Lil Jon is set to release his first solo project Nov. 24, entitled Crunk Rock. Why should anybody care? The short answer is you should not care nor pay it any attention, yet people will. Maybe even a lot of people, which makes me curious.
Somehow, Lil Jon has become a musically extreme character that has been undeniably influential in our culture, as our musical trends are affected by our social and cultural trends and vice versa. Surprisingly, his cultural significance, mostly stemming from ""Get Low,"" can be viewed as a positive force. Even still, those superficial social positives coming from his music only nurture an increased spread of the underlying social detriments.
His influence is not only proven by cultural references to his signature work (""Chappelle's Show,"" Chris Rock), but it's more positively significant on specific social levels. Despite misogynistic and graphic lyrics, for some reason most girls can dance wildly to this song and yell the simple chorus repeatedly without a second thought. Better yet, those lyrics are just misogynistic and graphic enough for most guys to be comfortable openly nodding to the beat. Yes, the song can be a gender unifier for our generation and provide harmony among most peers of differing race and genders, especially just before bar time when everybody is too drunk to care exactly what is providing that danceable beat.
Yet, the unifying qualities the song provides at times cannot drown the ideals that float just below its superficial surface. Even more disconcerting, the detriments come from the very same ignorantly misogynistic and graphic content that seemingly brings our age group together.
The biggest offense: ""Get Low."" It is one of the most ridiculous and successful singles of the decade. I mean, what the hell? Does anybody ever pay attention to the lyrics? Not just the dirty stuff, but the not-so-subtly nonsensical verses, including lines like, ""She getting crunk in the club, I mean, she work."" Wait, maybe he's just setting up a killer couplet, following it up with, ""Then I like to see the female twerking taking the clothes off buckey naked."" Nope, those don't make sense.
What does it say about us that some of the most unaware, ineffectual music ever produced is a unifier for our generation? And let's not forget the man himself.
He was one of the biggest jokes in music both metaphorically and literally through ""Chappelle's Show,"" which just so happens to be the third sentence of his Wikipedia page. And if you're thinking of questioning his musical integrity, just scroll down the same page to look at his album titles. Six out of the eight albums he's released contain the word ""crunk,"" one of them being Get Crunk, Who U Wit: Da Album... sigh.
Yet whether or not you're OK with his songs, you cannot deny his ability to impact our culture. How is it possible our society has become accepting of such music and artists? And what's more, apparently the broader music world is accepting of artists who use their musical influence to endorse their own CRUNK!!! energy drinks and subconsciously spread immoral social ideals. Although pop music has a history of encouraging controversial conduct, ignorance is not supposed to be a prominent part of that artistic message. And until the general listening public realizes this and shuns it in all of its undeniably catchy pop formats, music snobs and attentive listeners everywhere will continue their self-righteous quest to simply know better than to give in to that undercutting message.
If shorty's crunk, so fresh, so clean, does that mean she should put her ass on Justin? Let him know what you think about all crunk-related issues at jstephani@wisc.edu.
