December 26
so about Ke$ha
(in reference to this post earlier)
here were the parts of the article that made me want to throw my phone across the bus:
“I never thought of her as rapping,” said Barry Weiss, chairman and chief executive of RCA/Jive Label Group, who signed Ke$ha. “I just thought of it as her particular vocal phrasing on certain songs.”
we wouldn’t want a white female rapper, now would we?
“White rappers who try to sound black,” he continued, are “so uninteresting, so unimaginative.” Citing examples of white men who’ve worked a different path — the Beastie Boys, Beck, the raplike moments of Weezer — Dr. Luke said there was room for Ke$ha to try the same thing: “Being that she was willing to do that, and she liked it, I’m in support of it. A whole record of that might get annoying though.”
I just like, can’t.
Even if Ke$ha were looking for influences, there are barely any to choose from.
white female rappers can only be influenced by other white female rappers! I mean, I get that the writer of the article is trying to say that there haven’t been MANY white female rappers, and certainly not many who have succeeded, but why can she only be influenced by someone who is her race and gender? what?
“I love the Beastie Boys — that’s probably why ‘TiK ToK’ happened,” Ke$ha said. “Rap in general has never been my steez, but I like it.”
steez
In the studio with Dr. Luke and the producer Benny Blanco
I only know Benny Blanco from that one Spank Rock EP, which I enjoy, but he has worked on some pretty awful shit since then, eh?
And however Ke$ha might be positioned, it won’t be as a rapper. “I don’t think they put that word on her at all,” said Richard Palmese, executive vice president of pop/rock promotions for the RCA Music Group. “She’s a pop singer with a lot of edge.”
I’m not saying I want Ke$ha to be the next great female rapper because that would be kind of awful for a lot of reasons, but why are the execs so terrified of her being thought of as a rapper? “She’s not a rapper! Really! She doesn’t even rap! She just talks. Look how pretty and blonde she is! She’s kind of like Taylor Swift but edgy. Rappers are threatening! She’s just spunky.”
Some have compared Ke$ha, unfavorably, to Uffie, who is signed to the influential French electronic music label Ed Banger and whose sass-rap predated Ke$ha’s by a couple of years. “I understand why people need to make that association,” Ke$ha said, “but it’s not like, ‘Yeah, let me just listen to Uffie and rip that off.’ ” At one point Dr. Luke held discussions with Uffie’s camp about producing her debut album, he said, though it never panned out. (Perhaps sensing the moment, though, Uffie recently announced that her debut album will be released this spring.)
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
good lookin bike pants for girls from Outlier. they also come in winter weight. they also cost more than my bike.
I want those pants. I think. really, I just want jeans with a reinforced crotch because I’m tired of having to buy new pairs every five months.
also, folding bike? really?
Florida coach Urban Meyer steps down for health reasons - ESPN
Urban Meyer is stepping down as coach of the Florida football team, athletic director Jeremy Foley announced Saturday afternoon in a release.
“I have given my heart and soul to coaching college football and mentoring young men for the last 24-plus years and I have dedicated most of my waking moments the last five years to the Gator football program,” Meyer, 45, said in statement. “I have ignored my health for years, but recent developments have forced me to reevaluate my priorities of faith and family.
“After consulting with my family, Dr. Machen, Jeremy Foley and my doctors, I believe it is in my best interest to step aside and focus on my health and family.”
…something is rotten in the state of Denmark?
New TSA regs for all international flights entering the USA, via Air Canada:—
Only one carry-on bag per person. PERIOD. Computer? Clothing? Books? All in one small bag, son.
No leaving your seat in the last hour of your flight. Passengers cannot get up to stretch their legs, go to the restroom or to assist children/elderly/the disabled in the last hour of flying.
Passengers may not carry anything in their hands or in their laps in the last hour of flights. Passengers reading books, listening to an ipod, using a laptop or doing any other activity in the last hour of flight will face criminal action if they don’t cease and desist. That’s not a joke.
Negev Rock City: Your Flight Experience Will Now… Suck. (via sexartandpolitics)
WHAT THE FUCK AAAAAH
(via annierachel)
I’m still really confused about which restrictions apply to international flights and which apply to all flights. since the vast majority of the flights I take are between Philadelphia and Atlanta and are only about 90 minutes long, that whole hour-before-landing thing means that I will have to sit and stare at the seat in front of me for pretty much the whole flight.
T.I. And Ludacris should do more songs together
I hope this is one of T.I.’s priorities now that he’s in a halfway house and can work during the day.
New York State of Mind is one of the best songs ever (probably)
Fuck that empire bullshit
I have thoughts about that whole white-girl-rapper thing but the tumblr iPhone app makes it basically impossible to reblog and add to discussions. Basically I would like the following people/entities to shut up: Ke$ha, record execs, the author of that article
A couple of thoughts on the "white chicks rapping" piece in today's A&L section.
Never mind the studious “NO WAIT SHE’S NOT… A RAPPER” posturing that’s emanating from every Ke$ha-associated executive-type who’s quoted in the piece. (That’s just creepy, and somewhat unfortunate on a “Miley disowning Jay-Z” level.) It’s kind of curious that JJ Fad and L’Trimm aren’t mentioned as influences at all, as both Fergie’s “Fergalicious” — which did reach No. 2 on the pop charts, and probably rendered her rap on “Boom Boom Pow” a lot less surprising to yr Z100 lay listener — and Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok” are direct descendants of both “Supersonic” and L’Trimm’s two big singles. “Fergalicious” owes the more obvious debt, but from the first time I heard “Tik Tok,” back in September, I heard Bunny and Tigra’s sorta-Valley-Girl-ish boasts running through Ke$ha’s cadence. Both those songs had minor national chart success back in the day, although Ke$ha was about a year or two old when “Cars With The Boom” was reaching the middle of the Hot 100. Were JJ Fad and L’Trimm dubbed not known enough to the typical A&L audience member and summarily edited out of the piece, while Dem Franchise Boyz were allowed to stay in?
And on that note: The piece had one glaring problem to me that’s more a failure of editing, namely that it too often fell into the trap of being a jumble of names with few identifiers. A wise man once taught me (via Wiki style guide, anyway) that there weren’t many people out there who were well-known enough to be identified solely by stage name — I’d think that this is particularly the case when one’s name-checking Diddy and Jermaine Dupri for a GA audience like the one attracted to music trend pieces buried within the A&L section. (OK, so Diddy’s in the Ciroc ads that are on network TV, but even if you factor in people who might have vague “Janet Jackson’s
career-ruinerex” knowledge, what average Joe NYT reader knows who Dupri might be offhand?)And on a final note, the also-namechecked “country” singer Jessie James bugs the crap out of me, although I suspect her inevitable turn on I’m A Celebrity Living The Surreal Life Get Me To Fit Club will reveal her to be at least somewhat charming, in a toughened-by-the-biz-too-early sort of way.
I'm so bored
Been sitting in the Chinatown bus station for an hour and bus doesn’t leave til 3. Being compulsively early is sometimes a terrible thing.
Because it seems to be the weekend-of-posting-cats here is my brother’s cat Mel (The Best Cat in the World, sorry Tiger Friend) in a dollhouse
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