Under the Scalpel 11.13.08: Pink, Cut Copy, Jay Z & T.I. featuring Kanye West & Lil Wayne

Posted by Mark Ingoldsby on 11.13.2008

Pink deals with divorce by inciting random violence, Cut Copy parties like it's 1989, and Jay-Z, T.I., Kanye West & Lil Wayne perform a four-way circle jerk.

"Under the Scalpel: Dissecting Pop Culture One Song at a Time" is a weekly column written by Mark Ingoldsby, songwriter and guitarist for the hard rock band A Simple Complex. For 3 free tracks that will rock your panties off, check out www.asimplecomplex.com

Pink – So What
Random Violence Soothes the Broken Hearted

Last February, Pink's marriage to motocross rider Carey Hart ended after just two years when Hart was reportedly found spending some ‘quality time' with Bianca Rajzman, Australia's "Most Beautiful International Woman."

The couple's decision to split was spun as a move "made by best friends with a huge amount of love and respect for one another," Michele Schweitzer, Pink's publicist, said following the break-up. "While the marriage is over, their friendship has never been stronger."

Pink has found an interesting way to express that love and respect publicly in her latest hit, "So What," where she announces that losing her husband has given her "a brand new attitude."

That new attitude involves starting random fights and inciting others to do the same, thereby proving life is better without him. As for that love and respect, Pink tells her ex-husband, "I don't need you … . I'm having more fun … . I'm just fine and you're a tool."

In the song's music video, Pink acts out her frustrations as she revs up a chainsaw and hacks down a tree that's been engraved with her and her ex-husband's names gouged inside a heart. Later, tipping her hat to Michael Jackson, she vandalizes a decked out sedan driven by a couple of newlyweds, at one point actually jumping on top of the car and pounding on the roof. Once the young couple has driven off, she lounges in the street, a bottle to her lips, looking after them and shaking her head with disgust – or remorse.

After the "party" dies down, Pink finally laments, "You weren't there. You never were. You want it all but that's not fair. I gave you love. I gave my all. You weren't there. You let me fall."

Not one to dwell in sadness, she quickly chokes down her heart and begins defiantly reiterating the song's chorus, "So, so what. I'm still a rock star. I've got my rock moves and I don't need you."

The music is typical Pink, upbeat and danceable with occasional blasts of guitar. The basic melody is a repetitive chant, loosely based on the familiar elementary school playground taunt, "Na, na, na-na, na."

If you believe there is such a thing as "rebellious pop rock" and love the idea that random violence is the last refuge of the damned, go ahead and crank this one up. But if listening to a psychotic ex-wife freak out over mainstream dance-rock isn't your thing, this song will leave you saying, "So what."

Cut Copy – Lights and Music
Retro Done Right

Listening to the songs that fill the Billboard's Hot 100 can be a trip down memory lane, as many of today's pop hits contain sounds borrowed from the Synth Pop explosion of the 1980s. Even pop queens Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera have made New Wave fashionable again. Their music, however, draws from New Wave's largely synthesized style only in part, also incorporating newer elements like techno, hip-hop and electronica.

The Australian pop band Cut Copy, on the other hand, presents a true modern-day synth classic, offering a smooth ride in Doc Brown's DeLorean and whisking the listener back in time with their uncontaminated 2008 retro single "Lights and Music," a song that could easily have been recorded more than 20 years ago.

A simple and danceable beat lays the foundation for the song's catchy bass line, clean guitar licks and monophonic keyboard melodies. This combination proves to be so nostalgic that the listener may be inspired to grab a neon-colored mesh shirt, load up on hair mousse, throw on a dozen jelly bracelets, and hit the club just to watch those feathered bangs bounce wildly.

Lead Singer Dan Whitford delivers a performance that would leave Tom Bailey (Thompson Twins) and Bernard Sumner (New Order) nodding in approval. Whitford's voice nails the vocal style of yesteryear dead-on with a stark, haunting tone for the bulk of the lyrics and light, melodious swells for the background fill-ins.

In the vein of classic dance numbers like "People are People" and "West End Girls," the music is upbeat yet the lyrics are melancholy. The message conveyed is that someone is filling their time with the company of others, yet they still yearn for a person who is not obtainable to them.

