To celebrate 'the' music awards ceremony of the year, UMTV are releasing 'URBAN BEATS 2003', an immense double CD collection of the past years coolest grooves and chart toppers featuring practically all of this years nominated artists. If you are are a regular music purchaser the chances are you'll already have many of these track in your collections already, but if you don't this could be close to essential. Across the two CDs there is 40 tacks and anyone who is anyone gets a look in. The fist CD is mainly on an RnB sort of tip and all of the duets are here, including: Jay-Z & Beyonce - 03 Bonnie & Clyde, Nelly ft. Kelly Rowland - Dilemma, J-Lo ft. Jadakiss & Styles - Jenny From The Block and Terri Walker ft. Mos Def - Guess You Didn't Love Me. Tracks I have really felt over the year are here with the likes of Justin Timberlake's Cry Me A River and Snoop & Pharells ultra smooth Beautiful. It is an easy listening CD which contains mostly tracks that have been very popular. If they haven't been killed on the radio for you it is great to have them all gathered in one place along with other tunes from Mis-Teeq, Wayne Wonder and Jamelia. Its not all honey and roses though as tracks like Ja Rule & Ashanti's dodgy Mesmerise gets yet another unwarranted outing, and the surprisingly successful Big Brovas' Favourite Things boosts the homegrown content. CD 2 is on a touch of a heavier tip featuring several classic dancehall tunes from the likes of Sean Paul, Elephant Man and Bounty Killer alongside some Hip Hop from Joe Budden, Busta Rhymes, Jay-Z, Ludacris and Eve etc, but there is still some more duets from the likes of Cam Ron ft. Juelz Santana and LL Cool J ft. Amerie. You could guess that Dizzee Rascal, the Mercury Music Prize winner to be on here, and he is with Fix Up Look Sharp and acts like Ms Dynamite, The Streets and Lisa Maffia again show the variety of UK sounds. The Heartless Crew really don't do it for me, but the Punjabbi MC's Mundian To Bach Ke does. As you can see this is a pretty comprehensive compilation and I didn't even mention or N*E*R*D ft. Lee Harvey & Vita's Lapdance. The list goes on and on, so if this sounds like your sort of thing, of if you only bought independent 12"s all year this will round out your collection. If it is all just cheesy pop music to your ears, you'd better try something else. The album is released on Monday 22nd September
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