Let’s discuss any and all music here. You’ve got a new artist who’s rocking your boat that you want to talk about? Post a video! Found out about that unearthed Coltrane album that has the jazz freak in you losing your mind? Lay it out for us! Do you have a theory about what your favorite band might do for their next album? Let’s hear it! Anything and everything music-related goes here.
This week’s discussion prompt comes courtesy of The Avocado’s very own fireindaarcade:
What is a great song on an otherwise bad album?
“Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are)” by Pras is lightning in a bottle. Repurposing the chorus of a Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton duet from the eighties for a rap song that more or less summarizes the plot of a Warren Beatty film doesn’t seem like a recipe for success, and yet it works amazingly. Strength of the hook and solid production aside, this is largely down to Pras’ collaborators: R&B singer Mýa (whose singing takes the already memorable hook and elevates it into something infectiously catchy) and the late, great Ol’ Dirty Bastard (who wasn’t even supposed to appear on the track1ODB happened to be recording in the same building in California (though ODB thought he was in New York) and mistakenly burst into the wrong studio. After hanging out for a bit and liking what he heard, ODB asked to be part of the track; Pras agreed, and after giving him a summary of the movie ODB apparently came up with his lines on the spot using his patented technique of recording one or two lines at a time, getting them played back, and then coming up with the next couple of lines until he had his verses done. and whose madcap energy more than makes up for a merely adequate performance by Pras).
“Ghetto Supastar” was a huge success in the summer of 1998;2and may or may not have been played at the end of every single all-night show by a certain college radio DJ at precisely 6:26 AM for a period spanning two years however, the album also titled Ghetto Supastar that followed was not. Released in late October of that year, Pras’ full length solo debut was a critical and commercial flop, receiving largely negative reviews and failing to make an impression on both the Hot 100 Album chart and the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart (debuting at #55 and #35 respectively, and then quickly sliding out of sight soon after).
And how bad is the album? Well first of all, it’s really bloated at 74 minutes long. And nearly ten of those minutes consist of “phone interludes” where Pras somehow roped in Aaliyah, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopez and Carly Simon to leave faux answering machine messages where they talk about how much they’d love to work with him someday. The album opens with a 90-second cover of “Hallelujah” (the gospel song, not the Cohen one)3Aside from the title track, this is for me honestly an album highlight (purely in a “this is so weird/bad it’s good” sort of way) and ends with five-minute long cover of “Amazing Grace” that includes yet another tedious “phone interlude”!
The rest of the album is largely forgettable; subsequent singles “Blue Angels” and “What’cha Wanna Do” have decent hooks, but in both cases those hooks were much better utilized in the songs they originally appeared in (“Grease” by Frankie Valli and “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?” by Culture Club, respectively). In short: no one needs to own this album – and since “Ghetto Supastar” also appeared on the soundtrack of the film it was made for, no one has to either.
That one song, though? An all-timer, for sure.
As always, any and all music-related posts are welcome. Have fun, and rock out with yr guac out!