Downloads
Surfing the Web for new music, video and MP3 downloads can be a serious time investment. Picks from Times staff and contributors will help take the drag out of click-and-drag music choices. Some downloads may contain explicit lyrics. All are free, except as noted.
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-- CASEY DOLAN
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“Show Me What You Got”
Jay-Z
www.rocafella.com/News.aspxitem102676sectionid137Jay-Z is coming out of “retirement” (really more like a vacation) to impose his new set of unattainable standards of materialism on a blinking hip-hop community and the world (he’s on a global tour at the moment). With a horn sample lifted from the Lafayette Afro-Rock Band as a constant, this page out of Robb Report soars over and through Monaco with a duel between two Ferraris (driven by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Danica Patrick), two speedboats in the harbor and a party at a villa for the unimaginably wealthy. “Show Me What You Got,” challenges Jay-Z over and over. Fine. Blow it all up.
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“Boomerang”
Daara J
news.calabashmusic.com/world/viewitem_id36727utm_sourcenewsletteru tm_mediumemail
Even for those who don’t understand Wolof, Daara J, a Senegalese hip-hop trio, would seem to be rapping about the circular journey of hip-hop, from its African roots to Europe and the U.S. back to Africa. There also seems to be an implied comment about bling, the accumulation and display of crass material wealth, and a suggestion that music is the real wealth. The video seduces through its typically sinuous West African track and colorful imagery and the guest vocalist is Mali’s Rokia Traore.
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“White and Nerdy”
Weird Al Yankovic
www.youtube.com/watchvvkKuZk1f1ZI
A hilarious send-up of Chamillionaire’s “Ridin’ Dirty” that puts on proud display every stereotype there is about awkward funk-less white boys. It’s been a standard gag in black comedy for decades, but given here a fresh look by white Yankovic, whose gift for parody has almost never been so thorough. The song has given musical parodist Yankovic the first Top 10 hit of his long, silly career. There are too many good lines and on-screen moments to mention, but this type of self-deprecation works well in narrowing the divisions of race.
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