"The Time (Dirty Bit)" by The Black Eyed Peas

Ironically, the Black Eyed Peas were late to the cover shoot

"The Time (Dirty Bit)" is based around the chorus hook from "(I've Had) The Time of My Life", the theme song of 1987 film Dirty Dancing. The track gets a club-ready treatment with a four-on-the-floor beat and handful of rap verses.

While the hook is well-chosen, the synth-enhanced rap verses don't line up quite right with its sentiments. The Black Eyed Peas are known for re-contextualizing samples and making them work in new songs, but in this case the difference is too severe: the chorus is a nostalgic, melodic love song, the verses a braggadocio-laden rap-style club stomper.

That said, my main problem with this song is that it lacks the dynamic journey found in previous singles "Imma Be", "I Gotta Feelin" and "Boom Boom Pow". After the second chorus, you've pretty much heard every trick the song has to offer, save for some yawn-inducing beat-slicing that occurs in the final chorus. The Black Eyed Peas can do and have done better.

All in all, this song is much less game-changing than any of the singles from their previous album, The E.N.D. . It's not terrible, but it's disappointing to see such a great hook get such lackluster treatment.

Patrick Swayze is displeased

"Right Thru Me" by Nicki Minaj

When headlice dream

The hype surrounding Nicki Minaj is incredible. She's released 4 singles, had a top 20 hit, contributed guest rap verses to 10 different other artists' singles and performed at the VMA awards, all without releasing a major label album. In the past year, she's gone from acclaimed underground rapper to A-list star.

Is the hype legitimate? Well, Minaj is a talented rapper, and it's been a while since the rap scene has seen such a promising female star. This alone allows her to stand out in an industry full of male rappers and female pop singers. However, only the quality of her upcoming album and future singles will determine conclusively whether or not all of this excitement was worth it.

The future, however, is difficult to predict.

"Right Thru Me" is based on a sample from Joe Satriani's 80's cornball guitar ballad "Always With Me, Always With You". Minaj tries to bring her tough attitude to what is clearly intended to be a happy, cheesy song, with mixed results. For the most part, the verses allow Minaj to display her skillful lyricism, and feature effective wordplay. The choruses, on the other hand, feel cliched and mismatched.

Overall, this song feels like an inferior version of Minaj's previous single "Your Love". It has its positive moments, and Minaj has talent as a rapper, but her songs haven't given her ample opportunity to show it yet. Hopefully, this will change in the near future.

"We R Who We R" by Ke$ha

And she is who she is.

When Ke$ha burst onto the scene last year, her "sing-talk" gimmick and annoyingly catchy party songs catapulted her straight to the top of the charts. The question now is whether this same gimmick will continue to impress the general public. Apparently, the answer is yes ("We R Who We R" debuted at number 1).

What about what's underneath the gimmick, though? Personally, I can put up with Ke$ha's bizarre style if the underlying song is well-written and interesting. Previous hits "Tik Tok" and "Your Love Is My Drug" had some muscle as songs, not just as Ke$ha-delivery vehicles.

Sadly, "We R Who We R" is no match for such company, instead falling more towards the "generic party song" category. The worst part of it is the bridge, which consists entirely of the words "DJ, turn it up" repeated multiple times.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY? I CAN'T HEAR YOU"

All in all, "We R Who We R" is a step backwards, not only for the English language but also for Ke$ha's artistic credibility. She really needs to figure out a new gimmick, or at least write some better songs.