Josh Levi puts Brandy on a Say It remix for his deluxe album

Josh Levi has handed Say It to Brandy, and the result is the reason to go back to a record most people already have. The remix leads Hydraulic: Fueled Up, the expanded edition of his debut album Hydraulic, out through Raedio and Atlantic Records.

Say It was already one of the songs listeners kept returning to on the original. Brandy's version rebuilds it around her rather than dropping a verse on top: "Careful what you're asking for, I hope you're ready when I'm at your door," she sings, stacked in the harmonies that earned her the Vocal Bible nickname in the first place.

The deluxe carries a longer guest list than the remix alone suggests. Teezo Touchdown, Kirko Bangz and FLO all appear on Hydraulic: Fueled Up, and That Grape Juice still picks the Brandy remix as the easy standout of the lot, which is a fair assessment of what happens when she is given a sleek rnb-soul cut to work on.

For Levi, whose first album drew real critical attention, a deluxe with this cast is the standard way of extending a debut cycle without making anyone wait for a second record. For Brandy it is another guest slot in a busy stretch: she also sang the theme for Netflix's A Different World sequel this year.

Levi has kept up his own release pace alongside it, having returned with a single called SWERVE earlier in the year. Both the original album and the expanded edition sit with the rest of the pop and R&B schedule on the release calendar.