D Aid

"We are never, ever, ever getting back together."

--Swiftian proverb

D Aid

1. Janet Jackson, "What Have You Done For Met Lately"
2. Alanis Morissette, "You Oughta Know"
3. Sinéad O'Connor, "No Man's Woman"
4. Madonna, "Don't Tell Me"
5. Fiona Apple, "Paper Bag"
6. Liz Phair, "Divorce Song"
7. Patsy Cline, "Crazy"
8. Marvin Gaye, "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)"
9. Nina Simone, "To Love Somebody"
10. Lily Allen, "Smile"
11. Harry Nilsson, "You're Breakin' My Heart"
12. Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, "I Hate Myself For Loving You"
13. Deftones, "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)"
14. The Pharcyde, "Otha Fish"
15. Shel Silverstein, "Pathetic Way of Getting Over Me"
16. John Waite, "Missing You"
17. Beck, "Lost Cause"
18. Joni Mitchell, "A Case of You"
19. Fleetwood Mac, "Don't Stop"
20. Prince & the Revolution, "Purple Rain"

You can probably tell that D is having a tough week.

She was born in the '90s, and she knows more about Santigold, Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé than I ever will. Rather than try to be a hip old man, I'm treating her to some of my favorite pop hits from days gone by. I'm sure that she already knows the Sharon Jones version of "What Have You Done For Me Lately," so I'm starting with Janet's original* and running through 20 of the best songs for weeks like this one.

One of my favorite things about making mixes for folks with hipper taste than mine is that it gives fresh ears to songs like "Crazy," "You Oughta Know" and "Purple Rain." I'm almost embarrassed to admit that the most modern rap break-up song I could think of without consulting a search engine was The Pharcyde's "Otha Fish." Maybe there will be some Kanye on the next one.

I plucked three songs from the last break-up mix I made, but I wanted this one to be a little funnier, hence the Lily Allen and Shel Silverstein. Nilsson offers "You're Breakin' My Heart" instead of "Without You." But of course break-ups suck, and you need to do more than laugh, as most of these songs testify.

The one request that I got when I offered to put this mix together was "not too much rock n' roll." Thus, I've included only two hard rock songs, via Joan Jett and the Deftones, and stuck them next to each other. Not that you'd want to skip over them.

* "You ought to be thankful for the little things/But little things are all you seem to give." How did I miss that?

Beastie Week: "Too Many Rappers"

The Beastie Boys are famous for shining a light on rising hip-hop talents. They've taken The Roots and Talib Kweli on tour, rhymed with Q-Tip and Pharcyde and even let Kanye West appear in their "Triple Trouble" video in 2004. Less appreciated is the Beasties' tendency to enlist rap veterans and bring out the best in them, as they did with Nas on the Hot Sauce Committee Part Two.



Nas is a Queens-based rapper who gets great reviews for his street poet lyrics. Less commendable are his usually rhythmless, unimaginative beats. With the Beasties in tow, he's served with the kind of track his lyrics deserve, a bouncy Mix Master Mike beat with percussion that sounds like Stomp with trash can lids. The Beasties selflessly give Nas the chorus, although they're all included in the rejoinder, "One, two three/Too many rappers and there's still not enough MCs/It goes three, two, one/MCA, Ad-Rock, Mike D that's how we get it done."

The Beastie Boys were right, there are not enough MCs. And now there are even fewer.