Can't you hear that boom?

October 13, 2011 7:32 AM

After starring in a giant hit youtube video singing Nicki Minaj's Super Bass, 8 year old Sophia Grace Brownlee (and her somewhat less talented sidekick) came on Ellen Degeneres's show yesterday to perform, and meet/upstage their idol.

Nicki Minaj previous.

posted by Potomac Avenue (64 comments total)

Really did not mean this to ironically comment on the post posted right before it.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 7:34 AM on October 13, 2011

I am so glad that is not my child.
posted by HuronBob at 7:35 AM on October 13, 2011 [6 favorites]

The look on her face when she's looking around the stage for Nicki Minaj, and then her reaction to actually seeing her is just incredibly adorable.
posted by alynnk at 7:40 AM on October 13, 2011

Yeah, I'd be horrified if I could my daughters singing about blazin' up and dealing coke. Not to mention that the rest of the song is vapid.
posted by taumeson at 7:48 AM on October 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

from Essex, England,

This explains a lot.
posted by Harry at 7:51 AM on October 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Superbass is one of my guilty pleasures, but only for the way it sounds. Flawless production, and the flow of the rap is amazing, though I can't imagine how much editing they had to do in post production to make it sound that good, because she sucks live...
posted by empath at 7:51 AM on October 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

I mean, that sounds a bit nasty towards Essex, but that place is trying very hard to show off itself like this.
posted by Harry at 7:51 AM on October 13, 2011

Poor kid. I hope the parents let her listen to some good music sometime.
posted by papercake at 7:53 AM on October 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

The true mark of an awesome YouTube cover is to have more than twice as many views as the original.... and that one was done by a five-year-old.
posted by The Confessor at 7:53 AM on October 13, 2011 [4 favorites]

I love Nicki Minaj, mostly because I'm afraid that if I didn't love her she would destroy me and my family.
posted by Think_Long at 7:57 AM on October 13, 2011 [9 favorites]

I actually had to fast forward past bits of that little girl's meeting with Nicki Minaj because her happiness was so crazy intense it was uncomfortable! Not into their work, but I gotta respect Ellen and Minaj for setting up that super collider of ultra pure enthusiasm.
posted by ignignokt at 7:59 AM on October 13, 2011

I just didn't get the crying. I mean if it was Mary J Blige or something, okay. But it's Nicki Minaj.

and the flow of the rap is amazing

Yuck, I really disagree. She has her moments, but not really on this song.
posted by cashman at 7:59 AM on October 13, 2011

Maybe it's just me, but I find these videos extremely cringeworthy. I have trouble not looking away or leaving the page when that little girl is rapping, or just being overly excited. Strangely, I feel the same way when I watch this Lil Wayne cover: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od6sUNTHiHs

These people are talented, but I guess there's something about watching them cover songs that are sooo not them. As a lover of hip-hop, I'm also a bit insulted at all the happy-white-people-covers of NWA and other hard rap. I find it condescending to take a rapper's songs, which are so personal, so full of emotion and soul-bearing, and turn it into a happy sing-song over a piano.
posted by mcroy at 8:02 AM on October 13, 2011 [4 favorites]

Sophia Grace's cover of Superbass is my second favorite. My first favorite being Michael DiMartino's sign language interpretation.

I guess the original is ok, but really, I like this song so much better when someone else is covering it.
posted by sonika at 8:03 AM on October 13, 2011 [3 favorites]

You grumps, come on, this is awesome. The kid loves to sing this pop song, and she does it well.
posted by zippy at 8:07 AM on October 13, 2011 [15 favorites]

That's the shortest 8 year old I've ever seen.
posted by DU at 8:10 AM on October 13, 2011

I agree that Nicki Minaj is totally a guilty pleasure, as enjoyable but devoid of value as a can of Pringles. "Muny" totally gets me to crank up the car stereo.
posted by AzraelBrown at 8:12 AM on October 13, 2011

and her somewhat less talented sidekick

Flavor Flav in a tutu and tiara?
posted by quin at 8:13 AM on October 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

I think we've come to a point in our society where we can all agree that making a video that is a big hit on Youtube doesn't necessarily mean it has value.
posted by crunchland at 8:14 AM on October 13, 2011 [5 favorites]

I really like Karmin's cover of this song. Includes bonus appearance by ?uestlove and one of his fellow Roots members.
posted by cubby at 8:20 AM on October 13, 2011

which are so personal, so full of emotion and soul-bearing,

Right, and none of it's full of posturing and misogyny, which don't at all deserve mockery.
posted by xmutex at 8:21 AM on October 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

Discount the singer and the message, and you end up with a super-happy kid. Is that so wrong these days, when kids get pushed so hard to study, eat the "right" things, be safe, stay off the Net due to Pedo Bear, etc. Kudos to the parents and the two girls for having a happy moment they'll remember more than the "Hey, remember the first time you ate organic hummus and locally sourced pita?"

