One of the biggest problems with marketing hip hop on the radio or on TV is the fact that you can’t air curse words. Of course this issue hits every musical genre and not just hip hop, but we can all safely say that it poses a bigger problem for hip hop artists than most. By and large since hip hop started to get really happy with “dirty language” there have been basically two solutions to this problem: blank out the words or release a separate version with alternate lyrics. Most rappers will choose the one or the other.
DMX however is not most rappers. In a move of unprecedented brilliance, on his song “Party Up” he figured out a third and absolutely ingenious way to censor his song: replace the offensive language with sound effects. “Party Up” was already a great track to begin with, but the addition of random sound effects truly brings it up to levels that nobody would have ever thought possible.
Don’t believe me? You can compare the two here for yourself:
DIRTY VERSION
CLEAN VERSION
Little Known Fact: DMX stands for deionized-mono-xtrapolation. In layman’s terms, this is the chemical found in the gene that causes genius-ness. Don’t believe me? I’ll have you know I have a dual PhD in Organic Chemistry and Cut Chemistry. Fact. You can look it up.
I posted this video a long time ago, but back then nobody went to my site so it was kind of a wasted effort. People are coming to my site now though! Yay. So here it is again, Morris Day and the Time performing “Jerk Out” on SNL. Watch it now, thank me later.
I was driving home from Starbucks today and I started thinking about Jay-Z and all the close friends he has made over the years. There’s Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park. There’s Lebron James. There’s even Chris Martin and Gweneth Paltrow. That’s kind of an odd list if you think about it and one gets the feeling that Jay-Z can makes friends with just about anybody. It kind of reminds me of when the Yankees were courting CC Sabathia this past summer. By all accounts CC wanted to play in California, but everybody (and by everybody I mean ESPN) were saying it didn’t matter where CC wanted to go, if the Yankees wanted him, they were getting him. It makes sense really. If Jay-Z wanted to be your friend would you refuse? Nas didn’t refuse and Jay-Z slept with his ex girlfriend and then rapped about it. I would want to be friends with Jay-Z.
Here’s a great song by Jay that not too many people know about.
All this lip syncing talk got me thinking, what qualifies as lip syncing? For example, is what beyonce does count as lip syncing?
(FIERCE!)
There is a very audible backing track, and she does use it in lue of her actually singing, but it’s not like she’s pretending to sing. She kind of just lets it play while she decides to stand around and look all fierce.
(Apprently Lady Gaga got a nose job)
I found this quote from Lady Gaga on Perez Hilton:
“I would never even think about it (lip synching). The whole point to me is, if you’re gonna be number one, you better really be fucking number one. If you’re gonna be on top, you better be able to do all those things, because it’s a real privilege to be able to make music everyday, and I get away with a lot…Andy Warhol says art is what you can get away with, and I get away with a lot with my music and my clothes, and I work really hard so I could truly be a real artist for all my fans. That’s really fucked up when you lip-synch.”
Now that sounds all well and good in theory, but seeing as how Lady Gaga is (at best) a marginal singer, a pretty mediocre dancer, and is basically a poor man’s Britney Spears, her outrage seems somewhat comical. Props on name dropping Andy Warhol though. That was very sneaky clever.
(Lady Gaga demonstrating the Tommy Lee method of proving you are a real artist: play an idiot simple song on piano. Justin Timberlake made this popular)
On a side note, I actually like Lady Gaga’s music.
These are my new Jams:
Beyonce – Hello
Ne-Yo – Part of the List (the video is pretty weak though)
This is so overlooked it borders on criminal. Watch it now, thank me later.
