Country and hip-hop downloads

These picks will help take the drag out of click-and-drag music choices. Some downloads may contain explicit lyrics. Free.

"California Girls," Gretchen Wilson, music.aol.com/artist/gretchen-wilson/657188/main: Wilson bucks cultural stereotypes as a country girl on the beach, Daisy Dukes and all, but her barb is directed in much the same direction as Pink's recent "Stupid Girls." It's not a particularly new idea - merely a gender transference of John Denver's "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" or hundreds of other like-minded tunes - and the video doesn't deepen the discussion, but the mere appearance of a country artist on a California beach is significant.

"Wylin Out (Kut Masta Kurt Remix)," Mos Def and Diverse, adultswim.com/promos/chocolateswim: Adult Swim is offering for a limited-time six downloads (an EP) under the name Chocolate Swim, and there is nary a bum track in the mix. This collaboration between Mos Def and Diverse features a sinuous sitar track and a vocalist straight out of Bollywood. Mos Def is provocatively double-tracked, not an effect you hear often in hip-hop. But it is Diverse who astonishes with his tongue-twisting phrasing. With tracks like these, hip-hop embarks on a new, imaginative chapter.