Pitchfork Forkcast: New Old Music: Lily Allen: "LDN (South Rakkas Crew Crack Whore Riddim)" [Stream]

New Old Music: Lily Allen: "LDN (South Rakkas Crew Crack Whore Riddim)" [Stream]

Last year at this time, Lily's "LDN" was the place to be. Her first big splash, it bundled the general feeling of pre-summer goodwill one has for the world in early May with the bonus thrill of hearing it delivered by a fresh voice. Gotta say, though, there's nothing quite like living in actual LDN circa 2007 to take the thrill off both: one week into August and summer's yet to report for duty. Meanwhile, Lily's turned into thrice-daily tabloid fodder for free city papers in desperate need of photos of post-club pop stars looking even slightly bedraggled. The net effect of both, not surprisingly, is mild "LDN" fatigue. Fortunately, this mix from the South Rakkas Crew shows its empathy by obliterating the song's original build into tiny smithereens. Over a fidgety, hairpinning riddim of old-school breaks, airhorn sirens, rave stabs and r&b piano rolls, Lily gets unceremoniously sped up, slowed down, flipped, reversed and made to repeat "crack whore" ad naseum. A nice bit of deconstructionism, this is a fittingly amicable end to a song you probably won't need to hear again for a long while.

[From the "LDN" single; out now on Parlophone/EMI]