Ain’t No Other Cats Got Love For Me

The Beatles Vs. Hip Hop – I found this gem back when I was downloading every mash-up that I could find on Audiogalaxy, and this remains one of the finest and most inspired bootlegs that I’ve ever heard. This was apparently made by a producer/DJ called Phofo, who produced the majority of the last MC Paul Barman album. The backing track for this song is “Flying” by The Beatles, and it starts off with a snippet from Method Man’s verse from “Tear It Up,” leading into the chorus of Busta Rhymes’s “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See,” and the rest is from DMX and Drag-On’s “No Love 4 Me.”

Rhianna “Word Love” – I discovered this one while randomly downloading songs on Soulseek. I have no idea why I chose to download this song, I suppose that I just liked the taste of the person who had this in their folder, and I just went for it. It’s all a blur. Anyway, I listened to this yesterday, and….swoooooooooooooooooon. It’s amazing! The melody is gorgeous, the feeling is joyous, the rhythm and bass is sublime. You need this song in your life.

Lumidee “Never Leave You (Uh Oh, Uh Oh!)” I sought this out based on the rather insistent recommendation of several of the writers from the Spizzazzz blog. The song is built on this extremely spare backing track consisting almost entirely of a percussion loop that sounds hypnotic, but also very active and physical. There’s just a hint of bass, and there is a “uh oh, uh oh” chant that almost rivals the one in Beyonce Knowles’s “Crazy In Love.” It’s beautiful and haunting, and it makes a strong case for minimalism in pop music.