- Back in 1986, when The Showboys released "Drag Rap (Trigger Man)," the rap duo from Queens couldn't have realized that their track would ultimately launch its own micro-genre. A huge hit in the South, it would provide the key beat and percussion tic samples for bounce, the New Orleans club sound that's been going strong there for decades. In fact, bounce's influence on the Louisiana city is so strong that almost every one of its famous rap artists and crews—No Limit, Cash Money, Mannie Fresh, Lil Wayne, et al—started out doing at least some fusion of it.
Leonce lives in Atlanta now, but he was born and raised in New Orleans, so it's no surprise his first mixtape with Fade To Mind is a collection of bounce edits of R&B and pop chart hits—a standard move for any young producer from NOLA. As such, he's actually not done so much to the originals, other than add percussion and maybe a vocal sample or two. Check out what's different about Beyoncé's "Love Drought" with the Triggerman, while Tinashe's "All Hands On Decks" gets bounce's other key sample, Cameron Paul's "Brown Beat" (itself a generational descendent of James Brown's "Funky Drummer"). But Leonce's lightness of touch lets the softness of the source material come through. Bounce is sexed-up party music anyway (twerking, anyone?), but whereas the sound is usually high-speed and raunchy, Heatwave is slower and more sensual.
Although unmixed, the mixtape says something about Leonce as a DJ—his selections for the release are club grinders and sex jams that are fantastic to begin with. Coming from a fledgling producer, the dance floor zest in his productions feels promising.
Tracklist01. Beyoncé - Love Drought (Leonce Bounce Mix)
02. Keyshia Cole - Dont Waste My Time (Leonce Bounce Mix)
03. Tinashe - All Hands On Deck (Leonce Bounce Mix)
04. Eric Bellinger - Overrated (Leonce Bounce Mix)
05. Red Cafe - Bad Bitch Alert (Leonce Bounce Mix)
06. Tory Lanez - Luv (Leonce Bounce Mix)
07. Jeremih - Impatient (Leonce Bounce Mix)
08. Rihanna - Needed Me (Leonce Bounce Mix)