Sunday, May 8, 2011

Baby Mama

In honor of Mother's Day

Originally posted 12/2/2006 I actually vividly remember writing this on the plane coming back from San Diego to NYC. The reason I remember is because every word I typed was critiqued telepathically by all the other passengers on the plane. It's very hard to finish a blog post when every sentence has to be approved by more than 100 strangers. I went through and fixed the grammar, but that's all. Otherwise, this is how it originally got posted. BWH*




Mostly, as stated in previous entries, I think American Idol pretty much revived pop music for the cheesy pop music fans, so I'm on board. And better still, now they are starting to deliver that extra cheesier, made-by-Kraft music that's so bad, it's hilarious.

Originally, I didn't bother to download any of the Fantasia music because I didn't like her on the show, and I couldn't imagine I would like her album any better. But then, I accidentally heard one of her songs – Truth Is – and liked it. Taken aback, I decided to give a couple other songs a listen. Most of it was pretty much what I had expected (and resisted). BUT... there was one song that couldn't be ignored.

This goes out ...

I guess I know what she was trying to do here, but starting out a song called “Baby Mama” with single moms shoutin' out was risky at best. But then we have Juanita B. Simms shouting out that she's a baby's mama. Girl, what the fuck is wrong with you? It's BABY MAMA. No apostrophe S.

I can only imagine that they had her redo it 5-6 times and just gave up because they couldn't get the damn take they wanted. Fantasia probably just told the director, “Look, she's my godmother so it's staying in. You just gotta work around it.” At least Breelay and Shicquon got it right.

B-A-B-Y

God bless her, Fantasia got into it. Especially the inspired chorus: “B-A-B-Y M-A-M-A. This goes out to all my baby mamas.” She's almost crying by the last round of it. To think, this brilliant spelling from someone who never learned to read.

It's about time ...

Now, I was lamenting that I had been procrastinating on writing an entry specifically on the songs/albums/music that AI alumni have released over the past few years. But for once, my abject laziness was rewarded big time. I only discovered this song at all four weeks ago. Imagine if I'd been one of those “always meets his deadlines” writers. I'd have been screwed big time.

I'd have completely missed out on lyrics like “It's about time we had our own song” (hmmm. Papa Don't Preach? I'm just sayin'). But my favorite couplet (rhyme? I don't know. Poetry is like some giant puzzle with about 40 pieces missing to me) from the first verse is “Even though you're fed up, with makin' beds up ...” Are you kidding me? Apparently not.

What the Hell ...

But wait, it gets sooooo much better. This is how the second verse STARTS: “I see you get that support check in the mail. You open it and you're like, What the Hell?” Oh yes she did. “You say to yourself this ain't even half of day care. Singin' to yourself 'this shit ain't fair.'” Singin' to yourself????? Who finds out they've just been screwed by the government and starts singing to themselves?

Don't be ashamed ...

After proclaiming there ought to be a holiday for single mothers making their way – we can only assume that they don't want to share their day with those lazy whores who took the easy way out and got married, so Mother's Day won't do – she wraps it all up with the most heartfelt B-A-B-Y M-A-M-A you can imagine. Her performance of Summertime on the AI stage didn't have this kind of feeling.

So, what's the worst thing about all this? The music that goes along with these lyrics is so god damned catchy that I can't get the friggin song out of my head. I walk around all day singin' to myself, “This shit ain't fair.”

*Blogging While High


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