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single-phile: The latest singles, dissected and discussed

A savvy businessman, an industry player with an ear for up-and-coming talent, and, of course, one of the most quick-witted, silver-tongued emcees in the game, Jay-Z is many things -- and most of them are synonymous with hip-hop credibility (no matter how many times he "retires"). But Beyonce's (alleged) hubby is also one of the music industry's best and brightest pop stars, a label that has not so often been synonymous with hip-hop credibility. Which brings us to another of Hova's claims to fame: perhaps more than any other contemporary emcee (with the exception of Kanye, who helped orchestrate many of Jay's hits), he has managed to strike an impressive balance between chart-topping pop viability and hip-hop respectability, to prove over and over again that the twain shall meet (and that they weren't really all that disparate to begin with). This is a man who knows his way around a hook -- and isn't afraid to use it to reel you into his flow. On this week's single-phile, we take a listen to some of Jay-Z's biggest pop songs, including several high-profile guest shots and his latest, "Run This Town," off his upcoming The Blueprint 3.

Ah, 1999, we hardly knew ye: we were so caught up in preparing for the looming millennial ball drop that we dropped the ball on savoring the waning days of a thousand-year stretch that began with the founding of Norway and ended, as usual, with Dick Clark holding court in Times Square, as I'm pretty sure he'd done every year since around the time of the Norman Conquest. (The big difference at 1999's New Year's Eve parties was that people seemed to be listening to a lot more Prince, for whatever reason.)

Blame the Y2K bug for our inattention. But at least we danced. Oh, how we danced. Basement Jaxx, Underworld, the Chemical Brothers, Moby and other relics of the rave era were enjoying proper pop credibility. Dr. Dre was "Still D.R.E.," while Britney was, well, still Britney, but without the "b*tch." Le Tigre proved that riot grrrls were down with the disco. And the underground was teeming with activity, from U.K. garage to minimal techno. Relive it all with our five-hour playlist of the best dance tracks that 1999 had to offer. Don't you deserve a break from the "oughts"? Thought so. Check a sampling below, and get the whole thing here at Playlist Central.

From left: Nathaniel Motte, Sean Foreman

Colorado krunk superstars 3OH!3 have been on a collision course for success since an unforgettable performance on the Denver stop of 2007’s Vans Warped Tour inked them a spot playing every date of the tour in 2008. The same year, they signed to Photo Finish Records and released their debut album, Want. In the past two months, they’ve headlined the entire Warped Tour, and most recently, their debut single, "Don’t Trust Me," has gone platinum, becoming the No. 1 single in the U.S. Behind the aggression of heavy bass drops and Lil’ John-influenced beats, 3OH!3 bring humor to the rap game with line after line of infectious, tongue-in-cheek rhymes that have people hooked from coast to coast. The band took a break from the chaos that is Warped Tour and sat down with Rhapsody to discuss rumors about touring with Barack Obama and what it is like to have a No. 1 single.

Jamie Lidell

What do hypersoul crooner Jamie Lidell, futuristic beatsmith Flying Lotus and psychedelic math-rockers Battles have in common? Aside from their shared penchant for turning traditional forms inside out, and the ability of all three artists to combine experimental-music rigor with refreshing good cheer, they all make their homes on Warp, the iconic U.K. label that turns 20 this year. Despite a roster heavy on electronic agents provocateur like Aphex Twin and Autechre, no single sound dominates Warp's catalog, which ranges from bleepy electronica to mind-bending hip-hop to smart, snappy rock 'n' roll. Here are 10 Warp artists you need to hear now.

Once upon a time, shotguns were not regularly considered a musical instrument. That's changed somewhat in the two decades, since gangsta rap took hold -- in fact, one of last year's biggest pop hits (M.I.A's "Paper Planes") used a gunshot for one of its most memorable hooks. So while there's plenty of violent hip-hop below, that's not all there is -- a few of these songs date back to the '50s and '60s, some task drummers for the gun sounds, and the playlist starts and ends in the Wild West. In all cases, standing out of the line of fire is strictly advised.
 

