Music Spotlight: Rihanna ft Drake – Whats my Name

OH NANA! okay you know what? I never thought I would feature Rihanna in a Dancing Silhouettes Music spotlight. I hope our high over lord doesn’t fire me but  I just have to get this out of my system.

I can not escape this song. On the train to School today, this little girl kept playing it on her fathers phone…. on repeat….. for the duration of the 48 minute train ride. At the mall  the song was being blasted through the speakers in every store. I had no choice but to listen and succumb to it. I found myself humming “oh nana, whats my name?”.

Although this song, being the radio friendly, easily palatable pop Ballard that it is, could have easily been sung by Beyonce , Rihanna shines in this song. This is her song, she is the island girl and this song has this catchy, memorizing dance hall island beat to it. The song just fits Rihanna. No one can pull it off like her.

I’m not gonna write anymore about this song. Just going to tell you to enjoy it. Rihanna and the producers of the beat, crafted an infectious melody, helped along by Drakes delivery in his shirt but sweet opening lines. Its a nice song.

Enjoy

Oh and for future reference

most pop stars use a theme in their music, for example

Rihanna – The island girl with dance hall type melodies

Beyonce – “blah blah blah I’m a diva, I’m a boss etc

Lady gaga – industry manufactured systematic shock value

Katy Perry – California hipster chick, and nice breasts……

Nicki Minaj – I’m the baddest bitch blah blah

Any other pop stars I’m missing?

Phylix’s Top 25 songs of the year…[#25 – #21]

Normally, I’m the first person to post my post on stuffs like this, but Detanfy beat me to it. No hard feelings though, it’s all part of the progress. Enough chit-chat, time to flow with me in the realm of musical geniuses, instrumental wonders and all that as you read, witness and probably understand why these beauties are on my Top 25 list; and today I shall give you a dose of my 25th-21th..

number 25

First from the back is this wonder from The Lonely Island. How anyone could think of making a track about being on a boat and frantically enjoying it is one thing; making the song so good that those on land would begin to contemplate their residential existence on the surface is another thing. The Lonely Island achieved quite well, and might even have some sea creatures jealous (even though it’s not exactly going to make you trade your house for a boat). Number 25 friends
Listen/Watch here

number 24

This song starred as the opening theme for Bleach’s 7th season. While I agree I don’t understand what is being said in the song, I can however read the lyrics from the opening theme of Bleach 12 (the subtitles are translated). What can I say except that this song fuels my motivation and gives me a sort of ‘jump’. It being a rock band again, you know it’s going to be energetic. From J-Rock group Asian Kung-Fu generation, I give you my 24th best.
Listen/Watch here

number 23

If there’s one thing I’ve learnt about bands that use either weird names or names of animals for themselves, it’s that they’re pretty good. And a good example of this ‘theory’ is Finch. I discovered Ink while playing Burnout:Legends and I can say I’ve been very happy discovering this song. It’s rock(obviously) and holds a lot of spunk in it’s pouch of rhythm. Finch’s Ink packs the energy you need in a really good rock song
Listen here

number 22

When it came to this number, I had a problem. I couldn’t choose properly which song of Roth’s would get this position. Eventually I chose this one;not because it’s the weakest of all his songs, but because it’s a song of relatively fast-paced beats and lyrics. It’s Hip-Hop, and in case you didn’t know Asher Roth is one sonofagun when it comes to Hip-Hop.Number 22, Lark On My Go-Kart
Listen here

number 21

“Repay Evil with Good”, “Forgive you enemies, it makes them mad” and some others like that are things we’re constantly told. Chamillionaire probably understands this and even takes it a step further by thanking them. No matter what we do, we’ll have haters (that’s an unfortunate fact), and Chamillionaire acknowledges this fact comprehensively with this track. There’s a part where he knows some of his publicists will spread rumours about him, and so he lets them know in advance that he doesn’t like them but nevertheless thanks them for it. But he doesn’t just rant about that, he also shows appreciate for those that do love him… fans,fam,friends… You have to love his fluid rhythm. It’s like the viscosity of using different words in rapid succession just wears off when he’s describing things. The Ultimate Victory friends, Number 21
Listen here

That’s the first batch folks, and until tomorrow I leave with this excerpt from The Ultimate Victory

“It’s an outro, I was gonna put it at the beginning, but this is what I say the moment after I’m winning, thank you… Ultimate Victory”

Detanfy’s Best of Music #25 – 21

Well here it is folks, the very first installment in our daily “best Of” list. My partner and I will post our individual lists everyday, with 5 posts a day leading up to our top 5 songs of 2010 on Friday and a special honorable mentions post on Saturday.

Sit back, relax, read, but most importantly LISTEN. You might just discover your next favorite song or band.

Coming in at number 25 is “Everything Red” by The Game. I swear to you I never even thought I would like this song. It has elements of everything I despise. It’s By The game (I’m neutral towards him), It features Birdman (arguably one of the worst rappers lyrics-wise, in existence), and Lil wayne (over hyped to the point where he doesn’t consider himself a human being). But all in all I love this song. I remember when my cousin first played it for me this summer, I resisted, I didn’t want to accept that I liked this song, it took the entire summer for me to fall in love with this song and in the end it became a highlight song for not only my awesome summer vacation, but also for the year as a whole.

Even Birdman’s verse wasnt that bad after a few hundred listens. My cousin played it over 2000 times, I shit you not! Its on his iTunes. He just kept it on repeat all the time, I fell asleep and woke up to this song in my first few days on vacation. Thankfully my cousin’s obsession began to die down around the time I arrived for summer vacation, had I shown up a few days earlier, I would have probably blown my brains out from listening to the song so much.

