Uncashable Checks

Hi, dudes! Sorry I haven't posted in so long (Umm, over a year? Oops!). I've been super busy making a baby and then keeping said baby alive and not crying. Also, I personally find it really hard to think of blog posts when all I've done all day is stare at the kid. But, you guys, I've had something on my mind for a while now and I need to discuss it with y'alls. You see, I've been listening to a lot of R&B for the last few months. This is related to motherhood in the sense that I no longer get paid for my work and that makes it difficult to listen to rap music, as rappers talk about getting money A LOT. Some of them actually never talk about anything else (I'm looking at you, Baby the Birdman). R&B artists address cashflow issues significantly less, but they use the same producers so there are a lot of sonic similarities. I should be happy. But as I listen to these songs, something keeps bugging me oh so much, which is that these R&B peeps are always making INSANE sexual promises that no one could ever, ever keep. Let's take a closer look:

1. Robin Thicke
Robin Thicke (son of Alan Thicke) actually isn't too overpromisey. I mean, he totally is for a normal human being, but in the world of R&B his hyperbole is pretty average.



Now, in case you didn't catch all the lyrics, Rob here just promised to solve ALL OF YOUR PROBLEMS with his penis. We will accept that as our median for the purposes of this post, and that level of overpromising pales in comparison to our next offender. That's right, dudes, I'm talking about the King of Sexual Overpromise,

2. R. Kelly
Hoo, boy. You're gonna want to hold onto your hat for this one.



To recap: Kells is proposing an entire 24 hours of sex. There will be a round TEN, after which he will get a second wind, resulting in more sex, which is going to make you yodel. Not, as I would think, give you all kindsa chafe, but yodel. Oh, and he probably got you fired.

But that's not unusual for R. Kelly, a man who has sung of sex that takes place in outer space, for Pete's sake. I know better than to take him even remotely seriously. The thing that makes this so bothersome to me, so egregious, is that what we know of R. Kelly's actual sex life tells us that not only is he NOT going to make you yodel, but he's probably going to put on a Zorro mask and pee on you. It's like if I told you to come over to my house to watch the secret 6th season of The Wire and eat free pizza FROM THE FUTURE, and then when you got there, I put on a Zorro mask and peed on you.

3. Ciara



CIARA IS GOING TO DAGGER YOU.

4. The-Dream



Now that is more like it! For those of you not familiar with the vernacular, to "put it down" is to do a pretty good job. Way to keep expectations somewhere reasonable, The-Dream! The craziest promise here is that he'll make you sleepy. Sounds great! I hereby name you my boyfriend for the duration of this blog post!*

Well, that was fun! I'll try to be here more often, but no promises. I seriously don't understand how those Mommy Blogger people do it.


*Actually, who am I kidding, I totally pick Robin Thicke. I have an inexplicable weakness for white dudes with gross facial hair. See also KFed and my husband when we first met.

Radio, Radio

No matter how much I tweak my Pandora Bell Biv Devoe station, they keep trying to sneak in some Taylor Dayne, who I have hated relentlessly since I was eight. I give her songs a thumbs down every time, and it just keeps happening. "Are you sure you hate Taylor Dayne?" they seem to ask. "What about this song?" That they won't let you ban an artist's entire catalog from a station is not the only problem I have with Pandora, but you see my point.

Pandora is not without its charms. It's fun to see the elements they've broken a song into. Like this:

Artist: Make-Up
Song: Black Wire Pt. 1
electric rock instrumentation
punk influences
repetitive melodic phrasing
extensive vamping

One thing I have learned from the program is that I apparently love a lot of music that contains "extensive vamping" (how do they decide whether it is extensive or not? who makes that call?). Either that, or they are just way too liberal with the term "extensive vamping."

Y'know what it is? it's the same kind of thinking that leads to shit like The Pick-up Artist. With something as human as music (or, um, humans) it simply can't be broken down into a formula. Also I hate robots.


So this got me thinking about music I really, really love, which got me thinking about songs that are so good I am bummed out that I didn't write them because then I would never feel pressure to do anything ever again. This led to me making a playlist of such songs, which I have shared a link to below. It's not complete, but it's most of them. Give it a listen, and tell me what songs you wish you had written in the comments.


My Rhapsody Playlist