It's Akademik!

I think it’s funny when artists (who decide to target mass appeal rather than keep their music intellectual) use SAT words in their lyrics. Unless you’re Talib Kweli et al., you have no right to be throwing polysyllabic prose out there, coupled with a beat produced by Scott Storch. It just doesn’t fit. That’s like taking medical advice from a hillbilly, or voting for Sarah Palin. And yet, I’ve been noticing this trend more and more in popular music.
Let me give you an example, in Cassie’s song “Unofficial Girl”, she speaks to her pseudo-boyfriend about making her his, well, official girl. Here’s a lyric from Cassie’s song: “I’m not making ultimatums/ I’ma tell you like this verbatim.” Wow. Ladies and gentlemen, stop paying those expensive tutors and turn on the radio. We’ve got some quality literature right in your car stereo. Another artist notorious for over-stepping her boundary of intellect is Mariah Carey. Mariah has been known to use high quality verbiage like “inevitably,” “blatantly,” “reluctantly,” “nonchalant,” “guise.” Of course, I’m disregarding the fact that these artists probably aren’t writing their own lyrics, but nevertheless. It is the responsibility of management to define the target audience and direction. Just ask Lupe. He didn’t “Dumb it Down,” and he made that very clear. He’s not just throwing in aimless terminology like “hydroponic coughing”; this guy actually knows what that means.
In summation, am I mad about the educational efforts made by today’s popular culture? Not really. I’m just mad at the façade. It’s also pretty entertaining.