I could very easily turn this into yet another post bashing will.i.am, who’s pretty much my favorite whipping boy. “Check it Out” is yet another blemish on an excessively long list of blemishes. Despite a reasonably intriguing visual, the sampling (of The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star”) is uncreative, his lyrics are completely meaningless, and there’s nothing that separates the song from the pack of unoriginal, Auto-Tuned, dance pop tracks that have crowded Top 40 radio for the past two years or so.
Or is there? I almost hate to say it, but I think I’m starting to like Nicki Minaj. Although she’s not the world’s most original personality either (Let’s face it, she’s basically Lil Kim+ Lady GaGa-plastic surgery), the chick has a gift for wordplay and better rhyme skills than any commercial femcee that’s come out in the past ten if not fifteen years. I’m not sure whose album this will appear on, since the song is credited as “will.i.am & Nicki Minaj”. I’m on the fence about picking up Minaj’s debut CD, but if there’s anything Drake taught me, it’s that Young Money artists will eventually wear your ass down. If it’s on either the Black Eyed Peas’ upcoming CD (highly unlikely given the fact that no other Peas are on the song) or will.i.am has another solo project lined up, then count me out.