[MP3] Nicki Minaj – Pills N Potions

Just as people were celebrating Nicki Minaj‘s return to making street hop with “Chiraq” comes this first official single from her forthcoming album, . It sounds like one of those horrible radio anthems latter era Eminem has gotten in the habit of making mixed with Rihanna (it’s apparently produced by pop producer maestro, Dr. Luke so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised) which is to say, as you can probably deduce, I don’t really dig this too tough.

[MP3] The Knocks – Move Me

I don’t really check mainstream media channels a ton now that I don’t get paid to so I had no idea these guys, who I used to post stuff from on some whatevs ish just ‘cos I liked it, are actually somewhat of a big deal on pop radio and beyond the blog world. Talked about being trapped in the bubble!

[MP3] Nikki Yanofsky – Necessary Evil

Barely out of her teens Canadian jazz-pop star, Nikki Yanofsky has long been a staple of local Toronto station, JAZZ-FM but she is swinging for the crossover fences with her latest album, that just dropped.

If I had to make a comparison, her big voice over jazzy pop with hip-hop beats sound on this new album is reminiscent of Christina Aguilera‘s Back to Basics album that featured production by Gangstarr’s DJ Premier. It starts with opening track, “Something News” (hit the jump to hear it) which kind of actually isn’t, except maybe in the context of her using the sample of “Soul Bossa Nova” which is already well known from its use as the Austin Powers movie theme music and as the main sample powering 90s Canadian hip-hop act, Dream Warriors‘ hit single, “My Definition Of A Boombastic Jazz Style”.

But I guess it kind of makes sense for her to use it as she has apparently become a protege of sorts of the legendary Quincy Jones, who wrote and performed the original “Soul Bossa Nova”, in his Global Gumbo All-Stars collective as I learned at his amazing Q&A Panel with JAZ-FM’s Russ Porter at CMW a couple weekends ago.

But my mind was really blown when she sampled Dr. Dre‘s “What’s The Difference” on the album’s title track second single, “Necessary Evil.” (note: the album is actually called Little Secret, not sure why I thought it was Necessary Evil??) I’m pretty sure no Canadian A&R made that creative decision, unless he was this kind of Canadian A&R guy! (I bet Blu Cantrell is probably kind of tight too though, huh?) Overall though, while not a bad effort, I might have liked this album better when Melanie Fiona made it five years ago!

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[MP3] Lorde – Royals (DJ Mensa Dougie Edit)

I don’t like to post a lot of mash-ups on the site but this one by local Toronto DJ & Producer, DJ Mensa, while pretty simple, is also pretty effective.

[MP3] Haim – Forever (Giorgio Moroder Remix) / If I Could Change Your Mind (Cerrone Funk Mix)

These came remixes came out a few weeks back which is ancient history in blog historical terms but, while I never got around to posting them, Giorgio Moroder and Cerrone are such massive legends in the electronic & dance music game that these have to be posted still anyway!