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New Releases For The Week Of March 09, 2008
Edited by Jonathan Cohen
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Snooper Duper
With the instant-classic video for "Sensual Seduction" as its lead-in, Snoop Dogg's new album, "Ego Trippin'," arrives this week Interscope. The 20-track set was executive-produced by QDT, which stands for DJ Quik, Snoop Dogg and Blackstreet's Teddy Riley.
Others who chipped in behind the boards include Terrance Martin, Raphael Saadiq, Shawty Redd, the Neptunes, Notiz, Khao, Rick Rock, Swiff D, Frequency and Whitey Ford (aka Everlast). Highlights include opener "Press Play," which samples the Isley Brothers' "Atlantis"; "Never Have to Worry," on which Snoop recounts his life story over a lush background of piano, saxophone and deep bass; and "Make It Good," which admonishes men who may be scared of commitment.
"I'm the nicest rapper in the world," Snoop declares. "But at the same time I've got that bad boy persona and I didn't really want to approach it like that this time. I wanted to make a record that felt good the whole way through as opposed to trying to make a record that was so gangsta, so hard or so 'hood-appealing. I looked at people before me to see how they went through different decades with their music. Curtis and Marvin lasted, making their same kind of music even after disco came in and then played out. With my career lasting this long, I had to start looking at the changes in music and the changes in me, seeing what's needed to stay here."
"I just want to be the Marvin Gaye of rap," he continues. "That timeless voice you love hearing all the time on epic songs. I done made you party my whole career. Now I want to see if I can get you to cry."
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Forever His Girl
After dabbling in nearly every area of the music industry, Grammy Award-winning producer/musician and "American Idol" judge Randy Jackson is adding "solo album" to his already impressive resume, and he's bringing "Idol" colleague Paula Abdul along for the ride.
The Abdul-driven "Dance Like There's No Tomorrow" is the first single from "Randy Jackson's Music Club, Vol. 1," due this week via Jackson's new Concord Music Group imprint Dream Merchant 21. The 12-track collection showcases a diverse range of artists, from established vets like Mariah Carey, Travis Tritt and Richie Sambora to such up-and-coming talents as Barbi Esco and Kelli Selah.
For Abdul, whose last new single was 1995's "Crazy Cool," the collaboration with Jackson consummated several years of vague conversations about working together. But during "Idol" auditions last July in San Diego, "Randy kept saying to me, 'I've got the perfect song for you. It sounds like you, like now, it's like a nod to you and your past, but it's you now,'" Abdul says. "And he played it, and it was after the first two bars, I knew it was a hit. I knew it was a total smash."
"I've never really wanted to do a solo record," Jackson says, adding that the melange of styles is a nod to his multicultural hometown of Baton Rouge, La. "But I always said that if I did one, I'd love to do one like those Quincy Jones albums like 'Back on the Block' [and] 'Dude' . . . They showcased new talent he was trying to break."
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Rap It Up
After a three-month delay due to sample clearance issues, rapper Rick Ross is back this week with "Trilla" via Slip-N-Slide/Def Jam. The albm includes guest appearances from R. Kelly, T-Pain, Lil Wayne, Trick Daddy, Jay-Z, Akon and Floetry's Marsha Ambrosius.
"'Trilla' means real enough and was really inspired by Michael Jackson's 'Thriller,'" Ross says. "It's going to be the biggest street album of the year."
Also arriving this week is Fat Joe's latest release for Imperial Records, "Elephant in the Room." "'Elephant in the Room' is a gangster rap album -- rap being the room and the elephant being me," he says. "Fat Joe's been doing it for 15 years and he still doesn't get his just due."
The album features songs about bodies washing up in the Bronx River ("Kill All Rats") and what type of retribution to expect if you cross Fat Joe ("I am a professional / I will cut your testicles," he promises on "300 Brolic"). Producers on the set include Cool and Dre, Danja Handz, Scott Storch, DJ Premier and Swizz Beatz. Plies, J. Holiday, Pooh Bear, Beatz and DJ Khaled make guest appearances.
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Queen Of Kings
After a guest turn on the Foo Fighters' last album plus score contributions to the films "Into the Wild" and "August Rush," guitarist Kaki King should move to the next level with "Dreaming of Revenge," due this week via Velour.
The set was produced by Malcolm Burn (Bob Dylan, John Mellencamp), who pushed King to "be creative in the moment. He said, 'I'm not here to recreate your demos. We're here to get creative.' There were some directions that were taken that were so unbelievably far off from where the songs began. Some of the songs became '70s groovy sex music somehow."
In contrast to mild-mannered Tortoise/The Sea & Cake drummer John McEntire, who produced King's 2006 album "Until We Felt Red," Burn was not afraid to challenge King when he thought she needed a kick in the pants. "I am so not the fighting type," she says. "But he'd be like, 'Look ... this f*cking music sounds dorky! It's in 5/4 and there's no melody and I don't understand it."
"There are a couple of other songs where I'm doing the most traditional guitar playing I've ever done," she reports. "They're still in odd tunings, but through the process of just staying up late at night and grabbing instruments, the songs became totally different pieces of music."
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Additional titles hitting stores this week include:
The first solo album in eight years from famed indie rapper Del the Funky Homosapien, "11th Hour" (Definitive Jux).
Electronica artist Junkie XL's "Booming Back at You" (Nettwerk).
A comeback album from fun-loving Seattle rock act the Presidents Of The United States Of America, "These Are the Good Times, People" (Fugitive/EMI).
Mike Patton's soundtrack for the film "A Perfect Place" (Ipecac).
Singer/songwriter Shawn Mullins' "Honeydew" (Vanguard).
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After taking a couple of creative detours on his last two albums, Alan Jackson returns to his readily identifiable brand of traditional country with the release this week of "Good Time" (Arista Nashville).
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Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson says the group's decision to play "Warpaint," its first album in seven years, in its entirety at upcoming shows reflects the way the band feels about it.
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Ahead of the release of the mostly covers "Soul Speak," due this week via Universal Motown, Michael McDonald accomplished the rare feat of hitting three separate charts with a trio of tracks from the project.
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In a world where name recognition is everything, A.B. Quintanilla has flipped conventional wisdom by tinkering with his group's moniker with certain regularity.
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