Ms. Christina leads the opening performance of New York City classics for NBA All-Star weekend, accompanied by Nasir Jones, who performs “New York State Of Mind.” Great segue, gotta say, Xtina killed. Bonus, Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj bumpin’ uglies in the second clip.

Carson Daly, Cee-Lo Green, Christina Aguilera and others will go up against American Idol as judges on NBC’s The Voice, which aims to be different than other “vocal competition” shows. Kicks off April 26th.

Christina Aguilera may have fallen the fuck off, but her 2006 LP, Back To Basics – produced heavily by DJ Premier – was something special. Unfortunately, Preem’s usage of the “Hippy Skippy Moon Strut” sample from Dave Cortez & the Moon People, has landed Ms. Aguilera in the hot seat. As it stands, the sample was cleared by Sony through Codigo Music and the Clyde Otis Music Group, however now with TufAmerica, who bought the rights to the track in 2004. TufAmerica is asking Sony to void the other publishing companies rights on the song, and is also suing for punitive damages.

Nicki comes through with her (potential) second single after “Massive Attack Failure”, and unfortunately this one doesn’t look much better. We dig everything that Nicki has done up until this point, but this lame attempt at crossing over by sampling Annie Lennox falls flat. Can we expect mimes in drag for the video? Maybe third times a charm. Roger that.

Meanwhile, “Yoo Hoo” is a hilarious licky-licky anthem that Akinyele would dive right into. Polow killed the beat, while X-Tina and Nicki wax poetically about the finer diner. Nicki sounds as if she is gettin-gettin-gettin’ some while she raps. This is the radio edit, but it may still be too racy. Nice find, Miss Info.

LISTEN: Nicki Minaj – “Your Love”

LISTEN: Christina Aguilera – “Woo Hoo” (feat. Nicki Minaj)

Look out Gaga, Christina Aguilera is coming back. Her latest is produced by Mr. 1-2-3-4, Polow The Don and written by Esther Dean, and goes for an electro-pop dance feel. This is the first single from the singer’s June 8th LP, Bionic. The new LP’s tracklist has not been revealed yet, but rumored collaboratons include work with DJ Premier, Florida, Focus, Sia, Le Tigre, Christopher “Tricky” Stewart,” Hill & Switch, Ladytron, M.I.A., Kanye West. As for who will make the final cut remains to be seen. Big up to Alex Dreamz of Club Killers / XS DJ’s for hooking this up.

 Christina Aguilera – “Not Myself Tonight” (prod. Polow The Don)

     Like the title suggests, Christina takes things back, way back, channeling everything from 70′s soul to 50′s doo-wop to 20′s speakeasy sounds. The album begins with the DJ Premier produced intro / title track, “Back To Basics”, which could have just as easily been the opener to the next Gang Starr album. Here, the young singer pays tributes to all the “soul singers” and “jazz makers” that paved the way for artists like her. Again on “Back In The Day”, she pays tribute over another dirty Brooklyn beat from Premier, name dropping Marvin and Coltraine, telling listeners to “turn up your 45′s / bring back to life the sound of yesterday”. But before this, Agulera takes them to church on the Steve Winwood assisted “Makes Me Wanna Pray”, a gospel influenced track produced by Beyonce “Crazy In Love” collaborator, Rich Harrison. The true ladies anthem here though is “Ain’t No Other Man”, again propelled by another raw Preemo track, with chopped drums and sampled horn stabs, as Christina commences to sing her hot blonde ass off.  

     Kwame (yeah, that Kwame) continues to live his second childhood as a producer on the beautifully soulful “Understand”, which seamlessly finds Christina in a duet with a Betty Harris sample. Rising production star Mark Ronson chimes in on the EPMD inspired/Tony Yayo sampled “Slow Down Baby”, as she waves her finger at pushy suitors; and again on the melancholy “Without You”. Relatively unknowns Big Tank & Q keep things on point with both “Oh Mother” and “On Our Way”, without sacrificing the sound or integrity of the rest of the record. DJ Premier checks back in towards the end of the record with “Still Dirrty”, a chopped horny-horns head-nodder where the girl defends her brazen sexuality, as well as the melancholy “Thank You (Dedication To The Fans)”, which closes the album out. 

     And that’s the first disc of the album in a nutshell. And by itself, it’s an excellent, shockingly raw, soulful album. Still, this no doubt would leave the demographic of 13 year-old girls and 30-something suburbia females scratching their heads as to what was going on here, so there is a second disc included in the set. The demographic reading this review however, should and will, avoid disc two at all costs. Not to say she totally took things in bubble gum direction with the second nine-track disc, but it’s?different. 

     Obviously inspired by films like Chicago and Moulin Rouge, and of course the music of those eras, the second disc is produced entirely by former collaborator Linda Perry. Acting as almost a second album, the disc opens with “Enter The Circus”, where a flamboyant ringleader introduces you to the new sound you are about to hear. Again, the stuff here is fluffy, catchy, and ripe for a musical like Idlewild - and there is nothing terribly wrong with it – but it pales in comparison to the rawness of the first disc. So treat it like a bonus CD, toss it aside, as the first disc is worth the price of admission alone. 

     We all made fun of the Justin’s, Jessica’s, and Britney’s, when they first emerged almost ten years ago, and many with good reason. But as these artists age and mature, it becomes easier to separate those with talent and those with only good looks. What Christina Aguilera has done with Back To Basics is not only shown her true devotion to the music and artists that came before her, but also risked the commercial success of this record by refusing to conform. Couple this with the fact that she did not rely on slick studio wizardry to make herself sound good, letting her natural talent shine as she sings over the rawest production. For all of that, she should be taken seriously as an artist. Go get ‘em girl.