Janelle Monae, �"Tightrope (Wondamix)†+ Big Boi, "Follow Us"
Here’s a video for a new remix of Janelle Monae’s “Tightrope.” In it, we don’t get to watch her dance quite as wonderfully as she did in the original, but even when we can’t see her feet, she moves like they’re gliding on vaseline. And whether she’s singing or rhyming or just looking at the camera, she absolutely erases anyone else on screen. That’s bad news, in this case, for rappers B.o.B. and Lupe Fiasco, who pale in her presence. Meanwhile, Monae’s mentor Big Boi has released another video for a song from his upcoming, so-far-so-totally-great solo album Sir Lucious Leftfoot: The Return of Chico Dusty.
(I try not to dwell on the heartbreaking omission of the tracks with his OutKast partner, Dre, which is not his fault.) For a moment, though, it seems like maybe “Follow Us” is Leftfoot’s first misstep-in that Georgia rock band Vonnegutt look sort of like Sugar-Ray-style doofuses, and emote a bit muchly on the chorus. (And their other music is awful.) On repeat listenings, though, it sounds less bad and more good and starts to win me over. (But then, I ended up actually kind of liking Sugar Ray’s latter-career hit “Every Morning.” So I maybe not be entirely reliable in this area.)