If it was up to me, you muh'fckers would stop comin up to me with your hands out lookin up to me.

[raybear]

Dre (Jay-Z) rhymes "me" with "me". Hmm. Poor form. But it still sounds good in context, I guess. Rakim really is the master. His isht is still being said, as if it's new.

It's been a long time, I shouldn't have left you
Without a strong rhyme to step to
Think of how many weak shows you slept through
Time's up, I'm sorry I kept you
from "I Know You Got Soul" (not Timbaland)

I got a question, as serious as cancer
....
I start to think and then I sink
Into the paper like I was ink
from I Ain't No Joke (not Shyne, not Mos Def)

How could I move the crowd
First of all, ain't no mistakes allowed
Here's the instruction, put it together
It simple ain't it but quite clever
from Move the Crowd (not Ghostface)


Though I'm not blaming them at all for quoting such classic lines -- they're not trying to bite. It's just sad that most folks don't know it's an homage. So that's my history lesson to folks, I guess. I take music way too seriously sometimes, and the lack of knowledge often causes me to severely dis on musicians and artists, particularly pop ones, who steal isht and present it as new, in a Tiffany box like Damon's friend Camille. Paris is burning, not Vogue. Toni & J-Lo and Cher & Tina, and Whitney, the biggest johnny-come-lately of them all. N Sync and the 2-step remix of Christina's song (at least she let the professionals do it). And more recently, the Neptunes and their lazy-ass selves selling the same beats to quasi-underground Philly's Most Wanted with one hand and to fcking Britney Spears with the other. Poor poor popstars and the crap they peddle. No, I don't want your tacky wares. Please stop pulling on my sleeves, I have no change for you. I give my dollars to more earnest cats.

I have to take these lessons to heart if I'm genuinely wanting to plunge in and become part of the production culture.

Now I go to lunch because I'm not making sense. Return my overdue videos at the library and pay a too high fine (but I guess that will teach me to not call in sick to work on a day when library materials are due).

Comments

[raybear.livejournal.com]

Well, to be real, I like the song "Try Again" a lot, and Timbaland's a decent producer. So his use of the line sorta works for me -- a proper use of braggadocio, especially since his last collaboration with Aaliyah ("Are You That Somebody?") was a big hit. It's just that most folks don't get the whole picture, i.e. most folks don't know who the fck Rakim is or why he's significant. Even though Timb performs in a sorta human-beatbox way, as if he's sampling the song -- that's what the "fricky-fricky" sound is: an imitation of scratching the record.

Speaking of samples, that Janet Jackson song just came on the radio, featuring Carly Simon singing "I bet you think this song is about you...."

Re:

[supergoat.livejournal.com]

I like that song a lot too actually, but I do have mad respect for the "original" lyrics. :)