Lost Gem: JMSN and Snoh Aalegra Have “Cruel Intentions (Remix)”
April 7, 2018 — A oft-used, all-too-often “commercial” strategy in popular music these days is the release of one or more remixes of tracks that are mildly successful in an effort to have them cross over to a wider audience. More often than not, that strategy involves adding a prominent rapper — witness the most recent such success story on the Bruno Mars’ track “Finesse,” where Cardi B. was brought in to make it blow up, and it did. Reasonable ears may differ, but to my own, that remix was a throwaway to drive sales and actually weakened the track.
But sometimes, thankfully, remix producers really are just trying to improve the song and are focused on the music itself. We feature here one such example, a remix released to little fanfare in 2016 of the JMSN slow-jam “Cruel Intentions” from his album It Is. The producer here wisely chose to turn the track into a jaw-dropping duet by adding the gifted soulstress Snoh Aalegra into the mix on alternating verses. The textures of Aalegra’s and JMSN’s voices pair perfectly, and the finished product does not seem like a commercially-driven afterthought; rather, it’s just great music and a true lost gem. Enjoy.
By Robb Patryk
