Plies & Akon - 'Hypnotized'
In musicals - film or stage version - the transition from the vaguely-realistic spoken and acted bits to the all-singing, all-dancing musical numbers is always an awkward affair. Your scene may begin with just two people talking to each other about the crazy situation they find themselves in, but that's not how it ends, let me tell you. Usually, one of them will ask the other to explain something which puzzles them, and the reply comes in song form, after a brief introductory line like "here, let me explain..." or "and it goes a little something like this...", or even "here's a song about that very thing, are you ready?".
Before you know what's what, there are 20 nuns doing a soft-shoe-shuffle while 10 suspiciously fit-looking policemen prance and spin around them in perfect geometric swirls. Chimney-sweep orphans are hand-jving above, and old ladies selling fruit from wooden market stalls have suddenly developed the ability to tap-dance. Then suddenly all of these amazing things vanish, and the twosome - now slightly puffed-out - are back to talking again.
This transitional awkwardness from speech to song is, I believe, the single biggest reason why some people have a hard time loving musicals (that and the music, which can be a little...what's the word...ripe?). It also appears at the beginning of this song, where Plies pretends to be on the phone to Akon, and attempts to set up the kind of thing he is going to rap about. He says:
"Aye, what’s happenin homie? This ya little boy Plies man!
I ran across a nice lil babe the other day homie,
Lil mama was so bad she had me hypnotized.
Couldn’t even get my eyes off her.
Imma tell ya how it feel to be hypnotized"
Isn't it something? You can just see the chimney-sweeps and cartoon penguins limbering up in the background. And extra brilliantly, seeing as Plies is supposed to be telling Akon how it feels to be hypnotized, it's AKON who takes to the microphone to sing the next bit. At which point the nuns and policemen tut audibly and go about their business.
What's that? You want to know more about the song itself? Well, it's alright, if you like your slow jams to be dripping with hilarious, nonsensical bragging and slavering. And let's not forget the shiny thing which is causing both of these men to fall into a trance is a lady's bum.
Thinking about it, I could just as easily have said "if you like slow jams" there, right? They're ALL like that!
Download: Out now
CD Released: March 3rd
(Fraser McAlpine)
Comments
i lurrrrrrrve this song!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1