Is it just us, or is LMFAO's "I'm in Miami B*tch" a whole lot like the Lonely Island's "I'm on a Boat" -- except not as funny and not, frankly, as funky? But the QWERTY-loving gag-rap duo and their new album, Party Rock, got us thinking about other occasions where funk has been put into the service of humor, unwittingly or no. Featuring tracks from the likes of Blowfly, Too Short, Eddie Murphy, DJ Assault and, uh, Leonard Nimoy, this playlist takes in filthy banter, faux-gangsta boasting, good-natured absurdism and (just for good measure) everyone's favorite dancing-banana meme. Oh, and it's totally NSFW, as though you hadn't figured that out already. Listen to selected tracks below, and get the whole playlist here.

Irony Doesn't Kill People, Curmudgeons Do
Being allergic to most things ironic, I half-expected to get some kind of rash from rubbing up too close to Guns Don't Kill People, Lazers Do, Diplo and Switch's kinda-sorta concept album about a one-armed commando from Jamaica named Major Lazer. (It's all very Gorillaz meets, oh, I don't know, Dr. Alimantado or something, or Rex the Dog meets rockers uptown.) But the record's actually kind of awesome. The first track alone features surf guitar; horse whinneys and clip-clopping hooves; Nokia ringtones; cash-register bells; a hyperactive Santigold loop; and gruff, absurdist chat from Mr. Lex. The album's first half offers a solid stretch of dancehall bangers and earnest lovers' rock; Major Lazer achieve genius with "Baby," a 67-second sketch featuring the roly-poly-voiced Prince Zimboo waxing philosophical to a newborn. (The baby has "built-in Auto-Tune," wouldn't you know.) For all the goofiness, Diplo and Switch flex considerable muscle with tracks like the supercolliding "Anything Goes" and the martial, minimalist "Pon De Floor." To make the latter beat, one imagines the producers having rigged up a Whac-a-Mole game with those toy cans that moo when turned upside down. As The Hudsucker Proxy's Norville Barnes would say, "You know, for kids."

Believe it or not, the year hits the six-months-gone mark this week. And while there's no point in claiming these are the absolute best singles of the first half of 2009 (left "Boom Boom Pow" and "Poker Face" off, for instance, figuring you already know what they sound like), they're still 25 really good ones. Lots of rap, lots of country, lots of soul. Not a ton of "rock", though -- maybe because most of the non-rock rocks just fine.

As individuals, Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, The Nightwatchman) and Boots Riley (The Coup) have caused quite a commotion. Together, as Street Sweeper Social Club, they're a revolution unto themselves, mixing Riley's sociopolitical jibes, sardonic quips ("poverty has just gone platinum") and fist-pumping commands with Morello's hyper-twitchy, pitch-shifting guitar rallies. We've chronicled the duo's journey from Rage and the Coup to this latest collaboration with loads of revolution-ready riffs and rhymes, exclusive video interviews and the band's debut album. Raise your fist and enjoy.

LISTEN: Play the debut album from Street Sweeper Social Club.

RADIO: Get inspired through speech and song with Rhapsody's Revolution Radio

WATCH: See Tom Morello talk about his favorite album with Rhapsody's On the Record.

LOOK: See Boots Riley talk about his favorite album with Rhapsody's On the Record.

RAGE: Rock out to Rage Against the Machine's entire catalog. REBEL: Feel the rhythm with all of The Coup's revolutionary music.

It’s not entirely accurate to say that DJ Quik is underrated. Ask any hip-hop head who are the best producers off the West Coast, and Quik usually occupies the second slot (behind the good Doctor, of course). But the Compton producer had the misfortune of emerging before the era of the superstar producer, and thus he’s not exactly a household name outside hip-hop circles, though he's not without his commercial accomplishments. He produced for Pac, Snoop, Dre and Jay-Z. And his own '91 debut, Quik Is the Name, is a seminal G-funk album and went platinum.

When Baltimore's Rye Rye guested on Blaqstarr's "Shake It to the Ground," it wasn't what she sang but how she sang it that grabbed people's attention. High-pitched invocations to "Shake it to the ground/ Move it, move it, move it, move it" bobbed in the air like helium balloons weighted by lead ballast, imbued with the curious energy of the Chipmunks sucking on sizzurp. (It didn't hurt that Blaqstarr's woozy production served the weirdest aspects of the adolescent rapper's gangsta hiccup.) Rye Rye's distinctive delivery found its match on "Bang," a match-up with M.I.A. in which Blaqstarr's samba-school breaks spread like a nest around the singers' nasal birdcalls, and now Buraka Som Sistema and DJ Sega have remixed the track to sound even loonier. The "Buraka Carnival Remix" offers an explosive mix of soca-inspired drums, carnival whistles and gleefully cheesy rave stabs, while their "WTF I Asked for a Kuduro Remix" is a rave-y slab of breakbeat hardcore mayhem. Sega, meanwhile, strips back the backing track to nothing but rough-cut snares, the better to isolate Rye Rye and M.I.A.'s a cappella face-off.

