Saturday, April 5, 2014

Pizza-Shell Game (or What Up, Dough?)

SID
3/24/2014

At the time of this writing…

Last night I watched a DVR'd replay of Aloe Blacc on the American version of NBC's hit The Voice. Aloe Blacc was serving as an assistant coach for "head-coach" Usher. As fate would have it, the song that the battling contestants were to sing for that night’s episode's head-to-head competition just so happened to be Blacc's "I'm the Man". What are the odds? More on this later. Providing a story of encouragement on the face of high criticism, Aloe discussed how he came about writing the hit song. He said that after Dr. Dre had slammed his songs, he  "…went home and wrote 'I'm the Man.'"—SSKIRRRRRRCHHHH!!!!! [cue tire screech]. WROTE?!? "…I'm the Man"?

For months I have heard this song playing as bumper music on one of my favorite television sports shows…ESPN's First Take as it was going to commercial. For those who're not familiar with the phrase bumper music, it's the 10 to 20 sec bit of music that's used to transition into and out of the commercials. As such, I would hear just the chorus of the song in question. For those who haven't heard it, the song sounds exactly like Elton John and Bernie Taupin's (ironically titled) "Your Song"