Santogold Is A Devious Plot

White people like Santogold. She’s almost the incarnation of an artist that Stuff-White-People-Like- White People must like. Let’s go over the basics.  She went to Wesleyan, home of artistic minded white people and the breeding ground of hipster extraordinaries MGMT. Her music is a combination of 80s pop that White People “ironically” like, world-beat-y international hip hop a la MIA, dense dance-y MGMT stuff, new wave, the Pixies, reggae, Bloc Party style dance rock and R&B. Did I mention that she’s black, lives in Brooklyn and wears chunky gold jewelry?

Here’s her single, L.E.S. Artistes

Hot Tubbin’

This song is tight

It’s from the bay.

Touching Down In London Town

In honor of George W. Bush needing two 747s, a 757, four helicopters and shutting down Heathrow for about seven hours, I thought I’d post a little video that’s a wee bit relevant to our favorite American boy:

Tha Bonus Tracks

Is one album of Lil Wayne not enough for you? Did the five bonus tracks included on the second disc not sate your attitude for a certain Weezy? Well, thanks to Google Reader (specifically, Jamelle), I found that there are two more tracks! Awesome.

Da Link.

Bo Diddley

Bo Diddley is one of those legendary early-rock and roll figures who, despite having been alive up until today, had seemed to past into some mythical place along with Elijah and Sirius Black long, long ago. His influence on the genre can’t really be stated in words, so I’ll post some famous songs that use the Bo Diddley Beat.

U2 – Desire

The Smiths – How Soon Is Now?

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And, of course, Who Do You Love

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I don’t know if Bo Diddley really can “rest in peace.” I more hope that he rocks into eternity.

Dylan Matthews and Spackerman also have some good stuff on Bo.

Tha Carter III: The Review

Could Lil Wayne transition from mixtape master beloved by hip hop heads and bloggers everywhere to a crossover superstar a la Kanye or Jay-Z? That’s the question that must be answered by Tha Carter III, which is by far the most hotly anticipated hip hop album of the year. But first, let’s go over what Wayne had to accomplish to finally make the transition. He needed to find a way to balance his amazing charisma and sheer personality with some better rhymes. His songs often feature a  bunch of warmed over pop culture references, and him talking about how hot he is. The worry about going away from his status quo style is that if he gets bogged down in complex rhyme patterns, he could very well lose the bravado that makes him such a star. So how do these 18 tracks break down?

The Super Hot Ones:

3 Peat
Mr Carter
Got Money
Shoot Me Down
Playin With Fire
La La

The Good Ones

A mili
Comfortable
Phone Home
Lollipop Remix
Got Money Remix
Nothin On Me

The Rest

Let The Beat Build
Misunderstood
Dr Carter
Tie My Hands
Mrs. Officer
Lollipop

What’s remarkable, and rather unexpected, is the high average quality. Because it’s so easy to produce songs, most big rap albums are horribly bloated and full of filler. And because Wayne released a track a week for all of 2007, I was pretty sure that his first full length in so long would be full of mediocre tracks he recorded on a whim. And despite the presence of six or so such tracks, most of them are marked by Wayne at least trying to try things outside of his comfort zone. The problem is, as always, that when he turns off the charisma and craziness, he’s left to survive purely on the strength of his rhymes, which aren’t always strong.

What’s surprised me about the promotion of the album is the fact that I’m not watching the Got Money video every other hour on BET or listening to it on both the hip hop and pop radio stations. Although Lollipop is beloved by teenage girls of all races, thus expanding Wayne’s demographic past his hard core teenage boy followers, Got Money captures the pop zeitgeist perfectly. After all, T-Pain does the hook. There’s no reason this track couldn’t appeal to the wide-angle demographic that lead singles are supposed to hit.

This album, however, leaves the question of where Weezy can go next. He already reached the peak in pre-album hype, exposure and anticipation. And it’s not clear if he has the artistic sense to really take his music in new directions, like Kanye and Jay-Z were able to. I think that Wayne should follow Kanye and try to find some non-hip hop producers for his next album. Since his best songs aren’t really dependent on his rhyming or flow (like Kanye) some more pop-oriented production could serve him incredibly well. It would be a risk, but at this point, he’s already accomplished everything he could appealing to hip-hop bloggers, so he might as well experiment. Also, he should do some blockbuster tracks with a big female star like Beyonce or Rihanna.

Ultimate conclusion: Very solid album in which Wayne just about prefects his entire shtick. It does not, however, reach the level of Graduation, The Black Album or The Blueprint. But the fact that I’m even mentioning Tha Carter III in such exalted company shows how far Weezy has come since his guest verse on Back That Azz Up.

