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Friday, January 30, 2009
Who’s The Savant Behind The Very Worst Rock Song I’ve Made A Point Of Listening To Lately?
Words George Booker
Friday, January 30th, 2009 at 10:08 am
Why, Lil’ Wayne? Nevermind, I’ve never had any luck asking myself that question. If you’re a glutton for punishment, or need a good laugh, go ahead and stream Wayne’s new “rock” song here. It is called “Prom Queen” and it is fairly terrible in no ironic way I can detect.
Maybe Kanye West’s surprisingly bold and touching 808s and Heartbreak opened my mind too far in not expecting the worst from batshit moves by narcissistic hip-hop geniuses. Where Kanye had a genuine, and often moving, vision for an album made mostly of sad autotune and drum machine ballads, it sounds like Wayne has taken about his usual amount of forethought (i.e. none whatsoever) in his decision to go “rock.”
Maybe just because all of Wayne’s considerable triumphs have seemed unlikely and ill-considered, I assumed he could pull this off. The nice thing about him is I don’t have to worry too much, as he probably can’t stay stuck on this idea any longer than his others (he’s on the Black Ark Lee Perry musical curve of pursuing an approach very thoroughly and prolifically, but for no longer than 4-6 weeks, so if you order a book or something it is likely he’ll be onto something else by the time you get it).
On more positive Wayne news, there’s a real documentary (as opposed to the ubiquitous “hastily slapped together hip-hop DVD”) coming around about him. Adam Bhala Lough’s The Carter earned comparisons to the classic D.A. Pennebacker verite chronicle of Bob Dylan Don’t Look Back when it played Sundance earlier this month, opting against a detached view with adequate context and preferring to immerse itself in the day to day, minute to minute experience of being one of the world’s most captivating, conflicted and divisive pop stars. I would certainly pay 8 bucks to spend an hour and a half in that creative whirlwind.
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ABOUT THE WRITER
George Booker is writing this about himself in the third person. He was considering second person, maybe making this the "Bright Lights, Big City" of bios. He was looking into casting Micheal J. Fox in the forthcoming film adaptation, as the disabled actor would likely portray him with ample charm, sympathy, and fifty-something boyish handsomeness. Recently, however, Booker has realized that only Anne Hathaway or Chiwetel Ejiofor could really capture his essence. Late 20s, Norfolk raised music writer. Former DJ and production head for WVFS Tallahassee, former staff clerk at defunct Norfolk music stores DJ's and Relative Theory. Current Film Editor and Contributor to No Ripcord Magazine, contributed blurbs to Link and Port Folio Magazine.
Other posts by George Booker.
Other posts by George Booker.
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Interesting. I would pay 8 dollars to actually be able to go an hour and a half without being forced to think about Lil Wayne. How long do these no-talent phenoms usually get to ride the wave of popularity before people realize they’re completely horrible? If I guage this equation on Nelly, Ja Rule and 50 Cent then I need to put up with Wayne for one more year. Come on, 2010!
damn you can be a killjoy, jerome. no disco, no lil’ wayne? really? what am i supposed to put on my dancing shoes for?
ps 24sc readers – i don’t actually have dancing shoes. can you send me some? preferably snazzy white ones?
Yeah. I’m going to have to agree with you. A mere three seconds pretty much made me want to die.
Here’s some Lil Wayne redemption for you: The Hood Internet, which does some really interesting mash-ups, splices Lil W, T-Pain, and the Rosebuds—a Raleigh husband-and-wife duo that happen to be one of my favorite indie bands. The result is a pretty awesome song (once you get past the 5-second intro). Good luck purging it from your brain.
Listen here:
http://www.thehoodinternet.com/2008/10/t-pain-vs-rosebuds.html
No matter how great a beat is, I will never enjoy the voice distortion that’s so popular in hip-hop right now. How long do you experts think we’ll have to endure that trend? Thanks for the link, Allison. Very interesting blend. I did find the Rosebuds on Myspace, though, and definitely prefer their original over the mash-up.
actually, lauren, i’m a cautious proponent of the new autotune snazz. i find it interesting how a digital effect originally used to make teen pop tarts sound like they could hold a note (and then to make cher sound like a robot) has been repurposed as its own expressive instrument. actually, me and jerome had a now-legendary-to-us digital donnybrook over the pioneer of modern autotune wankery, t-pain.
yes, autotune has given us way more than its share of gimmicky, annoying hip-hop and r&b tunes, but also a few i really like and the very interesting “808s and heartbreak”. unfortunately, we have monstrosities like “prom queen” to endure and make everybody sick of the device.
at its best, and i don’t think we’re there yet, autotune has the potential (in the hands of a genius at least) to give us a modern parallel to roger troutman’s uplifting vocoder symphonies that he did with zapp.
just doin’ some research to the extent i normally do, which is looking something up on wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autotune
the interesting detail somebody slapped up there was the revelation that a lot of the biggest, and most well-respected, country singers apparently have started using autotune in their live sets.