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New John Mellencamp Album Unveiled with Fancy New T-Bone Burnett-developed High-Def Process
by Randall Roberts
May 16, 2008 7:00 AM
It's going to take a lot for me to forgive John Mellencamp for 2007 and that the whole Ford Chevrolet commercial nightmare. While it's true that maybe I was watching too much TV that year, that god damned “Our Country” song, which I hesitate to say out loud because it'll likely spark an earworm that will repeat in my head for the next week, ruined my life. It haunted me, made me feel schizophrenic, as though I had no control over my brain. That line, “This is our country,” repeated ad infinitum like a taunt and a stab. But you know that, because it ruined your year, too. Over and over again it came on TV and radio, seeped from passing cars and seemingly out of every gas station loudspeaker in Our Country.
That song, and that moment in history, still irks me, and not just because I drive a girly-man Volvo and not a domestic truck. It felt like a Big Brother thing, and revealed to me a truth that, given enough money/blanket access to media, a corporation, if so inclined, can pound a song into America's collective skull at will, can control our internal stereo with sheer ad-buying power. It wasn’t even the sentiment, either, that bugged me. It’s kind of a protest song, in a neutral kind of way. But still, it felt like some sort of assault. It hurt most because I actually like the Cougar, and think he's written some decent, earnest songs.
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Sometime after 50 arrived, the art of the narrative wandered into a blizzard of coke raps, artificial hood mythologizing and pandering simplicity. Complexity no longer moved units, and with sales sliding, Scarface xeroxes and ringtone rappers became the safe bets. You can't blame the suits either. They're just trying to save their jobs and besides, Young Jeezy went platinum, Rick Ross nearly did, and Mims, The Shop Boyz and Soulja Boy had the most popular singles of 07.
Of course, hip-hop isn't dead, but it's hard not to deny that over the last decade, the major label system has done an abysmal job of putting on talented young rappers. Outkast know this. Their latest song leaked from DJ Drama's upcoming Gangsta Grillz album is called "The Art of Storytelling, Part 4" and from the title alone, you knew it was going to be special, considering the first 2 are vital organs of Aquemini, with Volume 3, a remix aided by Slick Rick, arguably the greatest storyteller of them all. On the surface level, it's easy autobiography, Andre kicking a stream-of-consciousness rant about groupies. Big Boi playing Outkast's id, offering menacing backhands and boasts about the hierarchy of his harem. But that's just the frame.
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