Sunday, March 29, 2009

Have rappers graduated from 70s funk?

Anybody noticing a new trend in the hip-hop industry? After years and years of jacking beats from every good funk song of the 70s - James Brown, Parliament, Earth Wind & Fire - , it seems like hip-hoppers have decided that 80s-kitsch has now become 00s -gold.

Case in point: the latest hit single from Flo Rida, "Right Round" (as in, "you spin me right round, baby, right round..."...)



Not to mention, Rihanna's "S.O.S." (thanks, Soft Cell!), Trick Daddy's "Let's Go" (i-i-i!!), and Sean Kingston's "I Can Feel It" (In the words of Phil Collins, "Oh Lord...").

It's only a matter of time before they start exhausting the 90s, and then the aughts, and before you know it they'll have to start coming up with - GASP! - original material...

2 comments:

Liz said...

THATs what that stupid Sean Kingston song's been reminding me of! Argh, way to kill Phil Collins.
PS, the Flo Rida video's of a different song altogether. Weird.

-Liz

Anonymous said...

I think you'll find many other music genres sample or less explicitly draw influence from previous musical styles. furthermore, some current rappers and hip hop artists are producing orignial material of their own, but they're probably less fun to make fun of.