Neither JR Rotem and Terius are exactly amateurish though! Like everything on the first The-Dream album was pretty poliahed, it's only now he's built himself that he thinks "fuck it" and puts out half-hearted crap like "Panties to the Side".
Also the guy who produced LeToya's "All Eyes On Me" is not amateurish! I think there's a difference between the embracing 2010/2011's "deliberately sound like a frankenstein's monster of dance and pop hits" aesthetic and being amateurish per se. Derulo tunes don't actually sound made in 2 minutes. Agreed that they're mostly pretty awful but that's a different metric.
Rotem's most actually-amateurish sounding productions are for Sean Kingston, go figure.
― Tim F, Saturday, 30 July 2011 07:46 (1 year ago) Permalink
"polished" obv.
― Tim F, Saturday, 30 July 2011 07:47 (1 year ago) Permalink
terius boasts about making songs in half an hour though, and a lot of the time you can tell (and it doesn't correlate to how good they are - "single ladies" sounds a lot more tossed-off than "panties to the side" for example, but is obviously better)
― lex pretend, Saturday, 30 July 2011 07:50 (1 year ago) Permalink
i refuse to believe jr rotem takes any longer on most of hits than it takes him to copy and paste the horrible obvious sample on top
― lex pretend, Saturday, 30 July 2011 07:51 (1 year ago) Permalink
*his hits
Yes but "Single Ladies" is also obviously a more polished performance in just about every conceivable manner than "Drumz". A lot of this also comes down to a mix of production and performance too - Beyonce is a professional. Derulo can't really sing but he's trying. And the use of big samples actually reduces the sense of amateurism in my opinion because you can hear the money and power and will going into making the result a hit.
I guess the phrase "amateurish" is too broad and vague for the vibe I'm trying to describe. Like I'm sure you'd put Ke$ha (in a bad way) or "Give Me Everything" (in a good way) in that category too and that's not at all the vibe I mean.
If I was looking for an example of real amateurishness (in the sense that I mean) in US pop comparable to "Drumz" I'd probably point to stuff like Baby Bash's "Suga Suga".
― Tim F, Saturday, 30 July 2011 08:10 (1 year ago) Permalink
O O AYOOOO
this thing has been #1 jam all summer, Adiah kinda makes it feel like dusk and the heat's broken so now you can rejoice and DANCE.
BOO KAK BOO KAKKAK
― one big boob fulla bad stitches (billy), Saturday, 30 July 2011 16:39 (1 year ago) Permalink
Yes. I think (pseudo?) Caribbean amateurishness is a pretty different kettle of fish to other forms of amateurishness in pop and tends to map onto the amateurish/professional divide very differently.
You get the same thing with a lot of contemporary African pop (which is obviously heavily influenced by dancehall as well as US hip-hop), and some strands of funky as well. You can get away with a lot if you have charm and energy - the effect of having banged something out in the middle of a party even if most of the time that hasn't happened. You don't get that with most amateurish-sounding rock music, and especially not with someone like Terius who is very polished at his best and doesn't have the charm to compensate for his more tossed off moments, there's rarely a sense of spontenaiety there.
― Matt DC, Monday, 1 August 2011 09:38 (1 year ago) Permalink
Also no way is Desloc the lesser partner here - you need the roughness and the energy to balance Adiah's smoothness.
― Matt DC, Monday, 1 August 2011 09:39 (1 year ago) Permalink
Matt gets me. Definitely true of african pop and a lot of funky.
― Tim F, Monday, 1 August 2011 09:47 (1 year ago) Permalink
http://soundcloud.com/adiah/adiah-junkanoo-firemp3
desloc h8rs, your time
― r|t|c, Wednesday, 28 September 2011 09:13 (1 year ago) Permalink
:)
though tbh i didn't want desloc removed completely and kinda miss him now he's gone
― lex pretend, Wednesday, 28 September 2011 09:20 (1 year ago) Permalink
This is pretty patently inferior to the original version.
― Ford Cumlord (The Reverend), Wednesday, 28 September 2011 09:35 (1 year ago) Permalink
― Matt DC, Monday, 1 August 2011 09:39 (1 month ago)
― Matt DC, Wednesday, 28 September 2011 11:22 (1 year ago) Permalink
Wait - does this mean that Drums is no longer the actual song? Or no longer getting a release?
― Somewhere between Fergie and Jesus (Alex in Montreal), Wednesday, 28 September 2011 14:09 (1 year ago) Permalink
i'm not sure how 'official' "drumz" was in the first place -- i don't think it's adiah's song
but i heard the desloc version on the radio all summer, so i'm sure this is just a re-work or w/e
― yung huma (J0rdan S.), Thursday, 29 September 2011 04:57 (1 year ago) Permalink
but yeah the desloc version is far superior
― yung huma (J0rdan S.), Thursday, 29 September 2011 04:58 (1 year ago) Permalink
this is cool tho... clearly she's not very developed as a songwriter tho
― yung huma (J0rdan S.), Thursday, 29 September 2011 04:59 (1 year ago) Permalink
this is amazing
― I am that young sis, the beacon, a yardstick (dayo), Friday, 20 January 2012 00:17 (1 year ago) Permalink
thank god I ended up on j0rd's P&J ballot and googled this
(((d-_-b)))
― I am that young sis, the beacon, a yardstick (dayo), Friday, 20 January 2012 00:35 (1 year ago) Permalink
my song of the year :D
― The Reverend, Friday, 20 January 2012 06:30 (1 year ago) Permalink
Not song of the year, but def. up there for me.
