When I Shazam a song, it's for one of three reasons.
1) The song is amazing
2) The song is awful
3) The song is bizarre
Reason number three hit today, and I discovered I was listening to this:
I know this track is a little old, but a Modest Mouse sample? Nice!
Beyond the beat, I like Lupe's flow. I also like his message here. Lupe comes off as a legit guy. Perhaps because he's never been a part of the whole "money, cash, hoes" posse.
On the opposite side of the sincerity chasm is this:
For a guy who made his millions by getting girls to say "I am getting so hot, I'm gonna take my clothes off" in a chorus, this is the most disingenuous thing I've heard in ages. Does anyone really believe that Nelly misses any woman this much? If you start off as a party rapper, can you do anything else? Would this be believable is Nelly weren't such a one-note rapper?
Rap is one area where your first impression with the public is everything. Folks like Nas debut with Illmatic, and can get away with an Oochie Wally every now and then. Maybe if Nelly had dropped his own It Ain't Hard to Tell we'd take him seriously. If you start as a pop party rapper, I don't think you can ever do serious stuff. Has anyone crossed the pop line to legit subjects?
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