All Synth’ed out: 10 Beats that made The Runners

The Runners have been a big part of the DJ Khaled/Rick Ross/Lil Wayne-led Miami movement. Their synth-heavy sounds have dominated radio since Rick Ross’ “Hustlin” first hit back in 2006. These are the 10 most important beats in their history.

10. “All Of The Above”-Beanie Sigel feat. R. Kelly (2007)
Before Maino and T-Pain were “All The Above,” Beans and Kellz had a “the” in the middle. This was the first time the Runners did a beat for a non-southern artist, and the Kellz co-sign was a bigger deal then than it would be now. Plus it was catchy as hell and it was Beans’ first release after his classic The B. Coming and probably his biggest actual hit single ever.

9. “Go Getta”-Young Jeezy feat. R. Kelly (2007)
Following the success of Beans, was Jeezy with another Runners/Kellz collabo. This one was a bigger hit, though probably not quite as solid. Jeezy’s second effort was a mixed bag, but this one of three impact singles.

8. “I’m So Hood”-DJ Khaled (2007)
This featured one of Khaled’s posse cuts that he completely over-did for the remix with approximately 324 rappers. Ludacris steals the show here with his inclination that he’s “…so hood that Ludacris shoulda been on the original version!” Though Rawse drops a memorable line about his life being a movie, and Wayne responds to Plies’ verse on the original, where Plies states: “I’ll never buy a Phantom, 28’s can’t fit!” Wayne responds on the remix with “since I heard Plies, I done brought the Phantom back/went and got me a fifty-two inch Maybach.” This is knowledge you can only get on DJ Khaled tracks.

7. “Hey Daddy (Daddy’s Home)”-Usher (2010)
This should’ve been a bigger deal than it was. The lead single from an Usher album is supposed to be a bigger deal. But this song flopped for everyone involved, but is still a nice accomplishment for the production team. And the bass still THUMPS.

6. “Pusha”-Lloyd feat. Juelz Santana & Lil Wayne (2009)
Since Wayne appears on every Lloyd single, and pops up on seemingly every Runners song, of course he’d up here. Juelz’ inclusion is a little more surprising, but this is still one of Lloyd’s more solid singles. His voice and way with hooks is more appropriate for these Runners tracks than Ursher’s.

5. “Money On My Mind”-Lil Wayne (2005)
This was the Runners’ first major placement, and it ended up being a street single for Weezy’s classic second Carter installment. In what was really the song that Weezy’ sort of made “A Milli” into a sequel of, Wayne drops all sorts of random one-liners such as “Hello mr. toilet, I’m the shit!”

4. “Dreamin”-Young Jeezy feat. Keyshia Cole (2007)
The Runners actually had 2 of the 3 singles on Jeezy’s second album (the other was “I Luv It” produced by DJ Toomp), with this being the most memorable. This is probably Jeezy’s most personal song to date and the Keyshia Cole chorus didn’t hurt either.

3. “Go Hard”/Remix-DJ Khaled feat. Kanye West & T-Pain (& Jay-Z on the remix) (2008)
The original was a pretty big deal to have Kanye on Khaled’s track. The remix was a bigger deal as Jigga Man decided to drop a verse as well (“I’mma go harder than ‘Ye go/and ‘Ye go hard, that’s baby bro”). Kanye + Jay-Z was probably the biggest feat in the careers of Khaled and The Runners, at least on “wax.”

2. “It’s My Time”-Fabolous feat. Jeremih (2009)
The standout from Fab’s most recent album is probably my personal favorite Runners track ever. The Fab album was pretty easily his best to date, and the fact that this wasn’t a single was a big drop-of-the-ball by Def Jam.

1. “Hustlin”/Remix-Rick Ross (feat. Young Jeezy & Jay-Z on the remix) (2006)
This was the first impact single they dropped, and it really started it all, for the Runners, Rawse, and Khaled. Jigga and Jeezy re-word a lot of Ross’ claims from the original, and the whole shit is just classic at this point, even if Rawse has developed into much more of a lyricist and an artist since.

 

Recapping 2010…errrr

…what’s happened so far….

