Well I think that there's a Carribean influence - not quite a soca vibe, but close enough (maybe rapso?), and this style is very popular but rarely heard on mainstream channels (other than the Sean Paul's of the world). I think people want to see and hear more of it, and people also like backing the underdog, and having that feeling of discovering something before it blows up.

Caribbean even.

people also like backing the underdog, and having that feeling of discovering something before it blows up.

I like discovering something long after it's faded away. I'm the apres-garde.

That song gets played quite a bit here in the dorms/on campus. I bought it and wrote a review of it on itunes.

It's a horrible song and I don't know why it's caught on like it has.

I like it because CitrusFreak hates it.

Ok, reasons to enjoy— It's got a, what, three-note hook? Simple, catchy. It's got an endlessly repeated chorus and an accompanying dance: equals club fun. He has Bathing Ape shoes (those are very exclusive).

Yea, it's fairly catchy, and would be easy to dance to in the way people who dance to songs like this dance. What more is there to "get"? It's just a song.

It's stupid, I like it. But mostly because I read about it on AskMe, otherwise I never would have ever heard of it.

I like it because CitrusFreak hates it.

I never said I hated it. I bought the song, didn't I? :P I acknowledge that it's terrible, but it's still on my iPod.

He has Bathing Ape shoes

I thought for sure I'd misheard this lyric. Apparently not.

OK, I'm officially too old for this. Here's the chorus from another one of his songs.

[Chorus]
Pimp slap dat hoe, WHOOPISH
Pimp slap dat hoe, WHOOPISH
Pimp slap dat hoe, WHOOPISH
Pimp slap dat hoe, WHOOPISH
Pimp slap dat hoe, WHOOPISH
Pimp slap dat hoe, WHOOPISH
Pimp Pimp Pimp slap dat hoe, WHOOPISH
Pimp slap dat hoe, WHOOPISH
Pimp Pimp Pimp slap dat hoe, WHOOPISH
Pimp slap dat hoe, WHOOPISH
Pimp slap dat hoe, WHOOPISH (Pimp slap dat hoe man x3)
Pimp slap dat hoe, WHOOPISH
Pimp Pimp Pimp slap dat hoe, WHOOPISH (Pimp slap her x6)
Pimp slap dat hoe, WHOOPISH

Get off my lawn, kids.

Seems okay to me. Cool syncopated beat, simple lyrics, accompanying dance- in other words what klangklangston said, only without the bit about the shoes, which I'm not hip enough to know about.

I can see how it'd get old when overplayed, but possibly less so than the macarena.

This music is crap. I don't even think it's remotely catchy. I like catchy songs -- or at least I can appreciate them for their catchiness. But this song is terrible.

I think the appeal is in the utter simplicity of it all. It sounds like this guy wrote a song that anyone else could have written, and so it's got indie cred? I don't know.

It's total shit. Some coworkers of mine like it, or know that it's popular and pretend to like it. One of them was "singing" it the other day and had a WTF? look on her face when I didn't recognize it. DO NOT WANT.

It's just as good as My Humps. C'mon now.

It's the same conversation we've been having here in other threads, continued. Guys like this don't play guitar, so they're doing their anti-establishment things with loops, drum programming, and microphones (replete with misogynist lyrics and posing).

The reason I can't get into it is this: all rap is essentially a brag.

"I've slept with more women than you. Hell, I even slept with your girl. She said my dick is bigger than yours."

"I'm tougher than you. I'm HARD, man. I sold drugs and lived in the hood. I went to JAIL. I've been shot. See the bullet holes?"

50 "Fiddy" Cent is a terrible rapper. Just awful. His voice sucks, his delivery sucks, and his rhymes are ordinary. The only reason he's famous is that he is an actual thug. I think that speaks volumes about the whole genre.

As catchy as some of it is, I just won't consume it because it's so fucking shallow and devoid of feeling. Even Mathers (while clever) leaves me cold. I don't want to hear about other people's sordid adventures unless there is a point to it, in the end. With rap, there just isn't one... for me, at least. YMMV.

I miss Spearhead and The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy (Franti's stuff).

