Cover Me Bad

(Singing) "Oooo, ooooo!" A famous riff from 90"s band Color Me Badd's hit "I Wanna Sex You Up".  Now if you're under the age of 25, you may still be looking at the screen with a blank stare.   If you don't know who they are you can take a trip down Youtube's memory lane, type in their name and listen.  Today my friend tweeted a link for a video posted by "Karmin Covers".  I'm not sure if it's just the one woman or it's the woman and the man that's in all the videos, but they are cover artists.  For those who may not be familiar with the term "cover artist" or "cover band", that's simply a singer or band who sings or plays songs originally recorded by someone else.  As an artist myself, I have done plenty of covers in shows and enjoy singing some of my favorite tunes.  In my opinion I think the only way to do a good cover is to make sure your version is better or at least as good as the original.  It should not make the original artist upset at the fact you are playing their song and not doing it justice. Most artists take a song and put their own spin on it, either updating it or giving it some flair that reflects their personal artistry.  I mean really, if you've ever done karaoke or performed at an open mic, then you have covered a song before.  Being a performer I've heard some BAD (not "bad" meaning good), covers that almost make you forget how much you loved the original song, ew!  I hear a lot of mixed reviews when it comes to covering a song. Some people feel that if you say you're an "artist" why can't you just create your own stuff?  Others feel like covering another artist's tune is paying homage to that person.  There's truth to both sides.  As an artist, you don't want to only sing other people's music, it doesn't leave any room for you to have your own voice.  It can appear like you're lazy or lacking creativity.  Like you're just a voice, not an artist.  On the flip side, deciding that you want to cover a song and make it your own is completely creative.  Sometimes covers are better than the original, making them feel more relevant.  Some artists styles are so distinctive that even if you know it's not originally their work, they have flipped it so, that you don't notice.  Almost like they are two different songs entirely.  I believe there's an art to the "cover".  Take for instance D'Angelo, wonderful, multi talented artist.  He decided to cover the Prince tune, "She's Always in My Head".  Now we all know Prince is a musical genius, brilliant! His style is so distinctive that most artists would stray away from re-recording one of his songs.  Being a Prince fan, I am very familiar with that song, so when I heard D'Angelo's version, I was more than pleased.  Although I am a D'Angelo fan as well, I am partial to the original (not knocking D'Angelo's version AT ALL!).  But what D'Angelo was able to do is take a classic Prince tune and make it his own.  You could hear the Prince influence, but it didn't sound like he was imitating him either.  Then there are bad covers, like (don't get mad at me but...) Alycia Keys covering one of my favorite songs in the world, "Never Felt This Way" by Brian McKnight.  I know Alycia is great on keys and she's good at doing her own tunes, but she should have left this one alone.  There was nothing new or refreshing about her version, as a matter of fact, it made me a little angry.  Partly because I feel like some songs should be left alone and because this is one of my favorites, this is one of those songs!  Again not knocking Alycia, like I said, I like her doing her music.  I digress.  I love my hip hop and most hip hop producers use samples in their beats.  It could be a drum roll or background vocals or anything.  Look at Kanye, when he made "Through the Fire", he sampled Chaka Khan's words and voice for the hook on that song.  He sped it up to make it work for his song, but it's a sample nonetheless.  New artists pull from their roots all the time.  New soul is not all that new!  Everyone has influences, but you can't mask what you call influence with lack of creativity.  Take that good music that you listen to and make it work for who you are.  Create some new ideas so the generation after you will look to your music as their influence and maybe one day your record will be be someones cover.  Whether for good or bad!  See you on the stage!

Ashley Judd takes on Hip Hop?

When I first read this title and heard the snippet from Hollywood actress Ashley Judd's new memoir All That Is Bitter & Sweet concerning Snoop Dogg and P. Diddy and Hip Hop music in general, I was a little caught off guard.  The actress states:

"Along with other performers, YouthAIDS was supported by rap and hip-hop artists like Snoop Dogg and P. Diddy to spread the message ... um, who?" the actress reportedly says. "Those names were a red flag."

"As far as I'm concerned, most rap and hip-hop music – with its rape culture and insanely abusive lyrics and depictions of girls and women as 'ho's' – is the contemporary soundtrack of misogyny," she argues.

"I believe that the social construction of gender - the cultural beliefs and practices that divide the sexes and institutionalize and normalize the unequal treatment of girls and women, privilege the interests of boys and men, and, most nefariously, incessantly sexualize girls and women - is the root cause of poverty and suffering around the world," Judd says.

