Music Review: Take It Off - Ke$ha

Speed: 125 bpm

The DJ’s Take: Every time I see singles like this breaking into the charts, I sort of feel like Cleveland as his bathtub slides out of his house. I see it coming, I yell, but in the end, it’s out of my control. Come on - this song features a chorus that’s based on a rhyme we used to sing on the school bus in second grade. How do you take that seriously? Anyway, if the public ends up liking this single, you can turn on the key adjust and make a mix with a few other recent dance hits that I don’t like, but spin regularly (see below). Because at the end of the day, this is the customer’s world, and we are just living in it.

Download the MP3: Take It Off

DJs - mix this with: Beautiful Monster - NeYo, 3 - Britney Spears, Gettin Over You - David Guetta, Shots - LMFAO

Throwback Track: I Got To Have It - Ed OG

Speed: 93 bpm

The DJ’s Take: Trust me when I say that the only people who might recognize this lost hiphop classic are true hiphop heads. That said, I am a sucker for smooth guitar punctuated by soulful organs and saxophone, and this track has it all in abundance. Turn on the key adjust and make it a part of a longer mix of better known tracks (see below) to help you educate and entertain the masses.

Download the MP3: I Got to Have It (Original Demo Version)

DJs - mix this with: Say Aah - Trey Songz, Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It), In Da Club - 50 Cent, Juicy - Notorious BIG, Ooh! - Mary J. Blige

Music Review: Club Can't Handle Me - Flo Rida

Speed: 129 bpm

The DJ’s Take: Is it just me, or does this sound like the electronic version of that Kings of Leon song Use Somebody? Someone’s gotta do a remix at some point. That said, it’s the lead track for the upcoming movie Step Up 3D, which should be up for an Academy Award this year, so that’s something. A little too happy and syrupy for my taste, but you can try slipping it into your mix of EDM tracks between 125 bpm and 130 bpm and see if it works for your crowd. Leave a comment below and let us know how it goes.

Download the MP3: Club Can't Handle Me (Feat. David Guetta)

DJ’s - turn on key adjust and mix this with: Right Round - Flo Rida

Throwback Track: SexyBack - Justin Timberlake

Speed: 117 bpm

Download the MP3: This was the single that established Justin Timberlake as a legitimate superstar. Plus, it probably gave Timbaland another three to five years of automatic credibility and easy business before he actually had to start earning his production fees again. Anyway, this track got so played out a few years ago that if you spin it now, the aftereffects are pretty evident - amused looks, and some exaggerated dancing done in jest. But if people get a few drinks in them, their primal instinct will remind them why they loved it once upon a time. Put it together with Bad Romance for a one-two combo of retro-yet-not-so-retro megahits that everybody eventually got sick of.

Download the MP3: SexyBack (Main Version - Explicit)

DJ’s - mix this with: Bad Romance - Lady Gaga

Throwback Track: Check Yo Self - Ice Cube

Speed: 102 bpm

The DJ’s Take: Is there any other hiphop hook you can remember that’s as fun to say as ‘Chiggity check yo self before you wreck yo self’? Probably not. Hard to believe that the same guy who was in N.W.A. and got props as one of the top rappers in the game in the late 80s and early 90s ended up doing family films like Are We There Yet. But at least we have tracks like this to remind us of how hiphop used to be.

Download the MP3: Check Yo Self [Explicit]

DJ’s - mix this with: The Message (LP Version), Been Around The World (Featuring The Notorious B.I.G. & Mase)(Album Version) [Explicit]

Music Review: Opposite of Adults - Chiddy Bang

Chiddy Bang - New Music - More Music Videos

Speed: 96 bpm

The DJ’s Take: Simple and unassuming, head-nodding percussion, and solid rapping. It’s like someone finally decided to take mainstream listeners seriously, and it works. I’ll be disappointed if this doesn’t become at least a minor hit. More importantly, with the key and general bpm, you can add this as another element in my go-to mix that I often use within the first hour or two of a set (see below).

Download the MP3: Opposite Of Adults

DJ’s - mix this with: Ridin Solo - Jason Derulo, Airplanes - B.o.B, Find Your Love - Drake, Flashing Lights - Kanye West, Replay - IYAZ, Renee - Lost Boyz

Music Review: DJ Got Us Fallin In Love - Usher ft. Pitbull

Speed: 120 bpm

The DJ’s Take: This song is so generic that during my first listen, it reminded me of at least 3 or 4 other recent hits. Off the top of my head, I had flashbacks to TiK ToK, Break Your Heart, and Please Don’t Stop the Music, mostly because of the pulsing percussion and/or the general feel. Just listening without mixing, none of these is really a match key-wise, but you could blend them together along with a bunch of other dance tracks in the 120-125 bpm range to keep the floor moving. Is this a hit? Probably. Just give me a couple months before I come around on it.

Download the MP3: DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love