Mountain Dew and Doritos are going at it with these one minute-long commercials for this year’s Super Bowl. For the first time ever, two brands are advertising back-to-back during the big game. They recently added hip-hop legends Missy Elliott and Busta Rhymes.
The second trailer, pairs Missy with Morgan Freeman for MTN DEW ICE and Busta with Peter Dinklage for Doritos Blaze in an epic battle. Each duo is practicing a series of tongue twisters in the mirror before they depart for a testy showdown.
The release of their 2010 album “Hands All Over” marked their first full step into a strictly pop sound. The single, “Moves like Jagger” featuring Christina Aguilera was a huge success, staying 49 weeks on the chart and hitting the number one position on the Billboard hot 100. After this massive hit, I feel like Maroon 5 gathered the tools for success on the radio and applied it to all their projects after that. A catchy chorus, another popular artist to feature on the bridge, some form of whistling, and sticking to a tiresome beat that is played two to four times throughout the song. They have formulated the art of singing about a topic with some repetitive lyrics that brush the subject but don’t say anything too deep. It is structured to get stuck in your head, but the catchiness does not hide the poor content.
This was solidified with their 2012 release “Payphone” on their album, “Overexposed”, which kind of has the same exact layout as “Moves Like Jagger”:
Also, notice the similarities in their 2014 release, “Animals” on their album “V”:
Their latest single, “Don’t Wanna Know” Feat. Kendrick Lamar really highlights all the problems of pop music today, and really shows that Maroon 5 is not hiding the fact that they are using the same basic formula to gain airplay.
Although they have been on the radio for a long time, their legacy will not stay. They have had three number one hits, 13 top 10 hits and 28 songs on the Billboard top 100, but they lack the authenticity they started out with. It just doesn’t seem like it is earned when they have moved so far away from their original image and message. I do not see the entertainment quality of repeating a chorus a thousand times and the same basic phrase over and over again.
It seems like the Adam Levine show at this point, which makes me wonder why they even keep the title of Maroon 5 when their first album and latest album sound nothing alike. We will never get back the Maroon 5 we knew and loved because they are making an extreme amount of money. I would say that they are the dictionary definition of a “sell-out.” They sold their soul to the radio, and they are not coming back but instead going to release another pop garbage single that will follow all the cliches, which will get airtime just from the comfortability and repetition of the standards of “popular” music. I understand that bands grow, change and experiment with their sound, but this seems like Maroon 5 has hidden motives, rather than just evolving as an artist. Being a fan of Maroon 5 has been disappointing as we watched them dissolve into puppets of the machine.
Punk Goes Pop series created by Fearless Records. It contains a collection of songs by various artists performing covers of pop songs. It was released on April 2, 2002 and is still thriving. Its success caused Fearless Records to release more pop cover albums. The basic formula is having punk bands do creative covers of pop songs, putting a new spin on traditional songs that have been heard over the radio. It gives the song a new direction and meaning, which highlights the power of music. Not only has the original song connected with listeners, just by changing the style can give it a whole new take which is very refreshing to hear.
You can listen to some of the most popular covers here:
Mayday Parade is a proud artist on these albums and they even have a cover that has 16 million views featuring Vic Fuentes:
Since Rap is becoming more and more popular and taking over the radio, it would great to make covers to capitalize on the buzz. Punk and rap have a lot of the same qualities, which gives it the perfect mix. Punk is an aggressive form of rock music while rap is more lyrical and fast-paced. Overall they are both subcultures that give voice to outsiders, and that mix is even stronger combined. These artists are people who don’t fit the norm and find connectivity in music.
One of the most impressive covers is Fame on Fire’s cover of “XO TOUR Llif3” by Lil Uzi Vert.
You can view the original song here & the cover:
On the topic of punk covers, everyone remembers Framing Hanley’s cover of “Lollipop” by Lil Wayne.
You can view the original song here & the cover:
One can even argue that these covers are better than the original, depending on your taste. Overall, I love seeing the merge of these two genres and I hope that more bands will be open to covering these songs. It is also a great way to get traffic to a band’s Youtube page by covering popular songs and doing it well. Hopefully, there can be a Rap Goes Punk in the next year to open up people’s tastes.
The topic of Xanax has been heavily talked about in rap recently. It has been normalized to be the party drug of choice, but they forgot to talk about the side effects of being addicted to this substance. Just check out Future’s 2016 release, “Xanny Family”:
It seems like the glorification of drug use has been at an all-time high, and not only that, but it’s all the extremely dangerous drugs that have a high-risk factor. Not only it is casually brought up, it is on the radio constantly and has reached a wide audience of impressionable listeners.
Lil Peep’s death gave the rap game a wake-up call and showed us all the true dangers of glorifying a drug that is truly dangerous and can ruin young people’s lives. They are all at a high point in their life by being so popular in the music scene. It would be a shame to see that all thrown away by one crazy night. These artists all expressed regret by taking to Twitter and Ingram to show their fans that it is in fact not something to play with, which shows their personal growth already. I wish them well for turning their life around and now they can expand their lyrics to focus on something less self-destructive.
Rest in peace Lil Peep, you will be missed, but you also saved so many other people’s lives.
The rap group Migos, have been under fire this week due to Offset’s homophobic lyric on YFN Lucci’s new song “Boss Life.”
You can hear the song here:
Offset rhymes: “Pinky ring crystal clear, 40k spent on a private Lear / 60k solitaire / I cannot vibe with queers.” The term “queer” is not a term that should be taken lightly since it is very offensive to the gay community, which made his LGBT fans quite angry. Although rappers have used the term “faggot” in songs, “queer” hits lower than that in 2017 and new listeners were not so happy with his ability to just throw this term around. Also, the Migos have been accused of being homophobic in the past when they reportedly refused to perform onstage with drag queens during Katy Perry’s SNL performance of “Bon Appetit.”
After fans took to Twitter, The rapper Offset—a member of the hip-hop group Migos- issued a statement on Instagram after getting slammed for the homophobic lyric. He stated that it wasn’t meant to be homophobic and screenshotted a dictionary definition of the word “queer” that means “strange or peculiar.”
Overall, this might be a case of fans being overly sensitive since it was in fact just a lyric and not an attack on someone’s entire identity. This generation has the tendency to make a small thing into something much bigger. They tend to go crazy on social media and jump on the bandwagon without even knowing the full story, which has been displayed in this instance. So what do you think? Do you believe that the Migos are homophobic or just misguided? The apology did seem sincere, but was it due to the black lash? I would say we should keep listening to the Migos, but they should just become more mindful of the lyrics they put in their songs, or they might fade out.
Besides the fact that the Black Panther movie scored the most amount of first-day pre-sale tickets for a Marvel movie, ever.. it’s soundtrack will most likely be great as well! Top dawg Entertainment teamed up to curate and produce the official soundtrack of it. Recently Kendrick Lamar and label mate SZA unleashed the soundtrack’s first single “All The Stars.” and listening to it is a must! Blank Panther is essential to the black community of today, period. Be sure to check it out when it comes out as well!