Since I haven’t been here to keep you up on what’s hot, I thought I’d catch you up. Without further ado…

The Top 10 Songs of the First 4 Months of 2010

10. “Pursuit Of Happiness (Steve Aoki Remix)”-Kid Cudi

The original was the best song on the album, but this remix, with its’ complete outburts of bass, takes the song to another level.  The album was really dope, though I don’t recommend listening to it on long drives by yourself.  Kind of sucks the life out of any fun you are on your way to have.  Cudi is the poster child for emo-rap.  Dope Emo-rap, but emo-rap nonetheless.

9. “Lil Freak”-Usher feat. Nicki Minaj

The team that brought you “Love In The Club” goes for a more edgy theme this time around, and replaces Jeezy with Nicki, thus thrusting her into the mainstream.  Personally, I don’t see what the big deal is.  Anyone who doesn’t think most men’s fantasy is to have a menage including Ms Minaj is not living in reality.  And Polow’s vintage drumlines merely enunciate that point.

8. “I Wanna Rock” (& Remixes)-Snoop Dogg (featuring just about everyone on the planet)

And the award for the most remixed song of the year goes to…  My personal favorite is the “Green Lantern Interstate Remix” partially because I was never too fond of the Rob Base flip on the original, and partially because it features Rawse’s memorable verse (“Bitch, I think I’m Scarface, bitch I think I’m Nino”).

7. “Hey Daddy (Daddy’s Home)”-Usher

Usually I prefer the rap versions of R&B songs, but I make an exception for any song including Plies.  While I don’t find his verse as terribly annoying as others have, I still prefer the album version.  It’s no secret that Ursh doesn’t have the star-power he used to.  Maybe he should get in the studio with Mr. Dupri and put together a proper follow-up to Confessions.….you know, because it sold like 80 trillion albums.  Just a thought.

6. “Drop The World”-Lil Wayne feat. Eminem

The odd pairing’s second track together.  For the record, Em, of course, roasts Wayne.  But this is probably his best verse since 2002.  This is more of a typical Eminem song than Lil Wayne song, and he feels right at home on the gloomy instrumental.  For the record, Em is more in his zone on rock production than Wayne anyway.  And this is really the only song on Rebirth worth checking for anyway.

5. “Soldier Of Love”-Sade

In case you didn’t know, Sade is a Goddess who comes down to earth every few years to show us mere mortals how to make music.  Case in point: her new album Soldier Of Love.  The drumline leads the song into the metaphor of love as the wild wild west.  Of course she sounds exceptionally sexy, as she always does.

4. “Babyfather”-Sade

This reggae-tinged sappily sweet love song is very reminiscent of Erykah Badu’s duet with Stephen Marley in 2000, “In Love With You.” I wonder if Sade’s a big Badu fan. In fact, reggae as a whole is making a comeback in 2010, with this song and the Damian Marley collabo album with Nas. It’ll be interesting to see what comes of all this.

3. “Nuthin On You”-B.O.B. feat. Bruno Mars

The most commonly talked about song of the year, B.O.B. has taken the pop charts by storm. Sounding like the child of Tribe’s “Bonita Applebaum” and Lupe’s “Superstar,” this has become the first big pop-rap song of 2010 and may finish the year higher on this list. Plus it introduced the lines “just like that girl you got me froze, like a Nintendo 64” and “nevermind that we should let it go, cuz we don’t wanna be a TV episode” into my life.

2. “Window Seat”-Erykah Badu

While many people talked about her controversial nudity in the video, people may be missing the point. “Window Seat” is Ms. Badu’s most dominant single since “Love Of My Life.” And it’s probably her strongest single since her first album. But I gotta admit, the nudity doesn’t exactly hurt.

1. “Exhibit C”-Jay Electronica

Beating out his lady is Jay Electronica, the newest savior of purist hip hop. To be honest, there’s not another song on the same hemisphere as this one through the first 4 months. And this really dropped in October! This is the best song in years, Just Blaze is the best producer right now, blah blah blah. Now let’s drop a damn album already, okay?