R&B Party

Smooth, hot, loved-up, and loose, these R&B party tracks take you straight to the heart of the action, where you'll find Usher poppin' the first cork with will.i.am on the crowd-bouncing "OMG," Rihanna grinding up a storm through "Don't Stop the Music," and a Chrome-plated Dizzee Rascal eulogising a "body to die for" on "Dance Wiv Me." Justin Timberlake invites you (and all your friends) behind the velvet rope — "V.I.P, drinks on me" — with "SexyBack," Michael Jackson reminds everyone how it's done with "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'," and Christina Aguilera loads up a full tank of A-list girl-jam for "Lady Marmalade." Akon does his thing and Nelly hijacks the thermostat, in Next Steps.

Every sweet R&B dance party worth its salt these days needs a generous dash of Akon . . . so we've slipped in a potent draft here, as he sings a steamy song of breakup and makeup, "Right Now (Na Na Na)." Nelly lures us back to 2002 with "Hot in Herre," while the boys from N.E.R.D. make it their mission to mash up the rock, the rap, and the funk for the benefit of clubbers everywhere on "Lapdance." Classified channels some sweet soul, and teams up with a muscular rap-star posse, on "Quit While You're Ahead," and Sharon Jones picks up the old-school thread and runs with it, backed by the Dap Kings, on "100 Days, 100 Nights." From Keke Palmer to Kardinal Offishall, every party move is covered in Deep Cuts.

"We ain't gonna stop . . . 'til we see everybody's bottoms up" sings Keke Palmer, on her techno-tweaked floor-filler, "Bottoms Up," and it's the perfect expression of what these R&B Party Essentials are all about. You've also got to know when to turn it up, and when to bring it down, which is why we've asked Kardinal Offishall (alongside Akon and Colby O'Donis) to ease back with "Beautiful," while legendary R&B guitarist Little Beaver grooves all the way through "Keep On Partying" and Kelly Rowland gives us the kind of "Work" we all love. Wanna push on 'til sunrise? Cue up Michelle Williams and "We Break the Dawn."

You want to party? Really party? Thought so. Ladies, gents, saints, sinners, and playas, these R&B Party Essentials represent an open invitation to keep it lithe 'n' lively right through the night, and we've made sure there's something for everyone. Thanks to the prevailing culture of musical fusion and mash-up, 21st-century R&B taps its juice from all manner of sources — that's why you'll find Kanye West and Estelle adding soul to an underlay of pulsating synth-pop on "American Boy"; grime-star Tinchy Stryder laying his rhymes over the electro waves of "Take Me Back" in the company of Taio Cruz; and will.i.am calling up Cheryl Cole for a blast of "Heartbreaker."