"Deuces (Remix)" by Chris Brown featuring Drake, T.I., Kanye West, Fabolous and Andre 3000
I guess I'm not even necessarily justified in looking at things in these terms, since Rihanna hasn't really spoken out against Chris Brown lately and did a song with Drake recently, but there is something really odious about one of her exes appearing on a breakup song by her other famous ex that beat the shit out of her. The Drake verse is otherwise only notable for how easily it turns this into a Drake song, and it starts picking up some steam with the T.I. verse, and I like the way all the verses kinda go in a row with the chorus coming in at the very end. But the Kanye and Andre parts are two of the worst verses of the year, Kanye somehow coming off even more petty and nasty than on almost all of 808s and 3000 phoning it in with the laziest flow of his career. So Fab stands out just for getting in some decent punchlines and a goofy #drizzyvoice joke (on a track with Drake, no less!) in between horrible grocery bag lines like "old news...YESTERDAY'S PAPERS!"
Best Verse: Fabolous
Overall Grade: C-

"Fancy (Remix)" by Drake featuring Mary J. Blige and Swizz Beatz
I was surprised to see this surface since I figured Mary singing on the "Fancy" performance at the VMAs was just a one-off live only thing (which would at least make more sense than a couple years ago when Lil Wayne rapped in place of T.I. on that Nicole Scherzinger song at the VMAs and no studio version of his remix ever came out). The stupid-ass Drake verses are still here and Mary's little bit in place of the T.I. verse is pretty uneventful, so this is just pointless.
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: F

"Toot It And Boot It (Westcoast Remix)" by YG featuring Snoop Dogg and Too $hort
This shitty-sounding song made zero impression on me when it turned up on MTV Jams a few months ago, so I was surprised when a bunch of my music critic friends started acting like it was the jam of the year. But since my main gripe was always that it kind of felt like half a dope song, with a catchy bassline and hook but terrible raps and drums, it almost solves the song's problems to put a couple legends on the track. Surprisingly, though, the whole thing sounds a lot better than on the original, although part of that is that YG seems to have noticed how bad his verses were on his breakthrough single and stepped his shit up a bit, which improbably ends up more enjoyable than two seasoned pros on autopilot.
Best Verse: YG
Overall Grade: A-

"Whip My Hair (Remix)" by Willow Smith featuring Nicki Minaj
This pairing was a no-brainer, since Nicki basically has 9-year-old swag playing with her Barbies and doing cartoon voices all the time as it is, but the end product is pretty underwhelming since she just kinda does her minimum required wackiness, which feels especially dull after "Bottoms Up" and "Monster." And really if they were gonna do this they shoulda waited a little longer, Willow should bask in having her own hit before letting it become potentially part of Nicki's hit parade instead.
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: D

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 26, 2010 at 11:04 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.