Tag: Dappy

Cover Drive feat. Dappy – Explode

“Now now, don’t be so negative.”

Tom: I assume, sometimes incorrectly, that any track with Dappy on it is going to be bad. It’s the hats, the look, and the name that sounds like a reject from the Seven Dwarves.

Tim: Now now, don’t be so negative. We liked Rockstar, and I quite liked No Regrets. Although there is his current track Come With Me, which I’m not even going to link to, and you’re right, he is a bit of a tit, so we’ll see.

Tom: And despite not particularly rating Cover Drive’s number 1 from earlier in the year, I’m willing to give this a chance.

Tom: …well, consider that chance blown.

Tim: Hmm…yeah.

Tom: It’s not a bad track, by any means – Cover Drive’s section is pretty damn good, for my money, and it’s a decent fusion of Barbadian music and regular pop that manages to somehow steer clear of sounding too much like Peter Andre.

Tim: I can sort of agree with that – can’t really get with it myself but okay.

Tom: But then Dappy comes back in. He’s back to stereotypical form rather than the quite-clever, decent-singer that we heard in Rockstar. It’s over quite quickly, I suppose, but that’s small comfort. Without him, it’d be a decent track: but with him, man, I don’t want to hear this again.

Tim: I’ll pass it throughout, but you’re right – he does lower the tone. But maybe he has good periods and bad periods – this is a low, but six months from now he might be vaguely good. Possibly.

Dappy feat. Brian May – Rockstar

Actually a very good track.

Tom: No, you read that right. Featuring Brian May. What’s even more surprising? This is actually a very good track.

Tim: Well bugger me.

Tom: Blatant use of drugs in the video as well, which would mark it as a very British track even if it wasn’t for the I’m A Celebrity reference in there. There’s no way that’d fly in a mainstream US video.

I have an enormous amount of respect for Brian May. I don’t need to run through his achievements in either music or astrophysics. My question isn’t “why is he slumming it with Dappy” because he’s blatantly not slumming it: this is an absolutely amazing bit of pop music. And no, I didn’t think I’d be saying that.

Tim: It is. Weirdly (actually, probably not weirdly) I’d never thought of Dappy as someone who actually sang – just a hip-hiop rapper who called himself a singer. But here he is, doing just that, and it sounds good.

Tom: Here’s my question: why is Brian May so criminally underused on this track? It’s a full three minutes before you even start to hear that trademark guitar sound. Sure, he might be noodling about in the earlier bits, but unless you’ve got that precise combination of effects that say “THIS IS A ROCK GOD, SHUT UP AND PAY ATTENTION” – the ones you heard when he smashed the grand finale at Reading Festival last year – who’s going to know it?

Tim: Best guess? If he was on there more he’d outshine Dappy just by being him and Dappy being Dappy (bloody hell that’s a a stupid name – how have I not noticed it before?), and Brian May fans would be all over it saying who’s this stupid bloke singing?

Dappy – No Regrets

Amazing track. Terrible lyrics.

Tom: Hang on. Is he actually singing on this? There’s no “featuring” on those opening ‘woah’s.

Tim: I’m a bit disappointed he’s dropped his trademark ‘na-na-nai’. Not because it was good or anything – it was awful – but it did serve to warn you what you were getting into.

Tom: Amazing track. Terrible lyrics. You’re not Kurt Cobain, Dappy. And did you just sympathise with Chris Brown? And name-drop Marty McFly? And quote “if I die before I wake”? And claim to be Richard Branson? And quote the Italian Job? And Oasis?

Tim: Two things: firstly, the line is “Call me Gallagher, ’cause I’m so shameless”, so I don’t think he’s referencing Oasis.

Tom: Oh, he is, because there’s a snip of an Oasis track being sampled just before it. That’s… that’s actually clever. Okay, I’ll let that one slip.

Tim: And secondly, if just those got you worked up, it’s probably a good thing you seem not to have noticed the remarkably dodgy Prince William line: “I’m a prince, yes I will get the crown/Kate stays in my dungeon when her sister’s round.”

Tom: Simply put: I want an instrumental of this, because his entirely unjustified references are really, really angering me. Which is a pity – because I like the music.

Tim: Well, that’s not stopped you liking a track before. And also, I was going to defend this by saying it fit with the idea of song and what it was all about, just because seeing you worked up like this is quite fun, but I’ve looked at the lyrics and I have no idea what he’s really on about.

Tom: That piano middle eight is lovely, the choruses are brilliant – particularly that final one with the unexpected key change! Dappy, on the other hand… well, what a shame.

Tim: That key change, combined with that Prince William line, leaves me with one final thought: I LOVE THIS TRACK.

Tom: Really?

Tim: No.

Tom: Thought so.

Tinchy Stryder feat. Dappy – Spaceship

“This is going to be hilarious.”

Tim: What.

Tom: First thought when I saw the title and artist? “This is going to be hilarious.”

Tom: One man whose name sounds like a reject from War of the Worlds. One man who wears a ridiculous hat. And their music video is like ‘I’m On A Boat‘, only serious. Guys: the Lonely Island are making fun of you. It’s not something to emulate.

Tim: But…but…where’s the na-na-nai? There are a few na-nas, sure but THIS ISN’T A DAPPY SONG WITHOUT IT.

Tom: I should probably be a bit less sarcastic, because there is genuine talent here. It’s well produced, the backing’s good, and both of them can rap. But when the entire song is “look how rich we are, come worship us”… well, it does tend to make you see them is a less favourable light.

Tim: I’ve got a fair amount of codeine in me as I’m writing this, which may affect my judgement, but: I actually quite like the chorus. There I’ve said it. Now mock me.