Made Fun!

First, for context, XXL sets up how Kanye West, Raekwon, and Justin Bieber all ended up throwing the collaboration idea around:

It all started earlier this week when Ye and the Canadian pop singer went back and forth over the social networking site about how much they love each other’s music. Seemingly, out of nowhere, the Louis Vuitton Don asked Bieber if he would be interested in doing a song with him and the Wu-Tang spitter. “I’m honored that you like my Music @JustinBieber!!!” he wrote. “You gotta hear the album. Maybe we can do something together. Me, You and Raekwon.”

“Me, u, and the chef 2gether on a song = EPIC,” Bieber responded. “Might sound crazy 2 u but even having this convo is living the dream. Thanks.”

On the one hand, this mash-up might seem unlikely. On the other hand, thanks to signing with Usher and picking him to be the mentor for his career, the hip-hop/R&B community has taken to Justin Bieber in a way they haven’t since the last crooning white boy on the block — Justin Timberlake. (And JT is, of course, the person often mentioned in the bidding war for Bieber’s deal. Sorry, JT. He couldn’t sign with you, because he learned from you.) Kanye is also the same guy who praised autotune with about 87 exclamation points and, despite lots of doubt from peers and fans, turned that enthusiasm into hit album 808s & Heartbreak. Not that that phrasing reveals how big of a Kanye apologist I am or anything but Kanye West is the kind of guy who just does things like put Wu-Tang and teenage pop in the same studio to see what happens.

And it’ll probably work.

Raekwon summed it up nicely for XXL, saying, “It’s definitely gonna happen. When you got these kinda talents merging together to do something exciting, I think it’s something that’s gonna make the fans check it out.”

Although there’s no official word on when the collaboration will happen, Kanye mentioned via Twitter that Raekwon was already coming into the studio today.

Now, while we’re all waiting for this master experiment of gritty pop sunshine to leak on the internet, let’s all go back to listenting to Justin Bieber songs slowed down 800 percent.

I love to love new pop musicians that a majority of my totally hip, intellectual peers probably deem inappropriate. I didn’t have the time to pay attention to Justin Bieber when he first started gaining notoriety, but when “Baby” showed up on a BET’s “106 and Park” one day, featuring Ludacris (and random Drake hanging out at the bowling alley with a bunch of sixteen-year-olds), I was confused but then also couldn’t get that song out of my head.

I thought: it’s here!!!! It’s time for me to be the kind of twenty-something who just can’t get enough of Justin Bieber’s adorable lesbian haircut and lady-soft crooning!!! God, oh God, this song just reminds me of my childhood baby baby baby oh, and how I couldn’t figure out if he was into me at first. Ten years old is such a confusing time, so finally I just sent him a note — Are we an item? Boy, quit playing!!

It was a short-lived infatuation stage, though, because I don’t really like Justin Bieber’s other songs. I can’t get into whatever he’s selling, even though there are cool pop melodies, a lot of dancing, and singing about just wanting true love. And It’s bugged me, because I wasn’t able to put my finger on why. His whole product is packed full of things that should appeal to someone who actively liked NSYNC when she was a teenager, right? Since he’s hanging out with Usher, this bright-eyed Canadian is also being packaged and marketed in ways meant to appeal to black kids too. I’m black. I used to a kid. I should be doubly hooked, right? RIGHT?

But then this video for “Somebody To Love (Remix),” which also features Usher, put it into perspective: I can’t like Justin Bieber because Usher already exists.

Justin starts the video, singing alright, dancing okay, and then Usher blows him away during the second verse with just the first few notes. Some of it may be age — Usher’s had years to perfect what Justin Bieber’s still only just getting into. Give that pretty girl voice of his a few years to really feel out a style and his moves some time to smooth out, and he might release a pop/R&B album that knocks it out. For now, I’m not quite young enough to not have had Usher’s entire catalog influence my growth, so Justin Bieber’s diet imitation just leaves me wanting a little more.

I’ll be interested to see how the Biebz develops with subsequent albums. Until then, I’ll hold off on getting my emo bowl cut.

Besides, Usher’s newest, Raymond v. Raymond, has a number of great tracks. That dude’s career is nowhere near done. Confessions is still his strongest, but have you heard “Pro Lover”? I’m pretty sure it’s a song about him being a prostitute, so you know this record is quality.

Unless that kind of thing only guarantees the worthiness of a song for me…

Nah. Everybody loves prostitutes.

- Chanelle Berlin Johnson