Knock It Off With the Hey! Hey! Hey!

It’s been an interesting summer for music. Well, not the actual music, but the other stuff going on with music. This might be the summer of the Jay Z/Beyonce Tour, or maybe Iggy Azalea, or possibly Robin Thicke becoming less cool than Alan Thicke, but to me, this is really the summer of HEY! HEY! HEY! And it’s fucking obnoxious.

A quick aside: Over a month ago, I read an article about how the Jay Z/Beyonce tour tickets were not selling well, and then boom! Marital trouble. What a coincidence!

Anyway, back to these darn Hey! Hey! Heys. If you listen to just about any Hip Hop/R&B song lately, you’ve undoubtedly heard them. Every beat features what sounds like a chorus of tough guys chanting Hey! Hey! Hey! in the background. It is driving me insane. But I asked my friend who loves Hip Hop if he was equally offended, and he didn’t know what the hell I was talking about!

I don’t even understand how this is possible. I can’t not hear it. And it’s everywhere. No, seriously. It’s unavoidable. But don’t take my word for it, listen for yourselves…

This first song – Kid Ink’s “Main Chick” – is the best example for my purposes here because the Heys start at the beginning and continue throughout, like a constant jackhammer to the brain.

But I first noticed it on this song by YG, “Who Do You Love”. Not so coincidentally, DJ Mustard produced YG’s whole album, and Mustard is the inventor of what he calls “Ratchet Music” (sorta like a poor man’s G Funk). So this whole thing is his invention. DJ Mustard is the Osama Bin Laden of Hey! Hey! Hey!

And sadly, much like the Ebola virus, it has infected every other song that has come out since. You may have heard this before, it’s called “Fancy” by Iggy Azalea.

Tinashe “2 On”

Trey Songz “NaNa”

August Alsina “Numb”

Jeremih “Don’t Tell Em”

And I could go on and on and on. It’s fricking everywhere. And I’m the only one upset about this!

I don’t understand how this is okay. This is like Dr. Dre going, “Hmmm, I had some success with ‘Nothin But a G Thing’, I think I’ll just make every song that. Don’t you have to use different beats? Michael Jackson didn’t make 50 songs with Vincent Price in the breakdown! Plagiarizing is bad, but plagiarizing yourself isn’t any better.

So, hey! Hey! Hey! Knock it off.

 

FYI: Here’s some other shit I’m listening to:

Lil’ Wayne featuring Drake “Believe Me”

Chris Brown featuring Usher and Rick Ross “New Flame”

NeYo featuring Jeezy “Money Can’t Buy”

Kid Ink “Show Me”