Cee-Lo, Simulacra: How'd I Do That?

It's a classic sound, with a timeless message delivered in an entirely original and contemporary way.

Cee-Lo has been a favorite of mine since Goodie Mob coined the term "Dirty South." Speaking of "Dirty South," funny how few people know the roots of that cliche or the etymology of anything: that rock'n'roll was a slang term for sex; Mountain Dew was slang for moonshine (and was concocted as a mixer for moonshine during Prohibition); Coca Cola is just shorthand for the coca leaf and kola nut that got people high as kites on this medical tonic before the formula gradually changed to high-glycemic corn syrup (pretty potent stuff itself) and artificial flavors developed in chemistry labs.

This lack of reference, context or perspective brings my thoughts back to Baudrillard's 'precession of simulacra', where we have so many, er, fakes that we begin to forget what's real -- like a kid who draws the Disney castle when asked to draw a castle. The child has no idea that Disney's is a functionless fake, a facade that represents what a castle is in a totally superfluous way, with no regard to a real castle's function -- eating peeled grapes behind thick walls that keep out barbarians, right? -- without knowledge of fiefdoms, lords, barons, vassals, serfs, and medieval European slavery. Disney's castle is actually a phony copy (not redundant, I swear) of a pretty modern German castle called Neuschwanstein. But how many people understand that, or have that referential context?

Anyway, enjoy.


(Video resized to keep my only blog reader content. He doesn't care for my bleedy style.)