monica - "all eyez on me"
monica has been through some bad stuff! it's not really reflected on this track though, a very sweet michael jackson re-write where rodney 'darkwave' jerkins works the old disco beat on his super-computer so it comes out heavy p-funk style. the bassline is so nice this could have worked without trying to ape the rest of the original song, but that wouldn't be very jerkins-ish: the dude has always sounded more interested in olde-r'n'b musicality than most of the super-producers (even "what about us" has an excessive number of chords!) which leads to the totally over-the-top middle-eight on this tune. rodney brings the strings, monica brings serious lung workout (her whole vocal performance is super-energetic) - it seems to frame the song differently, cuz when i first heard it i was all about the p-funk robot-monster propulsive beat, but now i'm listening for the barely concealed and vaguely embarrassing melodrama!