Thug Life Army

It is hard to believe that the great enduring sound of Motown can be successfully re-mixed but the new Motown Remixed album has done just that.

Not taking away from the classic sounds of Motown or the great producers who produced some of the greatest music ever heard, The Motown Remixed CD is just an amazing project that needs to be recognized. It will surely give the younger generation a greater appreciation of the Motown era of music, by enlisting some of the hottest beat makers from the rap and hip-hop world.

Unlike the recently released Tupac Shakur album on Amaru / Interscope –‘Loyal to the Game’, where the lyrics of the rap icon were twisted and added to; the lyrics on Motown Remixed remain original and in their timeless state.

There have been releases of Motown’s greatest hits and re-issues of the classics as different series, but this project injects modern beats to the classic tracks of Motown and they surely will become club bangers once again.

The 15 track CD is full of today’s beats from some of the best ‘beat’ makers in the hip-hop and rap genre. Names like DJ Green Lantern, Salaam Remi, DJ Smash are just a few of the great beat makers taking part in this project.

The mix of new and old is sure to become classics themselves. New beats did not remove the ‘funky-ness of these recordings and if anything the new beats restored these tracks to today’s club standards; which is a good thing.

The best thing we can hope for is that this is a continuing project and more of that great Motown Sound is remixed with today’s beats.

Groups like The Temptations, Glady’s Knight and the Pips, Rare Earth, The Supremes, Undisputed Truth and even the Jackson 5 set to modern beats and it works; shows the lasting excellence of early Motown work.

Marvin Gaye comes alive and you can only imagine that he would be happy with his tunes bumpin in the clubs once again. Ironically tomorrow (June 1^st) is the anniversary of the death of Temptation member David Ruffin who died in 1991 of an overdose. Both of these Motown greats would be pleased with the Motown Remixed project I would think. It would be nice to see what the other artists, whose work is contained in this project have to say about it.

I would love to see this project turned into a series of Motown Remixed CD’s. This project is one of the better remix jobs I have heard and it is really worth a look at. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the work. Being a Marvin Gaye fan, if there was anything that I was disappointed with is that there was only one cut of Marvelous Marvin, and really I would like to see a whole CD of remixed Marvin Gaye.

On a scale of 1-10, I have to give it an 8.5.

The only major flaw in the CD is the packaging. The presentation is great and the cover is good with great liner notes, but will not stand up to much wear.

This album is definitely worth looking into. I hope you enjoy it as much as I am.

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