Music Critique Numero Tre

What the hell happened to the Black Eyed Peas (BEP)?

They’re first song was gold! It had a great beat, and even better, sweet meaningful lyrics. When I first heard “Where’s The Love” I was impressed that a mainstream band actually has some thoughts regarding today’s world.

Here are some of the lyrics of “where’s The Love”..

I think the whole world addicted to the drama
Only attracted to things that'll bring you trauma
Overseas, yeah, we try to stop terrorism
But we still got terrorism here livin'
In the USA, the big CIA
The Bloods and The Crips and the KKK
But if you only have ANGE for your own race
Then you only leave space to discriminate
And to discriminate only generates hate…

…New days are strange, is the world insane
If love and peace is so strong
Why are there pieces of love that don't belong
Nations droppin' bombs
Chemical gasses fillin' lungs of little ones
With the ongoin' sufferin' as the youth die young…

I remember thinking “Wow! From a hip hop band, those are some impressive lyrics.”

Sadly, though the good lyrics stopped there. While BEP continued to re-invent hip hop, incorporating faster beats and more “dancy” type songs, the lyrics have gone downhill.

Other hits that made it big include “Shut up!” and “Don’t Phunk With My Heart.” As the title of these songs suggest, there was nothing spectacular in terms of lyrics. BEP’s latest hit, “My Humps,” features overly sexual lyrics, classifying women as a collection of “humps” and “lumps”!

An excerpt of the lyrics of “My Humps” goes like..

They say I’m really sexy,
The boys they wanna sex me.
They always standing next to me,
Always dancing next to me,
Tryin’ a feel my hump, hump.
Lookin’ at my lump, lump.
U can look but you can’t touch it,
If u touch it I’ma start some drama,
You don’t want no drama,
No, no drama, no, no, no, no drama…
…

Cos of my hump, my hump, my hump, my hump.
My hump, my hump, my hump, my lovely lady lumps. (Check it out)

The words “hump” and “lump” are mentioned exactly 42 times in the song. The song has 613 words. So not only the lyrics pathetic, they’re also repetitive.

Am I wrong to expect quality lyrics from a mainstream band? Would that turn something fun (music), into something serious and boring? When I think of “Where’s The Love” I see a perfect a song. The song had a good beat and deep lyrics, so people could have enjoyed the song for the lyrics, the beat, or both!

I guess, sex sells, and that’s what the big production companies are after. Can’t blame them, can we?

Credits:

The idea of this post came from Nurhan, I hope she liked the post.

Technorati Tags: music, hip hop, BEP, lyrics, sex sells