Blogocentric Formulations

Mind on the Road

"Blog Harbor from The Talent Pond"  PROMPT (DAY 20): It's Karaoke Night! When it's your turn to go up on stage, what song will you perform and why?

I am not a karaoke person. Mostly because, unlike those crazy audition people on American Idol, I fully recognize that I'm a terrible singer and I'm completely okay with that. Which means that choosing karaoke songs gets a bit complicated because I can't pick a song that requires any sort of decent vocal range to perform, but I also refuse to pick cliched or bad songs. Which means that I can't really go with songs like "Hello" by Adele or "How Will I Know" by Whitney Houston but I won't pick easier songs like, "Build Me Up Buttercup" by The Foundations or "Stay" by Lisa Loeb.

I was tempted to go with something ridiculous and over the top. I mean, no one cares how bad you're singing when you're performing "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-A-Lot or "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice. They're supposed to be bad songs. And even though there are some true classics that are always crowd-pleasers, I wouldn't want to be the fifth person singing Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" or Taylor Swift's "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" that night.

For a long time, I thought my karaoke song would either be "I Love Rock & Roll" by Joan Jett, or some kind of a hip-hip song with fun lyrics... so I figure why not make the best of both worlds and pick a hip-hop song that samples the Joan Jett classic? "Mind on the Road" by Rev Run.

Joseph Simmons a.k.a. Reverend Run from Run-D.M.C. fame is a talented rapper from a talented family (he's also the brother of Def Jam Records founder Russell Simmons), and there's no question about the influence he's had on the hip hop world. He's also an actual ordained minister, although I'm less enthusiastic about his Christian leadership, mostly because he's a proponent of the controversial prosperity gospel (which has widely been criticized as promoting idolatry and exploiting the poor). That said, he's still a hell of a rapper!