Jamie xx Recruits Young Thug & Popcaan for 'Song of Summer 2015' Contender, "I Know There's Gonna Be (Good Times)" [Young Turks]
Despite the fact that London-based Electro-Dubstep producer "Jamie xx" Smith is just now getting around to putting out his "debut" album, In Colour, on Young Turks, he's already managed to release countless [read: "three"] non-album stand-alone 12" singles, produced a nearly flawless remix album for Gil Scott-Heron, and has worked with everyone from Florence + The Machine to Drake & Rihanna; believe it or not, Florence Welch's stripped down Drake cover, "Take Care" actually flipped Smith's own production work from Scott-Heron's We're New Here (2011), a full-length remix of his first album in some 16 years. One of the first times I ever heard Jamie xx's music was actually on his string and marimba-laden xx-assisted "You've Got The Love" re-work from Florence + The Machine's critically acclaimed debut, Lungs. "Young Thug did a whole version of the song and Popcaan did a whole version of the song. I ended up splicing it together for the final version..."
"I wanted to do something out of my comfort zone that people wouldn't expect because the rest of the album is so sort of personal. This is the one thing that is a bit more out there," Jamie xx recently revealed to XXL concerning his left-field collaboration with "Danny Glover" rapper Young Thug and Jamaican Dancehall superstar, Popcaan. "I was living in New York for a couple months and I was doing a drive to Manhattan while I was listening to Hot 97. It was the perfect setting and it made me want to make the track like that," Jamie xx continued, describing what he calls a "sort of summer vibes and upbeat" track. "I Know There's Gonna Be (Good Times)" is quite arguably, already an early contender for Song of Summer 2015 and ironically, its backbone is built around a silky smooth sample culled from The Persuasions' 1972 Jazz-Blues $1.00 bin LP, Street Corner Symphony. Jamie xx's 11-track album, In Colour is currently available for pre-order from Young Turks; ranging in price from $11.24-37.49, Jamie Smith's "debut" is available in either CD, standard LP, or deluxe LP "triple LP cut on coloured vinyl at 45 rpm" formats.