EVE AND GWEN STEFANI’S ‘LET ME BLOW YA MIND’: A CRITICAL REFLECTION

Posted on January 16, 2012 by OneEightKevin

A lot of people seem to express concern at the lack of formidable role models for females in pop culture. Personally, I don’t think that listening to a few Britney Spears records is going to turn pre-teen mall lurkers into future budget strippers or trophy wives.

I mean, I absolutely love listening to DMX but this doesn’t mean I get the urge to join a gang, pistol-whip pedestrians and rob old women. If there’s one popstar who takes the whole “role model” image too seriously, it’s Pink.

Pink absolutely does my fucking head in. If teenage girls are still looking up to her, we will inevitably be plagued with hordes of pseudo-intellectual socio-political experts. For example, have a listen to her facepalm-inducing song Dear Mr. President and it’s poignant use of emotive rhetorical questioning. What makes Pink think that she can be taken seriously when it comes to politics? Talking to her about politics would be like discussing nuclear physics with the cast of Jersey Shore. Fucking pointless. Maybe Pink should stick to singing on party tracks, because Lady Marmalade was the joint.

However, if young women are going to have celebrity role models then you can’t go past Gwen Stefani. I have nothing but total respect for Gwen. After gaining recognition in punk rock circles and subsequent mainstream success as the singer for No Doubt, she built an extremely successful solo career crafting some of the catchiest pop songs of the noughties. Additionally, she has her own doozy merchandise line of clothing, fragrances and all sorts of other cool shit. She also has some borderline-creepy Asian fetish, whereby a crew of heaps cute Japanese girls follow her around like stray cats. Pretty awesome. Behind Mother Teresa and Oprah, Gwen Stefani is probably the closest thing we’ll ever have to Superwoman.

Here she features on the single Let Me Blow Ya Mind with Eve. First of all, if you don’t like this song you’re probably an idiot. In addition to some verses by Eve and a hook from Gwen, it features production by Dr. Dre and Scott Storch and a video cameo by the L.O.X. Amazing line-up. Furthermore, Gwen achieves the impossible in this film clip: she wears a visor and actually looks decent. I’m not sure what the point of visors are since they only protect a certain portion of your head. If anybody knows, please inform me. Maybe some people want to wear a cap but show off their hairstyle at the same time. You must have some pretty awesome hair to even consider doing this. Point is, if you’re not Gwen Stefani or an Asian tourist you should probably stay away from visors.

Eve was the first female rapper to enter the charts at number one with her album Let There Be Eve… Ruff Ryders’ First Lady. Ruff Ryders were the most legitimate crew in the world. Evidence? They released records by DMX and their merchandise gets bootlegged at market stalls. There’s nothing like a pair of shiny, size 38 Ruff Ryders jeans to go with your Fubu windbreaker and D12 bucket hat. Junkie steez is unbeatable.

If you’re like me and think that women talking about guns and bashing people is awesome, make sure you check out Remy Ma, formerly of the famous New York crew Terror Squad. She is currently serving eight years in prison for her involvement in a shooting, but her album There’s Something About Remy: Based on a True Story is pretty enjoyable. Furthermore, one of my favourite records of all time is Lil’ Kim‘s Hard Core, where she keeps East Coast hip-hop just as grubby and malicious as any of the era’s male counterparts.

Let Me Blow Ya Mind is further proof that females can hold it down on the mic in magnificent fashion, building upon the work from artists like Mary J. Blige and MC Lyte. This song always goes off when you’re shredding the dancefloor at some cheesy club which probably has no dress code and free entry. Hopefully, if this occurs you’re not with friends who claim that they “can’t dance to hip-hop” and want to listen to the Bloody Beetroots instead. In this instance, you should probably get some new friends.