‘Shawty Get Loose’…and don’t come back

The 55-year-old tournament adopted as its theme song this year “Shawty Get Loose” by Lil Mama, a booty-shaking singer of barely discernible talent in tight leather pants.

Why, oh why would the tradition-bound, staid ACC adopt a hootchy song as its theme song?

Mark the calendars, lock up the kids, and throw away conventional wisdom…because StateFansNation is going to quote the insufferable Barry Saunders today without criticizing him despite the manner at which criticism so easily flows.

Saunders surprised even his own family today when he actually got one right today with his article regarding the Raycom’s use of Lil Mama’s “Shawty get loose”.

If you don’t live in the region and therefore had the pleasure of watching the ACC Tournament on ESPN as opposed to Raycom, then you didn’t see the jaw-dropping integration of ‘Shawty get loose’ in Raycom’s television coverage. I attended most of the tournament in person, but during a game that I chose to watch at home in High Definition – see, Raycom, ACC Basketball CAN be televised in HD without breaking some law or breaking your bank account – my wife was walking through the room and asked me what I was watching/listening? Honestly, I couldn’t answer.

But, as the game progressed I had the exact same feeling that Saunders described the next time I heard Mike Hogewood open his mouth:

Few things are funnier or more disturbing, though, than hearing ACC frontman Mike Hogewood say “Shawty Get Loose” when urging fans to buy the song’s ring tones “as heard on BET.”

Lastly, I give Saunders credit for connecting the obvious points to the origin of this misfit marriage – Bob Johnson. Well, that’s at least how I explained this trash to my wife this weekend when she asked what was going on.

An ACC employee said Raycom, not the ACC, was responsible for the telecasts’ music. I was unable to reach anyone at Raycom’s Charlotte office.

Here’s all you need to know, though. The tournament was held at Bobcats Arena, named for and owned by Robert “Bobcat” Johnson. Johnson, you recall, made billions from BET, glorifying the most despicable images of black people.

Under Bobcat, BET reportedly stood for Booties Every Time, and programming consisted mainly of hootchy mamas in thongs and high heels.

Please allow me to take you back to just the seventh entry ever posted on this blog in November of 2004.

Lord have mercy, how could I have forgotten how Fox Sports has chosen to market Atlantic Coast Conference Basketball to the masses? Oh, forgive me….it is not ACC Basketball on Fox…..it is Sunday Night “Hoops” – an appropriate shortcut and slang for the product that Fox tries to package to the rest of the country — “Hoops” as opposed to the artful, tradition-rich game of “Basketball.” At least it is accurate.

If you missed the opening of the 30-minute pregame show, then you missed an “artist” whose mother lost her dictionary and forgot the last name of her baby’s daddy when “Fabolus” performed a rap titled, “Tit 4 Tat.”

“Tit 4 Tat” What the hell is that? and what does it “movin like dis and movin like dat” have to do with Atlantic Coast Conference Basketball?

For the record….I am 33 years old, speak what I consider acceptable English, and can’t friggin stand the continued “thugadization” of ACC Basketball by Fox Sports. I also am employed, don’t have attention deficit disorder and actually have the ability to remember what is marketed to me on television. I can’t imagine that I am that much in the minority of the demographic that both watches ACC Basketball and whom marketers want to reach. Have I gotten so far out of the mainstream that other people of my age and my background like this junk?

My opinion of this kind of crap hasn’t changed over the years. The ‘logic’ of the ACC promoting its product to a market of people that Saunders describes as, “hip-hoppers with pants hanging off their butts and Goths with black fingernails and colored mohawks” is beyond me. I think someone needs to do a little research to figure out their market and to figure out who can afford to pay for the products that are advertised during the games.

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07-08 Basketball Media

105 Responses to ‘Shawty Get Loose’…and don’t come back

  1. Ed89 03/20/2008 at 2:25 PM #

    ^^concur…I don’t know why I love debating this so much. I guess it’s because I’ve played music all my life, and really don’t see the musical quality of rap. I will say that I have heard a few songs that actually had some interesting lyrics.

