The Majak Mixtape - Do They Know It's Mixtape Time?

Oh Alicia Keys, how are you doing? Your life is a bit of mixed bag right now isn't it? You've given birth after what seemed like one of the longest running pregnancies known to man. You've also gotten married to hit producer Swizz Beatz. Plus, "Empire State Of Mind" was nominated for a Grammy.

On the negative side, you're still stuck with the sting of being labeled by some as a big ole homewrecker when you entered into your relationship with the then-married Swizz Beatz who has an incredibly colorful history when it comes to his lack of monogamy in relationships including allegedly asking his wife to name one of his out-of-wedlock children for him. You've also haven't been able to have a Top 40 hit off The Elements of Freedom, though we admit that "Unthinkable" was a huge urban hit for you. Your video that you shot with Beyonce way back in the spring/summertime has yet to have surfaced and probably won't at this rate. Also, though you were nominated for "Empire State of Mind," the rest of your album was surprisingly snubbed by the Grammy committee.

And now your big huge idea to raise money for charity has completely backfired on you. In what can only be viewed as one of the most WTF tacky ideas to raise money we've ever heard of, Alicia and a group of celebrity friends decided to do what they called a "Digital Death" where celebs like Lady GaGa and Kim Kardashian would sign-off from their social world like Twitter and Facebook and would not return until a million dollars was raised to help "buy their lives back."

And because that idea wasn't filled with enough ungodly amounts of hubris and tactlessness, celebrities were posed in a series of coffins with the words "SO-and-SO is DEAD" plastered across them. Here are some examples below:

There are so many things wrong with this whole ad campaign that we're going to focus on the few things that are actually decent. Kim Kardashian is silent which is always a plus. Alicia's dress looks fabulous. Um......It's raising money for children with HIV/AIDS. And that's about it when it comes to the good parts of this whole thing.

There is a reason why you haven't made your million dollars yet. NO1CURR about bringing most of these celebrities back to Twitter and Facebook. Lord knows, half of the celebs don't even write their own Tweets or Facebook statuses anyway so we're sure when this whole plan was announced, assistants around Hollywood briefly rejoiced at being given a break. Plus, people like Kim Kardashian have made a whole cottage industry in product placements in their Tweets with companies.

After embarrassingly only raising some 300,000 dollars after the span of a week, the whole flop of an awareness project, some billionaire swooped in and donated the rest of the money needed for the celebs to come back to life. This was after Usher broke from his promise and made

So in honor of your attempt at charity, we look back at the good, the bad and the We Are the World of charity singles.

First up, celebrities gathered together to sing Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On."

Basically, this is TRL: Fundraiser edition as everybody from Backstreet Boys and NSYNC to Bono, Gwen Stefani and others make appearances on this. As much as we appreciate these organizations trying to incorporate hip hop into these things, we are pretty sure Marvin Gaye is rolling in his grave at the idea of his beautiful tune having the likes of Ja Rule rapping on it.

What we love about all these charity singles is that they always serve as a total snapshot of the pop music landscape at the time, and it's interesting to look at whose stock has fallen/risen since they were put together. I mean, whatever happened to Staind and Limp Bizkit and Darren Hayes and Eve. This is why we miss VH-1's pop-up video to inform us about them since we are really too lazy to Wikipedia that crap.

Next up, some ladies of pop band together to sing about standing up to cancer with the charity single "Just Stand Up."


Other than all the proceeds that went towards the cancer research, we're pretty sure the biggest act of charity were letting the likes of Nicole Shit-singer, Ashanti and Ciara get anywhere near this. It's like a Trifecta of Basicness as Ciara career even then was in the toilet with the epic fail that was her "Fantasy Ride" album, Ashanti didn't really have a career to speak of, and Scherzinger had failed, MULTIPLE TIMES, to launch that solo career. NEVER FORGET:


Which we will always love Beyonce's arm wave of support because girl knows how to be charitable:


Next up, we cross the pond to look at the tradition of the UK's Red Nose Day/Comic Relief single. As a way to raise money for a variety of charities, the BBC holds a Red Nose Day telethon as well as artists gather together to put out a single in honor of the charity. Most of these singles don't aim to raise the social consciousness themselves, instead just trying to be a good tune. Trying and succeeding being totally different things as we look below as British super groups Girls Aloud and Sugababes got together for a hot mess remake of Aerosmith's "Walk This Way."


We're pretty sure this one went to number one strictly based on the charity aspect because Lord knows wasn't because of its intense high quality.

Comic Relief has a history of letting pop acts mangle classic pop tunes including the Saturdays doing Depeche Mode's "Just Can't Get Enough."


What a 1940s pin-up girl look has to do with a 1980s synth classic we will never know. What we do know is that it is tragic when The Gap did a more convincing rendition of the tune, led by Phantom Planet lead singer Alex Greenwald.


Another Comic Relief single was Westlife's take on the Billy Joel classic "Uptown Girl."


Nothing says "GIVE TO THE POOR" quite like wearing a mechanic's outfit that looks more like a weird melding prison uniform and race car driver.

Our personal favorite Comic Relief single would have to be Pet Shop Boys joining together Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Saunders for their tune "Absolutely Fabulous."

Next up, the song that gave this Mixtape with the song that gave us the title for today's edition. Bob Geldolf, Band Aid founder and disliker of Mondays, got a bunch of musicians together to make this single. Boy George, Bananarama, Bono (who is like the King of charity singles), Paul McCartney, that dude who sang "Every Time You Go Away," etc.

So many well-styled mullets, so little time.

Lastly, we tackle the charity single that wasn't. A few months after the 9/11 attacks, Michael Jackson gathered again a group of artists to put together the following single "What More Can I Give."

The single's released was delayed for two years, for a whole host of reasons including the producer Marc Schaffel being a porn director. Plus this was the time when Michael Jackson was alive so there was a lot of NO1CURR on the part of the public. Below, a message from Dead!Michael to his haters:

And with that we end this extra charitable edition of the Majak Mixtape. Have a great weekend everybody. And as always, we wish you love, peace and downloads!