A Day At The Beach

Just like the bumper sticker says, "Life's a Beach," and you know no beach party is complete without tunes. Hey, you wouldn't go to the beach without your swimsuit, would ya? Or a towel? So don't go empty-eared, either. Smooth and warm as a Gulf Stream wave, Kanye West's "Good Life (feat. T-Pain)" kicks it with a laid-back synth and scream-y guitar over a lazin' MC track. And Terror Squad's DJ Khaled rolls in with his wrecking crew (including Akon, T.I., Rick Ross, Fat Joe, Baby, and Lil' Wayne) to stake his terror-tory on the pumped-up jam "We Takin' Over." In Next Steps, we leave the hip hop hood and take a cruise over to the alt tip.

While the Red Hot Chili Peppers are the masters of punk-funk West Coast-style, their "Give It Away" sounds awesome blasting out of your convertible, no matter whether you're in Malibu or down at Jericho. No day at the beach would be complete without a night at the beach — Beck, armed with "two turntables and a microphone," drops the needle on a sultry, sundown electric piano riff and chases it with a cooler-than-dry-ice slacker vocal on "Where It's At." And you gotta dig the fact that he samples a vocal riff from a sex education record to boot. In Deep Cuts, we go Beastie on you, and mash up some Black Eyed Peas . . . Brazilian style.

Nothing like basking in the nice hot sun to put you into the mood for a little chillout, and we've got plenty of that in our A Day At the Beach Essentials. Jamaican dancehall master Capleton teams up with ragamuffin Stephen (son of Bob) Marley on the rastafied riffage of "Sunshine Girl," while Brazilian bossa nova star Sergio Mendes totally reinvents Jorge Ben's "Mas Que Nada (featuring The Black Eyed Peas)" as a hip-hop samba — the perfect accompaniment to a little light tanning. Then we crank the heat back up at the corner of Hip-Hop Avenue and Rock Boulevard, with the Beastie Boys' wolf-whistle shout-out "Hey Ladies."

Sunscreen? Check. Towel? Check. Bathing suit? Check. Cooler? Check. Hey, wait a minute — when it comes to cooler, what could be cooler for a day at the beach than an iPod loaded with all the best summer songs of all time? Not merely chart-of-your-heart beach blanket classics, but also tunes like Lily Allen's "LDN," UGK's "Int'l Players Anthem (I Choose You)" and OutKast's "Morris Brown" — songs they'll be playing surfside long after this summer's tan is as faded as your favourite pair of 501s. So lotion up, load up, and listen up — everything you could possibly want for hot fun in the summertime is just waiting for you to click the mouse that makes it yours.