No matter how much house and bass I listen to, I’ve continually circled back to Kingdom and his fellow artists on the Night Slugs and Fade to Mind labels, the latter headed up by Kingdom himself. The LA-based artist’s VIP Editions EP, released in December 2012, continues to expertly deliver high-quality and quirky club music directly up your butt. In particular, I find myself returning to his remix of Ciara’s “Goodies.”
Initially stripped down and sped up, Ciara sings about goodies, being hot and bothered, and keeping cookies in a proverbial jar while Kingdom pours multiple layers of sound syrup on top. What is it about the comical sub bounces and Caribbean-flavored synth stabs that make this track so good? Kingdom is literally finished with sampling Ciara vocals four seconds before this song hits the halfway mark, and 20 seconds later, I don’t even remember that it’s supposed to be a remix of the original 2004 hit featuring Petey Pablo (included here below for reference and homework purposes).
Believe it or not, this isn’t even the first time Kingdom has worked Ciara into the mix – that distinction belongs to his edit of Girl Unit’s “Ride It Every Time.” In both cases, it’s quite clear that Kingdom did his homework when trying to select and integrate an ATL R&B star that I kind of forgot about after 2010 into his music. Ciara rules once again! Suck it, Monica!
Kingdom’s continued – and welcome – infatuation with Ciara, the inextricable dirty-south-zeitgeist-baggage it carries, and flashes of Lil’ Jon’s crunk cup all shine through in this most recent reconstruction. As it stands, the last time Kingdom graced the East Coast with his presence was in mid-January of this year. With no upcoming confirmed dates in sight (excepting Easterfest 2013 in Australia at the end of March, which clearly doesn’t count), his next visit to our neck of the woods can’t come soon enough.
