Moving into another week of summer singles, I find myself wondering why almost all of these songs “feature” somebody other than the lead artist. I suppose that’s standard procedure in hip-hop, the equivalent of a special guest star on a TV show during sweeps week. At times the collaborations are compelling (see Rihanna and Lil Wayne’s contributions to Eminem’s Recovery) but I usually find it gimmicky.
Bruno Mars shows up as a guest singer on a few of the tracks I came across when picking songs for the blog. I don’t know if he’s released any albums on his own of if he’s professional accompaniment. Something about the guy makes me want to smack him but he has a nice voice.
I don’t know much about Travie (short for Travis) McCoy other than that he fronted the band Gym Class Heroes and he dated Katy Perry for a few years. I’d never seen him before writing this blog entry. If you asked me to guess what his music sounds like I ‘d predict something akin to Blink 182.
Just listened to the song and I see that prediction was way off. Based on this track, he’s more of a Will Smith. Not sure how typical it is of his sound but I like it. And Mars does a really nice job with the chorus, delivering even the profanity with a velvet tongue.
I wanna be a billionaire so fucking bad
Buy all of the things I never had
Uh, I wanna be on the cover of Forbes magazine
Smiling next to Oprah and the Queen
[Chorus]
Oh every time I close my eyes
I see my name in shining lights
A different city every night oh
I swear the world better prepare
For when I’m a billionaire
[Travis “Travie” McCoy]
Yeah I would have a show like Oprah
I would be the host of, everyday Christmas
Give Travie a wish list
I’d probably pull an Angelina and Brad Pitt
And adopt a bunch of babies that ain’t never had sh-t
Give away a few Mercedes like here lady have this
And last but not least grant somebody their last wish
It’s been a couple months since I’ve been single so
You can call me Travie Claus minus the Ho Ho
Get it, hehe, I’d probably visit where Katrina hit
And damn sure do a lot more than FEMA did
Yeah can’t forget about me stupid
Everywhere I go I’mma have my own theme music
[Chorus]
Oh every time I close my eyes
I see my name in shining lights
A different city every night, oh
I swear the world better prepare
For when I’m a billionaire
Oh oooh oh oooh for when I’m a billionaire
Oh oooh oh oooh for when I’m a billionaire
[Travis “Travie” McCoy]
I’ll be playing basketball with the President
Dunking on his delegates
Then I’ll compliment him on his political etiquette
Toss a couple milli in the air just for the heck of it
But keep the fives, twentys completely separate
And yeah I’ll be in a whole new tax bracket
We in recession but let me take a crack at it
I’ll probably take whatever’s left and just split it up
So everybody that I love can have a couple bucks
And not a single tummy around me would know what hungry was
Eating good sleeping soundly
I know we all have a similar dream
Go in your pocket pull out your wallet
And put it in the air and sing
[Bruno Mars]
I wanna be a billionaire so fucking bad
Buy all of the things I never had
Uh, I wanna be on the cover of Forbes magazine
Smiling next to Oprah and the Queen
Meet Me In Montauk 
Haven’t heard this one before, probably because the profanity keeps it off Radio Disney:)
Not a bad song. the video link you posted keeps freezing every few seconds, which makes it a bit hard to enjoy. I’ll have to catch another version some other time. Meanwhile, I don’t know McCoy, Mars or Blink 182, so I guess my hippness cred is taking yet another beating:)
I have been following along but not commenting much. It just so happens that I LOVE this tune. I find it one of those catchy little numbers that I find myself humming hours after I’ve heard it – and I don’t want to go screaming down the hall to get away from myself. 🙂
I like this theme, by the way. Lots of fun stuff on the blog.