There has been a certain amount of controversy regarding the recent Sergio Mendes recording called Timeless. Rather than give us a Brazilian pop album, Sergio has teamed up with rap artist will.i.am (of the Black Eyed Peas) and gave us a hybrid Brazilian/hip-hop/rap album unlike any other. What’s the big deal about Sergio Mendes recording with a modern-day artist anyway?

The big deal comes from the fact that many of his fans familiar with the Brasil ’66 recordings don’t take kindly to having familiar songs sampled and rapped over. To be honest, I don’t really care for rap or hip-hop either. If anything, I’m more willing to listen to the early rap recordings like the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” (arguably the first successful rap song), Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five’s “The Message”, and “White Lines”, which is a biting commentary about drug use.

There is no real “message” in this Mendes recording, other than Sergio apparently having a good time with his new-found friends. Even though the backdrop is hip-hop, the fun he’s having is infectious. “Mas Que Nada” is a good opener, which IMHO starts off a bit tentatively but then gets rolling and even refrains a couple of the original verses in Portugese. The other remade songs do this similarly. There are only a few songs that aren’t specifically rap-based: Stevie Wonder guests on harmonica on “Consolation”, for instance, and “Bananeira” is covered well here by Sergio and crew.

This album may still not be my cup of tea (and I did enjoy some of the tracks here), but I can’t deny Sergio is having fun, and it may breathe some life into his popularity as well. He has been touring, and even made an appearance here at the Detroit Jazz Festival back in September. (I had to miss it–the Steely Dan concert I had tickets for, was on the same evening.) I can recommend this for the musically adventurous and, of course, Sergio’s diehard fans who buy everything he records. But if you’re expecting anything like his Brasil ’66 recordings, you’ll only hear echoes of those on the new recording and, quite simply, the rap and hip-hop will turn you off.