Common is the Al Sharpton of rap, he never met a cause he couldn’t turn into a photo op or a coupla bucks. Selma Schelma, Common hangs his flags anywhere some black actual, you know, heroes, like Nelson Mandela show up, and then convinces that art is action AS SUCH. As though singing about Selma is the same as marching there all those years ago.
I have as many problems with the duo acceptance of the Oscar speech as I did about Marlon brando’s much braver refussal to accept an Oscar to condemn the US treatment of Native Americans. So if they give awards for acceptance speeches good for them, if they give it for songs , “Glory” stinks.
I know I prefer 5SOS to common but the reason they have the same grade is a question of ambition, both of these albums have one absolute ambition: the former to be a worldwide smash for teen girls, the other to seriously wory what is happening in Chicago, Ill. Common may fail but I applaud the attempt.
Come Get It Babe – Pharrell – The live version off the Spring Session from Webster Hall and it sounds very good indeed, saving the track from deep album obscurity plus the “heys” now sound like a Williams tic but a good tic (it is all over “Blurred Lines” as well) and the track isn’t hip hop -not even the production, it is funk – A-
While I was a little disappointed by La Roux’s performance at Governors Ball, I never believed for an instant she was no bigger than “Bulletproof” and the songs I’ve heard off Trouble In Paradise have remained uniformly excellent. Plus, what? You expected Yes to be my pick of the week?