Bloc Party's Intimacy Remixed shows how hard it is to give an entire album the remix treatment. For a band whose albums hew to the classic longplayer format, the piecemeal approach to different sounds — melancholy IDM, adrenaline-heavy electro, tech-y drum 'n' bass — is too disjointed. Face it: in the age of playlists, no one is going to listen to this thing all the way through.

Franz Ferdinand (pictured above) take a different approach with Blood: rather than recruiting a dozen buzz names to sex up Tonight, the band invited album producer Dan Carey to give selected tracks the dub treatment. If the resulting kaleidoscope of free-floating guitars, vocal fragments and echo-chamber drums recalls Mad Professor's elegantly convoluted rework of Massive Attack's Protection, No Protection, that's not entirely coincidence: Carey apprenticed with the respected dub figurehead. Eschewing teenage kicks, Blood invites a less frenetic engagement with the music, extending even to cryptic titles offering little hint as to the versions' respective sources. From the opening squalls to the final, fading echo, it's a surprisingly immersing listen, even (or especially?) for those who aren't necessarily fans of the Glaswegan dandies' jagged guitar sound.

Mark Templeton's Inland similarly gathers its full head of steam from the combustion of rock instrumentation meeting bewildering studio treatments. Electric and acoustic guitars and keening vocal harmonies turn to a fine mist when poured through the Canadian producer's software sieve; it's easy to hear references to Fennesz and Grizzly Bear in the songs' psychedelic high-tide lines, marked by a foamy trail of droning harmonies and glitched artifacts. It's just the latest in a line of excellent releases from New York's Anticipate label, which is responsible for albums from Nicola Ratti, Morgan Packard, Klimek and Ezekiel Honig. From this kind of digitally degraded freak folk to explorations of the Rhodes keyboard at its most liquid, all those releases are well worth your time.

"Boom Boom Pow" by the Black Eyed Peas has now been the most popular song in the country for nine weeks and counting with no end in sight, making it the weirdest and most outlandish song to work up that kind of batting streak since ... what? "Hey Ya!" (nine weeks, 2003-2004)? "Macarena" (14 weeks, 1996)?? "Bette Davis Eyes" (nine weeks, 1981)??? Mighty impressive, either way, and what cannot be denied is that it is also the most shamelessly ridiculous and unabashedly catchy confection to hit the radio this year (only competition: "Poker Face"), and it's inescapable for primarily that reason.

So you know what? If you're not among the millions (if not billions) of human beings who've already surrendered to the song, you might as well. Otherwise, you'll certainly regret it 99 years from now (2108!), when you hear it on the intergalactic oldies station wired into the computer chip in your brain and it reminds you how life felt in the summer of 2009 the way no other song possibly could. And if that's not enough of a reason to embrace "Boom Boom Pow," here are 10 more.

The official start of BBQ season cries out for just the right soundtrack, and Concentric Pleasures abides. From the hits of '89 to hipster-friendly disco, let these playlists put the fun in your social function.

Dance Hits: 1989. Properly applied, nostalgia is to social functions as lighter fluid is to a fat stack of charcoal. (Caution: in both cases, a little goes a long way.) So kick things off with a trip 20 years back in time. In 1989, disco balls spun fast and loose, beaming with positive vibes. In the U.K., rave's "Second Summer of Love" was in full swing. New York tricksters like the Jungle Brothers spoke in native tongues. Chicago's electric acid test was bubbling hot, and for a brief moment hip-house looked ready to take over the world. From Soul II Soul and Neneh Cherry to Lil Louis and Ralphi Rosario, 1989 was a shining moment for dance music at its most fun -- and most inclusive. Even the hatingest hater can't be mad at these feel-good grooves, up to and including "Batdance."


Dance Hits: 1989

Norwegian Disco Bliss. Of course, if your backyard is full of beards, you can play it cool -- or play at cool -- with a little Scandinavian oonce-oonce. For some inscrutable reason, the best disco is coming out of Norway these days. (Maybe it has something to do with dancing under the midnight sun.) Artists like Lindstrom, Prins Thomas and Todd Terje turn boompty beats otherworldly and put a curious, psychedelic twist on acts like Bebel Gilberto, Franz Ferdinand and Jose Gonzalez. If you dig the DFA, you'll flip for these starry-eyed soul providers.


