Is Pitbull… moving to the ocean? Is he now going to live in the ocean? It sounds as though he is. It sounds as though he is going to live underwater. Does Pitbull know that he cannot, in fact, live underwater? I don’t think he does. I don’t think he understands
Before ‘Africa’, there was nothing. Music didn’t exist. There were sounds, but people didn’t know what they were. They couldn’t make them out. It was noise, it was chaos. And then, suddenly, something.
What was it? That faint murmur, building. A conga drum, a snare, a hi-hat. No, it can’t be. But it is. Is this… rhythm? This irrepressible groove. It’s taking over. Oh lord, what are these sweet vibrations cascading down upon me? Could it be? Could it be… everything we have ever longed for? Could it be… music?
SYNTH… SYNTH, SYNTH, SYNTH, SYNTH, SYNTH RIFFFFFFFFFFFFF
Marimbababababababababababa
SYNTH… SYNTH, SYNTH, SYNTH, SYNTH, SYNTH RIFFFFFFFFFFFFF
Marimba-babababababababababa
And so it came to pass: music, for the very first time.
At some point after that, nobody is quite sure when, Pitbull was born, the genetical son of a knockoff Dolce & Gabana handbag and some nightclub toilet graffiti.
And now, many, many years later, this. Two worlds colliding.
Ostensibly, it is ‘Africa’ by Toto, and, sort of, kind of, a bit like music, but also it’s not at all. Not in any way. Listen, if you must.
Observations and/or criticisms:
The Intro
Pitbull, here, has replaced the ‘Africa’ intro with: himself. Which is, yeah, not ideal, but I guess this is his song (in a way that it is entirely someone else’s song) so you’ve got to be willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on this. Until he opens his mouth, his mouth like an office fire alarm, to say the words:
“They tried to get rid of me. But from ocean to ocean, they’re gonna have to deal with me. WoooooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”
Is… is this a good way to start a song? In many respects, no, because what it is doing is replacing one of the most iconic intros of all time with Pitbull talking, and then Pitbull talking about how people (unsuccessfully) tried to get rid of him, and then Pitbull confirming that he is, in fact, impossible to get rid of, and that we will have to deal with him. Possibly forever, in and around the world’s oceans. WoooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOO.
But in another sense, also no, because it’s not even an intro. Pitbull takes exactly nine seconds to go from ‘mellow synth note echoing out for atmospheric buildup’ to ‘Pitbull rapping’. That is too fast. That is way too fast. That is meeting a friend’s friend at a boozy brunch for the very first time and inviting them to your Christmas family getaway in the Lake District within the hour.
Pitbull rapping
Pitbull rapping is different from rapping because it isn’t rapping at all, it is just Pitbull saying things with no sort of cadence or nuance or anything at all really. It is just Pitbull saying things like:
“I practice what I preach but I ain’t gonna lie”
???
And,
“I still got love for the beats that’s why I spit this fire/You can catch me on a beach/Especially an island”
??????
Pitbull also uses the same trope of quoting other rappers and just kind of really enthusiastically agreeing with the sentiment he probably doesn’t understand. He does this no less than twice in a song that barely lasts two minutes.
“Always against all odds like ‘Pac said” and “Nas say sleep is the cousin of death so I don’t sleep (haha)” are lines that, truly, can only come from a place in a basement beneath the trap door at the bottom of a barrel.
It gets worse: Some light lyrical analysis
“I’m the living Great Gatsby/But these boys are with you quick and then disappear like Banksy”
Pitbull has (likely) never read The Great Gatsby. But he has definitely seen the terrible film. What Pitbull is trying to say is that he is a successful, rich, party animal. Instead, he is actually saying that he has spent his entire life, and a vast amount of wealth, trying desperately to make a married woman fall in love with him. He is saying he is lonely, filled with regret, deep with insecurity about his upbringing and social status. Is this a cry for help? Is Pitbull telling us something deeper? Only he knows, but one thing is for certain: Gatsby does not rhyme with Banksy.
Oh, and Tender is the Night is in every single way better than Gatsby. Please do remember that.
“From ocean to ocean, sea to sea, I’m something that you’ve got to… see”
As you’ve probably gathered, there is a recurrent nautical in this song, because Aquaman. As you have probably also gathered, Pitbull’s idea of making a water-themed song is to get ‘Africa’ by Toto because… rain, I think?, rain is water, speed it up, rename it ‘Ocean to Ocean’, and include the above line, which is just another way of saying worldwide, twice. Only Pitbull could, and would, rhyme ‘sea’ with ‘see’, after already saying ‘sea’ twice.
It’s not exactly “As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti”, you know?
Structure
BRIEF(!) INTRO/VERSE/CHORUS/VERSE/CHORUS/VERSE/CHORUSx2
‘Africa’ by Toto is a three-course meal at a Michelin starred restaurant, ‘Ocean by Ocean’ by Pitbull is, like, a mug of gruel? A Sports Direct mug of gruel. He is in and out of here in under 2 minutes and 30 seconds, contributing the sum total of 18 bars (and that nine-second intro).
Context
None!
YouTube Comments
“I didn’t know a track could SMELL like 2008” !!!
Does Pitbull know what the song ‘Africa’ is about? Like in terms of using it as a sample in a song, essentially, about Pitbull being rich and having a good time regardless of whether people dislike him for detracting rather adding any real worth to the world or indeed, to music?
Does Pitbull know what the song ‘Africa’ is about? Like in terms of using it as a sample in a song, essentially, about Pitbull being rich and having a good time regardless of whether people dislike him for detracting rather adding any real worth to the world or indeed, to music?
Positive Aspects
Palate cleanser
Listening to ‘Ocean to Ocean’, by Pitbull, has the effect of wiping your brain completely, like a computer hard drive. Anything you listen to immediately following ‘Ocean to Ocean’ by Pitbull will, therefore, sound like the best thing you’ve ever heard. The horrified squeal of a wild boar? Jimmy Carr laughing? Literally any song by The Vaccines?
All really, really good, actually, after listening to ‘Ocean by Ocean’ by Pitbull.
Has the chorus to ‘Africa’ in it
Has the chorus to ‘Africa’ in it.
Conclusion – A choral response to ‘Ocean to Ocean’ by Pitbull
It’s not gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
It’s nothing that a hundred million men or more couldn’t do
I bless the rains down in Africa
I bless the rains down in Africa
(I bless the rain)
I bless the rains down in Africa
(I bless the rain)
I bless the rains down in Africa
I bless the rains down in Africa
(Ah, gonna take the time)
Gonna take some time to definitely, definitely not see Aquaman wooooOOOOO
