How Dirty Vibes Get Clean

189. LIL JON & THE EAST SIDE BOYZ ft/YING YANG TWINS, "Get Low"
Produced by Emperor Search, Bryan Leach, Lil Jon, Rob McDowell; written by D. Holmes, E. Jackson, S. Norris, & Jonathan Smith
TVT 2394 2002 Billboard #: 2

190. USHER, "Yeah!"
Produced by Usher Raymond; written by Chris Bridges, Sean Garrett, LaMarquis Mark Jefferson, Rob McDowell, James Phillips, Jonathan Smith, & Patrick J. Que Smith
Arista 59149 2004 Billboard: # 1

The life cycle of a pop style in just two singles.


Crunk, like gangsta before it, can present a problem for some listeners. In the best crunk singles, the vibe is slammin, but the lyrics can give you pause. Lil Jon's "Get Low" is an obvious example of this: it has a great dance groove that makes you want to get out on the floor, but its lyrics (about a trip to a strip club) can make you want to take a shower after listening. Even the trembling vocals of the East Side Boyz on some of the verses can make you feel a little shaky.

Fast forward two years, and here's Lil Jon again, this time fronting for Usher. You know: sweet, cleancut, sexy but not sleazy Usher. The poor boy's being cornered by a girl in a club. He's so cute that you've got to believe that this happens to him all the time. But this girl is something special, her power is almost hypnotic, and soon enough he's caught up in a 21st century Billie Jean scenario. None of it is his fault, you see?

The two songs, of course, have essentially the same groove, and this is how you make dirty music clean: Ludacris and Lil Jon serve as Usher's dirtyminded wingmen; Usher just plays it smooth and "Aw shucks"es his way through the song. In "Get Low," Lil Jon and his boys talk it up, but let's be serious: they're almost certainly going home alone. In this song, Usher presents himself as more acted upon than acting, but he is probably not going home alone. The earlier single is filthier and more explicit, but this song more strongly implies the possibility of actual sex, sex that the singer will probably explain away tomorrow as something that "just happened."

And then there's the whole question of where the two songs are set. "Get Low" seems to be set in a strip club, but by the end of the song there's a shoutout to all the girls on the dance floor, suggesting that the performer now thinks he's in a dance club. (The song in fact did lead to a popular line dance that pretty much corresponds to the instructions in the chorus.) "Yeah" seems to be set in a dance club, but the featured performers' interpolated guest flows sound no different than what we heard in the earlier single.

So which is worse: frankly crass objectification of women, or the smooth rationalization that explains it away? You know what? I'm not entirely sure that that's the real question. I think the real question is why everyone seems to be confusing dance clubs with strip clubs in the first place.