Disclaimer: dad to a 4yo girl who lives to sing along to a wide variety of songs. Get off my lawn.
posted by fijiwriter at 8:27 AM on October 13, 2011 [9 favorites]

heh. i just this minute told my 5 year old who was playing this song to listen to something else. "blazin up" doesn't need to be in the vocabulary of children. it won't be any more suitable when she's 8.
posted by three blind mice at 8:28 AM on October 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Nicki, who I think has talent somewhere underneath those outfits, seems to have styled herself (or has been styled by someone else) SPECIFICALLY to appeal to eight-year-old girls. Plus she did a song with ten-year-old Willow Smith. This, combined with the drug references and hypersexuality, seems like a set of bad decisions all the way around (see, also, Katy Perry). But, hey, free country and all that. I wouldn't be purposely exposing my own hypothetical kids to this stuff, but I would hypothetically be a pretty strict parent in general.

What I'm really sad about is seeing an unusual and talented female MC messing around with the horrendously bland likes of David Guetta and Will.I.Am and never actually living up to the amazing promise she's displayed in random verses here and there. But, hey, whatever, I'll just listen to this again.
posted by cilantro at 8:28 AM on October 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

I'm kind of torn here. On one hand I don't really want my children listening to music like this at that age, but at the same time I realise that most of the sexual nuance and dirty lyricism is totally lost on them.

Can't we just let the kids have a little fun? How cool would it be to meet your idol at 8 years old? I mean come on. How can I hate the joy I can plainly see on these kid's faces?

Now that I've thought about it, haters gonna hate. Ninnies, the lot of you.
posted by sunshinesky at 8:40 AM on October 13, 2011 [5 favorites]

Nicki, who I think has talent somewhere underneath those outfits, seems to have styled herself (or has been styled by someone else) SPECIFICALLY to appeal to eight-year-old girls.

I think more for gays, but appealing to eight year old girls is probably a side effect.
posted by empath at 8:44 AM on October 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

"at the same time I realise that most of the sexual nuance and dirty lyricism is totally lost on them"

This. As I kid I had all the lyrics to Salt n Pepa's Shoop memorized and my mom and stepdad thought it so funny that we encouraged my brother who was about a decade too late to hear the song on the radio to learn it too. Sure, the song is filthy but awesome and yes, we're both fine.
posted by Lisitasan at 8:46 AM on October 13, 2011 [3 favorites]

In another thread you'll no doubt find the same MeFites bragging about how young they were when they first got into punk music.
posted by hermitosis at 8:49 AM on October 13, 2011 [7 favorites]

Mcroy: I completely agree. This sort of thing is condescending and obnoxious (I am mostly thinking here about stuff like the video you linked of the Wayne cover and the countless fauxk singer-songwriter types who think it is precious and cute and ironic to cover NWA on an acoustic guitar) and always really irks me.

Absolutely a musical pet peeve of mine.

That said, this looks cute. I watched it without sound, and I am not at all a fan of Nicki, but it looked cute. I ain't mad at a happy kid, ever.
posted by broadway bill at 8:51 AM on October 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

It's ok little blonde girl; the world needs backup dancers, too.
posted by Nelson at 8:56 AM on October 13, 2011 [4 favorites]

As I kid I had all the lyrics to Salt n Pepa's Shoop memorized

Oh, Salt N Pepa. "Let's Talk About Sex" came out when I was ten and you'd best believe every kid on the playground knew all the words and also that our parents had nothing to do with it one way or the other. Approve, disapprove, whatever. I certainly never heard it at home, but knew every word nonetheless. And no, no idea what it meant other than "sex" had something to do with pants-bits and things that grown-ups did and it sounded gross and hilarious.

See also: the four year olds in my preschool class who knew every word to "My Humps."

