Top 5 Pop Songs: February

by Aaron Zorgel

February 29, 2012

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At the end of each month, Pop Hunter highlights the best songs that were released. Consider it your cheat sheet for year-end lists. This week, we feature the following: Kendrick Lamar – Cartoons & Cereal feat. Gunplay, Usher – Climax feat. Diplo, Zooash – Dancing in Houston (Whitney Houston vs. Robyn), Tyga – Muthafucka Up feat. Nicki Minaj, Nicki Minaj – Marilyn Monroe.

Kendrick Lamar – Cartoons & Cereal feat. Gunplay

This bizarre, stuttering, sample-filled 7 minute epic hip-hop opus has little hope of hitting it big on the Billboard charts, but the experimentation on this track has me thinking that Kendrick Lamar will inevitably carve out his own niche in the crowded hip-hop scene. Typically when an up and coming rapper has built a considerable buzz, he or she starts popping up on any feature that is offered. The label rolls out radio-friendly singles, with features from their biggest stars as a sonic co-sign. In this climate, Kendrick’s presence is a breath of fresh air. His creative vision shines on “Cartoons & Cereal,” a strange narrative with flickering hi-hats and warped samples from cartoons (courtesy of newcomer producer THC) setting an uneasy tone throughout. Gunplay and Kendrick is an interesting pairing too, given that the Maybach Music emcee feels more at home in the Southern rap crew Triple C’s, a group founded by Rick Ross. Gunplay’s feature is personal and passionate, and though he’s new to Kendrick’s art-rap world, he shines on this track. 

Usher – Climax feat. Diplo

I think Diplo said it best when he tweeted “I’m pretty sure in 9 months there are gonna be a lot of new babies that this song is responsible for.” Usher’s trembling falsetto dominates the chorus, and Diplo’s production features soft keyboard lines, crisp snare rolls, and glitchy accents that make this electro-soul collaboration a definite highlight of February. I’m not sure if this track was recorded for release on an album, but I’d like to hear more collaborations between these two.

Zooash – Dancing in Houston (Whitney Houston vs. Robyn)

German DJ/producers Zooash finished this mash-up weeks before Whitney Houston’s death this month, and knowing that it wasn’t created as a tribute, or to cash-in on the eventual surge of click-throughs makes this one all the more special. It’s unreal how well Houston’s acapella (from “How Will I Know?” off her 1985 self-titled debut) works overtop the instrumental from Robyn’s “Dancing On My Own.” In a way, the update is a fitting elegy for Whitney, showing that her voice is truly timeless. RIP.

Tyga – Muthafucka Up feat. Nicki Minaj

This is a song that will pop your trunk open, if nothing else. From Tyga’s major label debut Careless World: Rise of the Last King, this track looks to build further on the massive success of the single “Rack City,” with more booming bass and boastful lines. UK garage/hip-hop producer Jess Jackson takes a page from Mr. Bangladesh’s book (“A Milli”) and chops, pitches, and loops up a vocal sample that carries the bulk of the weight on the track. Tyga said in an interview that he wanted to use the same formula that was used in Lil Wayne’s “A Milli,” and with Wayne’s blessing, I suppose the Young Money signee is entitled to do so. The song also returns repeatedly to a sample of someone saying “crank this motherfucker up,” tying everything up in a neat little bow. A fun fact about Tyga – his name is an acronym for “Thank you God, always.”

Nicki Minaj – Marilyn Monroe

The whole Marilyn Monroe thing (“if you can’t handle me at my WORST, you don’t deserve by BEST”) is a little bit done to death for me, but any time Nicki shows a little bit of vulnerability it brings me in. In 2012, it’s a strange time to be a Nicki Minaj fan. First, the title of her upcoming album (Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded) is so self-referrential, it’s ridiculous. It almost sounds like the title for a half-baked remix album. The promotional singles leading up to this album have been kind of all over the place. “Roman In Moscow” was unintelligible, and “Stupid Hoe” is pretty juvenile. Then you have Nicki’s bizarro performance at the Grammys, and the rushed roll-out of a radio-friendly single in “Starships.” It’s been a bit of a rocky year for Nicki, and as much as I’d love her to get back to her roots and put out a mixtape of strange, dirty, freaked-out rap songs, I know it’s not going to happen. A ballad like this shows vulnerability, and sincerity at a time when listeners are having trouble relating to Minaj, and I think it’s one of the strongest tracks we’ve heard off of the impending Roman Reloaded. 

Surprises, disappointments and tracks/albums to watch for next month

Surprise of the month: The fact that Chris Brown and Rihanna are working together again.

Disappointments: Katy Perry is re-releasing a new version of Teenage Dream with a bunch of singles that didn’t originally make the cut. “Part of Me” is one of them, and it’s a throwaway mid-tempo angry pop song, obviously aimed at her now ex-husband Russell Brandt (“You can keep the diamond ring / It don’t mean a thing anyway”). I think it’s time for Katy to start working a new album, instead of re-releasing songs that were likely recorded as much as three years ago.

Out in March: Albums from Adam Lambert, Madonna, and the devil himself, Chris Brown.

Tags: Music, Featured, News, Chris Brown, Diplo, Katy Perry, Kendrick Lamar, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, usher, Whitney Houston

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