The 2026 Remix Report Card, Vol. 1
It's been quite a while since I wrapped up my 2025 Remix Report Cards, so I've got a whole lot to write about here, remixes of 38 different songs. Here's the Spotify playlist:
"As Alive As You Need Me To Be (Pixel Grip Remix)" by Nine Inch Nails featuring Pixel Grip
I was a big fan of NIN's TRON Ares soundtrack, and a few weeks ago they surprise released the remix album TRON Ares: Divergence, which has a couple new versions of the album's Grammy-winning rock radio hit. One is an Arca remix that just changes up the beat, and the other is by the Chicago electronic trio Pixel Grip, and uses a bit of the original Trent Reznor vocal but is mostly sung by Pixel Grip frontwoman Rita Lukea. Good shit, I checked out more Pixel Grip songs on the strength of this and I like them.
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B
"ASAP (Remix)" by Mya featuring 21 Savage
There are a lot of videos of 21 Savage seeming like a genuine R&B head, singing along to songs in the car or at concerts, which is really one of the most charming things about him. But I almost never like his R&B collaborations, it just sounds painful hearing him rap on soft tracks deadpanning dumb shit like "that ass soft, she got her BBL in Heaven" and "she call me Batman, she know that all her exes Joker" (???). The "ASAP" hook riffs on T.I.'s 2005 hit of the same name and he would've been a better guest for the remix, shit even A$AP Rocky would've matched the vibe better. I adore Mya and am glad she's releasing new music, but I hope the other stuff she has coming out has better production, it's not a very good track.
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: C-
"B.B.B. (Remix)" by Juvenile featuring Megan Thee Stallion
I kind of feel bad for less established rappers who do a song with a big name rapper and then get replaced on the remix. Florida rapper Genesisthegawd's verse on the original "B.B.B." is pretty good, but once you hear Meg on the remix you really just totally forget about her, she can't compete on that level, the song didn't even chart until the remix dropped.
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B+
"Bedroom Posters (Remix)" by Yellowcard featuring Good Charlotte
When I interviewed Ryan and Sean from Yellowcard last year, I told them that I thought "Bedroom Posters" was a standout track from the album and they talked about how much they loved performing it and hoped it would do well at radio. A few months later, they released a new version with Good Charlotte (really just Joel Madden singing the second verse and some backing vocals on the bridge and last chorus, but it sounds good, he's a good addition to the song). "Bedroom Posters" is currently #6 on Alternative Airplay, making it the biggest hit of Good Charlotte's career on the chart (they were boosted a lot by MTV and pop radio at their commercial peak, "The Anthem" was their only previous top 10 hit on alternative radio).
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B
"Boat (Remix)" by Trim featuring BunnaB and YK Niece
"Boat (Slimey Edition)" by Trim featuring Pooh Shiesty
"Boat" is the breakout hit by South Carolina rapper Trim, and even though Pooh Shiesty is objectively a bigger name, his remix doesn't have remotely as many streams as the original or the other remix. And that makes sense, BunnaB and YK Niece just sound more natural as guests on a track like this. Most rap remixes are longer than the original song but both "Boat" remixes are oddly shorter than the original.
Best Verse: BunnaB
Overall Grade: B+
"Boots on the Ground (Remix)" by 803Fresh featuring Fantasia
Somehow I missed that Fantasia appeared on a remix of "Boots on the Ground" last summer and didn't cover it in any of my 2025 Remix Report Cards, so I'm just catching up and throwing it in here for sake of keeping the column a pretty comprehensive record of significant remixes. I love hearing her voice on a track like this, I wouldn't mind if she did more music in that southern soul style that's blowing up right now.
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B
"Celebration (Remix)" by Big Freedia featuring Queen Latifah and Dawn Richard
Dawn Richard is originally from New Orleans, so her appearance on Big Freedia's latest album was cool. Queen Latifah doesn't have any N.O. roots that I know of, but she still sounds surprisingly good on this with her old school flow. Latifah's got some classic songs that you can still play today, but her acting career so completely eclipsed her musical career that it's somewhat surprising to see her drop a verse on a song in 2026.
