On August 25th, a previously unreleased track from Atlanta rapper T.I.'s sixth studio album Paper Trail leaked onto the internet, spurring conversation among critics about the musical direction of the rapper's sixth take. Paper Trail features a myriad of guests, most prominently Kanye West, Lil' Wayne, Jay-Z, and Rihanna. On this track, Rihanna provides the hook, adding an excellent foil to T.I.'s strong, lucid flow. Representing a swift change from the Southern hip-hop that dominated previous albums King and T.I. vs T.I.P., the self-proclaimed King of the South trades in former producer DJ Toomp's heavy synths for a sample from the Romanian dance group O-Zone's signature track Dragostea Din Tei. This sample provides a perfect backdrop to Rihanna's soulful and captivating hook, and injects T.I.'s serious Southern rap with some pop kitsch.
While many critics have been attacking T.I. and producer Just Blaze's choice to use Dragostea Din Tei as a sample, it actually makes Live Your Life even stronger. Rihanna adapts her vocals to the tune of Dragostea Din Tei to the extent that only Rihanna could, and she pulls it off with great gusto. Rihanna's regal vocals are only topped by her boastful lyrics, as she declares "You're gonna be a shining star/fancy clothes/fancy cars" but then further sings "life your life/instead of chasing that paper." These mixed messages in Rihanna's hook do add some confusion to her vocals as they are somewhat contradictory, however, they are still aesthetically pleasing.
T.I. attacks the rap game in his verse, deriding what he declares to be an industry that has lost sight of what's important. T.I. finds issue with the fame, the arguing, the money and the cars of his contemporaries, which is interesting considering that he named his album Paper Trail.
T.I. does not seem to be immune from the constant hypocrisy in the rap industry, as he too joins the group of rappers that declare the industry to be dead but still further all of the money loving, misogynistic, ostentatious features of rappers that they deplore in their songs. While Life Your Life makes little sense, it is still aesthetically pleasing, and will undoubtedly be a Top 20 hit when it is released on September 30th.
1 comment:
The video keeps on going down, but once I can figure out how to link mp3's I will post it again
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