The One Where Kanye and Raekwon Trick Me Into Listening to Justin Bieber
Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 12:00PM
First off. Every guy I've ever seriously dated has loved Wu-Tang in an unhealthy, "I'm going to hide the Man With the Golden Arms because I can't listen to this crap anymore" way. This doesn't mean that I dislike the Wu. Au contraire! I actaully like a quite a bit of their music. And most of you know how I feel about Kanye (Love him. Love to hate him. I own the mixtapes and follow him on the Twitter.) So when I saw this on Gawker asking me if I'd like to listen to Justin Bieber's "Runaway Love" with Kanye and Raekwon I wanted to say, "God no." But I couldn't.
Because it said Kanye and Raekwon were on the track. And it was called "Runaway Love!" (Guess how old I am! I totally was hoping it was a cover of the old En Vogue song! I'm 32!!!! Oooh, and also guess how much of a music snob I am? I also hoped it might be Del Shannon's "Runaway.")
The whole song causes this weird sensation because it's like Raekwon and 'Ye are doing one thing and the Canadian Boy Wonder is on some Disney Hitz ish. But now I totally get why the kids love this Bieber person. He's like someone took some old Donny Osmond trying to sound like Jackson 5 era Michael Jackson and put him on YouTube! Only Donny is COOL this time! And he has all the famous black producers cutting tracks with him and there's no pesky MJ-like competition running around, hogging the spotlight.
You were born in the wrong era Donny. Wrong. Era. As for the song, love the beat. Love the Kanye and the Raekwon. The Bieber? Meh. I like crappy pop music, so the crappy pop music lover in me was all "That's kind of hot," where as the music snob that also lives in me was like, "But it's Justin Bieber? Quick. Start talking about Jean Grae and Princess Superstar or something to balance this shit out."
So ... yeah. Anyone wanna listen to "Attack of the Attacking Things?" Jean's first album? The mix is kind of crudy (which she admits to), but so many of the songs are pretty good. And she has such great word play. And why doesn't Princess Superstar get any major label love? She's like the white Lil Kim but she actually writes her own lyrics. And "Is" was such an awesome album. She was Lady Gaga when Lady Gaga was just some Italian chick named Stefani. I like her so much more than Peaches. (Never got the Peaches love by the hipsters. She's OK, but it's PRINCESS SUPERSTAR ALL-DAY!)
Anyway. Justin Bieber: For folks who like their MJ with a lot more Donny Osmond. Runtelldat.
(H/T Gawker)
Reader Comments (14)
Actually, I kinda "fell for" the Bieber after catching him on SNL a few months ago. He is kinda like Justin Timberlake, before JT got all carried away with the White Soul Guy tip.
Plus, as Tina Fey said, Bieber's hair sure looks like it knows where it's going.
When I first heard about this project I was thinking that it must be some kind of joke. Raekwon and Justin Beiber- it just doesn't compute. I am curious but can't bring myself to listen just yet. Then again, if they could pair up Mariah with ODB it just might work. lol
i might have to stop listening to the wu now.
With all the things that have went down from Dre's Chronic 'till this Bieber track, all I can do is shrug...:/
I actually liked Justin beiber long before he had a deal and he was just a kid in canada covering ne-yo, chris brown an justin timberlake hits on youtube. Check out the vintage beiber on youtube, he actually can sing. I think its under "kidrauhl" He killed chris brown's "With you" when he serenaded justin timberlake's artist and fellow talented white kid singing R&B on youtube, Esmee Denters. If he was black, we would all be cooing and talking about how good he is so lets be easy on the shade. I've seen us go crazy over much less talented black kids yelling in church.
Its the interest and fanatacism of the little becky's that tricks us into lumping him into the "osmond" catergory but he's actually much more of a justin timberlake. If puberty is kind to his voice he may be a force to reckon with in future.
@nova nova- If he was black, we wouldn't be talking about him at all. His career would go much the same way it has gone for Sammie and Mario... relegated to the black celebrity D-List. The only reason why we're talking about him at all is that he is young white boy with some soul in his voice... Exotic, yet universal. And we all know how much we love that in Gringolandia. We're not his demographic... So as long as "little becky" continues to go wild in the streets for some Beiber, it doesn't really matter if grown black folk throw shade on his contrived prepackaged game
@Simone:
You make a good point. But I do think Justin Bieber's being signed by Usher brought him cred, just as Eminem's being backed by Dr. Dre did. Apparently, Usher and Justin Timberlake were in a bidding war for Bieber, so at least two fellow entertainers saw some genuine talent in him....
I have lived to see it all....not the Biebs doing a song with Raekwon and Kanye, but somebody claiming to have like Justin Bieber "back in the day" when he was still raw, indie, and underground. Dead.
This is a very sad day in Hip-Hop. I’m not a Justin Bieber fan at all. It’s just because I’m over the age of 12, he’s just not that talented to me. I was a huge boy band fan back in my day (Backstreet Boys, *Nsync, etc.), but just doesn’t have that same appeal.
Why couldn’t Raekwon co-sign on Sammie or Mario back in the day?? That’s the real question.
This is a testament to how far into the mainstream rap has gone. You would never have heard Donny Osmond and Ice Cube on a track together. I also appreaciates that Justin B is doing what he does, not trying to pretend to be some hard from the hood kid. I would be very curious as to how this came about - perhaps after Luda did his song with Justin?
The song is kind of nice. Aaagh. I've been tricked into listening (and liking) Justin Bieber!
I agree with Simone.
I like the idea of Bieber but I usually just can't with his music. However, this is a cute mix. And much love for the Princess Superstar shout out. That chick is soooooo slept on. I just saw My Mic Sounds Nice yesterday and it occurred to me that they completely ignored the white female MC's (Princess Superstar, Amanda Blank, Tairrie B., etc.). I wonder if that was deliberate or just an oversight?
this is all a big ploy for kanye to become loved by white ppl again. i know a number of ppl who still aren't over that taylor swift incident despite recognizing that he was an ahole long before then.
@ Melody,
I wouldn't have thought much about what you said....UNTIL his big twitter apology and writing a song for that chick was all over the blogs today.