Posted by Andrew Unterberger on 09/17/2011 at 11:11 AM News

The Popdust Files: 2Pac, cat stevens, das racist, j. cole, jan hammer, led zeppelin, neal schon, neon indian, pearl jam, skrillex, wale, weekend playlist

Started sleeping with the heavy blanket yet? Turning the fans and A/C off? Making that difficult decision to get back in the habit of starting to wear a coat to work? It’s tough, we know. We rage against the dying of the light all September, but there’s no getting past it—it’s getting real late for summertime. However, while the temperature drops all around us, it’s always sunny in the Popdust Weekend Playlist. If you don’t feel like using these jams to soundtrack your BBQs and beach excursions, hey, there’s still always NFL Sundays, and, uh, autumn leaf-pile-jumping parties. Life goes on.

2PAC FEAT. SHOCK G AND MONEY-B, “I GET AROUND”

This week we celebrated—well, celebrated might not exactly be the word for it—the 15th anniversary of Tupac Shakur’s tragic shooting in September of 1996, easily one of the most cataclysmic events of the last quarter-century of pop music. However, one thing hasn’t changed in the decade-and-a-half since 2Pac passed—the Underground still absolutely does not stop for hos, under any circumstances. Released back-to-back with the heart-rending, almost unprecedentedly thoughtful “Keep Ya Head Up,” “I Get Around” was very much from the id section of Shakur’s complex persona, full of narcissistic quips like “I don’t know why your girl keeps paging me” and “Baby got a problem saying bye bye / Just another hazard of a fly guy.” With a couple well-timed Zapp and Gang Starr samples, some satin-on-your-panties guest verses from two Digital Underground members, and an unforgettably rambunctious video, it’s 2Pac’s all-time best non-geographically-specific party jam.

SKRILLEX, “SCARY MONSTERS AND NICE SPRITES”

Did you know that Skrillex is on the cover of SPIN this week? Yeah, “Oh my gosh” indeed. The mag is calling him something like the future of dance music—and frankly, we’re not sure that we disagree. Not that “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites” is a particularly revolutionary or even particularly great track, but it just sounds like the logical confluence of so many things that have been happening in dance recently, a mix of the underground dubstep stuff that has made it all the way to Britney Spears and Watch the Throne and the rock-out breaks that punctuate all those crossover David Guetta and Afrojack singles—with a healthy dose of Jersey Shore fist-pumping (or is it headbanging now?) thrown in. Sure, we’re in.

PEARL JAM, “GIVEN TO FLY”

A couple recent listens to “Given to Fly,” as well as a viewing of the trailer for the upcoming Cameron Crowe-directed PJ documentary Pearl Jam 20, has brought up the question around the Popdust offices—is this the last song that Pearl Jam actually bothered to write? OK, not a very fair question—there have actually been plenty of decent-to-very-good Jam singles in the 13 years since, from “Light Years” to “I Am Mine” to “The Fixer,” but it may hold that the last truly anthemic hit that the alt-rock overlords had, the last one big enough to be played over the trailer for their definitive group documentary, would be the soaring “Fly,” which the years have been much kinder to than you might expect.

J. COLE FEAT. TREY SONGZ, “CAN’T GET ENOUGH”

Now that Big Sean has risen to the ranks of Rappers with Full-Length Albums, J. Cole might be the most hyped MC left still yet to officially graduate to the mix circuit. However, Cole World: The Sideline Story is finally due in just a week and a half, older single “Work Out” is finally starting to gain some traction on R&B radio, and now we have new single, “Can’t Get Enough.” It doesn’t sound quite as radio-ready as “Work Out,” but it is a breezy-as-all-hell jam, with a hot Manu Chao-esque guitar lick and “yoyoyoyo” vocal hook that makes it a subtly evil little groove. It even has a little “Big Pimpin” bounce to it—appropriate, then, that the video take place on a yacht, in Hype Williams-esque widescreen.

CAT STEVENS, “PEACE TRAIN”

NBA fans haven’t heard a whole lot of good news this summer, as the sport’s lockout persists with no end date anywhere near in sight. However, we were rewarded this Friday with the long-awaited announcement that Lakers defensive stopper and official crazy person Ron Artest had made his name change official, and would heretofore be known as Metta World Peace. The news reminds of Cat Stevens’ surprisingly affecting 1971 hit, since Artest’s new name leaves the door wide open for announcers like Marv Albert or Mike Breen (or especially Chris Berman, if he did hoops) to make all sorts of “Peace Train” puns when Artest makes a good play, like “Here comes the ‘Peace’ train!” or “Everyone jump on the ‘Peace’ train!” We can’t wait.

For lots more end-of-summer jams, from Das Racist to Led Zeppelin, click NEXT.