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B-
"Cliche (Jonas Brothers Remix)" by MGK featuring the Jonas Brothers
"Cliche (Sad Version)" by MGK
I haven't particularly liked much of the hip-hop that MGK became famous with or the punk pop he became more famous with, but I do like "Cliche," the bouncy pop song he released last year with silly boy band choreography in the video, even if he still sings it in the same dour tough guy voice he uses in every genre. Jonas Brothers have been crossing genres off their checklist a lot lately, too, with collaborations with Russell Dickerson, Switchfoot, and Kenny G, so it feels like these two entities were inevitably going to run into each other at some point. And the Jonases' voices make this song sound even more conventionally pop, so I like it. MGK also recorded the song as a piano ballad and it sucks, but it's nice to hear him try slightly more to actually sing.
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B
"Crack (Remix)" by 3Dcam featuring Fredo Bang
Monroe, Louisiana rapper 3Dcam's biggest hit, "Crack," is one minute and 45 seconds long, has a bounce beat with a sped up sample of the Yung LA hit "Ain't I," and sounds like it was recorded in a laundry room with a Radio Shack microphone. Baton Rouge rapper Fredo Bang is a pretty minor national star but he sounds like a really polished pro by comparison on a track like this.
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: C+
"Da Fuxk (Remix)" by Rob49 featuring Lil Yachty, G Herbo, YTB Fatt, G Youngin, and BTY Beedo
Rob49, G Youngin, and BTY Beedo released "Dafxckk" in November, and the remix came out on Friday with a slightly different song title. It feels kind of like a deliberate sequel to Rob49's signature song "WTHelly" with everyone repeatedly saying "da fuck?" instead of "what the helly." A fun track, and I always respect when the original artist adds a new verse to the remix, but the track really gets too long with the last Rob49 verse after the beat switches, this did not need to be over 6 minutes.
Best Verse: YTB Fatt
Overall Grade: B-
"Decisions (Remix)" by Big Ro6 featuring G Herbo
Indianapolis rapper Big Ro6's 2024 song "Decisions" went viral last year when people started making jokes about how he sounds like a pirate, and he's been leaning into it, recently releasing an album called Street Shanties, which has a song called "Blackbeard." I don't really get it, he mostly sounds to me like Kevin Gates or the late Snootie Wild (who was often compared to Gates), and "Decisions" is mostly a pretty grim gangsta rap song. So I'm glad he went with a straightforward remix with someone like G Herbo, even if I'm not really a fan of Herbo these days.
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B-
"Dracula (Remix)" by Tame Impala featuring Jennie
There was a weird moment about a decade ago when Tame Impala's Kevin Parker leapfrogged out of indie rock cult artist status and worked on albums by Rihanna and Lady Gaga, but mostly he's just gotten bigger and bigger over the years by steadily making the same kind of chill psychedelic indie rock records. I'm not a big Tame Impala fan so I'm not a good judge of whether "Dracula" is a good Tame Impala song, but I find it kind of flimsy and annoying. But putting one of the Blackpink girls on the track kind of works, I like it more as a pop song than as an alt-rock song.
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B
"DSRVE 2" by Jordan Webb featuring Mick Jenkins
Mick Jenkins is such an underrated rapper, he kinda takes a few bars to hit his stride on this track by Nashville rapper Jordan Webb but then he locks in and it's great.
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B+
"Dumb Crasy (Remix)" by So Supa featuring Tre Loaded and Big Boogie
"Dumb Crasy (G-Mix)" by So Supa featuring Trippie Redd and Lil Yachty
"Dumb Crasy Too" by So Supa featuring Big Money Blitz and Tre Loaded
Mississippi's So Supa, whose real name is Vontrel Pringle (a way better name than his stage name), is such a monotone rapper that he makes 21 Savage sound like Busta Rhymes. His breakout song was 2021's "Dumb Crasy," and he's regularly made sequel solo tracks ever since, with "Dumb Crasy 8" being the most recent (at the beginning of "Dumb Crasy 7" he says "I said 6 is gonna be the last one...I lied"). He's also done three posse cut remixes of the song between 2023 and 2026, so I decided to just review all of them here. It's not a good song and there's not really any particularly good versions of it, it's just a bunch of bars with no hook over a really minimal nondescript beat.