Dan relates, "You're holding hope open for the one making you wait… Everyone will be dismayed if your promise breaks but you'll be back again to say who you want next."

Like many New Wave hits before it, this song has very few lyrics. This makes the story more intriguing by not bloating it with unnecessary filler and allows listeners to make their own personal interpretations, leaving more to the imagination.

For those who ‘just can't get enough' of bands like Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, ABC, OMD, Erasure, and so on, Cut Copy offers this satisfying Synth Pop ditty that is sure to get any nostalgic crowd partying like it's 1989.

Jay-Z & T.I. Featuring Kanye West & Lil Wayne – Swagga Like Us
Four of today's most revered rappers pat themselves on the back

"Swagga Like Us" is the work of four award-winning rappers who felt the need to spend nearly five and a half minutes informing the world that, when they are on a street corner, nobody else walks with more confidence and arrogance. The session opens with a sample from the song "Paper Planes" by MIA.

"Kanye (West) e-mailed me back in, like, Christmas and told me he listens to 'Paper Planes' every day," Mathangi "MIA" Arulpragasam told MTV, "Kanye just took one sentence and made a whole thing out of it."

Indeed he did. The sampled lyric, "No one in the corner has swagga like us," is repeated no less than 28 times. Raps consisting of considerable bragging and congratulating of one another make these four artists' point crystal clear: No one could possibly be more cocksure.

Basically, this song is a four-way circle jerk.

The first MC to approach the microphone is Kanye West – BET's best male hip-hop artist of 2008 – who confides in his delivery, "Every time I breathe on the track I asthma attack it." Listeners may be disappointed, however, to discover that West does not have an asthma attack on this track as promised . MTV's "Hottest MC In The Game" then asks, "How it feel to wake up and be the shit and the urine?" Hopefully this is a rhetorical question.

Another winner of BET's Best Male Hip-Hop Artist award, Jay-Z, is up next to bless the microphone, literally. He claims to be God, referring to himself as "Hova," short for "J-Hova," which is an amalgamation of "Jay-Z" and "Jehovah." "Hova" shares that "He" is "dipping different rovers" (having sex with multiple partners) and "whipping with the soda" (making crack cocaine). Although these are not the activities one would normally expect of a deity, who are we to question "His" plan?

Lil Wayne, BET's 2008 lyricist of the year, is the third person to share his award-winning poetry. Perhaps feeling that having the MIA sample in the song only 28 times didn't get the point across, he boldly proclaims, "No one has swagger like these four guys."

He then informs the listener that to "make you feel special" when he shoots his gun, it is a rule to "write your name on the bullet." Here is an MC that realizes that it's the little things in life that make all the difference.

Last to rap is T.I. , BET's best male hip-hop artist of 2006 and 2007. T.I. claims to be "living revolutionary," which is something the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms can verify. The ATF arrested the rapper last year for buying illegal machine guns and silencers.

"I was walking with guns and not walking with God," T.I. later said of his arrest.

His appearance in this song shows that he has turned over a new leaf, as T.I. not only now walks, but also raps, alongside "God," who we learned earlier in the song now refers to himself as "J-Hova." With any luck, T.I. will not burn his fingers while "whipping that soda" with "Him."

With the exception of occasional dramatic pauses, the music consists of constant drum hits that simulate a standard march. Meanwhile a simple melody provided by a synthesizer, emulating the decades-old Casiotone organ sound, gives the music a dreary, holier-than-thou feel. Less the lyrics and all 28 instances of the MIA sample, the song would barely sound hip-hop. Instead it would have a very gothic and electronic quality like Portishead or Bjork's darker songs.

If listening to award-winning rappers crow about their confident stride over a goth-electronic march delights you, be sure to add this song to your collection. And if you are left still wanting more, you, my friend, are in luck. "Swagger Like Us Part 2" has already been recorded and will be featured on an upcoming Jay-Z release. Part 2, featuring Rick Ross, Young Jeezy, Andre 3000 and Nas, is sure to contain plenty of self-praise and high-fiving amongst more of today's most bigheaded rappers.