The Majak Mixtape: The Majak Mixtape

Happy Hump Day Mixtapers! Welcome to another stunning, flawless, amazing, serving you INTRODUCTIONS REALNESS better than your favorite edition of the Majak Mixtape, where pop culture goes to refresh its iTunes playlist. So, we've spent the past few months dedicating this day to delivering snarky recaps of season two of the money-making machine that is "Glee." Well that hot mess of a program is now on hiatus for the summer. And while those children are busily touring the country, singing for their suppers, we here found ourselves in a big of crunch. Our pain threshold for the actual show of "Glee" is not terribly high so we couldn't possibly imagine sitting through a summer of watching a group of people competing to be on the show because lord knows the one thing that "Glee" is completely deficient in is the amount of characters it has.

Anyway, until "Glee" makes it return in the fall, we're going to be doing a few things with this day. First up, we're unveiling our new thing we're calling "Getting to Mix You." There are so many cool, interesting, catchy music artists out there that we adore and think that a lot of you Mixtapers would adore as well if you knew more about them. Also, there are a lot of artists we had large disdain for until we listened to album tracks and b-sides. In "Getting to Mix You," we're going to take on all of those things, introducing you to maybe some new artists to you as well as re-examining some old artists.

But before we do either, it's time to:

In our first cup of tea, is Dr. McDreamy about to scrub in on his last surgery? Depends on who you ask and at what time you ask them. Patrick Dempsey recently gave an interview to Italian Vanity Fair and stated the next season would be his last on the sudsy ABC doctors-in-lust drama "Grey's Anatomy." The ink was BARELY dry on that page when his representative quickly sent a little message to the folks at "Entertainment Weekly," saying the "Enchanted" star was taken out of context. We don't know exactly what would've been the OTHER context that would've caused Dempsey to say, "It will be my last. I don't know what will happen with the other characters, but for me, it's done." Maybe he was talking about any possibilities of a sequel to "Can't Buy Me Love"?

In news befitting her character on the formerly hot CW soap opera "Gossip Girl," a bevvy of nude photos of Blake Lively have magically hit the Internet. Her pants and panties had apparently traveled a long ways away from her, along with her good judgment. We love that people are already accusing Ms. Lively of having some link to the leak of these photos given her recent ascent into the upper echelon of gossip circles with all of her links to famous actors and landing some high profile movie gigs including the upcoming "Green Lantern" film. All we'll say is that nude photos hitting the interwebs is embarrassing, but it's still more dignified than starring in "The Roommate" (LOOKING AT YOU LEIGHTON MEESTER).

Lively's rep is denying that the pics are of her while simultaneously letting us know which websites you can see them at. Oh yeah, we're not making this up. From the Blake Lively press release on the nudes:

"The photos of Blake Lively which have just surfaced on various websites including Perez Hilton and Zap2it.com are 100 percent FAKE. Blake has never taken nude photos of herself. Blake will pursue legal action against the publication which initially published these photographs and any other outlets that republish them in any manner.”

Now fix your makeup and move yourself into the rest of the Mixtape!

Hey Mixtapers! Welcome to our inaugural installment of "Getting to Mix You," our weekly highlighting of music acts we think you should know. From indie rock to booty pop, we're going to be serving up a wide variety of music every Wednesday this summer. Or until we find an idea that nets us more pageviews.

First up, we're taking on the British rap duo of Chiddy Bang, who just put out a brand spanking new mixtape titled "Peanut Butter and Swelly." Below, their Martha and the Vandellas-sampling tune "Heatwave."

We first became fans of Chiddy Bang when they put out their mixtape "Air Swell" last year. Filled with strong rhymes, the duo have a gift for choosing interesting samples to base their tunes around. Sampling can either be amazing (most of Kanye West's production career) or can be a slapdash grab at immediately getting listeners to pay attention to the chorus and ignore subpar rhymes (almost everything Will.I.Am does). They sampled stuff like Kate Nash's song "Skeletons" from her debut album "Made of Bricks" in their song "Breakfast."

They've also sampled things like Ellie Goulding's tune "Under the Sheets" into their own song.

And their first hit tune was called "Opposite of Adults" from their EP of the same name and was based around a sample of the tune "Kids" by MGMT.

One of our favorite tunes off the "Peanut Butter and Swelly" is the Grizzly Bear sampling tune "Always (On My Grizzly)."

And speaking of hot mixtapes, we're always currently in love with the mixtape of R&B singer and diva-in-training Wish and her mixtape dubbed "The Opening Act (The Wishtape)." (Click on the link and you can download the mixtape for free from Wish's website.) Sounding like a blend of Keri Hilson with the "Bossy" attitude of Kelis, Wish is serving up hot R&B music that owes a lot of debt to the hustle and bustle of Baltimore club scene in ways that remind of Kanye West protege Kid Sister and the way she reps for Chicago. Below, Wish works it out with her song "Feel Ur Beat."

Apparently Wish also likes sample "Heatwave" as she did the same as Chiddy Bang and used it as a basis for a song. Hers is for the track "Suga Daddy."

Switching gears completely, indie act Seapony is out with their debut album "Go With Me." If you like acts like She and Him or Tennis, you might enjoy the mellow sounds of Seapony. Below, their song "Blue Star" from their debut album.

There is something very peaceful about their music, but it somehow doesn't lapse into a catatonic state. They just make music for you to have a lovely late night barbecue with friends, chill with some Summer Shandy and look at the flickering fire from a pit.

And lastly, we tackle the music of Hanson. Yes. THAT Hanson. Sure, they peaked for a lot of people with their first album, "Middle of Nowhere," which was filled with hooky songs like the title track and our personal favorite, "Weird."

We personally have learned to appreciate their later work, especially stuff on their album "The Walk," which gives us the really sharp tune "Something Going Round." Below the trio perform the song in an acoustic session.

And we simply adore their reworking of the Blues Brothers film in their music video for "Thinkin' About Something" from their album "Shout It Out." Look out for a cameo from Weird Al.

We bring this Mixtape to a finale with The Morning Benders, who put out a fabulous album called "Big Echo" last year. We're going to go back even further and look at their amazeballs covers album called "The Bedroom Covers." The group covers everything from The Crystals' song "He's a Rebel."