Many many things explode in the video for will.i.am's collaboration with Britney Spears: Cars, disco balls, speakers, bottles of booze. But we weren't really expecting subtlety from these two. "Scream and Shout" is a five-minute slab of club catharsis with a slick electro-percolating beat and a hilariously retardo Tears For Fears-jacking chorus. There's something else here we weren’t expecting: a sense of humor, especially from Britney. She cops a silly robo-British accent somewhere between bored-Madonna and Sleaze-3PO and drops a cold-stare "it's Britney bitch," continuing to turn what should've been a career-killing punchline into an I'm still here, fuckers statement of diva defiance. Keep bitchin', B.

Listen to "Scream & Shout":

“1999”

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.