Jezebel: bad rap

The New Electric Company: Lacking The Old Energy

Tracie — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:00:00 EST

Unless, of course, you like watching a bunch of musical theater dorks rapping to kids about how they have "mad skills," in which case, yeah, it's a little bit awesome.

The new version of the classic show debuted on PBS today, and while many of the same themes are incorporated — like sounding out words in song and male/female profiles — it just doesn't have any of the inherent coolness of the original, mainly because it's trying so hard to be "down". It makes for some great cringing, though. Clip above.

Are Rap Videos Turning Young Girls Into Drunken, Stoner Floozies?

Tracie — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 19:30:00 EDT

Researchers studied rap videos and found that they sexualized women, placed too much emphasis on their physical appearance and treated them more as decorative objects rather than "active agents." Uh, doesn't that hold true for most of pop culture and advertising? It's so annoying how rap and hip hop are always being called out for that, when there are plenty of equally (if not more) offensive other influences in the media. Anyway, after interviewing over 500 African-American women (ages 14-18), researchers found that the young women who spent more time watching rap videos were more likely to "binge drink, have sex with multiple partners, test positive for marijuana and have a negative body image." Is it just me, or does that just sound like the life of a majority of teen girls, regardless of race or music video preference? And sure, the negative body image stuff is always bad, but the rest of it actually sounds like tons of fun to me.

The researchers say that such behavior is influenced by rap videos and that the "glamorized depictions of alcohol use often portrayed in conjunction with sexual imagery and portrayals of drug use are often depicted as normal." Well, for some of us, it is. Especially when you're a teenager interested in experimentation. I don't necessarily believe such behavior — which the researchers labeled as "risky" — is always so bad. The study concluded that there is a "need for greater awareness and education about the risks associated with this media exposure. Maybe people need to stop worrying about sheltering girls and instead focus on teaching boys to start respecting them.

Sexy Rap Videos Suspected To Be Damaging To Young Girls [Reuters, via Feministing]

OMG! Spencer Pratt Rapping On Heidi Montag's Single! WTF? ROTFL!

Tracie — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 16:00:00 EDT

OK, we're totally peeing our pants (or more accurately, the muumuus we blog in) from laughing so hard at Heidi Montag's song Body Language." It's pretty much exactly what we expected to hear from The Hills star when we first learned she had her sights set on a singing career: A played-out '80s sample, computerized vocals, shitty hook, etc. But, holy shit, we did not expect to hear Spencer Pratt rapping on the track! It's awesomely bad in every way. Produced by Grammy Award winning producer/composer David Foster (who also happens to be Brody Jenner's stepdad), the song, which samples Yaz's "Situation," was played on Ryan Seacrest's radio show this morning. Even Seacrest made fun of Pratt. Spencer, dear, that's when you know you suck. Apparently, the song that was leaked is not an official single. Heidi claims that they were just fooling around in the studio and Spencer's rap was just a joke. Well, it certainly made us laugh. After the jump, check out Heidi's "Body Language."

Heidi Montag tries to sing, Spencer Pratt tries to rap. Ladies, we give you: "Body Language."

So You Think You Can Sing [ONTD]