Blaqstarr is the Baltimore DJ/producer behind M.I.A.'s "XXXO" and some the spaciest, squelchiest beats on her last two albums. He's been local club titan for years, and his first release on M.I.A.'s label N.E.E.T. presents his bizarre R&B aesthetic undiluted. Blaqstarr comes off like a Prince-style auteur who spends more time in dark alleys than champagne rooms. His gauzily processed production shrouds falsetto come ons and playalistic mumblings in a skeevy haze, perfect for torpid, booming tracks that deploy anything from layered girl-chirps to distorted guitars to a pilfered Cameo beat in service of massaging his psychedelic freak. If they really dance to this stuff in Baltimore, the city's weirder than The Wire let on.

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“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.