I'll be a metaphor for the high dro, make you sleepy

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Couple of excellent new videos which have dramatically improved their parent songs for me:

I still think Ciara's 'Go Girl' is a retarded choice of single - it's OK, but when you've done OMGWOW monster cuts like 'Work', 'High Price' and 'Echo', why go with this aimless, sorta chorusless thing as your lead comeback single? But the fierceness of this video is definitely improving it for me - love the security cam vibe, the classic Cici dancing break and especially the amazing lift scene.

Kanye West premiered the video for 'Love Lockdown' on the Ellen show, lol. It's an incredibly stylised, American Psycho-inspired thing which is as mesmerising as the song (the studio version is growing on me, I think the extra piano really helps). He really seems to be working the video medium well these days - as on 'Flashing Lights', he seems to be more interested in creating a creeping mood than specific action, minimal settings which magnify the small details.

Actually, can we go back to his quotes in that interview, too?

"You know at the end of the movie [that] he didn't really kill anyone. [I just liked] the clean aesthetic and the way he was all about labels."

"I don't have a rapper's name, [but] I have really good taste and anyone who likes it probably has really good taste too."

"I wanted to come up with a theory that applies to my life in 2008, not someone else's thousands of years ago. I wanted to make a book for non-readers, like myself. I only read when necessary, so me and my friend designed this book."

You know...I am increasingly finding Kanye's sundry batshit utterances amazingly entertaining. We're "designing" books now? Best mad pop star du jour.

BONUS BEATS: remember 112? Slim has a solo single out! It's a minimal R&B hazy summer jam thing and it's really snuck up on me in recent days. Reminds me of Lloyd's 'Get It Shawty' so if you liked that you should check this out. Slim ft. Yung Joc - So Fly

Ian's Video Vault

[ijgrieve.livejournal.com]

This week, one of the one hit wonders of the past ten years that is rarely heard nowadays, a jolly little pop song that reached #2 (appropriately) this week in 1999...