Norwegian Disco Bliss

Tosca: Hassle-Free Beats. Finally, when the grill's burned down and the intimacy is heating up, cozy up with Vienna's Tosca. The duo of Rupert Huber and Richard Dorfmeister (of Kruder & Dorfmeister) don't break any sound barriers on new album No Hassle, but that's precisely the point. They've retained cruising speed for 14 years now, across the hills and dells of dubby downtempo, and No Hassle opens up an even wider vista, with live instrumentation misted with a subtle electronic haze. Along with selections from the album, our overview of the band's back catalog surveys 44 tracks from these mood-music mainstays, including remixes by Faze Action, Beanfield and Lindstrom & Prins Thomas.


Tosca: Hassle-Free Beats

How appropriate is it that Eminem's new Relapse arrives midway between Mother's Day and Father's Day? Has the world of music ever seen a songwriter, in any genre, so obsessed with the day-to-day details of parenting -- both as a parent himself, and as somebody who was once parented? And Relapse -- featuring back-to-back numbers called "My Mom," about Marshall Mathers' mom, and "Insane," about Marshall Mathers' dad -- demonstrates that he's not yet ready to bury the theme in the back of his already-cluttered closet. In recognition of his preoccupation, then, here is a rundown of Eminem's more memorable koans on the topic -- many of which can serve as helpful advice for moms and dads everywhere!

May is early -- pace Janet Maslin -- but never too early to be looking for the year's summer anthem. Jamie Jones' "Summertime" (Crosstown Rebels) seems to be the growing consensus pick on deep-house dancefloors, but allow me to offer a suggestion from two decades ago.

A few days back, I stumbled across a YouTube clip of Pal Joey's "Party Time." I'd never heard it before -- had never, in fact, heard much of anything by the legendary New York house producer, despite my best intentions -- but I found myself instantly transported to a rooftop party in midsummer, where colored lights and paper lanterns dapple an elegantly wasted crowd that bounces in slo-mo to a viscous, underwater groove. If that sounds suspiciously like a beer commercial, blame my own imagination's failure in the face of a song this perfect. You want a summer anthem so radiant it makes you a little woozy? This is it.

Joey's music of the late '80s and early '90s reflects a moment in the city when genres were particularly fluid, and "Party Time," released around 1990, is no exception. The eponymous vocal sample comes from the disco cut "Sixty Nine," by Began Cekic's Brooklyn Express; the swirling chords and brittle drum programming root a style that has since been adopted in turn by everyone from Mood II Swing to Lawrence, Pepe Bradock to DJ Koze. And Joey's hip-hop roots, making pause tapes before graduating to razor and reel-to-reel, are evident in the track's rough-hewn feel; the voice leaps out of the mix like a spark jumping off a power-pole that's got a street-corner sound system jacked into it.

"Party Time" comes off the second EP in Joey's Loop D' Loop series, and we've got the whole lot for your listening pleasure. Launched somewhere around 1990 -- Discogs doesn't say, and neither does the artist's own discography -- the label ranges from minimalist drum-machine workouts and disco edits to deep-hued garage, flush with organs and saxophone. Reflecting Joey's professional work in hip-hop and soul, producing and remixing artists like Boogie Down Productions and Sade, midperiod releases veer in a similar direction, with the occasional spoken phrase punctuating slowed-down boom-bap breaks and looped soul samples that recall DJ Premier or old Mo' Wax. For the final half-dozen releases, Joey returns to a kind of tribally deep house that will sound familiar to fans of contemporary house music: "Santeria Samba Groove," from #17, sounds not unlike recent Ricardo Villalobos slowed to -8, while the dreamy, uptempo skip of "Computer Love" sounds a whole lot like what labels like Buzzin' Fly are going after these days.

House is big on "DJ tools" these days, and in many ways, that's just what these laid-back, pared-back constructions are. But there's a wealth of ideas jumping out of these loops. If the voice of KRS-One takes you back, the immediacy of the whole thing zaps you forward; it's precisely the tracks' off-kilter futurism that makes them so classic. Check a selection of tracks below, and listen to the whole series in this massive playlist.