TI ft. Rihanna - 'Life Your Life'
The Story So Far: In 2004, a band called O-Zone released a song called 'Dragostea Din Tei' with a cod-operatic, camp chorus. It got to No.3 here and was a big hit all over Europe. Then a boy called Gary Brolsma - who looks not unlike Gavin & Stacey's James Cordon, now I come to think about it - made a little film of himself dancing to it, while sitting at his desk. Watching him flail around became 2004/5's equivalent of Rick-Rolling, and he soon became famous. You can probably flick on any Freeview channel between the hours of 8 and 10pm, and see him going at it, while some sneering List TV smartarse mocks him for daring to enjoy himself in a confined space.
But it's OK, because now TI has decided that this impossibly perky tune is the perfect sample to launch his song about staying true to yourself, maintaining focus on what's important and ignoring all the haters. Advice that has clearly been heeded by Gary himself, as he now refuses all requests for interviews from those List TV shows, and why the hell not? Why would he need to justify a fun thing he did a few years ago, only to find his words intercut and undermined by the wit and wisdom of Sarah Cawood, or worse, Andi Peters.
(There is no way of linking to the video without exposing you, tender viewers, to an incredible array of online ads, or some mild swearing. So just listen to Radio 1 until the song comes on, and then this will all make a lot more sense.)
Of course, the kind of life advice TI offers is principally about getting really rich, being really famous, and then turning on everyone who ever doubted you and flicking the vs, rather than, say, learning to accept yourself warts and all and trying and ignore what ignorant people say about you, but the message is broadly the same. And he's a clever rapper, so it's delivered with wit and intelligence.
What makes it even more fun is the way that Rihanna has been brought in to basically recreate her imperious 'Umbrella' vocal, only with the tune of 'Dragostea Din Tei' and with dimwitted, nursery rhyme lyrics.
Someone clearly wants this song to be a massive hit, and will throw anything in there that people definitely like, in order to make it happen. You can just imagine the scene in the recording studio:
"I tell you what this joint needs, you want a rowdy gang yelling 'aaay, hohhhh', and stuff, yeah? And some shouting. People LOVE shouting. And Rih, can you repeat fragments of the mel, the mel, the mel, the melody? That's great! Now, who wants to put on the Stuey-from-Family-Guy costume?"
I'm surprised the Chipmunks don't make a guest appearance, or Zac Efron, or George Sampson, or, y'know, Sarah Cawood and Andi Peters...
Download: Out now
CD Released: November 24th
(Fraser McAlpine)
Comment number 1.
At 17th Nov 2008, hackerjack wrote:Ouch, that hurt.
The rap bit is fine, Rihanna is fine, even the latvians or whatever they were are fine. But this is terrible.
It's like taking Ice Cream, Barbecued Spare Ribs and Guiness (im my opinion three of the finest tastes in the world) and mixing them in a blender and drinking the outcome, it just doesnt work!
Complain about this comment (Comment number 1)