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A Feature for the Featured Artists
by Jo Michelmore
I love the concept of the featured artist. It’s especially great when two artists you love get together and make beautiful, beautiful sounds. Sometimes it doesn’t work out that way, actually sometimes it’s obvious someone is on someone else’s label and they both need and/or want publicity. That sucks. (Are you listening to me marketers, record company execs? If the song sucks, don’t bother, it does no one any favours.) I couldn’t write forever, so these are just a couple of my favourite songs that are nothing without the featured artist.
Jay-Z featuring Alicia Keys:
Empire State Of Mind (2009)
This is such a great song. So catchy. I saw Jay-Z live in 2010 and he was really entertaining, like an entertainer should be, not just a hip hop artist. Surprising, considering he was in a giant stadium, during daylight, supporting a mega stadium band, U2. Dues given, Jay –Z did a reasonable job. He played this song and it was one of the biggest crowd pleasers, for the crowd that was bothering to watch (that’s a problem being a support act, but that’s a whole other story). The best part of this song live? The bit the audience sung along with and danced to while negotiating the tiny stairs with hot dogs and trays of beverages on the way to their seats to wait for who they actually came to see; “These streets will make you feel brand new, big lights will inspire you, Let’s hear it for New York, New York, New York….” That’s the Alicia Keys part. That’s not Jay-Z singing that. You know what his part is? He does all the rap bits, the sometimes annoying and sometimes incomprehensible bits with sometimes slightly offensive lyrics. The bits you wish would hurry up so you could get to your sing along bit again. Yep. Think about it. Which bit is stuck in your head? Jay-Z’s first line? “I’ma up at Brooklyn, now I’m down in Tribeca….” Nope, its Alicia’s bit, isn’t it? ““New York, New York, New York….” Alicia, thanks for making an incredibly average song so darn catchy.
