Rihanna in Lemon
I’m always interested in what Pharrell’s up to, especially when it comes to N.E.R.D. He’s always super creative with the beats and grooves, so anything that comes along is worth my attention.
A few weeks back, I saw some buzz on social media about N.E.R.D.’s new tune “Lemon,” in particular the Jimmy Kimmel performance. Before watching the performance, I dialed up “Lemon” to kick back and listen to the track. The opening part: “Cool,” I thought, “this is nice, but why the…” THEN, 44 seconds in, I understood. From the 44 second to 1:42 mark, things change.
First off, the GROOVE – just what I love to hear from Pharrell and his N.E.R.D. buddies; but secondly and most importantly, RIHANNA takes over this shit, and unleashes a street-laced rap/rhyme that completely threw me for a loop. It’s power, it’s magic. And I can’t enough of it.
Respect.
(P.S. As for the Kimmel performance, it features the dancer from the video below, but Ri-Ri wasn’t on hand to spit her verse, unfortunately. Yes, I’m a 47 year old white man who just said the words “Ri-Ri wasn’t on hand to spit her verse.” Go figure.)
Ickmusic’s Friday Five: September 5, 2008
As I’ve said before four day work weeks always throw me for a loop. This week had the added pleasure of a computer move leaving my music on one while I get the other ready for day to day use. Needless to say, I’m in need of a Friday Five fix to get me through the rest of this day.
Last week we wrapped up the “The Theme Days of Summer” with a send off. This week we’re back in the swing of the general shuffle. For those who have not joined in the Five, here’s how it works: … I hit the shuffle button on my iTunes and share my five with some words for each track.
Then it’s your turn! Just share the first five random track of your shuffle in the comments and see what your fellow readers are listening to as well.
This week’s Friday Five is courtesy of Last.fm.
Here are this week’s tracks:
½. The Beach Boys – Little Saint Nick (from Christmas with the Beach Boys)
Apparently Last.fm does not know it’s not Christmas yet, this was quickly skipped but I thought I should include it here.
1. Rihanna – Umbrella (feat. Jay-Z) (from Good Girl Gone Bad)
For as overexposed of a track as this was I still genuinely enjoying hearing it and have not reached for the ‘skip’ button any time it’s popped up in a shuffle.
2. Prince – When 2 R in Love (from The Black Album)
Featuring the beat Justin Timberlake lifted for his all-too-obvious Prince inspired track “Until the End of Time”. I’m rather ambivalent about this track in particular as it always seemed out of place on the raunchy Black Album. While it’s a great song it’s no “Cindy C.”.
3. Billy Joel – The River of Dreams (from River of Dreams)
I think that this might be the first Billy Joel track to appear on a Friday Five. I have an odd relationship with Billy Joel in that I do truly appreciate and enjoy his music, but own relatively little of it and have not ever really looked to change that. I actually do not even own this record, rather the greatest hits package that covers this period of his career.
4. Eric Johnson – My Back Pages (from Bloom)
While I prefer his instrumental work, this is a great cover of the Dylan classic.
5. Led Zeppelin – Fool in the Rain (from In Through the Out Door)
I know that this may be blasphemy and an act of music-snob hari-kari but this is hands down my favorite Led Zeppelin song. It never fails to lighten even the darkest mood and I’m always up and dancing about during the Samba breakdown.
So what’s bringing you joy this Friday?
Rihanna’s Umbrella
You usually won’t find me too in touch with the Top 40 hits of the day (or the Hot 100 on Billboard), but Rihanna pulled me right in to this video. I could do without Jay-Z’s bantering at the beginning, but that’s what you get these days. Wherever you look on the charts, you get the obligatory Artist Name featuring currently hot hip-hop star. A quick scan of the Hot 100 shows:
- T-Pain Feat. Yung Joc
- T-Pain feat. Akon
- Bone Thugs-N-Harmony feat. Akon
- Gwen Stefani feat. Akon
- Fergie feat. Ludacris
- Fabolous feat. Ne-Yo
- D.J. Khaled feat. T.I., Akon, Rick Ross, Fat Joe, Lil Wayne, and Baby
- and a lot more
Maybe I’m old and grumpy, but that pisses me off (for no particular reason). And that Akon, what a class act he is.
But back to Rihanna. I genuinely like this song. What’s not to like about a hot 19 year old from Barbados. *slap* Snap out of it Pete.
To quote the great Borat: “Wa wa woo wah!”