Forging new life out of Salt-N-Pepa's timeless B-girl classic "Push It", "The Way I Are" was one of those songs that you liked more and more with each new listen. That monster techno-rave pulse, the playful chemistry between Timbaland and the haunting-sounding Keri Hilson, Sebastian's hilarious verse on the video version ("Your body ain't Pamela Anderson/ It's a struggle just to get you in the caravan"), or the entire "broke, but in love" premise (which I didn't really discover until my millionth listen!). Now here's another reason to like it, thanks to Timbaland's rock protogee's OneRepublic (whose hypnotizing Coldplay-meets-Savage Garden ballad "Apologize" needs to be an official single like now!!), adding their own touch into the mix.

As if "The Way I Are" wasn't busting out the seams with polyrhythmic colors and multiple vocalists before, OneRepublic embed the tune in fuzzy dance-rock grandeur and throw in some new vocals. "I ain't got no money/ But I got some time/ What's mine is yours girl/ What yours is mine/ We are what we are/ No need to apologize/ Now tell me what you have in mind," frontman Ryan Tedder sings in an alien-toned, Timberlake falsetto that makes this already hard-to-classify hit even more strangely alluring.

"The Way I Are": the gift that keeps on giving.



DL: "The Way I Are (OneRepublic Remix)" (YFH)