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I may have to re-think my song selection process-- while #3 in the charts has a lot more flexibility from week to week than #1, it doesn't really change enough for me to get a lot of new music. Nelly held the spot two weeks in a row, so I skipped down to #4 last week and got Rihanna. Nelly's no longer #3 this week... but guess what: Rihanna is. I had to skip down to #5 to find a song I haven't already reviewed-- and that gave me another mass produced, cookie cutter techno-pop song. Seriously: I tried to write a review of "DJ Got Us Fallin in Love" by Usher, but it was like trying to review a McDonald's cheeseburger: I didn't like it, but it was too generic to inspire any kind of criticism other than “why do people buy this?” It all points to me needing to find a different number in the top 10, a little further from the traffic jam around #1... but that will be next week.Song:
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So... moving on: I've already hit this week's #17 too, but as far as I'm concerned, Cee Lo can stay in the top 20 forever (if there were any justice in this system, the zero-personality Rihanna and Usher tracks would be eating his dust). This brings us to Waka Flocka Flame: it's no surprise I don't know this guy, but man is that an awesome name. I'm not sure I could say it aloud and keep a straight face.
Thankfully, Waka doesn't live in the pre-fab pop wasteland that houses the godawful Usher track I narrowly avoided-- this beat wasn't pulled from the factory demo of an old Roland groovebox. There's some clever movement to the kick, and the rapid hi-hat is always bouncing around in the stereo field. I don't want to blow it out of proportion, but somebody actually worked on this beat and got creative. And the hype man's part in the beginning of the first verse is an awesome almost-synth-kick: “bow bow bow bow...”
And, hey, this answers a question I've been asking myself for a little while: I've been hearing a lot of soulless autotuned singers over funkless raver beats, but didn't there used to be rappers in this genre? Everyone on this track has better style, flow, rhythm... well, better everything, than the guys on Chris Brown's track. Lyrically, it is a club track: lots of bragging, calling out the song's guest stars, and appreciating the booty, but it's nice to hear some wordsmiths simply ply their trade. It's a nice change from the empty non-song I thought I was going to write about today.
Add N to (x), an all-vintage-synth band, has a song called “The Regent Is Dead,” which evokes a kind of swords and sorcery, epic fantasy landscape... musically, “No Hands” reminds me of that piece. I think that's both cool and sort of hilarious: the synth progressions are kind of epic. 80's fantasy movie epic. This might be the most gravitas booty's ever had. (ha!)
Overall, I think there's some pretty cool stuff in here, and it is a huge step up from a lot of what I've heard while doing this project... but I'm not ready to call myself a Waka Flocka Flame fan. I'm not calling “No Hands” a bad song; I'm thankful it broke up a rut I needed to escape, but I'm also not keeping a copy.
And, hey, this answers a question I've been asking myself for a little while: I've been hearing a lot of soulless autotuned singers over funkless raver beats, but didn't there used to be rappers in this genre? Everyone on this track has better style, flow, rhythm... well, better everything, than the guys on Chris Brown's track. Lyrically, it is a club track: lots of bragging, calling out the song's guest stars, and appreciating the booty, but it's nice to hear some wordsmiths simply ply their trade. It's a nice change from the empty non-song I thought I was going to write about today.
Add N to (x), an all-vintage-synth band, has a song called “The Regent Is Dead,” which evokes a kind of swords and sorcery, epic fantasy landscape... musically, “No Hands” reminds me of that piece. I think that's both cool and sort of hilarious: the synth progressions are kind of epic. 80's fantasy movie epic. This might be the most gravitas booty's ever had. (ha!)
Overall, I think there's some pretty cool stuff in here, and it is a huge step up from a lot of what I've heard while doing this project... but I'm not ready to call myself a Waka Flocka Flame fan. I'm not calling “No Hands” a bad song; I'm thankful it broke up a rut I needed to escape, but I'm also not keeping a copy.
Stay with the song, walk away, or run like hell:
This was the hardest "style" category I ever tried to lock down... it's not entirely a bragging track, but it's also not all about the awesome booty; it's a little of both. So I'm going with "Impress the Girl"-- it's boastful, but it's boastful to win the hottie.
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