Is it really a throwback if the song is only 13 years old? Well, since that would’ve made me 19, I’ll say yes.
112 was Bad Boy’s male R&B. Puffy (way before the Diddy) already had Total, his female group and Biggie, the man who would make him famous. He had also recently signed a new cat by the name of Ma$e who dropped what I believe to be his first Bad Boy verse on this song, the first single from the album 112.
– Biggie just looks largely uninterested while Puff dances his ass off in the beginning of this video.
– Game’s so tight they call it virgin.
– Puff is still dancing while he’s in the front seat. He thought he told us that he won’t stop.
– I wonder if they held up traffic during this shoot.
– Just so you know, Ma$e ain’t the one that’ll pay for your phone.
– He’s also buying things that you can’t even p’nounce. Is it odd that he’s telling people he’s buying things that they can’t even pronounce, but he doesn’t even pronounce the word pronounce correctly?
– Where the heck did Biggie go?
(and of course, that’s one of the songs that didn’t make the cut)
If Blender is to be believed, this is the set list for Michael’s concerts in England (50 dates? WTF???).
‘Billie Jean’
‘Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin”
‘Rock With You’
‘The Way You Make Me Feel’
‘Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough’
‘I Just Can’t Stop Loving You’
‘Human Nature’
‘Smooth Criminal’
‘Girlfriend’
‘Man In The Mirror’
‘Beat It’
‘One Day In Your Life’
‘Heal The World’
‘You Are Not Alone’
‘Remember The Time’
‘Thriller’
It’s cool to see him mix it up a little for the British audience. “One Day in Your Life” (see video below) is an old Motown song that they re-released in 1981 and (somewhat improbably) became Michael’s first #1 hit in the U.K., while “Girlfriend” is a song from “Off the Wall” that was written by McCartney (I wonder if Mike sees the irony in now having to pay Macca publishing for performing one of his songs live).
My wonder, though, is…how much of this performance will be live and how much will be lip-synched? Mike’s not sung live in something like 8 years, plus there’s the fragile state of his nose, and there’s the fact that his voice has dropped several octaves in recent years (geez, you think maybe he was taking some kind of hormones?). I’ve tried to sing “Beat It” before and it’s a fucking HARD song to sing. I don’t think Michael can do it anymore. Oh well, no one (except me) talks shit about Britney lip-synching, so I guess Michael can do it too.
