KPOP Tuesdays: Skrillex/Diplo/GD/CL’s “Dirty Vibe”
Olivia of WangGuk
Let me begin by offering my cold, hard, personal opinion by wholly unapologetically saying that this is the WORST song and video I may have ever witnessed. Now, this is of course my own opinion, but I will explicate how I feel and why in this KPOP Tuesday.
First of all, the song itself is nothing special. The mix on it is pretty terrible and it isn’t catchy to me at all— and I realize that the song may be considered catchy by a ton of other people. That’s fine. But as far as musical creativity goes, where is it? I couldn’t find one thing about the beat, words, or structure of the song that I found the least bit interesting or stimulating. I remember a time when I actually could turn on some of Skrillex’s work and sit through it (there weren’t many examples of this, but I did have a few pieces I could enjoy at one point in time). But this? I mean, there’s nothing I can really compliment about it. The beat isn’t catchy, the mix is not creative in the least, and the theme of the song is negative, tired, and hackneyed.
Speaking of hackneyed, was this not the most uninteresting music video I’ve ever laid eyes on? Yes. Yes, I dare say it was. It was awful. For way more than one reason. This whole club-kid-from-the-90s-goes-modern-day-occult-grunge theme is so over. I’m done with it. I don’t want to see it anymore. If you’re an artist and you want to make it in the industry, show the public something they haven’t already seen a thousand-and-one times. This stupid theme with all its occult triangles, slimy eyeballs, trill this and trill that, yin yangs, butterflies, aliens— it needs to end. Or at least just leave it alone for a while, and if you’re going to make a new song, have it be just that— SOMETHING NEW. I’m so sick of seeing the same theme used over and over; it just isn’t interesting anymore and it isn’t pushing any boundaries.
I also have to say that if this was supposed to be some big great break-through moment for CL and GD to couple with Diplo and Skrillex for a multi-cultural, multi-musical collaboration, boy was this an opportunity blown. I love the fact that more and more artists are trying to break into other cultures’ music industries— what a fantastic way to share culture! But this song illustrates the perfect way to not do that successfully. It’s disappointing only because I know CL and GD are capable of way better work than this. It’s honestly very shocking to me that they put this out and were okay with it. Number one, the lyrics are so unoriginal. I mean good gravy, how many times have we heard the I’m-a-bad-girl/boy-and-everybody’s-so-jealous-of-me crap? It isn’t necessary anymore. We understand: you’re some big famous rich celebrity who loves to rap about how great you are. After a while, it just gets old. And at a point, when must we say, “Okay, well…what else ya got?” It’s ridiculous to me that we can’t put the rap on a mainstream public pedestal which actually deserves to be there. The rap in this song is worthy of no such pedestal— no such anything even close to that.
There’s also the issue of GD spitting “mother-fucker” out all over the place needlessly, while a posse of awkward, confused-looking children trail him, copying his weird unattractive gimp-gait. I’m sorry but WHAT? Call me old-fashioned, but since when is it okay to spray “mother-fucker” all over some kids who are grossly clad in matching clothing to some person they don’t even know? That part really bothered me. Not only was it unnecessary and stupid, but we’ve seen it before— hello GD’s “One of a Kind” video; same deal. Little kid dressed up just like him copying his every move. Besides being kind of creepy, has GD really no more ideas? And finally, we have CL. CL, who is only slightly better-attired than the other women in this video. This is only because she is attired at all. The other women sport neon underwear while fawning over GD and his not-so-impressive rap. Speaking of unimpressive raps, oh CL, why? Again, there was nothing good about this at all. My (fake) favorite part was her “talk shit with the prettiest lips, blow a kiss, kick a hole in your speaker then split.” No explanation necessary. Let me say that I’ve never been truly impressed with CL’s rapping from day one, but this is horrible. It isn’t even rapping; to me, it’s an insult to real rap.
So needless, to say, I was beyond disappointed with this collaboration (if that’s what we’re even calling this; it really just sounds like four people made four different equally awful songs and smashed them together and let them play over each other). I really expected more out of at least GD. After “Baddest Female,” I learnt not to expect too much out of CL, but GD can do so much better and I know it. After “Crooked” and “니가 뭔데,” I really looked forward to the direction GD was moving in as an artist, and this song was just so disappointing. I hope in the very near future both GD and CL get their acts together and produce something that’s at least worthy of the time it took just to critique this.
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