Best Verse: Big Boogie
Overall Grade: C
"Feeling On My Body (Remix)" by Taffy featuring Pluto
A pair of unsigned rappers that I think are both from Atlanta, Taffy Babii and Miss Asia, made a song last year sampling the 2009 Party Boyz hit "Flex." And it was always called "Feeling On My Body" on streaming services, but they'd bill it as "Flex (Remix)" when appearing on those YouTube performance series where the microphone seems to be hanging from a cloud in the sky. Then Taffy did a remix with Pluto fame and it's taking off on rap radio, which is nice for Pluto since YK Niece has been getting way more features since "Whim Whamie" hit. As with Genesisthegawd from "B.B.B.," I feel kind of bad for Miss Asia for getting left off the biggest version of a song she was on, but Taffy still shouts her out on the remix.
Best Verse: Taffy
Overall Grade: B+
"Fine Shyt (EB Remix)" by Vedo featuring Eric Bellinger
"Fine Shyt (Remix)" by Vedo featuring Jacob Latimore
"Fine Shyt (Remix)" by Vedo featuring Trevor Jackson
Vedo hasn't done much of note since his one big hit, 2021's "You Got It," which had a pretty good remix with one of the last guest verses Young Dolph released before his death. I guess he's going all in on "Fine Shyt" being his catchphrase-driven comeback single, although none of the guests on the three remixes is really that big a star, I think he should've just put all of these out at once as a posse cut. Jacob Latimore is the only guy who leans into the slow jam vibe instead of sing-rapping in a faster cadence, I thought that was by far the best approach, and Trevor Jackson remains the most embarrassing man in R&B.
Best Verse: Jacob Latimore
Overall Grade: C+
"Finsta (G-Mix)" by Lizzen featuring So Supa and Big Money Blitz, and Jacquees
The original "Finsta" was on Lizzen and Jacquees's 2025 collab project But First R&B, but Lizzen wasn't on it, it was a Jacquees song with verses by Kayla Nicole and Saint Lamaar. And then the remix bills Lizzen but not Jacquees, but the song is still Jacquees with guest verses, Lizzen doesn't even do DJ Khaled ad libs or anything, it's kind of bizarre. And the So Supa verse is absolutely horrible. Do better, Vontrel Pringle.
Best Verse: Big Money Blitz
Overall Grade: D
"4 Raws (Remix)" by EsDeeKid featuring Timothee Chalamet
Liverpool rapper EsDeeKid's debut album Rebel was a big hit in the UK last summer, but he wears a balaclava and is secretive about his identity, leading to a rumor (or probably really more of a running joke) that he's actually Timothee Chalamet. So in December, Chalamet and the real EsDeeKid linked up for a remix of the album's opening track to have a little fun with the rumor and promote both the song and Marty Supreme, which gets mentioned gratuitously. I think it's pretty harmless and entertaining that Chalamet is a hypebeast hip-hop head who made novelty rap tracks as a teenager, so it feels silly to grade his verse, but it's a mix of clever punchlines and garbage bars like "I'm havin' fun, just sextin'/ my dick is young and restless." He also says "my life is an opera, look at the Oscars," which sounds funnier now that there's been a whole overcooked controversy about Timmy's remarks about ballet and opera. The remix was posted with a video on I think Instagram and YouTube without being released on streaming services, but it still got so much attention that the original "4 Raws" became a top 40 hit on the Hot 100.
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B-
"Gas Station Love (Remix)" by EJ Jones featuring BigXthaPlug
I called the original "Gas Station Love" the worst R&B hit of 2025 and a "street harassment carol," the BigX verse is alright but it doesn't do anything to redeem the stupid song for me.
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: C+
"Hoes Be Mad (2.0)" by Cash Cobain featuring YK Niece, Loe Shimmy, Zeddy Will, and BunnaB
Nobody on this track is a huge star (yet), but it feels like a pretty good summit of where danceable uptempo regional rap is right now, with a couple New Yorkers, a couple Atlanta rappers, and another from Florida.
Best Verse: YK Niece
Overall Grade: B
"Hustlin Mf Pt 2" by Bally Baby featuring Belly Gang Kushington
A remix, the YK Niece version of "Friend Do," recently made Atlanta rapper Belly Gang Kushington a mainstream star, and now he's getting invited onto other people's remix. I like his verse on this, he sounds better than on "Friend Do," but he also kind of generally sounds like Foghorn Leghorn.
