Posts tagged NWA

Cover: Nina Gordon does N.W.A.

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3 years ago
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Nina Gordon

Is there some unknown credibility to be found in indie artists covering gangsta rap songs? Ben Folds put out a version of Bitches Ain’t Shit a while ago, and there are probably others at it too. Here we have covering N.W.A.’s Straight Outta Compton. Now, I know nothing about Nina Gordon beyond the fact that she used to be the lead singer in , a band I’ve never listened to. I don’t know much about N.W.A. either for that matter. A good blogalist would probably try and learn something about these things to offer up some insightful commentary. Not me. I will however point out that I absolutely love this idea of adapting rap songs into other genres, in this case turning it into a gentle girl and an acoustic guitar combination. If you weren’t paying attention, you wouldn’t even realise she’s singing about capping motherfuckers with an AK-47.

More covers

1
5 years ago
in ,

I’ve been dealing with server and domain related issues for a large part of this evening, so tonights scheduled post on Holiday With Maggie has been postponed for a day or two in favour of something wholly simpler. It’s time for another batch of covers. I know it was only a mere nine days ago that I put up a batch, but I’ve got so many of the damn things, and a ton of them are awesome. Regular service will resume again tomorrow, but for now, enjoy this not in the least bit thrown together in five minutes batch of randomness:

MP3 – Velouria (expired) ()
I’m going to commit a little musical blasphemy right now and admit that I like this version more than the original. The original Velouria is of course a fantastic song, but there’s something about this Weezer rendition that grabs me more. It just seems to have a grittier feel to it all, and that suits the nature of the song. I also think it has one of the best Rivers vocal deliveries, actually better than the vast majority of Weezer songs. It’s one of the few times where his voice actually sounds confident, and it works perfectly.

MP3 – Straight Outta Compton (expired) ()
Continuing our mini series of rap songs transformed into something completely different, we have Nina Gordon of . She somehow manages to take NWA’s defining song and turn it into a slowed down, almostly bluesy acoustic number. And sounds damn good doing it. It might be littered with profanity and incredibly violent, but when it sounds like this, it really doesn’t matter.

MP3 – Disco 2000 (expired) ()
Another cover of the “is this the same song?” variety. I’m sure that most people will be familiar with Pulp’s classic Disco 2000 (if not, why not?). You may remember it as a jangly, upbeat nostalgia trip. In the hands of Nick Cave though, it becomes a mournful, depressing song. Which is absolutely nothing against it at all as it suits Cave very well this way, and just makes me wish he’d had a go at Common People too.

MP3 – Buddy Holly (expired) (Weezer)
Finally, we have a cover version that is just downright hilarious. I’m not sure whether it is supposed to be viewed as a serious cover or not, but regardless of that, it makes me laugh an awful lot. Weezer’s Buddy Holly was already dangerously close to being novelty record territory, so what better way to cover it than to keep it almost identical to the original? With only one minor change. The lyrics are translated from English to Portugese, as Bide Ou Blade (from what I can find out) are a Brazillian band and really decided to make this their own. I have no idea how good the translation is, other than some parts obviously couldn’t be done as they remain in English, but it manages to crack me up every time. This is probably the point where I’ll find out it is actually a serious cover or something, but no matter.

That’s all for tonight. I’ll be back tomorrow with a couple of new artists posts as I’ve been discovering some really excellent stuff over the past few days. It also strikes me that I’ve been doing this for a month already. That time has gone scarily quickly.

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