― Somewhere between Fergie and Jesus (Alex in Montreal), Friday, 20 January 2012 07:17 (1 year ago) Permalink
i'm so happy that some of y'all latched on to this
― tyga mother (J0rdan S.), Friday, 20 January 2012 16:57 (1 year ago) Permalink
i think it could be a dark horse top 20 :o
― The Reverend, Friday, 20 January 2012 19:36 (1 year ago) Permalink
I really hope so.
Ideally that and the DJ Joker/Sabrina track and maybe the Seany Mac, but the only one I think is a lock on the poll is Desloc/Adiah.
― Somewhere between Fergie and Jesus (Alex in Montreal), Friday, 20 January 2012 19:40 (1 year ago) Permalink
What were the other big 'ILM-only' hits this year?
wait, i thought seany mac wasn't even 2011???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
― tyga mother (J0rdan S.), Friday, 20 January 2012 19:41 (1 year ago) Permalink
that for real would've been my #1 on pazz & jop
what's this seany mac song?
― I am that young sis, the beacon, a yardstick (dayo), Friday, 20 January 2012 19:43 (1 year ago) Permalink
Seany Mac isn't 2011. It's 2009/2010. But because none of us new it existed until it showed up on those two mixes in 2011, I rationalized using it for ILM.
Not for Pazz & Jop
― Somewhere between Fergie and Jesus (Alex in Montreal), Friday, 20 January 2012 20:01 (1 year ago) Permalink
It's from 2009 insofar as we have a date on YouTube, but there's no video, no promotion, no release, no writing about it until 2011.
At which point it appears in mixes by How to Dress Well and Physical Therapy and gets written up in FADER and ILM and a couple other places.
\(oo)/
― Somewhere between Fergie and Jesus (Alex in Montreal), Friday, 20 January 2012 20:02 (1 year ago) Permalink
alright, that's cool
i put it #1 on my ilx ballot
― tyga mother (J0rdan S.), Friday, 20 January 2012 20:10 (1 year ago) Permalink
what's the seany mac track?
there was some seany mac track i really liked from back then too
― I Love Pedantry (D-40), Friday, 20 January 2012 23:50 (1 year ago) Permalink
THIS ONE
it is... so good
― teledyldonix, Saturday, 21 January 2012 08:59 (1 year ago) Permalink
I need r|t|c to verify my sense that zippy organ tunes along the lines of "One Of Those Days" are massive (again) at the moment in the bassline scene. So many amazing tunes floating around - all conveniently titled "Organ Mix" or even just "Organ" as if it's a style.
― Tim F, Saturday, 21 January 2012 10:49 (1 year ago) Permalink
alright who's got a HQ version of that seany mac song??
― I am that young sis, the beacon, a yardstick (dayo), Saturday, 21 January 2012 12:25 (1 year ago) Permalink
I have it at 320 kbps.
― Somewhere between Fergie and Jesus (Alex in Montreal), Saturday, 21 January 2012 16:14 (1 year ago) Permalink
Probably the more appropriate thread for this discussion because Drumz is the other best ILM track of the year and it deserves to have its thread to itself.
― Somewhere between Fergie and Jesus (Alex in Montreal), Saturday, 21 January 2012 16:17 (1 year ago) Permalink
soooooo good
http://soundcloud.com/adiah/no-one-adiah
― The Reverend, Thursday, 10 May 2012 09:09 (1 year ago) Permalink
I approve!
Also, I just discovered she wears braces. <3
― Johnny Fever, Thursday, 10 May 2012 14:50 (1 year ago) Permalink
awesome, thank u rev
― J0rdan S., Thursday, 10 May 2012 16:32 (1 year ago) Permalink
yes, this is a+ awesome.
― twinkin' and drinkin' and ready to fly (Alex in Montreal), Saturday, 12 May 2012 15:49 (1 year ago) Permalink
cosign this
― liberté, égalité, beyoncé (lex pretend), Saturday, 12 May 2012 19:36 (1 year ago) Permalink
not a bad popcaan flip! good look
― chilli, Saturday, 12 May 2012 21:42 (1 year ago) Permalink
http://soundcloud.com/adiah/idgaf
― chain the color of am0n (The Reverend), Friday, 13 July 2012 06:23 (10 months ago) Permalink
apparently Adiah hit the studio with Trina today?! excited
― REV LION (The Reverend), Thursday, 2 August 2012 09:24 (9 months ago) Permalink
http://soundcloud.com/adiah/lay-down-adiah-ft-6lack-mmix2
kinda ciara-ish slow jam? feelin it
― thraeds of life (The Reverend), Monday, 5 November 2012 22:17 (6 months ago) Permalink
oooooh. this is lovely. is any of the stuff post-No One but pre-Lay Down worth checking for?
― twinkin' and drinkin' and ready to fly (Alex in Montreal), Monday, 5 November 2012 22:47 (6 months ago) Permalink
"IDGAF" is cool. You might like "Mirror Dance" but I think it's kinda thin, sounds kind of like the extended portion of "Get Me Bodied" minus the necessary je ne sais quoi.
― thraeds of life (The Reverend), Monday, 5 November 2012 23:48 (6 months ago) Permalink
I like this non-Adiah amateurish dancehall-r&b track
http://soundcloud.com/the-shye-one/nyah-jewel-thing-4-you-prod-by
the rap is maybe a bit extra tho
― The Reverend, Saturday, 26 January 2013 03:48 (3 months ago) Permalink