Rihanna gets raunchy….again

Rihanna’s new video for “We Found Love” is out, and I didn’t think to watch it until I heard K Foxx talking about it on Hot 97 (yes, I’m hood). According to my girl, people are saying that the video might be alluding to Rihanna’s relationship with Chris Brown because it shows her and a guy with Sisqo hair arguing in a car.

- "We Found Love" -

Here’s what I think: I don’t know about the Chris Brown thing – it might be loosely based off of that, but I don’t really care. The video is just annoying because, yet again, Ri-Ri is trying to push the envelope and solidify her “good girl gone bad” image. The whole thing is supposed to mimic some sort of psychedelic trip, but it’s basically 5 minutes of her and her Chris Brown/Sisqo man doing drugs and having sex. She also wears some sweet leotards and denim skirts and spreads her legs for the camera.

Give it up, Rihanna, I’m getting a little annoyed at your raunchy behavior. I know you’ve said in the past that you are not trying to be a role model, and that’s fine, but do you have to work so hard to be the anti-role model. And really, you got kicked out of a strip club for thrusting your head in between the strippers’ legs? Get a grip, girl!

More importantly, the video-version of the song is a rip-off of Madonna’s “What it Feels Like for a Girl.”

See for yourself:

The album version is better – LISTEN

In coincidental related news, the betches gave Rihanna “betch of the week” today. I mean, she’s been annoying lately, but Rihanna is def. a true betch.

Oh Gaga…

Lady Gaga tweeted a photo of the cover for her new single “You and I,” and it’s interesting…

I guess I give her props for taking a new route – the man route. At least it’s not another crazy half-naked, spikes-in-the-face look.

The masculine look is nothing new; Madonna (Gaga’s muse whether she admits it or not) did the whole short hair, suit-and-tie-thing a long time ago. But Gaga takes it to a new level by dressing up as her alter ego “Jo Calderone.” I mean, they did a good job – she really does look like a straight-up dude, and not even a good-looking one. But does Lady Gaga really need an alter ego to spice things up?

I do kind of like the song “You and I,” though. It has an Elton John feel, similar to “Speechless,” which I also like. The girl just loves Elton John and Madonna.

Check out the absolutely bizarre video:

Live piano performance of “Speechless” HERE

(I understand that she’s inspired by Elton, but does she really have to sing like him?)

Edge of Consciousness

The first thing I did when I came into the office today was go online and see that Lady Gaga’s “Edge of Glory” video came out last night, so I decided to check it out. I don’t really want to make a tradition out of commenting on every single Gaga video but I feel obligated to say something about this one – it’s really boring.

I’m already half asleep at 9:00 in the morning and this video nearly had me with my head on my desk. It’s just three minutes of Gaga gyrating around a movie-set city block in a bizarro dominatrix-meets-biker-chick outfit and bad hair. It’s more than a little reminiscent of the Michael Jackson and (surprise, surprise) Madonna videos of the 80’s. And then there’s the rando saxophone player sitting on a stoop making an already terrible song even worse.

I get that maybe she is trying to do something different by toning it down and making it more about the song than an elaborate video. And I can sort of see how running around the city and climbing fire escapes portrays the feeling of being on the ‘edge of glory.’ But can’t she at least look pretty while she does it and not touch herself so much?

In conclusion, if I could do my morning over again I would not start it by watching this video.

Need help getting to sleep? Watch:

Lyrical Genius (Vol. 2)

On my way to work today another really inspiring song came on the radio and I thought I would share it. It’s called “Novacane” by Frank Ocean. You know the lyrics are going to be a masterpiece when the artist uses his creative freedom to reinvent the spelling of “Novocaine.”

Read the full lyrics here: Novacane – Frank Ocean

Let’s go through some highlights:

“Even when I’m fuckin’ Viagra poppin’, every single record autotunin’. Zero emotion, muted emotion, pitch corrected, computed emotion” – Why are you announcing to the world that you need Viagra and you can’t sing? Embarrassing.

“Stripper booty and rack like wow, Brain like Berkeley” – I actually think this is kind of funny.

“She said she wanna be dentist really badly, she’s in school payin’ for tuition doin’ porn in the valley, at least you workin'” – What an optimistic guy. That’s right girl, with the rate of unemployment you are lucky to have a job right now!

“Cocaine for breakfast, yikes!” – “Yikes” is right; that’s hard core! I prefer like a muffin or something.

“I still can’t feel my face, what am I smokin’ anyway?” – It’s Novocaine, buddy. I don’t know how one smokes Novocaine, but that’s what you get when you hang with a porn star dentist I guess.

Now let’s move on to Rihanna. It’s not so much that her lyrics are bad; it’s more that she steals them. Two prime examples:

“Man Down” by Rihanna – “Oh mama mama mama I just shot a man down.”

“Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen – “Mama, just killed a man.”

I don’t know who wrote “Man Down,” but you can’t just take another song, use the same exact premise and rearrage the words a little! Did you think no one would notice?

 

“Take a Bow” by Rihanna – “But you put on quite a show, really had me going. But now it’s time to go, curtains finally closing. That was quite a show, very entertaining. But it’s over now. Go on and take a bow.”

“Take a Bow” by Madonna – “Take a bow, the night is over. This masquerade is getting older. Light are low, the curtains down. There’s no one here . Say your lines but do you feel them. Do you mean what you say when there’s no one around.”

Okay, they didn’t even change the name of the song this time. Inspired by/stealing from – fine line.

  

I Lost a Bet With the Universe

- Lady Gaga: Judas -

I bet the universe 5 bucks that Lady Gaga would literally crucify herself in her “Judas” music video. Well, the video came out yesterday and I lost! I’m really surprised, but in a good way – I’m proud of Gaga for not going that route.

In fact, the “Judas” video is way less controversial than I thought it would be. Her “Alejandro” video where she wears a see-through nun’s outfit and eats rosary beads is actually way more offensive than what she does in this video. She could have taken sac-religion to a whole new level, but she didn’t. Judging by the extent of her weirdness lately (i.e. the egg and every video since “Bad Romance) I expected the “Judas” video to be at least 12 minutes long and incite an outcry from the Catholic Church or give the Pope a heart attack.

I’m reluctant to say it because Lady Gaga has been on my hate list lately, but I kind of liked the video even despite the fact that there is nothing original about it or the song – they are both total Madonna rip-offs (as is the song “Born This Way“). The song sounds like it could have come off of the “Like a Prayer” album and Madonna already explored the sexy side of religion with her “Like a Prayer” music video where she gets cozy with Black Jesus.

Still, the “Judas” video is a step back toward Lady Gaga’s earlier videos. It sits on the edge of controversy and cheesy pop video -fun but out-there enough to bear Gaga’s name.

From what I gather, here’s the plot (my Catholic school education helped me out with this): Jesus and his disciples are a motorcycle gang and Gaga plays a Mary Magdalene character with whorish outfits and feet washing. She is always standing by Jesus’ side, but she’s torn because she’s still in love with Judas (baby). And then she gets stoned (to death, not off weed). The end.

There’s a lot of choreographed dances a la Britney Spears era and a lot of playing dress-up. But her outfits are actually pretty subdued and I really like the eye makeup.

Anyway I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe if her next song is actually good, I will go back to liking Lady Gaga.

P.S. underrated Gaga song and video: