The Majak Mixtape - Would You Be My American Mixtape?

Morning Mixtapers! Welcome to another stunning, flawless, amazing, SNATCHING THE RELEVANCY FROM YOUR FAVORITE edition of the Majak Mixtape, where pop culture goes when its gone from the top of the pops to the back of the line at a temp agency. It's Thursday and you know what that mean? Well besides another week of realizing that life lessons are just bad decisions mixed with rail vodka? It's time for another installment of THROWBACK THURSDAY, that special day of the week when we take a look back at all the things we have long forgotten. This week we're tackling a slew of music artists who were all over our iPods at one point and then disappeared as quickly as they emerged on the scene. But before we send out the search party, it's first time for us to:

In our first cup of tea, Kim Kardashian is threatening to sue somebody. And surprisingly, it's not her makeup artist. "In Touch Weekly" recently put the reality starlet on its cover, claiming she's cheating on her fiance Kris Humphries. According to TMZ, Kim sent a letter to "In Touch Weekly" saying that she would sue both Kris Humphries as well NFL Brett Lockett, the dude she's allegedly cheating with and who went on the record in the story and claimed he had done more than just kept up with the Kardashian.

In other news, the crazy apple does not fall far from the withering tree as Nic Cage's son had to be taken to hospital for mental evaluation after getting into a fight with his trainer after his trainer allegedly told he wasn't allowed to eat something on the menu. Try to come between us and a piece of French Silk, and you'll probably get the same reaction too.

In TV tea, Laurence Fishburne is leaving original recipe "CSI." Hopefully this means we are that much closer to him reprising his role as Cowboy Curtis on "Pee Wee's Playhouse." Hey, he did the voice of the Silver Surfer. Clearly, he's not particularly picky about these things.

In music tea, rapper Lupe Fiasco has called President Obama the biggest terrorist in the United States. Members of the Tea Party remain conflicted about whether or not they should now pick up Lupe's latest album.

And that's the tea for today. Continue reading as we serve up some WHERE ARE THEY NOW realness.

Is there anything quite as wonderfully disconcerting than when you're on a jog or doing homework or merely lounging around the house and you have your iTunes on shuffle? It's like musical Russian roulette. And you're doing whatever you're doing and you're suddenly set dumbstruck because some tune comes on you used to play religiously by some artist you were a huge fan of at one point but now seems a distant memory. Or you're going through your collection of band t-shirts and see some shirt you got at Hot Topic during the height of some band's popularity and now wonder when exactly it'll become "vintage" and thus cool and not tragic to be sporting the shirt. Today's edition of Throwback Thursday is taking on some of the artists we love that made huge impacts on the charts before disappearing and/or have troubles regaining their lofty Billboard charts statuses.

First, we tackle Feist. Remember when Feist was everywhere? On every late night talk show, "Sesame Street" and those Apple ads? Her song "1234" was not just a hit, it was like pop music tsunami that took over the pop landscape for a period of time.


For a lot people Feist's excellent album "The Reminder" was there first introduction to the singer while a lot of others knew her initially from being in the Broken Social Scene as well as her equally awesome first album "Let It Die" that had such excellent singles as "Mushaboom"


and her cover of the Bee Gees song "Inside and Out"


After seemingly conquering the world with her album "The Reminder," Ms. Leslie Feist has been pretty quiet since the album came out in 2007. Rumors are is that she's prepping to record a follow-up to "The Reminder." Meanwhile the awesome British singer James Blake did a cover of Feist's song "Limit To Your Love."


Up next, we take on Estelle. Estelle had been a popular British artist before making a crossover to our side of the pond. We had first heard of her because of her excellent debut single "1980"


Then Estelle put out her album "Shine" out in the UK and came out with the stellar song "Wait a Minute (Just a Touch)," a song so good you're deeply surprised it was produced by Will.I.Am.


The song didn't really take off here, but her next single became her most popular track "American Boy" featuring Kanye West. You couldn't turn on the radio without hearing the song at least once. Below, a stellar live version of the tune.


And after that, none of Estelle's follow-up singles really lived up to the hype that "American Boy" created, despite them being totally awesome. We particularly love her George Michaels referencing song "No Substitute Love."


Estelle recently tried to launch a new album with the meh-tastic single "Freak" which samples Soul II Soul's superior "Back to Life."


Now Estelle is trying to relaunch her album again with a song with Rick Ross. Will electro-pop focused top 40 radio embrace the soulful tune? We don't know, but sure as hell enjoy it.


Bonus: where-the-hell-is-he-now artist Sam Sparro covers "American Boy" on BBC Live Lounge.


We were seriously obsessed with Sam Sparro's debut album and his brand of white boy soul music. His song "Black and Gold" is one of the catchiest singles of the 2000s. Below, Mr. Sparro does a beyond stellar live version of the song.


You know how much we adored him and this song? We even liked when Katy Perry covered it. We know, clutch the pearls.


As well as Ellie Goulding's take on the tune.


And even Adele got into it.


Our last act of this edition of THROWBACK THURSDAY is the Ting Tings. Not unlike Feist, this group's success was helped greatly by the placement of their song in an ad.


Their debut album, "We Started Nothing," was a brilliant mix of pop hooks and cheerleader chants with songs like "Great DJ"


and of course "That's Not My Name."


But we also loved the band in their relatively quieter moments like the single "Be the One."


Flash forward and the duo is currently toiling away on their second album, putting out the Calvin Harris assisted song "Hands" as a single.


Will The Ting Tings become ubiquitous once again. Who knows. But we're sure going to have dancing to them as they try to regain their former glory.

And that's it for THROWBACK THURSDAY y'all! As always we wish you love, peace and downloads! NOW WE PRESENT ESTELLE AND THE TING TINGS PERFORMING TOGETHER AT THE BRIT AWARDS.