Outkast - Hey Ya

single of the year!

Yeah, I know where he's going with this. He's calling me soft and easily influenced by the appearance of a guitar. Soon we'll be having another godforsaken argument about black vs. white music or some such nonsense.

What do you mean by this?

Outkast has been at the top of the game since just about the get-go, rhyming like fucking thunderstorms, and gradually, album by album, throwing more shit into the mix. But they've always had this southern soul backbone, and the new album feels like them saying, what if we forget rhyming? What if we go as far as we want with just this sound we've been leaning on, just the soul? And let's do it now, while no one's going to look down on us for emphasizing the production and whatnot, let's do it while we can get away with it. (Jay-Z, same deal -- it's all about the producer in 2003.) And the album has mixed results, to be sure. But "Hey Ya" nails it... acid and funk and gospel thrown into one stew, high and mighty.

(alternate question: how unavoidable was it that andre would make a record that sounded like this?)

And maybe Andre's album only sounds unavoidable now that we've heard it.

Plus, this thread was so sad before it was revived. Cultural vacuum! I guess trife is just grooving at those Pow Wows* he attends regularly, eh?

*Sundance? Potlatch? Medicine Wheel? Parse the differences.

Me, I'm white, I like "Hey Ya" a lot, I have mostly white friends, not a choice thing but a cultural accident, but also friends who are Black, Native, Middle Eastern, South East Asian, Indian, Pakistani, etc. I don't choose friends on the basis of race. That would be.... um.... racist? Although, after reading the above shite, my application for Klan membership (an American organisation, btw, ) is now in the mail. Just a hunch, but I think they'll probably turn me down...

IL* is exceptionally bizarre w/r/t race and race issues. Paranoid Zealots R Us?

Relax, maybe? Pick one's battles. Racism is an evil, but so's American world hegemony.

Back to the song: it's great. "In Da Club" is also a very good song, one of the best of '03, but while it's just as self-conscious and self-regarding, it's not quite as garbled and goofy and plain exuberant. But that's an individual taste thing, not some indicator of racial preference, for fuck's sakes.

I mean, ISN'T THIS OBVIOUS!!!???

who the fuck are you people?????????

how do you breathe in that cultural vacuum

-- trife (...), September 19th, 2003.

(Ha, I just noticed the name of the original poster is similar to mine... a coincidence, I assure you!)

Otherwise, consider the entire thread as one huge quote.

Why did you start your "Hey Ya"-defending post with this and then become angry and say that the song has nothing to do with "I have black friends" people?

heaven forbid that people like pop music because it is fun and catchy.

Sterling's cultural-regression-as-radical-subjectivism to thread! ("Oh get off it, I don't like Skrewdriver for any reason, stop analyzing everything all the time, its just good music")

And when did Frank Black ever mix such naked emotion with a beat (and bass - which is just as important as the damn acoustic guitar here) this insistent? If this is a Frank Black number, it's probably the best one ever. I guess I shouldn't be surprised nobody's talked about this any differently than they would an igneous rock since rarely does ILX fess up to any emotional reaction to the music.

It has to do with all those thing for me (save perhaps for being white, although I guess that influences my perception of everything in one way or another), that's why it puts such a grin on my face. If I were just going for catchy, I'd pick "Toxic" as the best of the year. Nevermind that it's not a single. Fuck all that radical subjectivism stuff. I'm capable of it, sure, but seeing as how it's radically subjective, it's not much worth talking about. I mean, if I can't put my finger on why I like it, then I'm just assuming that you trust me. And let's face it, you don't. ("You" being ILM, I guess.)

And Anthony OTM. It is a great lyric, too. A perfect song! Wha'd I say?

"all the 'i have black friends' ppl ive ever known have been straight racists, usually saying that to defend their batshit racist plan to dismantle welfare or end affirmative action or make hiphop sound like the flaming lips"

so fuck y'all.

(also "shake it like a polariod picture" is growing on me as a smart smart line about regret and sex)