Let the man stand up with a drum kit to his right, keys to his left, and a reverb-heavy guitar backing him up, and R&B hitmaker Jeremih has his way with the retro soul of Adele‘s “Rumour Has It,” in this week’s Mashup Mondays.
Photos: Jeremih’s Mashup Behind-The-Scenes
 Jeremih at Billboard |
“I know you probably haven’t heard this type of sound from my voice, so I just wanted to touch it,” Jeremih says of choosing the Adele song, which is the second single from her No. 1 latest album, “21.” “And see what I could do with it.”
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Seeing what he “could do with it,” turns out to involve more than just the obvious change of hearing his tenor croon in place of her distinctive dusky-yet-feminine voice. In addition to inserting a playful interlude directly referencing both Vanilla Ice and David Bowie with Freddie Mercury, Jeremih’s take on “Rumor Has It” centered on stripping the song’s instrumentation down.
“The bridge is my favorite part,” says the 23-year-old Chicagoan. “It showcased my vocals entirely, being so bare, just the keys and guitar. At first I was going to switch from keys to strings, but that was just too much.”
And he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to handling a song. Jeremih and Adele may have some obvious differences — male, female; midwestern, english — but both have launched singles into the top five of the Hot 100. His current single, “Down On Me” (which features 50 Cent) hit No. 4, while her “Rolling In The Deep” is No. 1 on the chart right now.
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MORE VIDEO FROM JEREMIH’S BILLBOARD VISIT: