In a brief but impressive career, Sean Kingston has always had a knack for creating amazing hooks. At 17, he released the Ben-E.-King-inspired “Beautiful Girls”, somehow managing to sing about suicidal thoughts without losing his trademark smile. This was followed up with “Me Love”, a twist on Led Zeppelin’s “D’yer Maker”, and “Take You There”, which pointed towards a more electronic futuristic sound. By the time he released this summer’s inescapable euro-flavored infectious dance hit “Fire Burning”, the sound had gone fully electronic, while remaining as catchy as ever.

So when his label approached me about mashing up his greatest hits, I knew I had all the raw material I would need to make an ultra hook-y mashup. And finding the actual words “mash up” in “Beautiful Girls” was just icing on the cake.

I mixed up these four hits, along with “I Can Feel It” from his last album “Sean Kingston”, and bits of “Tomorrow” and “Face Drop” from his upcoming album “Tomorrow”.

And I made a video for it as well!

To view the video in full screen, click HERE.

Download the full version here.

Here is the video I put together for the mashup
Annie Lennox: Backwards/Forwards.

Download/stream audio HERE.
View the video in full screen HERE.
See more mashup music videos HERE.

Coldplay’s “In My Place” reveals the power ballad lurking within Kelly’s recent hit.

To view the video in full screen, click HERE.

Kanye West’s latest album was a real change of pace for him, veering more towards moody pop than hip-hop. Recently, I did a mashup of his “Love Lockdown” with Radiohead’s “Reckoner”.

When I heard The Fray performing this beautiful cover of Kanye’s “Heartless” on BBC’s Radio 1, it really seemed to capture the song’s melancholy feeling. The Police’s “Message in a Bottle” also fit the mood, and for the beat I used a sloooowwwed down “Boom Boom Pow”, the Black Eyed Peas’ inescapable hit.

Kanye based his original “Heartless” on a sample by the Alan Parsons Project, “Ammonia Avenue”, so I grabbed that sample, and also added a little bit of 2Pac’s “Dear Mama”, where he talks about being “heartless”.

And here’s the video for it:

To view the video in full screen, click HERE.
An even higher quality version can be seen on Facebook HERE.

Well it’s that time of the year again and I thought I’d do another year-end mashup. Here are bits of the Top 25 hits of the year, according to Billboard Magazine, arranged into a four and a half minute song. This is a follow-up to last year’s mashup of the Top 25 hits of 2007.

This year in the charts, we’ve gone all soft. The songs are sexy and defiant, less macho than in previous years. Accordingly, I’ve selected Coldplay as the instrumental track, giving the whole year a sort of symphonic feel. This edit is called “Viva La Pop”, and I hope to post more edits soon.

• Flo Rida Featuring T-Pain – Low
• Leona Lewis – Bleeding Love
• Alicia Keys – No One
• Lil Wayne Featuring Static Major – Lollipop
• Timbaland Featuring OneRepublic – Apologize
• Jordin Sparks Duet With Chris Brown – No Air
• Sara Bareilles – Love Song
• Usher Featuring Young Jeezy – Love in This Club
• Chris Brown – With You
• Chris Brown – Forever
• Ray J & Yung Berg – Sexy Can I
• Rihanna – Take a Bow
• Coldplay – Viva La Vida
• Katy Perry – I Kissed a Girl
• T.I. – Whatever You Like
• Rihanna – Disturbia
• Rihanna – Don’t Stop the Music
• Natasha Bedingfield – Pocketful of Sunshine
• Chris Brown Featuring T-Pain – Kiss Kiss
• Ne-Yo – Closer
• Colbie Caillat – Bubbly
• Mariah Carey – Touch My Body
• Madonna Featuring Justin Timberlake – 4 Minutes
• Pink – So What
• Finger Eleven – Paralyzer

I made a video for it, in YouTube’s fancy wide screen format

To view the video in full screen, click HERE.
You can also view a very high quality version HERE on Facebook.

If you liked this mashup, make sure to check out No More Gas, which mashes up a bunch of recent hits.

…Lately in pop music there’s been this growing undercurrent of dysfunction and desperation.

Leona Lewis talks about love in terms of flesh wounds, Akon sings of girls being dangerous, Danity Kane complains of being damaged, Ne-Yo is unable to control himself, Rihanna is going crazy.

Meanwhile a burning hunger for more cries out: The Pussycat Dolls, Britney, and Lupe Fiasco all desire fame, attention, recognition, and they encourage the listener to feel the same way. All this, mixed in with Madonna’s pre-apocalyptic pop song plus Estelle and Kanye’s transatlantic lovefest, starts to paint a picture of where our culture is today, overwhelmed by our own raging appetites, even as we run out of what we need.

And you can dance to it!