  2. lush 03/20/2008 at 3:09 PM #

    what is wrong with you people?

    has the whole world gone crazy? am i the only one around here who gives a shit about the rules? this is not nam, this blogging, there are rules.

    i never said that you are a racist if you dont like rap. i never said that you have to or should like rap. i made a specific comment about a specific post ed. and it was not regarding you or your comments. am i speaking in tounges? where do you come up with this stuff?

    i feel like im taking crazy pills

  3. redfred2 03/20/2008 at 4:51 PM #

    ^I’m a middle aged white male, I love black music, soul, funk, and black gospel, and all I can say is that the “crazy” part is that so many intelligent people have invested their time and money in this junk. It’s also unfortunate that big money dictates, and political correctness will not allow those same intelligent people to admit that this particular chapter in the evolution of black music, is nothing but pure T crap.

  4. Noah 03/20/2008 at 9:54 PM #

    Tom Waits roolz.

    Okay, carry on.

  5. b 03/21/2008 at 4:49 PM #

    Noah, you never cease to amaze. I sincerely appreciate your rampant erudtion. I would call it Rebel art, but your description and analysis are dead on IMO.

    I would state, as a cellist and bass player, that there is musicality in Hip-Hop. Though it is limited. Since it borrows heavily from other forms of music via sampling or rephrasing, it can be no less musical than those forms. You could argue it is less creative for the same reason and I couldn’t dismiss it. But a lot of artists like James Brown and the P-funk, got their careers revitalized by hip-hop sampling.

    Of course it is limited as a form expression, all works of art are. Be they from a trained craftsman or a neophyte. Most of the hate is generational, though when you make a point of WHO is making or consuming the music, it can seem racist to someone overly sensitive.

    The statement I learned to regurgitate when someone mentions art that I don’t like applies. The fact that I can’t appreciate modern country, doesn’t mean it has no value or that it is not art. Art is beauty, thus it is in the eye of the beholder.

    Most artists held as shining examples of what music should be, were shunned in their day. In the fifteis, critics thought all Coltrane was doing was blowing as many notes as he could. Mozart’s music was considered depravity in his prime. Moussorgsky was a heroin addict, so were Holiday. And Mingus. And Coltrane. And Hendrix. Mozart was a falldown drunk. None of that matters now, down the line when their “art” has overshadowed their character flaws. I doubt any rappers will be remembered 50 years from now, much less 300, but only time will tell.

    There are prominent Hip-Hop groups that play instruments, like the Roots and the Beastie Boys, and a majority of the producers are trained musicians. Miles Davis made a great Hip-Hop album, as did Branford Marsalis under the moniker of Buckshot LeFonque. If you have ever seen a true Hip-Hop DJ live, you will appreciate the turntable as an instrument. Sadly, these are fewer and farther between every year.

    The sad fact is that with rap in general the negative gets held up by the mainstream press as a quintessential, while the more thoughtful performers like De La Soul or KRS-1, who have made complex music for decades and enjoyed fair success are rarely mentioned. Unless Hannity wants to blast them as counter racists for a single line in a single song. Mostly the genre has gone stagnant, sadly. And the more the press and parents decry the bad stuff, the more kids seem to flock to it.

    I blame corporate interest, the fundamental destroyer of all culture, for the misplaced proliferation of gang rap or booty music.

    I love Jazz, but I can argue that Jazz has actually grown stagnant as well. Most of the what passes as jazz nowadays is just R&B without a vocalist a’la Boney James. The talented contemporary musicians like Pizzarelli, DeFrancesco and Redman are basically keeping a museum. There has been very little new material for the last 20 years. Fusion basically died with Miles, though Bela Fleck is a great listen if you can handle bluegrass overtones.

    I love this blog! (b gets down off his soapbox)

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