Every now and then MTV does a "news" feature on an up-and-coming artist with "You Heard It Here First." Typically, you can spot whatever the next musical trend is that is going to be forced upon us by watching these features, as they are little more than commercials for whatever the major music labels want to promote. Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson, Fall Out Boy, Pussycat Dolls and Dem Franchize Boys are just a few of the artists that have been spotlighted on You Heard It Here First. From time to time, they actually take a chance and focus on an original artist with real talent that is not on a major label. More often than not, you never hear from those artists again.
One of those artists that I remember MTV doing a feature on a few years ago was Thicke. My memory is hazy -- it was at least 5 years ago -- but the thing that sticks out is that Thicke was determined to succeed in the music industry without relying on help from his father, Alan Thicke, who played the role of the father in Growing Pains. At the time, he had long hair and a scruffy beard and looked like a member of Blind Melon. Soon after, he appeared in a Sprite commercial. Things were looking up for Thicke, but his debut album did not do as well as expected. While it was critically acclaimed, it sold under 60,000 copies despite gaining some buzz with the Beethoven-sampling single When I Get You Alone.
I had not heard anything from Thicke after that until late last year when he signed with Star Trak. A Hype Williams video was put out for a single that Thicke, now without the long hair, did with Pharrell (you can see a live version of it here). After that, there was the unlikely pairing with Lil Wayne, on The Carter 2. It seems like everything is falling into place now for Thicke, who's first album under the Star Trak label is coming out soon.
Here is a live version of the song Oh Shooter, featuring Robin Thicke and Lil Wayne, from the Jay Leno show earlier this year. Oh Shooter was originally on Thicke's first album, Beautiful World (the album was first named Cherry Blue Skies and then renamed after its rerelease). Weezy heard the album, became a big fan and asked Thicke to do a second version of the song which appeared on The Carter 2. They recently shot a video for the song, which no doubt will be getting tons of play on MTV sometime soon. Weezy describes the video as an update to the classic Run DMC/Aerosmith collabo on Walk This Way.
Robin Thicke's website says his second album is coming out on August 1st, while Amazon has it listed as September 12th. You can pick up his debut album, Beautiful World, which includes the original version of Oh Shooter here. While the rest of the album is a bit different than Oh Shooter -- a lot of reviewers compare it to a Jamiroquai album -- if you're into R&B/Soul its a solid album worth picking up. I suspect that the second album, under the Star Trak label and presumably produced by the Neptunes, will be more radio-friendly and will end up moving a lot more units than the 59,000 in sales the first album rang up.
And if you don't already have it, go get The Carter 2. One of the best albums to come out in the past year.
On another note, check out the infamous Pixie episode from the Chappelle Show. This is apparently the skit that caused Dave Chappelle to go on a sabbatical in South Africa. I sort of see Dave's point, that the show was doing more to reinforce stereotypes than combat them, but I still laughed. No way would I turn my back on $50 million over that skit.
7/18/2006 8:56:01 AM posted by Fresh
Comments:
Yeah, I can appreciate what you guys are saying. But personally I think there is a big difference between, and a lot more damage done by, the straightup minstrelsy of the Ying Yang twins (from the MTV cribs clip used in the pixie skit) and the parodies of chappelle. I may be giving the audience too much credit in being able to recognize what is parody and what isn't, though.
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