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May 03, 2004
La La La La Means I Love You
Back in January, Kelefa Sanneh wrote an interesting article in the NYTimes about the recent trend of "bad singing" in popular hip-hop and R&B. "Bad singing" as in all of the charmingly off-key and often very likable sing-songiness from "untrained" singers like 50 Cent, Lumidee, Kanye West, Pharrell, etc. "Bad" is almost too strong a word - I actually prefer "imperfect" or "amateurish". My man Todd pointed out that Kelis is a great "bad singer" who wasn't mentioned in the article. And now that I've spent many hours listening to Ghostface's Pretty Toney (currently the #6 album in America!), I can't help but think about how criminal it is that Ghostface was left out of this article. He's been doing some crazy-ass karaoke on top of his own songs for years - long before 50 sang one of his own hooks or anyone had even heard of Kanye West. It would be interesting to try and go back through the Wu catalog and find the beginning and rise of Ghostface's inspired warbling. Anyway, there's a lot on Pretty Toney to love, but right now it's "Biscuits" that I can't get out of my head. Man, that absurd sing-song chorus...it's not bad meaning bad, but bad meaning good.
Update: I missed this last week, but Kelefa Sanneh actually reviewed a Ghostface show in the NYTimes last Thursday, so credit due. Some amusing anecdotes about Ghostface, Rakim getting arrested, and DJ Kayslay getting booed!
Posted by Tim at May 3, 2004 07:12 PM
Comments
if anybody should have been included in that article it wouldve been Ol Dirty Bastard. i dont care what anybody says, i can hold that "oooooooooooooooooo" he uses on 80% of his tracks longer than he can......
Posted by: cia at May 3, 2004 08:24 PM
I've gotta single out Lumidee from the rest of them off-key people. Those others have a wink and a sense of humor about it. She's friggin' dead serious. She takes the otherwise hot diwali riddim and proceeds to crap all over it. I believe I once described that song to Tim as the harbinger for the end of the golden age of the jamz (1998-2003).
I haven't seen any turnaround in the overall state of the jamz since Lumidee showed up. I'm hoping the summer proves my theory wrong.
Posted by: Stuart at May 3, 2004 09:47 PM
Tim, would you really put Kellis up there in bad? I was thinking she was great. PS--I love your blog. It it superb.
Posted by: Sarah at May 4, 2004 11:20 AM
I remember that article, and couldn't help thinking about how its interesting that we're only now defining a phenomenon that has existed in hip hop as long as I can remember. I mean, if there wasn't imperfection in the humpty dance, I don't know. I also think of Nas warbling choruses on his songs. And I mean, we can probably trace it back to the roots - r&b singers who weren't really what you would call virtuosic talents but rather enigmatic personalities that sung - sly, issac hayes (well he's an awesome singer but still..), etc.
Posted by: fred at May 4, 2004 11:50 AM
Thanks, Sarah! Don't get me wrong, I think Kelis is really great and extremely talented...but her voice seems to go places where a mid-90s diva might never be allowed to go. Which makes her more interesting. Or maybe I'm just thinking about that flat "La La....La La...La" playground chant in "Milkshake".
Posted by: Tim at May 4, 2004 12:43 PM
To the author's credit, she does cite an antecedent when she mentions Biz Markie (whose genius slab of disco-karaoke "Let Me Turn You On" will always hold a special place in my heart). I think the fact that all these newer songs are so commercially successful is kinda interesting when you think about traditional Top 40 notions of quality and production values. Britney's vocals get processed to death to take out all of the errors....Lumidee's clearly don't. Though maybe they could stand to fix 'em just a little...
Posted by: Tim at May 4, 2004 12:58 PM
Fred's right you know- I was thinking last night about Run DMC singing the chorus to "Mary Mary" (why ya bugging?) or Flava Flav singing about how 911 wears the late crown...
Posted by: Stuart at May 4, 2004 01:07 PM