Black Star featuring Common - "Respiration (Dr. Luke Remix)" (mp3)
So the big news the other day was that the new #1 song in the country is Flo Rida's "Right Round," which I hadn't even heard or heard of before it broke iTunes sales records and topped the Hot 100. There's nothing remotely interesting about Flo Rida having a hit with a cheesy '80s hit interpolation, but I did find it interesting that the song was produced by Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald, who's best known for the constant stream of female pop guitar anthems by Kelly Clarkson/Pink/Avril Lavigne/Katy Perry/etc. And I thought it was funny that people are going to be kind of weirded out that he's now produced a hit rap song, when the first time I ever heard the guy's work was on a Mos Def and Talib Kweli remix single about 10 years ago.
Since "Since U Been Gone" made Dr. Luke a brand name, he's done the occasional hip hop production, but it's mostly been directed at the same teenybopper audience as his rock/pop work: a pretty decent generic southern rap track on the Jibbs album (remember Jibbs?), and a few songs with Lil Mama, including "G-Slide (Tour Bus)," the single released between "Lip Gloss" and "Shawty Get Loose" that completely stiffed on rap radio. He also did that Lady Sovereign single a few years back that was kinda big and I guess that's rap. Really, I wish he did more R&B: 2 years before the glammy stomp of "I Kissed A Girl" and "So What" became the Dr. Luke/Max Martin sound of the moment, they tested it out on Kelis with "I Don't Think So." He says he loves hip hop in this interview, but doesn't say anything more specific than that "Rapper's Delight" was the first record he ever bought. Still, I gotta imagine that someone who very early in his career was doing remixes for Rawkus 12"s (he also did one for "Body Rock" from the Lyricist Lounge album) knows some shit about rap. And if that's the case, hopefully he'll be doing much better beats than that cheesy Flo Rida song.
So the big news the other day was that the new #1 song in the country is Flo Rida's "Right Round," which I hadn't even heard or heard of before it broke iTunes sales records and topped the Hot 100. There's nothing remotely interesting about Flo Rida having a hit with a cheesy '80s hit interpolation, but I did find it interesting that the song was produced by Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald, who's best known for the constant stream of female pop guitar anthems by Kelly Clarkson/Pink/Avril Lavigne/Katy Perry/etc. And I thought it was funny that people are going to be kind of weirded out that he's now produced a hit rap song, when the first time I ever heard the guy's work was on a Mos Def and Talib Kweli remix single about 10 years ago.
Since "Since U Been Gone" made Dr. Luke a brand name, he's done the occasional hip hop production, but it's mostly been directed at the same teenybopper audience as his rock/pop work: a pretty decent generic southern rap track on the Jibbs album (remember Jibbs?), and a few songs with Lil Mama, including "G-Slide (Tour Bus)," the single released between "Lip Gloss" and "Shawty Get Loose" that completely stiffed on rap radio. He also did that Lady Sovereign single a few years back that was kinda big and I guess that's rap. Really, I wish he did more R&B: 2 years before the glammy stomp of "I Kissed A Girl" and "So What" became the Dr. Luke/Max Martin sound of the moment, they tested it out on Kelis with "I Don't Think So." He says he loves hip hop in this interview, but doesn't say anything more specific than that "Rapper's Delight" was the first record he ever bought. Still, I gotta imagine that someone who very early in his career was doing remixes for Rawkus 12"s (he also did one for "Body Rock" from the Lyricist Lounge album) knows some shit about rap. And if that's the case, hopefully he'll be doing much better beats than that cheesy Flo Rida song.
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on Saturday, February 21, 2009 at 9:40 PM.
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