fripodding and financing: mo money mo problems – notorious b.i.g.

I lied a little bit. This wasn’t going to be today’s friDay friPod pick. I think I’ll save it for next week so I can analyze it a little more and give you a real breakdown of what I think about that pick.

Anyway, today’s pick is what we can consider a throwback track. At the time, it was fresh, it was hot, and all about the money. It was Bad Boy. And they don’t stop. And the music video was nothing to sneeze at either. It’s still one of my favorite videos and songs of all time. I can’t help that I’m a sucker for colorful entertainment with a catchy party song. I would embed the video here, but I don’t want to get in trouble so just follow the link to YouTube before/after/while you read this.

But let’s talk about the song first. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure a good majority of the kids I grew up with could probably sing the entire song today as soon as they heard the very first second of the intro. I know this because back when it was new and it played in class, everyone sang/rapped along. Especially when it came to Biggie’s verse. For the record, just to get it out there, the song sampled is Diana Ross’ “I’m Coming Out” which is a very hot song on it’s own right. Here, it is covered by Kelly Price.

The title pretty much states what the song is about, or supposedly what it’s about. “The more money you make, the more problems you get.” To be honest, I never looked too deep into the lyrics because I was just enjoying the music and the beats. However I almost want to agree with Puff, er, um, Diddy that “ten years from now [they’ll] still be on top” is kinda true. The song came out in ’97 and here it is ’09. Diddy and Biggie are certainly not forgotten. Notorious is now on DVD and Puff is still a big player in music and TV. But you’d think a song that is 12 years old might be $0.99 on iTunes but NO! That’s okay, I found one anyway.

But back to the video… I didn’t buy it for iSaac to play… yet. But it’s certainly one I’d collect. The song is definitely one to blast at a party (like one I recently attended, and it brought back so many memories that we played it twice). But the video… I never really understood the sets… with the dancers in white… and all the explosions behind them (and Puff and Mase). And the shiny suits. But do you really need a reason for the sake of art? I much prefer videos of this nature than the rump-shaking, look-at-my-rented-car and flashy jewelry videos that followed. And yeah, a few of those are classics too.

But there’s one dude in this video that always stands out to me. He can be spotted at 4:14 and 4:42 with the corn rows. It’s just something about the look on his face and the way he is dancing. I won’t lie, I’m sure I’d be doing something just as foolish if not worse… but not in front of recording cameras. I’m still stuck on the now infamous “dance” moves from both Puff and Mase, way before the Harlem Shake days. Regardless, it’s still a classic and I love every minute of it including the little golf part in the beginning.