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13 June 2016

Summer Jam Week 5: Jhene and Big Take Wedding Weekend

Listen - we knew we'd get to this post eventually today. It was a busy weekend. A weekend of weddings where everyone got married. So this is obviously your soundtrack - the ultimate party down fuel. For the weekend that just happened.

Hot Jam of the Week: "On the Way" by Big Sean & Jhene Aiko



Anyone who's read this column knows that I try to find any excuse I can to fit Jhene Aiko into my life, and after she earned the line of the year last summer with "Gotta eat the booty like groceries" I'm excited to see her on what could be the sexiest track of 2016. There are a lot of jams this week that could be set up to do pretty well, and I am a little wary of how niche this could be, but I enjoyed a lot of the slow jams on Twenty88, and I love even more that these two have named their collabo group the same title.

A Love Story: "American Money" by BORNS

This is certainly the odd-song out this week, but I woke up to it three times this week. Three times! I suppose that says more about the radio station I play in the morning than anything, but needless to say, it was on my mind. It's a cool kind of jam that has a slow lyrical pulse with a more agitated beat that's nice to wake up to if anything. This is not going to be a popular jam.

Three Short of a Decade: "Seven Years" by Lukas Graham

I'm so totally officially over this song and how introspective and lonely it makes me, but after a few absent weeks it's back here, baby. I can't actually look at Lukas Graham without laughing and thinking of Andy Milonakis or something. Any appreciation I once had for this track has been slowly sapped out of me for some reason, which is weird because I'll STILL listen to Rebecca Black every Friday.

Trolls! Oh no! "Can't Stop The Feeling" by Justin Timberlake

I thought I had it, but I totally had to search "new Justin Timberlake song" again to find this thing. "Can't Stop This Feeling" is just so damn totally generic that it blurs into whatever else is going on in my head. I wish this was a few more shades of distinctive, like "Suit & Tie" which goes for the same kind of jazzy throwback vibes to way catchier effect. Then again, I'm glad he's putting out new tunes, which he hasn't really done since "Suit & Tie." I mean, sure, "Not a Bad Thing" but whateeeever. Can you even hum that? No one can.

Uno Bailando: "One Dance" by Drake ft. Wizkid, Kyla

Anyone know who Wizkid is or what his contributions are here? I do actually want to here an only-Kyla version because she's really the one who pulls me into this jam with her slow burn sultry vocal development. This could be a whole lot longer, which would help, but I'm always surprised that it's actually only two minutes. It's still hanging out for sure, but c'mon, the industry right now is just waiting for something better to become ubiquitous this summer.

Listen No Where: "Hold Up" by Beyonce

Call this an even tie between this and "Sorry" most notably because anyone named Becky has become "Becky with the Good Hair." This of course is a song that can't be found anywhere but Tidal or really shitty chopped and skewed YouTube clips. But you know it. You know iiiittttt. I'm a fan of this jam for sure and I'm curious if it merges with "Sorry" and the rest of Lemonade or somehow ends up striking out enough on its own to catch on and be a jam worth jamming to.

Seven Winters and Six Summers: "All the Way Up" by Fat Joe - the Remix ft. Jay-Z, Remy Ma, French Montana, Infared

Yep. The remix is totally the one to listen to. If you haven't gotten the impression yet, this was totally a rap-heavy week, and I really dug this, even though it's been simmering for the past two weeks for sure. This is a triumphant comeback for Fat Joe who I think still can't really rap, but that's also the cherriest rhyme Jay-Z has dropped in quite some time. Remy Ma drops the best flow, though. This has a lot of pedigree for sure, and its hook is so simple, yet passionately inspiring (in a "Started From the Bottom Now We Here" kind of way for sure), its beat so laid-back and jazzy, that it ends up being highly listenable.

Does a Bear Eat Bamboo in the Woods? "Panda" by Desiigner

You knew it was coming! I'm so on the Panda bandwagon and so is America. The future of hip-hop. Oh jeez, that's all sorts of insane. Listening to this for the fortieth or fiftieth time this week I'm struck by how well I could live without the TTTRRRRRLLLLL-YEEE-AWWW!'s constantly in the background, but the flow is so modern, it's really the 2016 "Trap Queen." No doubt. Now, how long can it defend?

Next week...

There were plenty of deserving candidates left on the floor this week, in what could be our first real blow-up weekend of summer. "Sorry" was plenty deserving, and I actually started hearing a bit of Bieber's "Love Yourself" back again. I was also curious about "California" by Colonel Loud, specifically this remix, which of course exists to add another Snoop California mix to his oeuvre, because why not. He's contractually obligated to appear on any song mentioning California not by Phantom Planet. It also came out a year ago, but Grace's "You Don't Own Me" ft. G-Eazy is picking up, possibly because of the latter's career rising, but I remember that track last year. Finally, let's talk about Lil Wayne's "Gotta Lotta" which just totally sounds like a 2008 song.

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