and another individual. The name of their production group was Surrounded By Idiots. In fact, several of the tracks on the leaked copy of In My Mind (on some file-sharing networks) are NOT new. "Maybe" is actually a song by Pharrell's group N*E*R*D off of their album Fly or Die.

summer album preview: loose.

Nelly Furtado's new material has gained her titles ranging from slut to sellout to comeback queen. The lead single in the US, "Promiscuous", is in heavy rotation on video channels and radio. Some are shocked by her new sexy, "hip-hop" sound and image. Some are shocked by the fact that she's working with Timbaland...

These people are idiots.

Okay, that's a bit harsh...You may be among those people. If you are, let me educate you dearie. Ms. Furtado and Timbaland have collaborated as early as 2001 on the "Turn Off the Lights" remix. She was featured on Missy Elliott's "Get Ur Freak On" remix (2001) and Ms. Jade's "Ching Ching"...both produced by Timbo and recorded a year or two after her debut album was recorded. They're not strangers. On top of that, she has collaborated with The Roots, Jurassic 5, and Swollen Members. She even experimented with rapping and spoken word poetry on her first album. Nelly Furtado and the hip-hop genre aren't strangers either.

With that said, let's address the sexy image. Nelly has recently split with her husband. Quite simply, the girl is doing her thang and letting...um...Loose. You may be surprised to hear that the material of the album isn't all sex-charged pop. "In God's Hands" addresses the end of her relationship with her husband, "Afraid" is a classic soul-searching Furtado song that just happens to have a Timbaland beat, and "What I Wanted" showcases the same acoustic-guitar bearing Nelly who sang about birds. The album maintains Nelly's power of making every song a cultural and emotional explosion. It's the same Nelly we know and love (or hate), but she's back with a bit more...uh...flava.

And she sort of needs it. While her debut album Whoa, Nelly! managed to push two million off the shelves in the US, the follow-up, Folklore, only pushed a quarter of that off the shelves. This was partially due to issues with the record company and lack of promotion, as the album was minorly successful on a global level ("Try" reached #1 in Mexico) and embraced by her die-hard fans. In any case, Nelly had to switch things up if she wanted to keep making music. Timbaland was the man to help her do it.

Random interruption: Have you heard that Timbaland and Bjork are collaborating? I hope more than anything that this is true.

The track that stood out most for me was "Do It", mostly because it is a dance anthem strangely between two of the album's slower, more introspective tracks. "Do It" is sure to be compared to the style of Gwen Stefani's Love Angel Music Baby, a much more accurate comparison than Paris Hilton's "Stars are Blind" (which is reminiscent of Gwen, but on the No Doubt album, Rocksteady). The straight-up 80s feel of this track will likely enable it to be adopted as an underground dance party gem.

Another surprise on the album is the exciting alternate conclusion to the UK single "Maneater", which brings in the genius Mr. Mosley chanting "I been around the world, never seen a girl like this."

In less words, Loose is a strange collection of songs that are sure to gain a new collection of fans without straying too far from the formula that gained her the old ones. Will the original fans embrace it? Honestly...I don't even think that matters at this point.

DOWNLOAD: NELLY FURTADO- Do It
DOWNLOAD: NELLY FURTADO- Maneater (album version)

PRE-ORDER Loose, out on June 20th

BLOGWATCH: The big blogs are catching on to Tigarah...check out "Fake Out" and "Roppongi-Dori" at bigstereo.

destroyer: shat on the radio.

DESTROYER: Since the mixtape, I've been posting a lot of pop & hip-hop, so I decided I'd switch it up for a minute. The latest effort from Dan Bejar, Destroyer's Rubies, is on the shelf next to St. Elsewhere, Rabbit Fur Coat, and Silent Shout as what are, in my opinion, the best albums of 2006 so far. With that said, it'd be a shame if I didn't refer you over to i (heart) music to download the Radio 3 session the band did last month.

BONUS TRACK: DESTROYER- Students Carve Hearts Out of Coal

BUY This Night
BUY Destroyer's Rubies

If Dan Bejar's vocals and cryptic poetry aren't quite up your alley, may I suggest a cover of Gnarls Barkley done by none other than the newly sexified Nelly Furtado? All I have to say is that this girl is quite far from her days of being a bird that didn't know where her home was. To sum it up-- Sex sells, and we're buying it. Her lead single off the new album Loose, "Promiscuous", scored her the first US number one single of her career thanks to a little help from sir Timbaland, the self-proclaimed Gandalf of hip-hop. With all that said, she recently did an acoustic cover of another song that's topping the charts right now. It's been described as "hauntingly beautiful". If not that, it's certainly a nice break from the original.

DOWNLOAD: NELLY FURTADO- Crazy

BONUS TRACK: NELLY FURTADO- Maneater (UK single, also produced by Timbaland)

PRE-ORDER Loose, officially dropping June 20th