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B
"Little Miss (Misdemeanor)" by Girlset featuring Missy Elliott
Girlset is a girl group with American members that was assembled by the K-pop company JYP Entertainment on the reality show "A2K." And like lots of K-pop, their sound is very influenced by Y2K era American pop and rap, so it was a smart idea to get Missy on here, she doesn't light up the track like she often does but I'm always happy to hear her voice.
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: C+
"Lullaby (Mega Remix)" by JayDon and Paradise featuring Usher
"Lullaby (Remix)" by JayDon and Paradise featuring Jay Park and LOUIS of LNGSHOT
Teen R&B star JayDon (the voice of young Simba in the 2019 Lion King) is signed to Usher and (deep sigh) L.A. Reid's new label Mega, so Usher jumped on a remix of JayDon's breakthrough radio hit. JayDon's first line on the song is "I confess just like I'm preachin'," so Usher cuts into the song right there with a Confessions reference, it's pretty slick. There's another remix with a couple of midlevel K-pop stars that I've never heard of and it's not bad. On the original "Lullaby," Paradise and JayDon each sing half of the third verse. They also do that on the remixes, but Paradise sings new lyrics while JayDon's half of the verse is the same as on the original.
Best Verse: Usher
Overall Grade: B+
"Morocco (Remix)" by Joshua Baraka featuring Shenseea and Axon
A remix feature, on Moliy's "Shake It To The Max (Fly)," turned out to be a big moment for Shenseea last year, so I'm glad she's jumping on more remixes, she sounds good on this track from Ugandan singer Joshua Baraka.
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B-
"Most Likely RMX" by Dess Dior featuring KenTheMan and Saucy Santana
Saucy Santana is kind of boring and one-note to me, but I feel like KenTheMan is getting better and better, she's a star.
Best Verse: KenTheMan
Overall Grade: B
"Now Or Never II" by TKANDZ & Cxsper featuring Lil Baby
"Now Or Never" was Essex rapper's breakthrough single on the UK charts, and Lil Baby actually sounds like he's trying on this unlike a lot of his guest verses in recent years, I think this is a more effective little US/UK cultural exchange than that overplayed Central Cee/Lil Baby song.
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: A-
"Pixelated Kisses (Remix)" by Joji featuring Yeat
When Joji released "Pixelated Kisses" it felt like a very deliberate attempt for him to add some edge to his sound with noisy 'rage' production, which I'm more or less fine with since his music was really bland to begin with, so doing a remix with Yeat makes sense. And I think one of the best tracks on Yeat's new album is the one featuring Joji, I don't really feel like the ideal audience for either of these guys but I think they work well together.
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: C+
"Pretty Girls Win (Remix)" by Boosie Badazz featuring B.G.
Clubby uptempo songs were never really Boosie's thing -- a lot of people know him mainly for "Wipe Me Down" and "Independent" but those are other people's songs that he guested on. "Pretty Girls Win" is a rare example of Boosie setting out to make a fun accessible song and it's actually pretty good. B.G.'s kind of a counterintuitive choice for the remix, though, he's another great southern rapper who kind of became a star in spite of his lack of pop instinct, but Boosie and B.G. have made a bunch of other tracks in the last couple years that play to their strengths.
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: C-
"Still Sincere" by MJ Cole featuring PinkPantheress
MJ Cole's 1998 single "Sincere" was an early chart breakthrough for the UK garage scene, and PinkPantheress's music has a heavy influence from that era, so it's really cool to hear her do a new version of the track with MJ Cole.
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B
"Triple It (Remix)" by Cailin Russo and Don't Scare Billy featuring BIA
I wasn't familiar with Cailin Russo but I guess she's one of those nepo babies who's semi-famous for several different reasons. She's the daughter of the lead singer of alt-rock radio footnotes Unwritten Law, she's modeled for several major brands and played Justin Bieber's love interest in two music videos, a song she released in 2018 recently blew up after playing at the end of the "Heated Rivalry" season finale, and she has a writing credit on the Kanye West hit "Hurricane." "Triple It" is kind of shitty Soundcloud rap pastiche, most of her stuff doesn't sound like that, but the BIA verse is good.
