Big Doomy String Samples On RnB Records

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Listened to the Christina Milian ft Yng Jeezy single, and yes I like it, but the talk about Aaliyah and so on yesterday had me thinking back to '00/'01 and all the jittery/ravey/squelchy/odd background stuff that producers were putting into R'n'B then. Those production choices seemed to give access to a much wider emotional range - more vulnerability, swooniness, dread, joy, sass - than sticking another portentiously cinematic string riff on the back of your tune.

No?

Comments

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I think there are quite a lot of layers in the Milian, but several of those layers are Young Jeezy popping up and shouting "Snowman!". I'm not totally sure what he's doing on there to be honest, I feel like I'm listening to a remix of a better unheard record.

[zenith.livejournal.com]

I desperately want there to be a version of this with a different rap - I'm sure there's one with no rap at all, but that's not what I want, 'cos there seems to be a good space for one. What I want is a rap that is not a Party Political Broadcast by Fathers 4 Justice.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I like the rap! With the caveat that I have not listened to any of the words that Young Jeezy is saying, apart from "nephew" at the start.

[zenith.livejournal.com]

Deadbeat dad is what the media say
Best father in the world is what my son he'll say
Won't stop til you broke, that's what his mom's gone say
But hey
That's the type of game she play

For some reason this irritates me much more than many other, cruder, less specific forms of teh sexism in music, probably because F4J are just so gosh darn UNCOOL.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. I think what irks me most about that is how little it has to do with the song. Maybe if the song's narrator was a mother tearing into her child's husband THEN it would be appropriate! But as it is wtf.

[zenith.livejournal.com]

Well actually, thinking about it further, I suppose the really irritating thing is that it actually runs so counter to the rest of the song, you've got Cristina singing "we can make it if we try!", all fired up and the like, and then he comes in saying "yes! we can overcome the obstacles life throws at us like GREEDY MONEY-GRABBING WOMEN!"

I blame Kanye.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Kanye did something really special though, something I've not heard much of in hip hop, which is celebrating the gold digger for being resourceful and canny and also hott - the song's totally in love with the archetype it describes.

Young Jeezy, er, does not do this.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I was going to ask what it has to do with the rest of the song, but thought I might just be being naive.

How do guest raps actually work anyway? Does the rapper hear the beat, or the whole song and their place on it, or what? (cf Left-Eye's shocking guest rap on "Never Be The Same Again" where she clearly had nothing to go on but the title, but it's great anyway).

I guess pop gold is when an 'unrelated' song and rap actually spark off each other excitingly, I don't think that's happening here.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Guest raps are funny, sometimes it's really obvious that all the rapper has heard is the beat and the title (eg Twista's rap on a rmx of Mis-Teeq's 'Scandalous': his rap is entirely "erm there is this word scandalous and here are some synonyms for it and er Mis-Teeq might be scandalous but I have not heard of them actually").

But then you get stuff like 'We Need A Resolution' and Teedra's 'You'll Never Find (A Better Woman)' where Timbaland and Jadakiss are responding to some quite subtle criticisms in the verses - maybe by chance but probably not.

I think - possibly stating the obvious - that guest raps work best when the song deals with relationships and love and so on, because the guest can either agree with his lady about how much they wuv each other, or go "hang on bitch you are WRONG and here I will put MY case forward".

An interesting one is Nas on Amerie's 'Man Up' - she tears into her object of derision so utterly and mercilessly that Nas would be completely ineffectual in response, so he plays the narrator's BROTHER and tears into the ex as well!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Best guest rap on r&b rekkid in recent memory = TI on Amerie's 'Touch'. WITH MY HANDS LIKE DAMN AND MY NECK LIKE WOW