by Erykah Badu: After years of wondering when this musical genius would grace the world with her uniqueness again, we were recently rewarded with her new track titled Window Seat. The single is Erykah at her finest: soul, flow, and smoothness. I immediately knew I would play it on repeat. I L-O-V-E this song! When I saw her video for the track this weekend, I was shocked and didn’t really know what to think.
First, I was confused. The video has nothing to do with the song! At what point does an artist say I want to walk down the street naked for my video? I don’t get it…well actually I do get it because her new album, New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh), comes out tomorrow. So, the video could clearly be seen as a marketing stunt.
Yet, the video has such a deeper meaning. This is creativity with lyrical and visual expression. So many would automatically stereotype Erykah for her actions in the video (including myself), which is the whole point of the video. Towards the end of the video, she is shot and falls near the same grassy hill where President Kennedy was shot in 1963. The words “groupthink” can be seen leaking from her head onto the sidewalk and in an overlay you hear:
“They who play it safe, are quick to assassinate what they don’t understand. They move in packs, ingesting more and more fear with every act of hate on one another. They feel more comfortable in groups, less guilt to swallow. They are us. This is what we have become, afraid to respect the individual. A single person within a circumstance can move one to change. To love ourself. To evolve.“
Enough said.
P.S. Even though the purpose of the video was to generate “groupthink” or encourage change, I question whether this video will really cause a positive movement to promote individualism. It takes a woman stripping down to her natural state for such a conversation to begin. It will take so much more for the movement to occur.
I’ve said for months now that Trey’s social media strategy is on point! Whoever provides his back end strategy and comes up with his non-traditional/traditional marketing tactics gets two thumbs up from me. Take yesterday for example:
First, Ludacris premiers his new single Sex Room featuring Trey Songz. The brilliance behind the release was the only place you could listen to the track was on Global Grind. I tried to YouTube the track and I found it. I tell you – by the time I listened to the track and copy/pasted the link to send it to my friend, UMG had pulled it down. When my friend told me she couldn’t listen to it, I thought she was joking. UMG must have had numerous detectives or insiders at YouTube monitoring to make sure people were not leaking the record too soon!
Instead, the track went viral instantly after Jo Jo (@YoungSimmons), the editor of Global Grind, sent a tweet that the track was available on Global Grind. Trey’s thousands of groupie girls went bananas and sent RTs informing their followers of the new single. I, personally, sent a tweet because I LOVE the track. It’s triple X-rated, but it’s the bomb diggity! I’ve had it on repeat for the last 24 hours.
Sex Room was a solo hit until…Trey premiered his video for Neighbors Know My Name, which is like his sixth edition of soft porn. The release of this video was brilliant too – although very weird. I’m not sure why, but the video premiered on Power 105.1 fm . I’ve never heard of that radio station before a day in my life and the website of the radio station had exclusive access to Trey’s video for a full day. Then, he uploaded the video on YouTube today. If you didn’t know the video premiered, there was no way you could miss it! On the homepage of YouTube.com, Neighbors Know My Name is the first video listed on the Videos Being Watched.
Trey is getting far more publicity than other artists I know, and the good thing is it’s all safe pub. You haven’t seen him robbing anybody, jumping anybody in the club, or engaging in illegal behavior. If you don’t like Trey, I feel sorry for you because 1. you aren’t the norm and 2. it doesn’t look like Trey is going anywhere!
