Kelis featuring Will.I.Am, "Weekend" (2006)

On "Lil Star," Kelis sings: "There is nothing special about me, I am just a little star/I'm a-running and jumping but barely getting, getting over the bar." Kelis, purlease. You're never gonna be the huge hip-hop star you deserve to be if you keep up this humility. Hip-hop is all about the boasting, no? You're bossy! You brought all the boys to the yard! You hated us so much back then! Sure, on this track you actually do this subtle thing whereby you (1) let Cee-Lo sing the chorus, which provides a rebuttal ("Cause in the dark of night, you're all I can see/And you sure look like a star to me"), and (2) point out, sensibly, that you -- and by extension all "stars," literal and figurative -- are only stars because of what we project on them. "If it seems like I'm shining, it's probably a reflection off something you already are." But, look, you are gonna come across as smart, and, in placing humble songs like "Lil Star" next to more swaggering tracks like "Bossy" or "Blindfold Me" on Kelis Was Here, you also risk coming off as, good grief, human and a bit complex.

Give us a little something more mindless (see about the usually-annoying Will.I.Am's availability) but still amazing, then. (Besides, we can get "Lil Star" and two other great tracks from XO's Middle Eight.) An old school electro track, perhaps, complete with robot voices, about getting your paycheck on Friday and going to the club seemingly made just for you: "It's the weekend, and the freaks are coming!" "And the beat go 'Boom!" And the beat go 'Boom, Boom!!'"