a cut in the mix

It's a topic I previously blogged about at some point in time on one of my other blogs but it's one that is on my mind again and deserves attention in this space as well: the remix. To me, the remix is definitely it's own entity, something distinct and separate from the original. It ends up as it's own genre of music in a way.

Too often a remix is simply the same song with an added verse. This is especially true of popular music, especially hip-hop and R&B (two of my favorite genres of music). You simply add a verse by the hot rapper of the day or the latest R&B vocalist and you have a remix, or so many will tell you.

Yet in reality, the remix should be more than just this simple addition (or replacement). The true remix takes the original and creates something new and different yet at the same time maintains the identity and recognizability of the original. It holds on to the essence of the original such that while u know this remix is something new and different, it's also the same. It's a reinterpretation, a fresh take, or just a development on the original. Be it simply maintaining the beat and acoustics and overhauling the lyrics or retooling the beat and sound of the song...the important part of the original is maintained such that you know where this new work comes from and what it is grounded in.

It's difficult to achieve a truly great remix, one that maintains the appropriate balance of moving in a different direction yet also maintaining the right amount of the character of the original. I think the truer remix has more of a home in trance music these day, where not only do u get remixes but also cuts and mixes [definitely a different entity from the remix in a subtle way]. This likely has to do with the genre and the fact that some of the pressures associated with popular music do not exist in the same way. With this in mind, I recommend the following couple of new remixes:

1. Usher - Love In This Club [feat. Beyonce & Lil' Wayne]
2. Lil Wayne - Lollipop [feat. kanYe West]

Definitely check out the original tracks as well [as both originals are hot]. But the remixes [which definitely have not blown up in the popular appeal sense quite yet] are really special. This is even truer when u put them in context with the originals.

For the past couple of years I've wanted to create a remix mixtape for myself. Yet when I sit down to think what songs would one include on such a mix, I find myself lacking enough tracks to really give it the go it deserves. I know of a ton of remixes where it's just the vanilla remix of the rapper thrown on the track or something along those lines. But I keep at it and the list continues to grow...even if somewhat slowly.