Love them or hate them, Biggie Smalls’ "Hypnotize" and Rihanna’s "Umbrella" have lodged themselves firmly in whatever remains of our culture’s common ground. The idea of a skinny white Englishman combining them into a cover song doesn’t seem particularly thrilling — on the surface, that is.
Take a listen to Dan Black’s "HYPNTZ," in which Black sings Biggie’s lyrics from "Hypnotize" over the beat from Rihanna’s ubiquitous "Umbrella" and bits of audio from Jack Nitzsche’s score for the movie Starman. His heartfelt presentation evades the usual ironic "indie guy covers rap hit" shtick by seeming actually to care about what he’s singing. You can hear the homage, but also the sound of something new and potentially "hott" in the parlance of our times.
"I knew what kind of music I wanted make," said Black in a statement, "but at first I found it hardto get these conflicting desires to blend well outside of my head. I’dbeen making these weird remix/mashups for my occasional Djing, so I thought, I’ll take the method I’ve been using for that but use it forsong writing instead. The very first thing I tried was HYPNTZ."
To my ear, it’s a keeper (as always, your mileage may vary).
Black resides in Paris, and has yet to be signed. However, his publicist says that label interest has been accruing steadily as word spreads about the song. "At this point he’s basically giving everything away," she said, adding that we can expect another new track from Black in a couple weeks.
(Photo courtesy of Dan Black)
