Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Wow Cash Rules Everything Around Me: Snoop Dogg Remixes 'I Walk the Line'
Posted by Steve Haruch on Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 11:35 AM
I like Snoop Dogg as much as the next guy. Unless the next guy is 50 Cent, in which case I like Snoop Dogg a lot more than I like the next guy. What's not to like about a really tall dude who gets incredibly baked all the time, golfs with Lee Iococca in commercials for whatever that was a commercial for and hosts Girls Gone Wild?
Now imagine: Snoop Dogg is kicking it in Hendersonville. He's at Cash Recording Cabin with the original tracks to Johnny Cash's "I Walk the Line," licensed from Sun Records with the blessings of John Carter Cash. His QDT production team has taken the vocals and laid them over a generic-sounding loop, which consists of three notes on an electric piano (not all of which agree with the vocal track) and a bunch of fake strings. And a kind of wah-wah sound, and some stuttering electronic drums. Presented with this most iconic of songs by this most iconic of performers, Snoop closes his eyes, maybe pops his Kobe Bryant jersey, maybe adjusts his headphones, and begins to ad-lib on the track.
What it do....
Yeah.
Big Snoop Dogg.
Johnny Cash!
Remix.
"Walk the Line."
Hey yo Johnny, talk to 'em for a minute....
All the time....
I gots to do it.
Tell 'em why, Johnny.
Uh, yeah. Thanks, Snoop.
My problem here is not that the new song doesn't sound like the old song. Remixing means many things to many people, and when it means transforming the original past the point of recognition, I'm fine with that--as long as the new product is compelling on its own merits. Which this just isn't. But whatever. Snoop's been phoning it in for a while now, so no surprise there. Considering that he's done a Snoopified country git-down before, though, this seems particularly lame.
You know how sometimes you look at something and totally misread it? When I looked this song up on imeem, I thought the button underneath the media player said, "Play next retarded song."
(That's actually "related" song, turns out.)
Anyway, Johnny Cash Remixed comes out Jan. 27 on Compadre Records. Other remixers include Philip Steir, Sonny J, Pete Rock, Alabama 3, Kennedy, Institute of Sound/MIS and Count de Money.
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