Frontier Justice 16: “Featuring” is My Middle Name
By Johnny Loftus
Madonna featuring Justin Timberlake. (”4 Minutes.”) Lil Wayne featuring Static Major. (”Lollipop.”) Usher featuring Young Jeezy. (”Love in This Club.”) Jordin Sparks with Chris Brown. (”No Air.”) Flo Rida featuring T-Pain. (”Low.”) Timbaland featuring OneRepublic. (”Apologize.”) Lupe Fiasco featuring Matthew Santos. (”Superstar.”) Fall Out Boy featuring John Mayer. (”Beat It.”) Flo Rida featuring Timbaland. (”Elevator.”) Rick Ross featuring T-Pain. (”The Boss.”) 2 Pistols featuring T-Pain AND Tay Dizm. (”She Got It.”) Lil Mama featuring Chris Brown and T-Pain. (”Shawty Get Loose.”) Colby O’Donis featuring Akon. (”What You Got.”) Cherish featuring Yung Joc. (”Killa.”) Plies featuring Ne-Yo. (”Bust It Baby [Part 2].”)
There’s the list. Now, what is all that gobbledygook? It’s the 15 of the 50 singles currently slotted in the top half of the Billboard Hot 100 that are a collaborative effort between at least two, if not three acts. Tallahassee, Florida-based MC and producer T-Pain is the clear victor with four featured slots, but you can never count out Timbaland, who headlines one track, is featured on another, and both helmed and co-wrote the Madonna and JT collabo “4 Minutes.” Likeable dancer and R&B heartthrob Chris Brown is in the mix, and so is Flo Rida, speaking of T-Pain and Timbaland. And hey, don’t forget about Akon, who has apparently outsourced his “I’ll Show Up on Anything” mantra to acolytes like T and Flo, but will still make time to pimp Colby O’Donis, the latest signee to his boutique record label. (By the way, Konvict, Akon’s label, is also the original benefactor of…T-Pain.) Fall Out Boy covering Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” with John Mayer along for the ride? No comment.
Some of these artists have a proven solo track record, but mostly there’s an incestuous clamor to get the most out of the dollars spent, and to strike while the market still remembers where to put the space, dash, or apostrophe in all these people’s stage names. Props to Grandma Muscles for at least signing on with a proven team in JT and Tim; her comeback would have reeked even more of desperation had she shared a single with an MC who hadn’t even made his first vanity film project yet.
The race for relevance or at least financial solvency is what’s really going on here. Once you’ve fought, clawed, conned, or lucked your way to the top, it’s how well you parse the creative divide between “She Got It” and “What You Got” that will determine how long you receive love in this club. How do you choose? How do you figure out whether the dancefloors will want to get low, get loose, or bust it? It must be a nightmare, once you’ve gotten there. As Lupe says in “Superstar,” “Wanna believe my own hype but it’s too untrue.”
I’ll eat my hat if there’s ever another Jay-Z, another Madonna, another U2 – artists who managed through years of hard work and continued label and fan support to carve out a butt groove in the multiplatinum circle. All three acts recently signed lucrative, landmark revenue-sharing deals with Live Nation, in part because LN must realize there won’t be any more of them, either. Even John Mayer, as close to a dad market, endcap at Wal-Mart, guaranteed album sales artist as this generation gets, is now playing hired guitar to a band/pop culture entity that, last I looked, already had three guitarists.
No one from that list up above is going to sign a 360 deal with Live Nation or any other concert/lifestyle promoter, because those agreements are designed to work around a distinct, durable brand that’s stronger than Madonna’s deltoids. I don’t care how many tracks T-Pain guests on. He won’t get there. Just look at the list; his game is already too fragmented. It’s not like Madonna had to worry about guesting on Stacy Q tracks back in the day. T can however become the next Akon – start a boutique label, sign a hotbed of regional talent, blow them up with a few personal guest shots on their initial singles, then set them off into the wild world of the contemporary Billboard chart to collaborate with their own peers until the cycle repeats itself again.
And when it does, Jay-Z will still be laughing and laughing as he and B drink champagne that hasn’t been invented yet. Because he got his in the gold old days.
JTL
Tags: T-Pain, Live Nation, Jay-Z, Madonna, Justin Timberlake, Fall Out Boy, Flo Rida
One Response to “Frontier Justice 16: “Featuring” is My Middle Name”
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Sure they will, somebody on that list will sign a 360, just for a lot less money than Madge.
Live Nation is a corporation. Public companies have to evolve, grow and generate profits to survive.
Once Live Nation and its clones, the old record companies and talent agencies have tied up all the reliable draws, they’ll be forced to seek other avenues of talent. At some point, the music industry will have to develop the talent it can sell (maybe that means a network TV show, digital downloads, or concerts, but companies will try to make money off of music).
Hannah Montana is the result of Disney realizing how badly they f’d up with Britney, Justin and X-tina. They were all in the fold and they let them go just before they got interesting. Instead they take Ms Cyris and manufacture interest before the boobs come in. Don’t think the unoriginal suits aren’t thinking how to repeat that formula across different demographics.