So, what happened was, Usher’s new song Love In This Club, was produced by Polow Da Don. But it turns out, Polow Da Don essentially made the track using preset loops in Apple’s GarageBand software, which comes free with a Mac computer [seen @ Miss Info]. Well, this interests me of course, and as usual, I see things in at least 3 ways.
1. As a “struggling” or “up-and-coming’ producer
This crackerjack-ass no-talent-having, gets 50Gs for doing not much more than <click>, <drag>, <export>, [OK to continue]? No, it is NOT OK to continue Goddammit! I been crate digging, DJing, sampling on cheap ass reverb machines rigged to loop, spent car insurance money on records and Ensoniq keyboard memory chips, listed to hours and hours of albums over and over, looking for JUST the right loop.. Turned my back on good weed and better ass cuz I wasn’t done with this track I was working… Played baselines, piano twinkling, day in, day out, up until 4am on the regular with full time jobs and baby mama drama to turn out to be a pretty damn decent producer/remixer, but who is still not making a dime, while this guy essentially takes his textbook, photocopies chapter 12, hands it to his teacher as an essay, and gets a fucking A!!
2. As a sampling up-and-coming producer
OK, so the argument is, how is this different from me (or Kanye, or Pete Rock, or countless other successful and talented producers in Hip-Hop’s history), sampling loops, adding some drums, and calling it a beat. Lord knows I’m still milking good response and radio play from my Bartender remix, which unashamedly samples George Benson note for note. Well, it is kinda the same. Sort of. I mean, I consider myself a connissour of good music. I sample from records I own (yes, vinyl), or mp3s I download. I filter out so many songs, my ear listens for loops, they are not handed to me. OK so the Give Me The Night loop didn’t take DJ Premier-like audio genius or skillful chopping, but still… I’ve come across royalty-free Loops/Beats CDs here and there, and I would never in my life use any of them. No matter how hot it was. I’m sorry, I just wouldn’t. But there are those producers, who might be very musically talented, who would say the same of me and my sampling. While I just can’t bring myself to say that Polow’s extremely uninspiring method of selecting music and creating tracks is nearly close to being equal in creativity to doing what I, or many other talented sampling-based producers do, to really call him out on it, would verge on hypocrisy.
3. As a listener
Well, I do like the song. I kinda thought Usher was gonna remain fallen off, but I think this is a good look. Personally, I have to say dig the joint. I bounce in the car a little like a fool when it comes on and I sing the hook sitting at my desk at the day-job. I guess at the end of the day, that’s what really matters.
No matter who, or what, made the music.