Let It Rock

Tia C. M. Tyree

Who doesn’t want to be a rock star?

In 2009, Nickleback told us all the reasons why we should want to be rock stars. You have a credit card with no limit, 15 cars, keys to the Playboy mansion and a big black jet. Of course, there is the sex and the drugs that come with the Rock and the Roll.

Being a rock star is also the envy of some Rap stars. Two years ago, Freak Nasty and Crazy Mike toyed with the idea of “Doing it Like a Rock Star,” but it was the Shop Boyz who really had everyone in the Hip Hop community wanting to “Party like a Rock Star.” Released from the album “Rockstar Mentality,” the song peaked at Number 2 on the Billboard Top 100 Chart and had an impressive run on the charts. Totally, dude.

I have a confession. I, too, have dreamed of being a rock star. Standing in the mirror and picking my pretend air guitar was a frequent pastime for me as a small child. I loved David Bowie, Billy Joel, Pat Benatar and Bruce Springsteen. However, when Rap really hit the urban scene, I abandoned Rock like it was a stale donut on my Mom’s kitchen counter. I immersed myself in Rap culture. I dressed, talked and lived everything Rap. Over the next decade or so, the closest I ever went to Rock again was when Run DMC collaborated with Aerosmith in 1986 on the remix of “Walk this Way.”

The video showed the members of Aerosmith and Run DMC banging on a studio wall that separated the two groups. The battling sounds eventually mixed, when Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler makes his way through with his mic in hand screaming the song’s signature lyrics. Hearing the juxtaposing of the slashing guitar sounds against the scratching of the turntables and seeing the bare-chested Tyler dancing alongside the fedora hat-Adidas-wearing Run DMC seemed peculiar to most at the time. However, the song was wildly popular and actually did break down the invisible walls between the two music genres. It was also credited with starting the new music genre, Rap-Rock.

This collaboration helped catapult Run DMC out of the world of Rap and into American pop culture. They later become a group who experienced several “firsts” in Rap history, including being the first rap group to be on the cover of Rolling Stone, the first Rap act to earn gold, platinum and multi-platinum album sales, the first to have a video rotated on MTV and the first to receive a Grammy Award nomination. Many thought Run DMC’s induction into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009 marked the first Rap act to receive the honor. However, these accolades actually belong to Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five who were inducted in 2007.

Okay, perhaps, likening my sudden distaste for Rock to a stale donut was a bit harsh. I’ll admit that I’ve sung, memorized, swung my ponytail and secretly danced to several Rock songs since my childhood. Several. I just haven’t been a Rock fan. I suspect that I’m not the only one. However, whenever the worlds of Rock and Rap collide, it’s always intriguing to me. Over the last two decades, several Rap and Rock artists have performed songs within the Rap-Rock genre, and a few groups and music artists have emerged who could arguably be representative of the genre, including the Black Eyed Peas, Beastie Boys and Kid Rock.

Truthfully, I’m most intrigued by Rap and Hip Hop collaborations that seem to work well in blending any two musical genres. Kanye West and Maroon 5’s Adam Levine’s song “Heard ‘em Say” and P. Diddy and Sting’s remake of “I’ll be Missing You” are great examples of rappers teaming up with non-rappers to create great songs. However, I am not very comfortable with partnerships that don’t seem natural. Frankly, I needed medicine after first hearing Snoop Dogg’s song with Willie Nelson titled “My Medicine,” and clearly, judging from the backlash after the 2009 Country Music Television Awards, I wasn’t alone in feeling uncomfortable watching Hip-Hop artist T-Pain sing alongside a rapping teen country music star Taylor Swift in the parody “Love Story.” In the “Thug Story,” Taylor or “T-Sweezy” is a singer turned “gangsta” who lives with her parents, has diamonds in her mouth and spends her nights baking cookies, instead of going to the club. Perhaps, it seemed funny in rehearsals and during the performance. However, the next day some bloggers and entertainment critics blamed both artists for “disgracing” their respective music genres.

Yet, there’s always a sweet spot. Kevin Rudolf and Rap music’s hands-down favorite rapper, Lil’ Wayne, found it with “Let it Rock.” It’s a catchy revved up-head-banging guitar track that nicely blends Lil Wayne’s raw rapping style with Rudolf’s groveling voice and punchy lyrics. After Lil’ Wayne belts out two verses touting his jet setting, bling and the superior affects he has on the ladies, Rudolf concludes, “I wish I could be as cool as you, and I wish I could say the things you do. But I can't, and I won’t live a lie.” No worries to Rudolf. Many people want to say and do the things he does, too.

Nonetheless, it does leave me wondering which came first, the Rudolf collaboration or Lil Wayne’s desire to take a dip in the proverbial crossover pool. Lil’ Wayne is still at the top of his game in the Rap world, but is rumored to be releasing a Rock album. Rumors have swirled for much of 2009, and when a single from the album leaked, many nonbelievers seemed to finally think Lil’ Wayne was crossing over into (not the usual Pop music genre, but) Rock. The song, “Prom Queen,” did break the top 25 on Billboard’s Top 100 charts, but it was less than his usual showing. Nonetheless, naysayers gained their voices back when the release date for the Rock album came and went in April 2009. Now, Lil’ Wayne fans and curious onlookers are waiting patiently for the “new” August release date.

Until then, let it ROCK.