First instinct is to be angry, I mean what does she know about Hip Hop and who is she to judge some of our biggest stars in the game!  But once the initial, knee jerk emotion wore off, I read a little more in to her point.  Was she criticizing all hip hop music or just Snoop and Diddy due to their involvement in YouthAIDS?  Does she know that hip hop is a culture and not just what she hears on the radio?  Generalizations have proven time and time again to be very detremental to the social fabric, so it's no wonder people were all up in arms regarding the comments.  Even though the words she put on paper seemed to be a little shocking coming from someone who is not known to me as being a fan of the music (maybe she is or at least was), there is some validity to her sentiments.  If you tuned into your favorite station or watched one of the more popular videos out today, you may be inclined to agree with her, at least a little.  I remember when videos had choreography and the folks wore actual clothing.  Not dresses that look like an oversized wife beater or bikini when the guys have on fur coats.  Some of the videos have no connection to the song.  Why are there directors on set? It's just lights, camera, shake your ass, cut!  Women have been in rappers videos since it began, but with today's artists you would think that the song won't sell unless there are half naked women in them.  Who are we to get angry with someone who seems to be making an observation of what is actually out there.  Far too many times have I seen a video and thought, what do these girls dancing (shaking their booties) have to do with this song?  Some of these videos are crazy, remember Uncut, the video show that would come on BET after 12 and show all the videos they couldn't show during the day.  You would think some of it was soft pornography!  But you see when the television audience thought that show was taking it over the line and actually demanded BET remove it from the lineup, it's hasn't been seen since.  Now, back in the day, you had your 2 Live Crew and artists like them that were all about sex, but you knew exactly what you were going to get when you watched them.  Parents were warned that this music was explicit and children should not watch them videos or listen to the songs.  In today's popular hip hop scene, it seems that the bad rappers out number the good ones.  There will always be songs about women, drugs and money, but there are a lot of other underground or independent artists who's voices don't always get heard.  To me, hip hop music has evolved.  Some of these popular artists, that are considered to have "good songs" today may not have passed the lyrical battles ten, twenty, thrity years ago.  But with the evolvement of the artist, there has been a transition of the listener and fan.  I talked to this point in my last post, so know need to rehash it, but if you want something different as a music fan, then you have to demand it.  Actually, you would be suprised at how many of the popular artists that people say have no real content in their music, can really rap.  A lot of times, they have listened to what's selling and have adapted to that.  They want to make a come up, so they change up who they may actually be.  If you don't believe me, check out some mixtapes of your favorite mainstream artist, you may find some lyrical content that didn't make the "official" album.  More often than not, those mixtapesjust keep making good music so opinions like Ashley Judd's have no validity.  See you on the stage!  

English No Longer Required

OK, so I like my hip hop music just like the rest of the music world, but what is really going on?  Before I get started, I'm not talking about everyone so I don't want people sending any evil emails.  I'm referring to the music that when you listen, you can't understand what they're saying.  I'm not talking about understanding the messages in the songs, I'm talking about the actual words.  I thought the purpose of creating music was so people could hear what it is you have to say. Maybe I was wrong.  It seems as if today's average listener doesn't care if their favorite hip hop artist says anything that's relevant or meaningful because they just want to be able to party in the club.  Don't get me wrong, I love a good club song, if I'm in that kind of mood, but I can't guarantee that I would buy the song off iTunes.  The other day I was driving in my car and when this song came on I swear almost every word ran together.  Not one word was completed before the "rapper" was on to the next word. All though I appreciated the track,  I shook my head in disappointment because that seems to be the only form of hip hop some of these kids know.  Even the radio host said he need Rosetta Stone to decipher what the guy was saying.  C'mon son!!  A lot of our teenagers idolize these folks, it's no wonder some of them can't speak correctly!  Do I partake in the usage of our beloved slang,OF COURSE! But a lot of today's youth think that's the only way to speak and unfortunately mainstream media isn't making it any better.  There are so many hip hop artists out who have so much to say and their music gets overlooked because our ears have become accustomed to "dumbed down" music.  If you're not familiar with that terminology, it simply means an artist takes their music and makes it simple and uncomplicated.  To be clear, I'm not saying "simple" is bad, but when an artist feels they have to make their music so simple that you don't have to think about how it was created, that's a problem.  Generally there's no real message and the main purpose is to make the track so loud that it drowns out the fact that it has absolutely no content.  Music is supposed to be CREATIVE!  Art is supposed to be CREATIVE!  Not sound like you got it out of the cookie jar.  (SMH)  Everyone has a right to express themselves however they choose, but when do we, the listeners, start requiring people to say lyrics we can actually understand.  Lyrics that when we repeat it can be like, damn that meant something.  Not just wanting to fight in the club, how much money they have (or wish they had) or how high they are off whatever it is they have ingested, smoked or inhaled.  The movie Brown Sugar is based around this subject.  Throughout the movie, they ask the question, "When did you fall in love with hip hop?"  I fell in love in 1987 when I was eight years old and my sister had a 12 inch record from a group called Boogie Down Productions, the song was entitled The Bridge is Over.  I found myself saying rhymes that I didn't really know the meaning, but it was the energy in the way KRS-1 spit and the track was simple but made the statement.  Although hip hop has evolved, some would say for the worst some would say for the best, but change is inevitable.  I just wished these new artists would go back to their roots and listen, they may find they can actually hear what the pioneers are saying, back when English was required...See you on the stage!