Another song obsession.

Yeesh. Another sugary, ecstasy-influenced thug song that I'm obsessed with: Ja Rule's "Down 4 U". I actually have a problem with this review of the song, because the message isn't totally positive. Let's look at the lyrics:

[Ja Rule] Baby girl, would you bust your gun wit me?
[Ashanti] Yea, yea
[Ja Rule] Lie to the Feds if they come get me?
[Ashanti] Yea, yea
[Ja Rule] And if I died, would you kill for me?
[Ashanti] Yea, yea

Yeah, getting a woman to promise that she would shoot someone, commit purjury, or murder in revenge for your death is not sending a positive message.

And unlike the reviewer, I've pretty much always liked Ja Rule as a rapper (despite the fact that I own exactly zero of his CDs). I just like his flow and gruff (but not too gruff, like DMX) voice.

A mini-pet peeve I have with recent rap songs: they sample or steal choruses from other rap songs that aren't even that old. Like the new Bone Thugs'n'Harmony song that lifts an Outcast chorus. Or the Ashanti song that takes the beat from The Notorious B.I.G.'s "One More Chance (remix)" (that was a sample too, but still). I've heard at least two songs that bite the Luniz' "I Got 5 On It" beat. Here's a Usenet thread discussing rap songs that sound similar to other rap songs.

L.A. Times Fingers Rival in Tupac Shakur's Murder Reuters

So it's true. Biggie did murder Tupac. Well, the Crips did, but wanted a piece of the action.

“[The Notorious B.I.G.], who was also in Las Vegas at the time, was brought into the picture after the Crips decided to make some money out of their plan [to murder Tupac]. Wallace agreed to give them $1 million, on one condition: he wanted the satisfaction of knowing that Shakur had been killed by his gun, and he pulled out a .40-caliber Glock pistol, the paper said.”

Jack Shafer: “A Nation writer who, say, wants to use humor or wit to make his point mustn't abuse gays, blacks, Jews, Hispanics, Ralph Nader, foreigners, women, the infirm, working stiffs, Indians, Mohammed (but Jesus is fair game), whales, or any cultural stereotype. This leaves him just one angle from which to compose his point: Stupid White Men. Such is the state of left journalism that Michael Moore has made a career out of painting and repainting this mono-mural.”

Right-wing journalism is so fun because it's in your face. Right-wingers are unafraid to call people idiotic because of their beliefs, rather than their intelligence. (Left-wingers, on the other hand, are unafraid to call people idiotic because of their lack of intelligence; right-wingers don't use intelligence of people as the basis of their opinions.) Left-wing journalism is boring because it is basically the same doom and gloom story we've heard since the 1970s.

I have right-wing envy. But then again, it could be the America-envy I've had since my first visit to Portland 2 years ago, which is now almost to the stage of jealousy after returning from my third visit.