Sweden has always been a hotspot for bubbly, melodic fun: from Robyn and producer Max Martin to ABBA,

The video, which features the singer in tribal makeup and what appears to be Charles Manson’s beard around her neck, is the stuff of late-night art school experimentation, like Deee-Lite’s “Groove Is In The Heart” under a Wiccan spell. With its wolf calls and slapping drum echoes, and elements of R&B and dance, the song itself is the perfect backdrop for a go-go dancing rave witch like Zhala to enter the pop sphere with. I speak to the Swedish-born startup on Interview here.

WORLD PREMIERE: “It’s On” - R.Kelly
(Feat. DJ Khaled & Ace Hood)

Hide ya kids. Kells is home.

View the tracklist after the jump…

1. Bei Maejor – Iced Tee (Intro) / Don’t Stop
2. Kalenna (Feat. Chizzy) – Feeling Good
3. Ja Rule (Feat. Anita Louise & Queen) – Real Life Fantasy
4. Aaron Camper – Water Runs Dry
5. Mann (Feat. Trev Case & Clyde Carson) – Freak Bitch
6. Fat Joe (Feat. Mary J. Blige, Chris Brown, Fabolous & Kirko Bangz) – Another Round (Remix)
7. Mann (Feat. Ty$, Buddy & Bobby Brackins) – Cheeks On My Meat
8. Sir Michael Rocks (Feat. Like) – Chill
9. Dorrough Music (Feat. Lil’ Duval & Yung Nation) – Maury Show
10. Teyana Taylor (Feat. Honey Cocaine) – Bad Boy
11. Dawn Richard – Faith
12. Kalenna – 6,000 Sistas
13. N.O.R.E. (Feat. Raekwon & Styles P) – Google That
14. French Montana (Feat. Jadakiss, Styles P, Red Cafe, Fat Joe & Uncle Murda) – Shot Caller (Fraud Remix)
15. Lloyd Banks – Wake Up (Outro)

Download link 

Cover image by Jackson Moad

photos courtesy of dana veraldi

SONG OF THE SUMMER
considerations start now…


WORLD PREMIERE, Pt. I: “Goldie” – A$AP Rocky

WORLD PREMIERE, Pt. II: “Big Hoops (Bigger The Better)” -
Nelly Furtado

WORLD PREMIERE, Pt. III: “Bent Up” -
Verse Simmonds (Feat. Natasha Morgan)

photos courtesy of mordekai

Warm weather means shakin’ dat shit to a yelping hype man.
Get busy.

WORLD PREMIERE: “Baby Girl” – N.O.R.E. (Feat. Cassie)

As Cassie‘s finishing up work on her sophomore album,
she sets some slither-y springtime flames to Superthug‘s latest mixtape track.
Smoove would be an understatment…

“When people aren’t used to something, they’re afraid of it—and naturally you hate something before you love it,” muses Kalenna Harper on the intro to her first solo mixtape released last month, Chamber of Diaries. That’s exactly the reception her major-label, electro-infused debut, Last Train To Paris, by hip-hop/R&B trio Diddy-Dirty Money, got when it was finally released after name-changes and numerous pushbacks at the end of 2010.

“I was never signed to Bad Boy [Records],” the singer (who goes by simply Kalenna) explains. “My contract was [solely] to work with Diddy-Dirty Money. Since then, I’ve just been in the studio writing and working on my next moves.” If her Diaries hint at what’s to come from the Altanta native, the next steps are bold ones. The 17-track free download released online, much like her efforts with Diddy-Dirty Money—and later with DDM bandmate and former Danity Kane member, Dawn Richard—is genre-defying yet tightly produced with elements of chromatic hip-hop, sleek, refined R&B, and infectious electro-pop. Unlike the catchy confections of current American chart-topping pop stars led by hitmakers Dr. Luke, RedOne and David Guetta (Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj), Kalenna’s music is darker. She worked with Timbaland-collaborator Ryan Tedder, Rodney Jerkins, D’Mile, Firstborne and Shakespeare. The result is much less Jersey Shore fist-pump and more ambient house.

The heavily introspective record provides Kalenna with the perfect platform to let those weary of Diddy-Dirty Money’s futuristic eclecticism come correct and learn exactly who the singer is. “The concept is raw, truthful emotion…I tell the truth in my music. I don’t sugarcoat anything documenting my life.” Just hear fervent Danjahandz-like stunners, “Poison” or “Pain & Alcohol”, and you’ll witness this raw, reflective R&B paired with scratching, at times, violent techno backdrops for yourself. Chamber of Diaries also gives space to explore Kalenna’s clever songwriting. On one of the mixtape’s few, fully rapped tracks, “6,000 Sistas,” she even coins her own term for cash. “’Sistas,’ in simple terms, is money. The phrase came from an inside joke with my friends and I. If you look at the Presidents on money, they’re all dressed in wigs and makeup, so, we just started calling them ‘sistas,” she dishes.

“Grace Jones is a big influence for me,” Kalenna says of her visual aesthetic. “Her style is very intriguing and speaks to who I am in many ways.”

Sonically, she has been compared to Brandy and Grace Jones herself (with whom she worked with on a Diddy-Dirty Money track). By refusing to be pigeonholed by genre, she explores territory many artists only begin to face in their late careers. “If I need to sing to get my point across or if I need to rap to do it, I will,” she asserts, holding true to the sound she’s developed over her still young career. And that’s what makes her independently-released mix such a hit. But Kalenna is no indie artist, which is perhaps why she’s relatively unknown to many ears. While Pitchfork readers are busy debating the latest Diplo leak, Kalenna’s putting out wildly appealing music that many times ends up only being heard by late-night hip-hop blog sifters. The mixtape’s stalled at only 6,200 downloads on DatPiff.com—a true crime, since her music could, much like Missy Elliott’s before her, find a home between the ears of a much broader, more discerning audience.

Download the free mix HERE.

View more photos of the singer
by Shikeith Cathey on V here.

Cinzia Araia F/W ’12 wedge bootie

Hermes combination gold bejeweled bracelet

Comme des Garcons diamond champ ring

Vintage Moschino utensil jacket

Slick Rick eyepatch

Versace lunchbox

Vintage silk scribble buttondown

Antique Pierre Denizot lacquered Chinese dresser

Elizabeth & James F/W ’12 ‘E-Price’ bootie

 Vintage Versace ‘Medusa’ emblem sunglasses 

Chivas Royal limited edition ‘Gold Signature’ x Christian Lacroix

Akong tribal necktie

Eiko ‘On Stage’ book 

2012

find Monica’s own upd8 here

I hinted at what was to come from heritage fur house, 

photos courtesy of zimbio

“Upside Down” – Diana Ross

find more track anatomy‘s here. 

Firenze retailer, Luisa Via Roma, dresses some plush pugs up in RTW for charity. Find more here.

Francesco Scognamiglio

Giuseppe Zanotti
Mary Katrantzou
Versace
Blumarine

photos courtesy of lvr 

If you’re at SXSW this week, be sure to check out the greatest rapper of the moment… and if you haven’t downloaded his latest mixtape,
4Eva N A Day, yet -
Git on it, hoe!