Give me some insight, aiight?

(Apologies for the less than great picture, but I couldn't find a better one.)

Yay for insomnia! Another late night post tonight, although really, it's not that late...

It's not a word I use often, but are you all ready for something completely poptastic? Sounding like something straight out of the late '90's or early 2000's (and after all, it did come out in 2002), today's album is nothing other than cheesy fun pop. Given that she has a ridiculously low number of listeners on Last.fm, I had to share the love for this artist.

Karen Mukupa, also known as Mukupa, Miss Mukupa, and Ms. Mukupa, comes from Denmark (though she was born in Zambia) and first broke onto the music scene in the early 1990's as part of the hip-hop group No Name Requested (another ex-member, Natasja, released her debut solo album a couple of years ago and has songs still getting radioplay). She later returned as a solo artist and released at least two albums. I don't have Mukupa's Law, but 2nd Base, which veers between dance-pop and pop-rap, might not be a classic, but it's definitely enjoyable, and deserves a lot more fame outside of Denmark than it has (unless it's already famous and I'm oblivious).

Stop Stop--the album's second single. This is one of the more pop-rap-R&B songs, but it's far more on the pop side than anything else. In fact, the whole album is thoroughly poppy and a great mood-lifter. Plus, there's not a single ballad on it! You really can't beat that. Anyhow, back to "Stop Stop": it's got a great catchy chorus that really, to me, has a "take you back" feel; it's fun, but I also get the tiniest bit nostalgic for the days of music like this. If you like your pop more dance-pop, there's a remix of this song at the end of the album that you'd probably prefer even more than this version. (Incidentally, if we can believe Amazon, this song also got a UK release--does anyone know?)

I Need You--this song was never a single, despite the fact that four singles were released off the album, if that gives you any indication of how much good stuff is on it. "I Need You" is definitely on the dance-pop side. It's not of the storming kind, more of the smooth slick kind, though that slickness is briefly interrupted by Mukupa's pop-raps (we need more rapping like Mukupa, Verbalicious, and Tara Chase in music!).

I definitely recommend buying the album, or at least some of the songs on it; you can buy Mukupa's album 2nd Base here (physical) or here (digital). If you miss this style of pop, you will love a lot of the songs on it. It even has a ridiculous cover/reworking of Whitesnake's "Here I Go Again" on it! And a disturbing song about making sure the man hitting on you isn't your father before you do anything with him! How can you not want to hear it?

Next up: maybe that German band finally, or I may repost a song from earlier because something I've just seen has got me very excited about that particular artist all over again.