Tuesday 8 March 2011

Eve feat Gwen Stefani 'Let Me Blow Ya Mind'

Chart Peak: 4

YouTube

Fascinating study in editing that official video - apparently on this basis, "asses" and "bitch" are acceptable but "shit" and "hits from your stash-box" aren't.
I think this is the one track on this album I already owned, albeit not intentionally: it appears (in a slightly longer edit) on a Hip-Hop Classics compilation I found in a bin once. The fact that I didn't go out of my way to obtain this track shouldn't be seen as a slight on it though.

I have to admit I've always found Gwen Stefani a bit annoying, and she's on especially irritating form in the video here (which I hadn't seen before). For that matter I didn't like Eve's previous single 'Who's That Girl?' all that much either and quickly got tired of it thanks to massive radio exposure. But fair play to them, this is a really good pop record. Much of this is thanks to the production skills of Dr Dre, rightly given props in the sleeve note (oddly, the technical credits at the back of the booklet attribute it to Swizz Beats, but Dre's input is unmistakeable and of course he makes a cameo appearance in the video). He was on a real roll then, unlike nowadays when he doesn't even produce his own records, and his backing track here is superb. Eve rises to the challenge too, with an impressively self-confident performance that sweeps you up in its sheer joie de vivre. And Stefani, well, she could be anyone by the time all the effects have gone on her vocal. But she does a decent job here, I must admit. A career highlight for both of them.

Eve also appears on: Now 49, 51 (with City High), 61 (with Gwen Stefani again), 62 (with Amerie)
Gwen Stefani also appears on: Now 61 (with Eve), 62, 66, 67 (with Akon)
Available on: Scorpion

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