Weekly Dance Break: Work (Rihanna x Drake)

Two music video versions (!), in which Rihanna enjoys her dancing in the mirror.

 

Big Sound Saturdays: That’s My Best Friend!

Most of you may know about the Bechdel test. If a movie does not feature two women on screen without a man present in either frame or conversation, we use the Bechdel test to declare it to be on the wrong side of feminism. Of course, this test is overly simplistic and often inaccurate. The famed lesbian feminist cartoonist, Alison Bechdel, after whom the test is named, recently admitted, “You can certainly have a feminist movie where there is only one woman–or no women.”^[1] I agree. I think some episodes of the TV show Entourage are surprisingly feminist in how they bend expectations of masculinity. But I think it also useful to have a metric for measuring gender equality in something as hyper-masculine as the film industry. So it got me wondering: why is there no Bechdel test for music? Specifically, for hip-hop and R&B, two genres famous for being about either a) individual financial success, b) heterosexual prowess, c) defeating one’s enemies with hot rhymes or d) all of the above. One of the most famous movies to pass the Bechdel test is Thelma & Louise because it is all about female friendship. I thought the same might be true for rap songs about friends. So I went on a search for some smooth and/or hard jams about platonic love.

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Bonus Weekly Dance Break: Back to Back (Barack Obama!!!)

Ok, it’s not really Barack Obama. But in keeping with our Drake theme today, I just had to share this video because if you haven’t seen it, you are not living your best life. It’s “Barack Obama” rapping Back to Back as a Trump diss track. I’m serious. This dude’s Obama voice is great and so are his political jokes, all wrapped in a beautiful Drake beat.

Just….please. If you value our friendship, you will do yourself this favor. Watch this and cackle along with glee.

Weekly Dance Break: Hotline Bling (Drake) MV

This is one of the versions of Drake I like the best: in his feelings, dancing alone (and endearingly, not very well), wearing a thick cable-knit turtleneck because that’s the sartorial expression of his feels. There’s also something about this song that sticks with you, despite its simplicity, its repetitiveness. The video itself is hypnotic. I like to imagine that Drake is actually inside the water cooler at the beginning, dancing with a bunch of miniature ladies, because why not?

Weekly Dance Break: Know Yourself (Snowglobe Perspective x Drake)

In honor of Drake’s maybe-not-maybe-beef with Nick Minaj’s man: