30th
I’m all remixed up
80 percent of my daily music consumption is radio top 40 hip hop. As much as I love having my ears blasted by Pedestrian Deposit, or furrowing my brow while I listen to Robert Ashley, or doing silly shoulder dances to the jangly Messthetics compilations, there’s something equally rewarding about listening to Power99 for an hour to hear “Sexy Can I”. That song rules. There’s quite a bit I have to say about radio top 40 hip hop and r&b; right now, I want to focus on the notion of a remix as a conversation.
The concept of a remix has changed dramatically in the past decade or so. In middle school, I remember listening to pop songs and their Carribean/radio/club remix. It was like a “spot the difference” game in the back of a tabloid—the two songs were virtually indistinguishable from one another. Maybe the synthesizer was a little faster, or maybe it had a little congo track added to it. At some point I heard a Beyonce song that had been slowed down and had new lyrics added to it. My middle school friends and I were overwhelmed by the idea that a remix could be an entirely new song. Of course, now, remixing a song by slowing it down or putting it to a totally new beat isn’t nearly as scandalous as it was back then. Moreover, the remix of a huge pop song is as culturally expected and anticipated as a blockbuster movie sequel. Both follow an equation: same narrative, new setting. Of course, neither are ever as good as the original. But who can help shelling out 9 dollars to see the second Dirty Dancing? And who can help singing along to that Darkchild remix of Britney Spears’ “Overprotected”, despite the fact that it’s uncomfortably slow and completely undanceable? Only men with hearts of steel, that’s who.
(John Wayne a man with a heart of steel.)
On the radio right now, there are two songs that are getting a lot of airplay. Lucky for me, because I think they’re both totally awesome. One is “Touch my Body” by Mariah Carey, the other is “Love in this Club” by Usher ft. Young Jeezy. Also on the radio right now are both songs’ remixes: “Touch My Body Remix” ft. The Dream, and “Love in this Club Part 2” with Beyonce and Lil Wayne. Thinking of both of these songs in syntactical terms, the originals are both imperative statements, the remixes are declarative conversations. Let’s take them one at a time.
“Touch my Body,” besides being an amazing song that rockets Mariah Carey back to the genius level pre-mental breakdown AND having one of the most inventive and wildly popular videos of the year, is also an amazing assertion of strong woman vibes on the level of Destiny Child’s “Survivor” and TLC’s “No Scrubs”. In the song, Carey tells her lover what to do and what not to do. The short list:
To do:
touch my body
put me on the floor
wrestle me around
play with me some more
throw me on the bed
To not do:
catch this flick on youtube
run your mouth and brag about this secret rendezvous
The song hits its peak when Carey says that if she finds out her lover did anything on the “to not do” list, “I will hunt you down.” That statement is amazing—not only because Carey is a totally liberated post-post feminist, but also because there’s still a trace that she’s a little psychotic still. The remix, featuring The Dream, becomes a conversation between man and woman. To her to-do-to-me list, The Dream answers:
I’ll give you
What you deserve
But, I be the one
At the end of the week
Makin’ you moan
When we alone
To make you shake
When you speak
(and then later)
When I touch yo
Work yo, taste yo body
I want you to do to my
Get up on my
Sit up on my body
Not only is he responding to her initial sexual demands, but he brings up his own requests at the end! The initial (amazing) assertion of independent womanliness and intimacy is suddenly met in equal partnership by her lover. The dynamic of the song is now give-and-take, a healthy dialogue of wants and desires.
(Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick, not in conversation, not in a healthy relationship)
“Love in this Club” is another totally great song that is more an anthem than a blazin’ hip hop tune. The beat is almost religious in its euphoric crescendo. The lyrics are slightly less church-approved: Usher basically just really wants to have sex with a girl in the bathroom at the club. Kind of simple for such a fierce and resonating track, but whatever. The original is filled with Usher’s imperative plea to this woman—that he wants to make love, in the club, get undressed, right here, give it to her non-stop, and he doesn’t care who’s waaaaatching, watching, watching, watchinnnggg. It’s an assertion of brazen masculinity that’s only sexy because it’s Usher. If th regular club-going men that I’ve seen standing outside the Bamboo Bar on Delaware Avenue said this to a young lady, it might be a different story. Ew. Oh God. I just cried a little bit. Wow, sorry for that. REGARDLESS, though, the intention of the song is something primal and savage—he needs her (or just sex), and he’s willing to do whatever it takes (make his friends take care of her friends, for example) to get it. The remix, though, is a different story. First, we hear the voice of this temptress—none other than Beyonce, everyone’s favorite strong and in-control lady. And, true to form, she is the voice of reason to Usher’s unadulterated and unchecked passion:
Baby, you know I’d be down
But we can’t have all these people staring, standing around
This right here is only for your eyes to see
But you getting carried away, saying “we can do it wherever”…
I’m not hesitating, I just don’t wanna rush
What was initially Usher’s bold imperative statement (“let’s make love in this club”) now turns into a dialogue with an opposing side—one that makes a pretty compelling argument, I might add, in this fictitious scenario. I’m pretty sure I’m on Beyonce’s side here—Usher needs to slow down and think this thing through. But, of course, it is Usher. And it’s Usher’s song. So he’s going to win. The final third of the song is a back-and-forth dialogue between the two singers in which Beyonce relents, ready to comply with Usher’s request:
(Usher)
Come a little closa
Let daddy put it on ya
Need ya to know
What happens here stays here
(Beyonce)
Well I’m ready and willing
Mama’s got to glow
Gotchu standing at attention
Happy to go low
(Usher)
Ain’t nobody watchin
Don’t worry they cant see us
I know I got you HOT
Now let me iiiin
(Beyonce)
You in the club or the car
Whereva you are
Run and tell da dj
Run it back on replay
Ah! Then they do it.
With only a small sampling of hip hop songs right now, I feel uncomfortable making any sweeping generalizations about the remix as a music form, or the future of remixes. However, I do find it interesting that both of these songs share many of the same features. The original songs are strong statements of individuality and proposed self-importance: I want you to touch my body, I want love in this club. The songs are little ego-trips, totally self-indulgent. This is nothing new for hip-hop: songs generally configure to the “look at me, look at my bling, look at my lifestyle, look at how hot I am” equation. Even Carey’s fresh declaration of feminism is pretty two-dimensional. The remixes, however, are grounded in the real world. The original songs become privy to a second perspective, in which we, the audience, suddenly question the singers’ initial assertions. We are subject to a conversation in a relationship—motifs of equality and mutual giving enter the picture. The song is liberated, a true product of the hyper self-awareness that Cosmo and Dr. Phil give us all.
