Thursday, February 26, 2015

Potential Sign of the Apocalypse: The Rap Version of "Money for Nothing"


I have learned that there is a new rap version of one of my favorite songs, "Money for Nothing", originally recorded by my favorite band, Dire Straits.  The new version was featured on a show called Empire which I have never watched.



The song is performed by "Jussie Smollett" and "Yazz".  Jussie Smollett is an actor on the show, but I'm having trouble figuring out who "Yazz" is.  It's not the band Yaz that recorded the song "Situation" back in the Dire Straits era, nor, as far as I can tell, is it this other Yazz.  

The original "Money for Nothing" was perhaps the ultimate mainstream rock song of the Eighties.  It was also a huge pop hit, spending three weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100.  From a modern perspective it seems impossible that a song with such a bone-crushing guitar riff could top the same chart now controlled by acts like One Direction and Selena Gomez. 

This new recording bears only limited resemblance to the original masterpiece.  The chorus is there, and some of the original guitar part shows up, but most of the song is unrelated rapping.  

What would Masiakasaurus knopfleri think?