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B-
"Trump The Bill (Trapa-Mix)" by Sunshine Benzi featuring Cleotrapa
"Trump The Bill (Trim Edition)" by Sunshine Benzi featuring Trim
People had a good laugh about an email in the Epstein files referring to "Trump blowing Bubba," and Chicago rapper Sunshine Benzi riffs on that on her viral hit ("I'm getting busy, no Trump and Bill/ no Trump and Bill, presidential coupe, gotta Trump the bill"). All three of these rappers are very audibly Nicki Minaj-influenced, so I breathed a sigh of relief that there were no pro-MAGA Barbz bars.
Best Verse: Cleotrapa
Overall Grade: B
"Walk That Walk (Remix)" by Anthony Q featuring 803Fresh, Tonio Armani, and Soulful Skonie
I have mixed feelings about the whole southern soul movement, I think the production lets the vocalists down pretty often, but 803Fresh really carries this remix and makes the song sound better.
Best Verse: 803Fresh
Overall Grade: B+
"We On Go III" by BIA featuring TiaCorine
"We On Go (Rage Mix)" by BIA
In the last installment of this column I reviewed "We On Go II" featuring Denzel Curry and A$AP Ferg, and BIA recently released We On Go Pack with two more versions of the song. The original "We On Go" beat by Honorable C.N.O.T.E. and Tommy Brown already sounded like a Travis Scott-style 'rage' track, but the Rage Mix has a guitarist and drummer rocking out over the song, it's not produced very well and sounds a little cheesy, although the drummer gets off some good splashy fills.
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: D
"wgft (Remix)" by Gunna featuring Chris Brown
The remix helped "wgft" jump up the charts and get Gunna his highest Hot 100 peak since "FukUMean," which I think is probably all that really matters when remixes like this drop. Breezy just does too much on the track, though, he has the wrong energy to replace Burna Boy on a pretty laid back song.
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: D
Overall Grade: D
"Yaya (Remix)" by Compton Av featuring Snoop Dogg, 310babii, and Steelz
"Yaya (SheMix)" by Compton Av featuring Lola Brooke, Natalie Nunn, India Love, Blueface, and Steelz
"Yaya (Thailand Remix)" by Compton Av featuring Mixie Mixx, FIIXD, GUNNER, 4Bang, and Steelz
Compton Av has put together three different posse cut remixes for his biggest song, with the producer Steelz getting a feature credit on every version, and the remix with Snoop has gotten more streams than the original. It's pretty funny that Blueface is on the 'SheMix' that has guest verses from several women, but I feel bad that a very good Lola Brooke verse is stuck on a track with him and rap-adjacent reality TV/Instagram influencer types India Love and Natalie Nunn.
Best Verse: Lola Brooke
Overall Grade: C
"You (Remix)" by Soulful Skonie featuring Anthony Q
I just reviewed an Anthony Q remix featuring Soulful Skonie that came out in November, and Anthony Q returned the favor for this remix that dropped in February. A mellower slow jam kind of song that doesn't make as much sense as a collaboration, but Anthony Q's voice sounds good on it.
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B-
"Yunnnn (Wemix)" by Stunna4Vegas featuring Monaleo
This is the first collaboration that Stunna4Vegas and Monaleo have released since they got married last year, so calling it a 'Wemix' is pretty cute, even if it's just the kind of punchline-heavy banger they both excel at.
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B
"Zombie (Remix)" by Yungblud featuring the Smashing Pumpkins
Yungblud seems to be on this mission to befriend as rock elders as he can, including the late Ozzy Osbourne, Aerosmith, and now Smashing Pumpkins. A lot of times when a famous band is credited on a new version of a song, it's really just the lead singer adding some vocals (as with the 'Good Charlotte' version of the Yellowcard song I wrote about earlier in this post). But you can actually tell that Yungblud re-recorded "Zombie" with the Smashing Pumpkins and it sounds way better than the original. "Zombie" became Yungblud's first #1 song on alternative radio a few weeks after this was released, but I have no idea which version's getting radio airplay, because the only alternative station in my area plays so little new music that even #1 hits can pass them by.
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B
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on Monday, March 30, 2026 at 1:39 AM.
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