Hope you had a fabulous weekend... I spent most of it putting together my new place (still... it's going to take a while!), but hopefully you all were able to do something that didn't involve cleaning grout all day :) haha.
Anyhow, we've made mention several times on this site about how frustrating it is when dance music gets ignored on the radio waves in favor of other genres... hip hop in particular, since it seems to be the only genre of music that has any credibility on the radio anymore!
So imagine my surprise to discover that two popular dance artists have added a hip hop element to their new music... to mixed results!
THE GOOD:
In case you didn't know, Colette is about to release her second artist album, Push, at the end of the month. (And by the way, you'll be seeing much more of this DJ, producer, songwriter and vocalist very soon! Hint, hint ;)). Anyway, the new album features one track that is Colette's first collaboration with a guest rapper: "Funny" featuring Black Spade. You can get a quick listen to it here, though unfortunately you won't make it to the rap portion in the third verse. Still, it's a nice snippet of the overall beat and sound.
However, we did manage to get ourselves and advance listen of the full song... and it's GOOD! It totally took me by surprise when the rap came in at the end. I was just grooving along, playing (and losing) poker with a bunch of friends, and all of a sudden I hear Black Spade chime in. It totally works, and while I'm usually hesitant to hear that dance artists are going to bring in hip hop collaborators (Madonna aside, of course!)... I thought that this worked in, well, Spades!
THE BAD:
Well, apparently the dance community wasn't supportive enough of Danielle Bollinger's career, because the former "Kiss the Sky" and "When the Brokenhearted Love Again" star sounds like she's selling out... excuse me, "expanding her horizons"... for the sake of mainstream success.
Check out her MySpace page to hear a clip from her new single, "Take it Back." If the simple snare beat, ragga rapper and half-spoken lyrics weren't enough to make it obvious that she's vying for the "London Bridge" hit of 2008, check out her new look. I didn't realize Fergie had retired and left an opening!
Look, I'm not going to sit here and say that I think it's unequivocally horrible for dance artists to integrate other styles into their music. And hip hop is definitely a natural choice... it IS dance music, after all. And you know, I'm not even going to pretend that I don't like her new song... to be honest, it's kind of catchy.
What bugs me is how transparent it is that an artist - in this case, it seems - would so flagrantly compromise themselves for a crossover hit. Can you at least be subtle?? Don't make it so obvious that you're preparing a cocktail for pop stardom ("Let's see... I need one part paint-by-numbers hip hop jam, two parts gold medallion wardrobe accessories...").
There's a good way and a bad way to aim for the crossover charts. You can either complement your OWN sound with something new, or you can throw the baby out with the bathwater and remodel yourself for others.
OR... you can just shut up and dance!
Loves,
JADE
Agreeance on DB. These days it seems like some artists are so desperate to go pop/hip-hop for radio airplay that they might not think that it might not be the best genre for them to work with from a artistic standpoint.
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