Video & Audio, February 2022
Reminder: Don’t base your military strategy on a semipopular culture blogger's preferred singles
Volodymyr Zelenskyy x Mobb Depp: “Shook Ones, Pt. III”
The basic ethics of the situation—great power launches unprovoked attack on smaller neighbor—points pretty incontrovertibly to who the party at fault is, unless you’re addicted to overthinking things. Since overthinking is my hobby, I did so and came to the conclusion that it’s 100% Putin’s fault. Expressions of solidarity are justified, regardless of whether they’re cringe or not. (Offering military advice during a war in which one participant keeps reminding you he has nukes, on the other hand, requires somewhat more conscientiousness.) There are risks to lionizing Zelenskyy: in the best case scenario, which is the one in which he lives, he’ll have to make some incredibly hard decisions, to which the morally correct answers may only be evident after the bodies are counted. So keeping in mind that, miracles notwithstanding, too many lives will be lost no matter, it seems appropriate to foreground death without sanctifying it. In this situation, somehow ’90s hardcore rap, now safely a generation away, works for me: it brings back not just the dread at the time that your favorite rapper might end up dead, but the dread that your favorite rapper might kill someone. That’s just me; you do you.
Monaleo: “Beating Down Yo Block”
Over Merion Krazy’s rough-bumping beat, Houston rapper finds a novel way to be hard: asserting the general gormlessness of her ex amidst pink lowriders. “Is you stupid? Is you dumb? Pick a side.”
Chung Ha: “Killing Me”
One of K-pop’s better pure singers, I’d never been entirely convinced by her singles until now. She delivers the rhythmically terrific upper-register melody with surgical precision, undergirded by EDM structural support that isn’t too obtrusive.
Manu Dibango: “Twist à Leo” (1962)
“Leo” as in Léopoldville-now-Kinshasa, not the problematic Belgian guy. Dibango’s first hit, this is very silly and very fun, with the bandleader offering a honkin’ solo and “ah-eh ah-eh” as a hook, and his band (of ringers?) coping with the twist like it was no big deal, which compared to inventing soukous it wasn’t.
Akeem Ali: “Keemy Casanova”
An updated pastiche of ’70s loverman tropes, though weren’t they already mostly pastiche then? Keemy exudes downhome class, enjoying charcuterie and preferring vaginas to pussies.
Scorpion Kings x Tresor: “Funu”
Thanks to amapiano’s top DJ duo, one of the best voices in South Africa (via the Congo) finds the music he needed to become one of Africa’s great singers. The even better news is there’s another hour and a half where this came from; we’ll get to that next month.
Parris & Eden Samara: “Skater’s World”
Samara’s vocals are so breezy, despite Parris putting all manner of uneven pavement in her way like it’s the rollerblading event of California Games (Apple II/Commodore 64, 1987).
Allison Russell: “Persephone” (Late Show version)
Appropriating the tune of “I Only Want to Be with You” for a paean to a girl named Persephone? That’s LGBT praxis.
Gunna, Future, Young Thug: “Pushin P”
Less alphabet aerobics than alphabet light stretching. Pretty pleasant!
Cole Swindell & Lainey Wilson: “Never Say Never”
Masochism duets are back. Allegedly “the highs are unstoppable” (they mostly sound like low-end Reagan-era guitar solos) but the strength of Swindell and especially Wilson is putting across the malaise. RIP again, Monica Vitti.