T.I. – “Here We Go Again”

I know we’re supposed to have this policy of introducing readers to new artists, and T.I. clearly already has hit it big, but this new song produced Timbaland is without question the hottest track on my playlist. To be fair, I’m an unapologetic Timbo junkie that immediately falls in love with 80% of everything he’s ever done, but this particular track works on just about every level possible. T.I. knows how to rock a track, and he knows how to write a hook. Those two things linked up to a dirty, dirty beat makes for a real gem. Enjoy:

Finger Eleven – “Living In A Dream”

The new Finger Eleven record drops next month, but we’ve been given “Living In A Dream” to help tide us over. You must decide whether it’ll just arouse your appetite without bedding it back down or whether you really need a taste to keep yourselves from starving. Either way, you need to know this stomping, upbeat rock diddy is everything we’ve come to love from F11.

Mark Ronson featuring Ghostface Killah – “Lose It”

We were first introduced to Mark Ronson in 2007 when he teamed up with Lily Allen to put out “Oh My God,” which quietly became an FS favorite that year. Then came that sweet video for “Bang Bang Bang,” which rocked our asses equally hard, and now there’s “Lose It,” featuring one my favorite Wu-Tang Clansters in Ghostface Killah. The track takes about a minute or so to really warm up, but once Ghost hits the beat everything is right in the world. I’m starting to wonder if there’s a Ronson track out there that I wouldn’t like. Hmm.

The year 2000 was so ridiculously awesome.  There was Y2K, for one, then hanging chads and Almost-President Gore.  I even managed to graduate from an American high school that year and begin my higher education at an American university.  I was but a sapling in the dense rainforest of life, and it was right around then (thanks to Napster and a new, non-dial-up, high-speed university internet system known as a “T1”) that I began my decade of digging for good music beyond what was played on the radio.

In a way I guess you could say I was a Fresh Scout long before Fresh Scouts even existed.  I had recently fallen in love with Incubus and did all I could to get my paws on any and everything Brandon Boyd and the gang touched.  One of those projects was something called “Loud Rocks,” a gimmicky yet entertaining album crossing hip-hop and hard rock.  Some of the hottest rock groups of the era (which, humorously enough, includes Crazy Town) teamed up to remix tracks from some of hip-hop’s biggest guns.

As far as the album is concerned, this usually turned out pretty well.  Incubus, for example, teamed up with Big Pun to remix “Still Not a Player,” while other tracks included mash-ups of classic Wu-Tang Clan songs by teaming up with Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ozzy Osbourne, and System of a Down, as well as a redo of Xzibit’s “What U See is What U Get,” one of my all-time favorite rap songs made even more awesome by the talents of Sevendust.

Mobb Deep and Everlast do a rocky version of “Shook Ones” that’s just as soulful as the original but a little more energetic, and Dead Prez teams up with Static-X to do an interesting re-rendition of “Hip-Hop.”  Yeah, there’s the Crazy Town song and, inexplicably, something featuring Sugar Ray as the “rockers,” but it really was such a cool album.  Mixing these two genres back in 2000 was sort of a new thing, and this was a great example of how that experimentation could churn out some musical magic.

Plus, like I said, anything with Incubus gets my time, attention, and appreciation.  Those boys can do no wrong in my eyes, like a biological child that I’ve spent my life spoiling.  This didn’t sell a ton of records, but I love it all the same.

Oh, and I forgot about Elian Gonzales.  Remember him?  The cute Cuban boy who eventually got deported after a long, drawn-out custody battle?  That was awesome.  I miss 2000.

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