Flashing Lights

FLASHING LIGHTS, KANYE WEST

(May 2008)

Summer pre-London: When you go to an SF Giants game, every Giants player has a theme song that plays when they step up to bat. In the 2008-2009 season, left fielder Fred Lewis' theme song was Kanye West's "Flashing Lights." The first time I heard it was during a Giants game, and I turned to Daniel, hearing Connie Mitchell's autotuned chants of "Flashing. Lights?", asking what song this was, and Daniel answered, "'Flashing Lights' by Kanye."

I've never been a big fan of Kanye West. I think that, despite being one of the most (if not the most) talented rapper of his generation, he's a big baby, always whining and crying about not getting this award or that kind of recognition or --

"Hold up, Cesar. I'm real happy for you and your blog, and I'mma let you finish. But Beyonce's got the best blog of all time. OF ALL TIME!!"

Um, fool, do I look like Taylor Swift? (Don't answer that.)

However, I do like his music, and "Flashing Lights" is my favorite Kanye song. For one thing, it's insanely, and I mean insanely, dramatic. It starts off with these filmic strings just crescendoing into this synth riff, with Connie Mitchell being all cracked-out: "Flashing. Lights?" Then, it's all about this relationship between these two extremely vain and narcissistic people who outbling each other until they die. Okay, that last part may not be true, but listening to the song, it sounds like that's what happened. The chorus that Dwele croons: "As you recall, you know I love to show off / But you didn't know I would take it this far!! / What do I know?" And it's like, what is that about? I like to think that the two of them kill each other with a massive blingy diamond chandelier, just like in "The War of the Roses." Otherwise, the song is so much drama without the payoff. I like the payoff. And so does Kanye, based on this song.

I used to love Nip/Tuck. In its prime (seasons 1 - 4, for those of you interested), the show was an addictive and awesomely graphic soap that had an amazing soundtrack. Like, possibly the best on TV. But after it went from a show about organ-harvesting rings and serial killers to a show about teenage vixens and teddy-bear enthusiasts, it still maintained that amazing soundtrack, and the trailer for Season 5.5 was set to "Flashing Lights," and it was an amazing trailer (go look it up on YouTube!), and I fell in love with the song all over again.

The reason for even starting this blog for me is that whenever I'm drunk at a party or whatever and a song I know really well comes on, I'll gasp loudly and be like "Omigod!! I remember the first time I heard this!" And the last time I can remember doing that was in London, when I went to Stacey's birthday party at the new house in Dollis Hill where she and Matt are living with other coursemates. I was already buzzing and then this song blasts on and I did my trademark gasp and statement.

The video for this is really cool, too, because Kanye is locked up in the trunk of a car and his girlfriend (to go with the operatic nature of the song) bashes him in the head with a golf club. Of course. And it's not that bad an image.

Oh, come on now, Cesar! I give you a shout-out in the song: "You know you can't Rome without Caesar!" Why you gonna play me like that?

Okay, you're right. I'm sorry, Kanye.

The Thrill

THE THRILL, WIZ KHALIFA

(December 2009)

First Christmas back in the States since London: Daniel had gone to a Wiz Khalifa concert a few weeks prior at school in Penn State. He was really excited about it, but old man that I am, I was all, "Who's Wiz What's his Face?" My brother, obviously annoyed at my lack of knowledge of the underground rap scene, was like, "Uhh... only the best rapper to come out of Pittsburgh, duh." Well. I filed this information under the "Stuff That I'll Never Think About Again" folder in my brain. Daniel loved the concert and was raving about it and told me that I should download some of his stuff because I would love it.

Now, here's my thing on rap. I love it, but being the old man and future guy with kids who hates what his kids listen to and only listens to the "oldies" station on the radio (which will, undoubtedly, be full of '90s tunes), I only like older rap. Like, '80's and '90's stuff mostly - Ice Cube, 2Pac, some Biggie, etc. - and why? Because the music in the background is good - either a good sample or a great original synth riff. None of this stupid and, frankly, boring Little Wayne generic beats shit. So, mostly, I tend to turn away from any contemporary rap simply because a) it's completely boring to listen to, and b) they don't talk about anything other than "getting money" or "bling" or whatever it is that these kids value nowadays. So, a new underground rapper? I was not interested in listening, especially after having given local rap group Tha Crew a listen (I ironically love their song "Jello," but emphasis on the word "ironically"), but my brother insisted that I would like him.

Christmas was my first time back in the States after being in London for school, and there were a lot of things that I had to do, and one of them was to download "The Thrill." I decided to give in. Daniel brought his friend Ja'Mere with him, and with Daniel trying to be a good host and show him around, but since I have a license, I was the chauffeur. Which was fine. I loved driving around with my brother, remembering what the city I was born in looked like at night in December. But, this meant something else: mix-CDs, the new millennium version of the mix-tape. However, I couldn't just put stuff that I liked because Daniel would not have that, so I decided to include "The Thrill" as the opening track. And, boy, was it worth it.

I totally dug the song. It had a great sample, as so many great rap songs do (it was a difficult sample to place, but after much research (read: typing it in on Google), I found that it was an Empire of the Sun sample), a good, relaxed beat, and the lyrics, while nothing political or socially conscious, were still about partying and having fun without being obnoxious and totally superficial. Daniel was impressed that I had listened to one of his recommendations.

When I got back to London, I suddenly heard "The Thrill" everywhere. And not the original Empire of the Sun song. I heard it twice when I was working at the Canal Cafe Theatre, in the pub area. I heard someone playing it at the locker room at Primark. I heard it at a house party. It was crazy that this song which was underground American rap would get so much play in the United Kingdom.