Is this a story of musical Stockholm syndrome? probably. Do I care? Not at all. It’s a great song, I love the chorus and the Ryan Leslie produced beat is infectious and beautiful! Listen HERE

Next up…….

Say what you will about the band themselves, or their current style of music or even about how they have “changed”, but you know what? Its really interesting to see the progression of Linkin park.  Linkin Park is one of those bands that has managed to break the mold that was holding them back and in doing so have evolved into something else, Its simply a case of natural progression.

Linkin Park is unique, not because they combine rap and rock, but because they combine, mix and match various elements from various genres of music and blend it so well. Take the song “waiting for the end” as an example, just from listening once I can hear influences ranging from Dance hall to big beat  electronica. I simply adore this song. Its something Linkin Park has never done before, they crafted a beautiful song using Reggae tone like vocals from Mike Shinoda perfectly blended with main verses from Chester Bennington. LP is an experimental band, they are at their best when they are breaking boundaries and doing something new and genre shattering. No one can deny that after listening to this song.

Linkin Park hasn’t changed, they have evolved into an even more magnificent beast with the passion and radiance of A Thousand Suns.

Besides that, the song has a fucking amazing music video and the guitar riff near the end is Beastly!

Listen HERE or HERE

I stumbled upon this song randomly, and I loved it instantly! Lead singer Bradford Cox is amazing! I love how the song flows, When you first hear the song, it starts out in a certain direction, less than 45 seconds later its spinning a completely new sound that it maintains for about 2 minutes and then switches up it again!

I love the natural progression in this song, its beautiful and inspiring. Most of the middle section is dominated by instrumentals gradually building up to the very climactic and satisfyingly sweet ending. I remember when I first heard this song. It captured me instantaneously, I kept humming it in the showers, In the super market, pretty much everywhere! Its a beautiful song, and one of the musical highlights of my summer. The song represents growth, it changes and thats what makes it beautiful.

I strongly urge you to listen HERE

Yeah Yeah Yeah’s!

One of my favorite bands of all time. I dont even know what to say about these guys. Their sound is unique and beautiful! Each album is different than the one before in the best way possible. Their latest album, 2009’s “It’s Blitz” is amazing! Every single song tells a story and compliments the entire album as a whole. Lead Singer Karen O, Guitarist Nick Zinner and Drummer Brian Chase are fantastic through out the entire album, but I’m here to talk about Soft Shock.

I wouldn’t necessarily consider it my favorite song from the album, that honor would go to Hysteric but Soft Shock is a stand out song. Like the entire album, its a love letter to the dance floor, drawing upon influences from 80’s Synth pop and new era sound. Soft Shock has this melancholic happiness to it, I know thats a contradiction but thats the best way to describe the song. Its building on the past and looking to the future.

YYY’s have crafted an amazing song, but over all, they have crafted an amazing album. One of my wishes in life is to one day go to a YYY’s concert, if its any indication from their music (and the pic below), a YYY’s concert would be an amazing experience.

By the way don’t you just love Karen O’s Concert outfits?

you can listen to soft shock HERE

 

NEXT UP….

 

123! MI on the M-I-C, Neptune on the wheels of steel, best alliance in hip hop!

You know, looking back at  contemporary Nigerian Music, I’m really impressed, its evolved so much from the days of Eedris *I cant spell his last name so I’m not even going to attempt to*. Who would have know 5 years ago that we would have artists like D’banj, Wande Coal, Naeto C, MI and especially Dagrin? This song truly is the best alliance in hip hop, as far as Nigeria is concerned anyway.

The song starts with a verse from MI, who kills it immediately. MI is versatile and effective, he is a lyrical maniac! I always wonder, can MI make the transition from Naija rapper to Yankee rapper? Can he hold his own against the best of the best in American rap? We might never know, but his verse in this song makes a strong case on his behalf if you ask me.

Naeto C  aka Super C takes the middle verse. He doesn’t waste anytime showing his knack for metaphors, the man is something else. But on to the main event….The chief executive omo ota himself

DaGrin finishes off this song with such precision, its amazing! The man fucking raps in Yoruba! I am still amazed till this day when I listen to any of his songs. Its a mixed feeling, on one hand I’m excited, astounded and blown away by this guys talent, on the other hand I’m saddened his life got cut short. DaGrin was a star, excuse me, DaGrin IS a star! DaGrin succeed in doing something no Yoruba teacher of mine will ever do, He made speaking Yoruba cool.

In his own words, DaGrin “Gbono bi radiator to ti sa many miles”. I could just keep writing about how much I love and miss DaGrin but I wont, I’ll reserves that for later. I’ll end this by quoting DaGrin

“Mo le rap yoruba, ee lemi ba!

Emi ni oba, bring all the ACE wey dey d bar!”

This song is defintely one of the best Niaja collaborations of the year, Thanks goes out to DJ Neptune for this beat and rounding up these great artists for such an awesome, versatile and especially dance friendly song song.

Listen to it HERE

Do you wanna know a secret? My cousin and I have a dance to this song, but you will probably never see it. I thank God for that

 

Well thats it for now Folks, #25 – #21 of my personal favorite songs of 2010, I hope you are enjoying the list so far. As you can see, I have a diverse taste in music, there is something for everybody and I’m only 5 songs in!

Tune in tomorrow for #20 – #16

till then have a great day folks!