Blog Rollcall: Gold lion gonna tell you where the line is

1. Why pretend otherwise? We had lots of blog-picked goodness lined up for today, but everyone's water-cooler discussion this morning is going to be centered around one song and one song only. Download courtesy Nick Fader and the Catchdubbettes: Cam'ron drops the a-bomb on Hova, setting off what's sure to be a mixtape battle of epic proportions. It's only been hours, but Cam's spoken intro already feels legendary: calling out the King of New York for wearing sandals with jeans, then -- according to Lemon-Red's count -- calling dude "ugly" no less than seven times. It's presented as Cam's chivalrous defense of Dashafella, though nobody with a pulse can fail to rekkanize that Killa Season is right around the corner. Motives, shmotives: Trust us, our description doesn't even begin to describe the magnitude of this shit. Crack sales are plummeting, dope fiends are getting high just off the anticipation of how insane Jay's response is gonna be on this. So first, before you get your coffee and whatnot, go grab round one:

LISTEN: Cam'ron, "You Got To Love It" (mp3, via Faderblog)

2. Look, we know some of you have heard something about the new/as-yet-unreleased Yeah Yeah Yeahs single "Gold Lion" getting remixed by Diplo. We just want to set the record straight here for a second and make this perfectly clear: we don't know anything about it. We certainly, 100-percent have NOT heard the track. You will not hear us say that, for instance, Diplo's remix of "Gold Lion" is the most awesome thing he's done since Piracy Funds Terrorism, precisely because how could we if we haven't heard it yet? If we were to claim that, say, this song had glitchy acoustic guitars and b-more synth stabs and hooks galore and Karen cooing Oooo-ooooh, oooh-oooh, and then if somewhere down the line that turned out to be the case, all of that would be totally coincidental. Because honestly, like we said, our knowledge on this is zip, zilch, nada.

While you're waiting for some douchebag to leak the aforementioned YYYs track, you should maybe do like we did and catch up on the Backwudz album. Nobody is every gonna love those dudes more than everyone else, but we're a sucker for anything with a silly Willie Wonka sample, and this is, like, the mother of all Oompa-Loompa breaks. It's also a little old. Whatever.

LISTEN: Da Backwudz, "I Don't Like the Look of It" (mp3)

3. We bet you've heard lots of low-level buzz about the Gnarls Barkley record, but if you're like us, you can't even remember how, even. To refresh: yes, it's Danger Mouse. This time he's with Cee-Lo from Goodie Mob. And that's the problem: people are thinking it's gonna be another DangerDoom, another Gorillaz. Nonononono. You do not understand the gravity of the situation: we're talking getcha-two-step-'cause-it's-the-record-of-the-year type shit. What we're hearing is something that is way, way better than anything either of the participants have ever done. When the first track leaked a while back, we were like, "Oh, wow: this really is severely not a rap record at all." Then after a few listens it was like, "Fuck, these guys made the 2006 equivalent of a Sam Cooke record." Then the other night someone leaked two more tracks, these ones untitled, one of which is just like not even comparable to anything else going on right now. It's a suicidal soul song, but it's also more than that. It's . . . well, fuck, just go listen to this shit . . .

LISTEN: Gnarls Barkley, "Crazy" (mp3, via gvsb)
LISTEN: Gnarls Barkley, "Untitled 2" (mp3, via gvsb)

4. Our dude Will Spitz put up a Jimi Hendrix poster in OTD's old office the other day. Who the fuck does that? And then sweats us for the Diplo remix of a YYYs song? THAT WE DEFINITELY DON'T EVEN HAVE?! (And yo, what you know about a Diplo remix of Madonna's "Hang Up"? Because look, and we're not playing here, we have absolutely no knowledge of that shit, either. As a matter of fact, the next person who even hints at shit is gonna have to fight us.) In any case, maybe Will will like this song, on which the Rubber Band Man interpolates "Hey Joe." The hook is bananas.

LISTEN: T.I., "What You Know" (mp3, via Spine Magazine)

5. Go thank Benzi for posting the new Nelly Furtado/Timbaland joint. Conceptually, the obvious architectural precedent for this is Gwen/Pharrell, but Timbo sounds like he's got more of a Mr. Collipark intimate-club vibe on his mind, and over the course of the song he talks Nelly into going from Robyn-y, bubblegum-popsong naughtiness into some Fergie-style, humps-and-crotch-sweat nastiness. We have trouble imagining this as a huge pop hit -- full disclosure: OTD said the same thing about "Hollaback Girl" -- but your club arsenal will be incomplete without it.

LISTEN: Nelly Furtado, "Promiscuous Girl" (mp3)

6. Speaking of all of the above, the following two remixes made the rounds last week: the first is a humpless "My Humps" that turns into a clever megamix; the second is the Pharrell song remixed by the other Neptune, Chas Chad, in a B-more club style. The latter is DJ Technics approved.

LISTEN: Mark B, "My Humps (Humpless Remix)" (mp3)
LISTEN: Skateboard P, "Can I Have It Like That (Chase Chad remix)" (mp3, via Gangsta Music)

5. We forgot to mention this a while back, but Nick also picked up on our MySpace buddy Statik Selektah's refix of the 50 Cent/Mobb Deep track over the Nu Shooz beat. Statik is not normally the kind of guy you'd pick for a Fader favorite: he's one of those in-the-trenches, doing-good-deeds dudes, big-upping local talent and tossing off smashed Clinton Sparks, Jr. mixtapes. But you don't need a marketing degree to figure how the Rub crew would be feeling this:

LISTEN: Mobb Deep & 50 Cent vs Nu Shooz, "Have a Party" (Statik Selektah remix)

7. Rollie Cadence Weapon a/k/a Razorblade Runner is back in the game and his comeback post just killed like 100 bloggers dead. To recap, the things to grab over there right now are the much-searched-for Sebastian remix of the track by Uffie -- the jawn that Lemon_Red has been co-signing of late -- and the Digitalism remix of the Test Icicles song. These are both club-droppable and if you are just walking around on the Green Line with these songs on your iPod, there's a little hipster halo that hovers over your head when you playlist these things. Despite all that, those two songs are really heated. And, y'know, most of you guys have the D4L and the Man Man, but if not, like, obviously grab that shit.

8. OK, everyone knows that Sam "Iron & Wine" Beam hit the jackpot by having Calexico back him on that EP and whatnot -- he finally got the band he deserved, and they finally got a singer with songs. Everybody's happy. So can you really blame Will Oldham, who has spent the past couple of years trying to figure out if he's a real country artist or not, for throwing up his hands and saying, "Fuck it, I'm ripping THOSE GUYS off!" To wit: the Bonnie Prince Billy record backed by Tortoise. Which is also, like the I&W/Calexico disc, coming out on Overcoat. This one is all covers. Samlexico did VUs and Willie Nelson; Bonnie Prince Turtle does Springsteen. Here you go:

LISTEN: Bonnie Prince Billy and Tortoise, "Thunder Road" (mp3, via some velvet blog)