JUDGE POP vs Akon

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Never let it be said that JUDGE POP is prejudiced by genre as he goes about his crime-busting duty on the streets of MEGA CITY POP. The eye of the law is on every citizen, eldster or juve, indie or R&B, and this week it's fallen upon Akon.

[Poll #985797]

Will Akon join Patrick Wolf and the Klaxons in the cubes? Or will he walk free? Over to you!

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Hoorah I get to approve of someone for once!

I luv Akon: he's not an absolute favourite but he's great to have as background noise in the pop charts, always reliably present with something reliably OK.

I do think he's marrying r&b and hip-hop in a quite interesting way - he's got that weedy nasal voice (which I like a lot) and his beats are always more pleasant than harsh, but his lyrics tend to be totally gangsta (eg 'I Wanna Love You', 'Smack That'), tough-guy braggadocio a la Fiddy. Presumably this means that both the girlz and the boyz on the bus are free to love him.

His best performance is on that DJ Khaled single from earlier this year - absolutely triumphant on the hook.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I don't like his lyrics much but I *love* his voice - like a big sad goose, as I said on another thread.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

i love "ghetto"

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree on that Khaled single - I think I said as much on Stylus at the time.

[umlauts.livejournal.com]

I felt like, during the time when everyone was buying "Lonely" but everyone seemed to profess to hate it, I didn't buy it even though I still think it's a good song. His voice over the outro is marvellous. "Come on home!". Yeah!

That said, I voted to imprison because I hate "Doesn't Matter" and ESPECIALLY "Smack That", a favourite of my former insane housemate, played at stunningly high volume and it made me want to commit various acts of murder. Oh, and "Belly Dancer" now that's a fucking terrible song.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I really never understood the hate for 'Lonely' - I think it's lovely, v sweet. And everyone loved chipmunk samples when Kanye used them (and quite right too!)

[umlauts.livejournal.com]

And everyone loved chipmunk samples when Kanye used them

I didn't. But that's because I'm a racist innit.

[umlauts.livejournal.com]

Just listened to "Lonely" again - yep, time's been good to it. I still like it.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Hang on I thought it was Kanye himself you didn't like, not the chipmunks per se? And I KNOW you like 'Gold Digger'.

[umlauts.livejournal.com]

Yes, you're right. Though I didn't care for the chipmunks much either. I can't really explain why my reaction to Kanye is so overwhelmingly negative EXCEPT for "Gold Digger". It just is.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Neither can I, so we agree therefore that your Kanye hate is BIZARRE and IRRATIONAL.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty much the same actually.

[dickmalone.livejournal.com]

There aren't any chipmunks in Gold Digger, are there?

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

I am precisely the inverse, in that I thought he was great until that, which is rubbish.

Although The Automatic did a good cover version of it on their tour.

[zenith.livejournal.com]

Ha I love both 'Smack That' and 'Bellydancer'! Especially the former.

Methinks Judge Pun may have chosen this artist purely on the basis of having iso-cube-tastic song titles...

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Weee-hoo!

He gets to stay for 'Sweet Escape'.

The exception to the rule?

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

This is one of those cases were familiarity breeds the opposite of contempt. The more you are exposed to his songs, the harder it is to dislike him. His very success, ubiquity, whatever, is his saviour. (In short, the kids on the bus win.)

I'm struggling to think of any other act to which this applies.

Re: The exception to the rule?

[umlauts.livejournal.com]

For me, Linkin Park. Kids on the bus I encounter are nuts for them and overexposure has bred a grudging respect in me, and sometimes active liking.

Re: The exception to the rule?

[dickmalone.livejournal.com]

Fall Out Boy! This may just be me.

Re: The exception to the rule?

[infov0re.livejournal.com]

It's not just you, buddy. Except I started liking them, and now I appear to be obsessed.

[strange-powers.livejournal.com]

I did think it was Akon's voice that upset me, until the last couple of singles and Sweet Escape, to which I consider his magnificent contribution invaluable. However the likes of Lonely, which I can hardly bear to think of let alone hear ever again, are big crimes to which incarceration is the only just response.

I'm banging him up for a short period, but his ideas had better have bucked up a bit by the time parole comes around.

[infov0re.livejournal.com]

Sorry, but it's the cubes for him. His voice and lame raps drive me nuts. At the same time, I'm really warming to him as a producer; Sweet Escape was fabulous, and I felt his vocals worked really well on it. But Smack That's horrible!

[ms-bracken.livejournal.com]

Whilst Smack That is fundamentally not very good at all, the joy that I have derived from singing the chorus in a silly falsetto saves Akon from the cubes. Also, the fact that I'm finding 'The Hits' to be a poorer and a diminished channel since they stopped showing the video for it.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Akon almost singlehandedly justifies the rockist prejudice against R&B and hip hop. He is loathsome beyond all belief. And I would have said exactly the same even before the inadvertent wrongcockery vid.

[catsgomiaow.livejournal.com]

FACE AKON MORE LIKE AS I SAID AT THE TIME

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Akon is, to be perfectly honest with you, fucking dull. I'm not sure if that ought to be a crime but 'Belly Dancer' definitely is so it's the cubes for him, from my point of view.