Alejandro Sanz ft. Getto - No Es Lo Mismo (Chosen Few Remix)

Cut to the chase on this one - get straight to the good stuff at 0:47.

This is based on a fairly meditative love song by a Spanish singer-songwriter. Boy Wonder, a Puerto Rican producer sped it up and juiced it with a reggaeton beat. The result is a poetic party piece.



The lyrics are phenomenal: "no es lo mismo ser que estar". They're hard to translate because they take advantage of the fact that Spanish has two verbs meaning "to be" - ser means "to be, permanently", and estar means "to be, temporarily".

For example: soy [ser] inglesa y estoy [estar] en my casa means "I am [ser] English and I am [estar] in my house" - I am always English, and I am in my house right now, temporarily

The first line of the song is simply: "it's not the same to be [ser] as to be [estar]" - transient facts [described using estar] about where we are, how we feel, how we look do not define who we are as people [which is described using ser].

There you go, reggaeton and grammar: grammar-ton? I don't think it's going to catch on.

Queen Latifah - Just Another Day

If you listen to one song today, make this it. It's classic, gorgeous, hip-hop from one of the strongest role models you could pick. And it still sounds so so so good, nearly 20 years on.

There's the simplest boom-bap beat, and one of the best hooks you'll ever hear. And that second verse is simple beauty.



If you want to fall all in love with hip-hop all over again, start here.

Tito El Bambino ft.Banda El Recodo - Te Pido Perdon

Q: What does a gorgeous girl have in common with a brass band?
A: Tito el Bambino loves them equally, and they share screentime in my new favourite cheesy pop song.

Tito (yet another Puerto Rican star) begs forgiveness for unspecified offenses, on top of an excellent slice of Banda-style brassy polka.

This is proper feel-good pop music, like the UK doesn't make anymore.

The Staple Singers - Respect Yourself

My Mama (skinny, white, middle-aged, with a mullet and reading glasses) used to dance around the kitchen and sing this to me when I was a kid. True story. It's been covered a million times, but I like this version. I wonder how different the world would be if this was on MTV instead of this.

Incidentally, it was co-written by Luther Ingram, who also sang this classic, which is the opening number of yesterday's mix. All good stuff.

DJ (Thee) Mike B - Native/Mad Decent Party Set I

We all live vicariously through music. From the suburban boy bumping Biggie in his Suburban, to the lonely migrant listening to music from home, to the dentist conducting Beethoven from his sofa. We all do it.

And here's a chance to dream you went to the party of the year.

Mad Decent, a more-than-decent record label, had a pre-party (they're absurdly cool), and DJ (Thee) Mike B played this astonishing set, and did us the favour of recording it and releasing it for free.

It's smoothly engineered from head-bops to body-pops, taking in every genre of music people have danced to on MTV. Trust me, this is probably my new favourite mix for dancing around my bedroom. pretending I don't have work tomorrow. And if you don't enjoy it, you can get your money back.

Native Mad Decent Block Pre-Party Thee Mike B DJ Set Part 1 by maddecent

D Rakkas - Gangsta Revivial (JWLS remix)

I once went to a Moombahton night at The Camp. There were about eight people there and the DJs were atrocious.

The experience wasn't enough to put me off, which says more about the visceral appeal of moombahton than it does about my sticking power. This song is an example of why chopping and screwing can get you places in the world - I had never heard of D Rakkas or JWLS and I'm bumping this hard.

D Rakkas (South Rakkas Crew)-Gangsta Revival (JWLS Remix) by maddecent

Ghostpoet - Garden Path

Two reasons to like this straight up:

1. It sounds like the freshest garage beat of the year (battling it out with that Ooh Aah Eee remix). I've been loving the resurgence of garage, and one of the best aspects of the genre has always been the interplay between a coarse natural voice, and artificially pure-toned instrumentals. This has got that in spades, alongside one of the most effortlessly pretty instrumentals.

2. The lyrics aren't bad either. Nothing world-shattering in terms of wordplay but the sincerity's striking. Ghostpoet gets hyped for a reason. And this is it.

Ghostpoet - Garden Path by ghostpoet

La Vida Vale La Pena - Petrona Martinez (Uproot Andy Remix)

How could I not like this? The recipe is perfect: take a bonafide hit from a phenomenal Afro-Colombian folk singer, and put Uproot Andy to work.

Señor Andy is one of the prophets of tropical bass, breathing new life into traditional music. The video (made by Ghostleg) brings out the politics... it's dark and uneasy, just like the music.

It's relentlessly sinister and grating music: not the happy tune of the original. The original is a straightforward anthem: "la vida vale la pena" literally means "life's worth the struggle", and it details how the campesinos make their living from the land. But the remix shows how unfair the burdens placed on poor rural people are. They are ruthlessly exploited by their governments and by industry - their lives do not need to be so full of struggle.



If you want something gentler and more beautiful, watch the original: the video's also a beautiful lo-fi depiction of rural Colombia.

Los Rakas - 'Ta Lista

OK, first off, I love Los Rakas: they're one of the most exciting Spanglish things coming out of California. And I love the sound of this single - that instrumental is like hyphy that's been chopped and screwed with the treble up, and their voices have the most amazing quality.

But what's with the girls at the beginning of the video?! They look about 14. If the lyric of your chorus is "ella 'ta lista" ("she's ready"), it doesn't look good to have pre-teens in your video. Just saying.

I'm not blaming Los Rakas - their lyrics are faultlessly non-specific, and they have a great track record of not presenting women as objects. But whoever cast those girls needs a reality check.



Anyway, ignore the video, listen to the song, and love that instrumental. Los Rakas are amazing.