Post 80 (Feat. Rant)

(Note: The Above Video should have been in this post, but I've given up on trying to figure out how to do so. Anyone?)

Admittidly, I'm not the biggest hip-hop/R&B/gansta life music fan. In fact, after watching a direct music video feed at a club in Vancouver last week I was ready to rant about downright lazy the whole damn genre had become. I mean, take away the music (which is what happens in a noisy club) and all you see for 30 odd minutes is a parade of 'rough street smart' guys mugging for a camera in the middle of a street while underdressed 18 year old street walkers cleaned his car(s). Oh, and don't forget the rainfalls of money (which, for all of Alberta's shitty weather patterns I have yet to see).

Anyways - long story short, the genre wasn't impressing me. And it wasn't just the videos, it was the songs...the same damn sentiment time and time again "It was rough, I'm rough, now I'm screwing supermodels and selling million dollar albums. Also - I can't eat much because I have coated my teeth in metal".

BUT THE REAL point of this post is because I actually started to like a few artists here and there...mainly female artists who brought at least something resembling structure, harmony and thought to the music.S o imagine my suprise when I download this Rihanna song only to be treated to this right off the top (edit: see Above)

I'm sorry...did I download a podcast? Was the song that hard to understand thematically that Jay-Z had to come out and explain it to me?

Then I realized this is one of the reasons why I've avoided hip-hop: because of self-promoting nonsense like this. How many times have I had a reasonably fun/good Hip Hop song interrupted by the producer or some remotely famous artist doing his own interpretation right in the middle of the damn song?

It's like they record these guys singing in the shower to the song and then mix together both tracks for one crazy cool final product. No! You don't see Ozzy Osborne suddenly appearing in a Rob Zombie video yelling 'Sharon! Sharon!' - why? Because Rob Zombie can stand by himself - just like Rihanna can do her own shit without having to be molded once more into 'Rap Female Bot 3000' while her master parades around her.

And its not just Rihanna...in my limited Hip Hop history knowledge, I can recall a good number of songs which were great by themselves but just had to feature 'So and So' to validate being in the industry. Stop it. Let the woman sing, damnit! Save the macho parading for your own stuff and let the genre evolve! It's like watching some drunk uncle show up to his niece's battle of the bands and take over the stage.

So that's that. I propose a band on the word 'Feat.' in a music title. If you are too lazy to do your own stuff, don't shoehorn yourself into another artist's stuff just because you happen to a) think everyone was just dying to find out where you'd pop up next b) were in the studio that day or c) you think that doing any work on the album automatically buys you a free ticket to talk over the main tracks.

Thanks - Matt (Feat. Dirty Bizzle B)