I didn't start my day intending upon ripping a video by a relative unknown to shreds, I promise. It's just that after watching--I cannot make this up--"Herbal Tea" by France's Maty Soul, I just couldn't contain my utter disdain. After watching this video, several things became apparent to me. Please do yourself a favor and watch the video below before you take a gander at my critique after the bounce.
- Is it just me or does her voice bring to mind the bird known as "a warbler?"
- Yes, she really is rocking red, green, and gold earrings as her "homegirls" sit on a blanket in the park and replay every Neo Soul and Afrocentric marketing image that McDonald's shoved down our throats in the late '90s.
- And yes, she really is singing about sipping "herbal tea" because that's what all of us Afrocentric boho people still do when we're not walking around the office with a lit incense in our mouths.
- Did anyone catch that budget-looking French version of Darien in the clip?
- If you listen very closely, you can hear Teena Marie crying and rocking herself back and forth in a corner.
There are some of you who believe I am being too hard on her. After all, she felt brave enough to share her vision of herbal tea drinking with the world. And if you believe that, chances are that you'll be interested in this video where I rhyme about something incoherently and includes lots of hot girlz and shiny, bright colors.
All jokes aside, the bigger issue that this video brings to light is the fact we are no in an age where not only do you not have to be able to sing one note convincingly, but you can rehash a fad from the decade before last and have it be released to the masses without batting an eyelash. Will this song go anywhere? Likely not and definitely not in even in Maty Soul's native France. Is this video evidence of how bad things have gotten? Possibly. Let's all hope that this is the music industry's collective "bottom"--to use the language of addiction--and hope we can look ahead on the horizon to what the next great new fad will be.