Underneath the fold are my live reactions listening to the album for the first time. Beware, totally unedited:

Tha Leak!

So, a little internet fairy just pointed me in the direction of Tha Carter III, which isn’t supposed to drop until June 10. Thoughts forthcoming…

The Best Summer Song, Bar None

Alyssa Rosenberg is older than me. So maybe that’s why she has fond memories of Will Smith’s “Summertime.” Sure, it’s a good enough track, and one that looks a whole lot better in comparison to his later works, but is it really the best song “about June, July and August?” Maybe this is California homerism, but Sublime’s version of George Gershwins’s Summertime is my favorite between-memorial-and-labor-day tribute:

Now here’s the real question, had Bradley Houser not succumbed to drugs, would Sublime have followed the career trajectory of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, or would they just be another forgotten 90s band, desperate to show up on Gossip Girl with Rufus Humphrey?

Coldplay Produces Big Ass Music, The Sun Freaks Out

It’s too easy to hate on Coldplay – they’re so earnest, Chris Martin is so transparently lame and it’s clear that they gave up on being diminished Radiohead and decided to become Mega Travis or Ultra Keane. Which, you know, is good for them, I respect their gangster. But the music has always been…meh.

But if Gordon Smart, The Sun’s music crtic is right, their new album is amazing. “The band have really pushed the boundaries of what we expect from an album, producing a beautiful, serious and sometimes testing 45-minute disc.” Uhh what?

I don’t want to cast aspersions on Mr. Smart, but isn’t it possible that the reason he was able to review the album first is because EMI knew he’d write such a sycophantic review? Just saying…

The album is called Viva La Vida, it’s going to drop on June 12th, and here’s a youtube of the song we’ve been hearing on those iPod commercials. Watch it now, it’s probably going to get copyright claimed by EMI really soon.

What Lil Wayne and TI Have Taught Me

Vince Young, who apparently was prepared to retire after his first season in the NFL, explained that he learned from the travails of other rich, young, black men to avoid the temptations that fame and wealth can bring:

“I have a stronger circle,” Young told the Web site. “Now I can handle this kind of stuff without it making me want to give up football. I learned that 24/7 I’m representing the Titans and, especially, the kids all over I am trying to influence. I look at my man Michael Vick. I learned from that. I look at Pacman [Jones]. I learned from that. I look at some troubles recently for rappers T.I. and Lil Wayne, guys I listen to. I learned from them. I’ve learned from my life.”

I understand what Vince Young learned from Michael Vick – don’t commit a crime that offends the sensibilities of the entire nation. But did he learn anything from Ray Lewis, who was involved in a fatal stabbing in an Atlanta club and got with a misdemeanor obstruction of justice, one year of probation and a 250K fine? I mean, Lewis did settle with the family of one of the victims for some 1 million dollars, and an undisclosed amount for another, but he’s still one of the most respected defensive players in the NFL. What did learn from Puff Daddy? After all, he was involved in the infamous night club shooting, hired Cochran and got Shyne to take ten years on weapons charges.

But he didn’t mention Puffy or Lewis, he talked about all the trouble Lil Wayne and TI have gotten themselves in. Young must have been referring to Wayne’s numerous run-ins with the law, including three arrests between July 2007 and January 2008 for drug possession and weapon possession. Of course, Lil Wayne hasn’t gone to jail or done anything more than post bail and pay some fines as a result of all these arrests and is perfectly able to delay the release of Tha Carter III without spending time in the Big House.

Hmm, so maybe Weezy isn’t the best example of a young, rich, thugged out black man who gets caught up in the law and whose career is ruined. TI might be a more convincing case. After all, he was caught trying to buy automatic weapons from a police snitch. Oh yeah, and he’s a convicted felon. Sounds pretty bad, like career ruining bad, right? Wrong.

Although he does have to serve 1,500 community service hours (that’s 62.5 days), pay 100,000 in fines, spend a year under house arrest and a year in the federal pen, we all know that he will be back soon enough. His career is hardly ruined, if anything, he’ll now have enough cred to produce cheezy, ubiquitous pop tunes like 50 Cent.

So was Vince Young trying to say that if you’re rich and famous, you don’t have to do time for killing people(allegedly), weapons possession or having drugs? And if you really get caught, you can pay a minuscule fine (most people get fines of 250K a count) and way less hard time (TI could have gotten ten years) than any normal person could ever expect in the same situation. But, hey, don’t do anything to dogs! It might ruin your career!