Sunday, August 22, 2010

Cee-Lo Green Writes The Best Song In Years

As introduction, here's my friend Misha, about Outkast's "Hey Ya" (from the great Misha/Mark/Kyle album collaboration of 2008)...

"I was the Program Director for 106.9 The 'X' Urban FM my last year in College, and this album came out in the Fall of that year. We were having our weekly music meeting, where 5 of us would listen to new music which had been sent to us by the record companies, and we decided what we would add to our rotation and what would be left off. We would listen to the songs, discuss them, and (if necessary) vote. Because this album was divided into two sections (Big Boi's 'Speakerboxxx' and Andre 3000's 'The Love Below') we were sent two singles (one from each album). The first was Big Boi's 'The Way You Move', a very cool track that was going to be a solid hit. We all loved it, decided to add it and moved on to Andre's 'Hey Ya'. Remember, this is the first time any of us had heard this song, and from the second it started I was in love. It was exciting, catchy, funny, musically interesting, with massive hooks relentlessly assaulting me at every turn…just an awesome song. Once it ended, I looked around the room at a bunch of shocked faces. I was pretty sure I had the same look, but then, to my surprise (and disgust), the room filled with laughter, and a person who (for the sake of their reputation) will remain nameless said "I don't think so". Horrified, I looked around to find every other head nodding in agreement. At that point I knew what the one O.J. Simpson juror who voted Guilty must have felt like when they lost that vote 11 to 1. I kept asking why we weren't going to add this future #1 pop hit to our rotation and was told over and over again that 'it's not really us'. It was like everyone's ears and brains had shutdown simultaneously…they were like zombies. I went on an admittedly unprofessional, profanity laden rampage (I had a bit of temper back then) and stormed out. Within days (although it felt like seconds) of this meeting 'Hey Ya' was on every goddamn radio station on the planet…EXCEPT THE ONE LOCAL HIP-HOP STATION!!! I think it even made Country and Christian radio for Christ sakes!!! In retrospect I think my love affair with radio died that day, and I still cringe whenever I hear that song. Oh…good times."

In hindsight, I remembered this paragraph being less bitter about the state of radio and more about the rapturous delight of hearing a truly great song for the first time. Huh. But anyway, as Misha felt hearing "Hey Ya," I felt about Cee-Lo Green's modern classic, "Fuck You." Yeah, that's actually the name of the song. Don't play this at work, but for the love of Zod, play it as quickly as you can, then prepare for a month of it being stuck in your head.

1 comment:

StuckinLA said...

My girlfriend and I were listening to Hey Ya in the car the other day, and I said to her - you know Cee Lo's song is really the first song since this that has had that specific effect on me. I totally agree.