One Nation under God
has turned into
One Nation under the influence
of one drug

Television, the drug of the Nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation

T.V., I.T. satellite links
our United States of unconciousness
Apathetic therapeutic and extremely addictive
the methadone metronome pumping out
150 channels 24 hours a day
you can flip through all of them
and still there's nothing worth watching

T.V. is the reason why less than ten percent of our
Nation reads books daily
Why most people think Central America
means Kansas
Socialism means unamerican
and Apartheid is a new headache remedy

absorbed in it's world it's so hard to find us
It shapes our minds the most
maybe the mother of our Nation
should remind us
that we're sitting to close to. . .

T.V. is
the stomping ground for political candidates
Where bears in the woods
are chased by Grecian Formula'd
bald eagles

T.V. is mechanized politic's
remote control over the masses
co-sponsered by environmentally safe gases
watch for the PBS special

It's the perpetuation of the two party system
where image takes precedence over wisdom
Where sound bite politics are served to
the fastfood culture

Where straight teeth in your mouth
are more important than the words
that come out of it
Race baiting is the way to get selected
Willie Horton or
Will he not get elected on . . .

T.V. is it the reflector or the director?
Does it imitate us or do we imitate it
Because a child watches 1500 murders before he's
twelve years old and we wonder how we've created
a Jason generation that learns to laugh
rather than abhor the horror

T.V. is the place where
armchair generals and quarterbacks can
experience first hand
the excitement of video warfare
as the theme song is sung in the background

Sugar sweet sitcoms
that leave us with a bad actor taste while
pop stars metamorphosize into soda pop stars
You saw the video
You heard the soundtrack
Well now go buy the soft drink
Well, the only cola that I support
would be a union C.O.L.A. (Cost of Living Allownace)
On Television.

Back again, "New and Improved",
we return to our irregularly programmed schedule
hidden cleverly between heavy breasted
beer and car commericals

CNN ESPN ABC TNT but mostly B.S.
Where oxymoronic language like
"virtually spotless" "fresh frozen"
"light yet filling" and "military intelligence"
have become standard

T.V. is the place where phrases are redefined
like "recession" to "necessary downturn"
"crude oil" on a beach to "mousse"
"Civilian death" to "collateral damages"
and being killed by your own Army
is now called "friendly fire"

T.V. is the place where the pursuit
of happiness has become the pursuit of trivia
Where toothpaste and cars have become sex objects
Where imagination is sucked out of children
by a cathode ray nipple
T.V. is the only wet nurse
that would create a cripple

As Pink said, it's just catchy in a way to people who like to dance. I don't know, not all songs need something to get about it I think and people think too much about stuff like this sometimes. Just people like it...And I actually don't even like "Crank dat" outside of context.

So if we're just talking about this one particular song: People have been lovin' songs accompanied with dance since the minuet, to the days of the Tootsie Roll (maybe NSFW if your job doesn't approve of you watching how the Tootsie Roll is done?) and "Do the Wop" (love LL, but not one of my favorites beyond making me want to do the wop) to DJ Capser's Cha Cha Slide. And even the Hustle, though honestly I think the flute arrangement is badass, but just "Do the Hustle" over and over again, does not a great song make. I mean, not to compare Soulja Boy's oeuvre to the works of Boccherini or Bach or anything, but some songs are just popular at parties/clubs, then maybe some were more than just instructions over beats or melodies so people started listening to it outside of dancing situations. It happens. I'd be pretty annoyed if the radios played "Crank dat" all day long, but just watch Kanye and Farnsworth Bentley goofin' off and dancing along to Soulja Boy during the VMAs, and really that's all that there is to getting it. Just having fun with something.

Just having fun with something.

Dance music, as you said, is inherently simple... otherwise you can't dance to it.

I love good dance music; I just don't know why it all has to be so stupid:

I'm Jocking On Yo Bitch Ass
And If We Get The Fightin
Then I'm Cocking On Your Bitch
You Catch Me At Yo Local Party
Yes I Crank It Everyday
Haterz Get Mad Cuz
"I Got Me Some Bathin Apes"