Come back Sleepy Brown, we miss you

?Cause the corny cake daddy collabos with Rick Ross ain’t cuttin’ it.

By Rodney Carmichael Thursday July 9, 2009 05:01 PM EDT

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Rick Ross can’t be serious. The Miami-based rapper has been throwing his notorious big-ness around something awful since the release of his latest album Maybach Music. I’m not a fan, though the aural tapestries produced by J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League are rather sweet and tempting. Wait, did I say tapestries or pastries?-

Anyway, his latest straight-to-Internet release is just about the corniest cake daddy rap heard in years. What’s worse, it features Sleepy Brown of Atlanta’s Organized Noize singing the hook. The song, titled “Neverland,” is actually about, well I’ll let Fader explain it:-

They turned the phrase/concept &-;Neverland Ranch” into a prurient sexual metaphor, promising the ultimate in bedroom dream fulfilment over a sample from the beginning of &-;P.Y.T.”-

Not sure about the “P.Y.T.” sample, but there’s definitely a prominent loop of “Don’t Disturb this Groove” by the late ’80s R&B duo the System. That used to be the player track back in middle school; but this Ross/Brown collabo almost ruins it for me. Honestly, I’m not sure if I should be mad at Sleepy Brown for this one or not. I mean, he’s just singing the hook, right? No harm, no foul. If he wrote it, on the other hand, he’s got some explaining to do.-

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Rather than harp on the negative, I’m going to take solace in the recent reunion of the key members of Dungeon Family. Hopefully, their promise to make new music together will inspire a return to the kind of classic Sleepy Brown material heard on Society of Soul’s Brainchild (La Face, 1996) and the funked-out 1998 release The Vinyl Room (Bang II Records) that introduced Brown as the front man of Sleepy’s Theme.-

Download the entire Sleepy’s Theme album, The Vinyl Room-

Listen to “Neverland” at your own risk. You’ve been forewarned.-

(Photo of Sleepy Brown, taken in ‘96, by Joeff Davis. The Vinyl Room album cover courtesy Bang II Records)