R. Kelly – Share My Love

The one and only R. Kelly is back on the scene, releasing the visuals for “Share My Love“, the first single off of his twelfth studio album, Write Me Back. True to his ladies man persona, Kells croons his heart out to a plethora of beautiful women whilst making dirty talk look so squeaky clean.

We have Director X to thanks, as he was the one behind the scenes setting up the party for the video and giving the vintage R&B  sounding “Share My Love” a nice grown and sexy feel. With no official release date set for Write Me Back, it looks like we all will have to keep hitting play and hoping that Robert is kind enough to show some love and invite us to the next party.

Jai Paul – Jasmine

It’s only been ten days since Jai Paul‘s “Jasmine” made its debut on Soundcloud and already the track has over 400,000 plays. The UK singer/songwriter only has one other song to his name–2010′s breakout “BTSTU” –and since then we haven’t heard a lick from him, until now. Two years is a long time for radio silence, but “Jasmine” was worth the wait. Its sexy slinking synths, funky bass guitar line, and Jai Paul’s falsetto that rivals other great male R&B singers like Robin Thicke is like nothing else else out there right now. Jai Paul has gotten the blogosphere buzzing once again and now more than ever we’re ready for the main course. A full length album is apparently in the works and is expected to be  released on XL. Until then we’ll keep buzzing with anticipation.

STREAM: Jai Paul – “Jasmine”

Frank Ocean – Thinking About You (SBTRKT Remix)

Frank Ocean is so smooth he once successfully sold me a beach house in Idaho. His Lincoln Town Car is full of broken hearts (read: dead bodies) and I would still accept a ride from him. He can’t play guitar like Van Halen, nor does he have any secret chords like Saint David, but I am still obsessed with every song in my iTunes with his name on it. So when you combine that kind of suavity with London-based dubstep producer SBTRKT’s ambient synths and semi broken beat drums, you pretty much have a recipe for the sexiest song…ever. The day after Ocean’s first London gig, SBTRKT released this epic reedit of Ocean’s “Thinking About You,” and the product is every bit as good as the pitch. The original track is still clearly intact beneath SBTRKT’s subtly interspersed post-dub beat, leaving us with a fantastic, seamless reinterpretation that you’d be crazy not to play during your next makeout sesh.

STREAM: Frank Ocean – “Thinking About You (SBTRKT Remix)”

Star Slinger – Dumbin’ (Ft. Reggie B)

At long last, UK producer/DJ/beat dude Star Slinger has released his first original single, “Dumbin’” through Mountain Dew’s Green Label Sound (home to our dear friends Theophilus London, Chromeo, Neon Indian, and The Cool Kids). I don’t really think it’s possible that I’ll ever get tired of Star Slinger remixes, but after a year or so of churning out unstoppable reworkings of other artists’ work, Star Slinger’s move to drop a proper single is right on cue. “Dumbin’” does a nice job of incorporating R&B-laden vocals from Reggie B into the signature pop/electro/post-dubstep style, staying true to the Star Slinger we know and love but also marking the beginning of a new era. The song comes with this neat video explaining all about Slinger, just in case you’ve been living under a rock for the past year.

MP3: Star Slinger – “Dumbin’ (Ft. Reggie B)”

Frank Ocean – Swim Good + Thinking About You

In two days, Frank Ocean has dropped as many videos via his Tumblr for tracks from Nostalgia, Ultra. And they are… weird. Produced and directed by High Five Collective and Nabil Elderkin, last week’s “Thinking About You” video featured—somewhat surprisingly given the more traditionally romantic lyrics—two intense child death scenes, a crazy contact lens-wearing shaman, some teepees, and Ocean himself in a brief cameo as a nurse. So when “Swim Good” surfaced this morning, I wasn’t surprised to find Ocean, dressed as a Jordans-wearing samurai, pushing an old school orange stretch limo along a scenic ocean drive, remembering how he killed his lover with a sword in a room full of taxidermied animals. Oh yeah, and this whole scene is being watched/imagined/dreamed by a popcorn-eating pandaman. Honestly though, both clips are dope as hell. Watch the “Swim Good” video above and “Thinking About You” after the jump.

MP3: Frank Ocean – “Thinking About You”

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ANR – It’s Around You

Fresh off of it’s premiere on Rolling Stone yesterday, we’ve got the video for ANR‘s “It’s Around You”. The single was recently released by our partners in crime Neon Gold Records on a seven inch. The video was shot by Jiliian Mayer and Lucas Leyva. It’s a mix of recreated hurricane footage and performance art. The old man with the hose is my particular favorite. There are a lot of cool colors and some pretty solid choreographed dance moves as well. This song/video should be entered into the Guinness Book of World Records for only video recreating a hurricane, for a song a about hurricane prevention, shot during a hurricane (Irene).

Frank Ocean – Thinking About You

The Odd Future crooner is back again with a new track that he shared with his tumblr followers earlier this week. “Thinking About You” is straight R&B, which is typically not within my listening parameters, but then again Frank Ocean is just plain not typical. There’s something about the rising star’s delivery that resonates with me in a way that his so-called predecessors never did. I find myself excited for Watch the Throne not because of Jay-Z or Kanye, but because Ocean is reportedly featured on two tracks. That’s high praise coming from a self-diagnosed Kanye addict.

MP3: Frank Ocean – “Thinking About You”

CHLLNGR – Ask For

There you are, Steve Borth! Now based in Copenhagen, Borth was once the saxophonist for Rx Bandits and afterwards released some great, soulful reggae-pop as Satori. His latest project, CHLLNGR, finds him crafting music of a much different nature. “Ask For” is a hard one to peg; the track clearly has an ambient, experimental vibe to it but also grounds itself with a driving hip-hop beat, all the while dipping its toes into the shallow, minimalist end of dubstep. It’s pretty interesting stuff, and despite it being a bit out there I found myself hooked. Take a listen for yourself, and make sure to check out the equally mesmerizing video above. Haven is out now on Green Owl.

STREAM: CHLLNGR – “Ask For”

Frank Ocean – Novacane

The Weeknd: Unreleased Tracks

You love The Weeknd. You need The Weeknd. Now listen to The Weeknd’s unreleased tracks below. The weakest of these songs, “Birthday Suit”, is also the most high profile. According to FADER, it’s a cut that the Canadian producers/lyricist intended for fellow R&B Canuck crooner Drake to use on his album Thank Me Later. He passed on it. Good move Drizzy. If you haven’t yet, you can download the phenomenal House Of Balloons album by The Weeknd for FREE via their website. A highly suggested listen.

STREAM: The Weeknd – Various Unreleased Tracks