Bad pop music is like crack for children and like crack addicts and crack, they'll find it whether their parents allow it in the house or not.
posted by sonika at 8:57 AM on October 13, 2011 [5 favorites]

So Ellen Degenris's studio always has a handy supply of kleenex for potentially teary-eyed audience members?
posted by crunchland at 8:57 AM on October 13, 2011

When I have a kid she is only going to sing songs by Beethoven and Mozart, stuff with culture.

Beethoven songs have words right?
posted by Ad hominem at 8:58 AM on October 13, 2011 [3 favorites]

When I have a kid she is only going to sing songs by Beethoven and Mozart, stuff with culture.

You might want to rethink that.
posted by empath at 8:59 AM on October 13, 2011 [3 favorites]

Man I hate that little kid and her unbridled joy.
posted by Sailormom at 9:00 AM on October 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

Leck mich im Arsch!
Goethe, Goethe!
Götz von Berlichingen! Zweiter Akt;
Die Szene kennt ihr ja!

Cool so they do have words. much better than the vulgar junk they right these days.
posted by Ad hominem at 9:01 AM on October 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Oh, Salt N Pepa. "Let's Talk About Sex" came out when I was ten and you'd best believe every kid on the playground knew all the words and also that our parents had nothing to do with it one way or the other. Approve, disapprove, whatever. I certainly never heard it at home, but knew every word nonetheless. And no, no idea what it meant other than "sex" had something to do with pants-bits and things that grown-ups did and it sounded gross and hilarious.

I just went back and listened to this again out of nostalgia. As it turns out, it's nowhere near as profane and subversive as I must have assumed it was when I was in highschool. I liked it because I assumed it was naughty, but it's actually kinda ... not.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:04 AM on October 13, 2011

It's quite popular to do folky covers of Slayer's "Angel of Death" and the like too, you know. And of course covering super-soft songs in a hard style is something people have been doing for a long time as well. It's nothing specific to hip hop, it's just people think it's hilarious to change the context of something.
posted by stinkycheese at 9:05 AM on October 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Yeah, the song's not my thing. Yeah, maybe the lyrics aren't for an 8-year old, but these two little girls are ecstatic, they got to meet their idol, and their idol told them to stay in school and put books before singing, and they get a fully-paid school supply shopping spree. I'm sorry, maybe I'm a bit of a softie in my old age, but I can't find much wrong with this.
posted by NationalKato at 9:10 AM on October 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

I can't believe that talentless loser has gotten famous.

(And yes, that is a very calculated statement, and I know you will all break my balls for saying it, as it could apply to hmm maybe 85% of the pop/hip-hop/r&b genre or whatever it's called now as it's a mix of all three these days.)
posted by ReeMonster at 9:30 AM on October 13, 2011

That little girl is right. I now know who the F she is. Kudos.
posted by haqspan at 9:30 AM on October 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Pop music is supposed to appeal to 8 year-olds and adults alike. That's its mission in life!
posted by rhizome at 9:40 AM on October 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

I can't stand that kind of music and I can't stand that kind of television but I do like happy kids being happy kids.
posted by pracowity at 9:43 AM on October 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

Nicki Minaj = bright make-up, sparkly clothes, and crazy colored wigs. What eight-year-old wouldn't be into that? When I was 8, I really loved the Spice Girls. Was it because of their thoughtful analysis of third-wave feminism? No, it was because they were all RAWR GIRL POWER!!! and glitter!!! And because they always looked like the were having fun together. Nicki Minaj seems a little more calculated, but you can tell she's having fun with the way she dresses and acts.

The only thing about the video that made me wince was how she told them to stay in school and put books ahead of performing, and then in the next breath said, oh hai i'm going to take you shopping for whatever you want---books, school supplies, CLOTHES, MAKE-UP!!!

(Also, the little girls totally reminded me of me and my little sister. I'm the attention hog showing off all my moves and she's the blonde girl just sort of bopping along, looking around at other stuff...)
posted by book 'em dano at 10:22 AM on October 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

I want to know the carbon footprint from having everyone click on these links.

/grump
posted by storybored at 10:39 AM on October 13, 2011

Nicki Minaja =
Slick Rick - Children's Story
+
LL Cool J - Boomin' System
+
and maybe a little JJ Fad - Supersonic
posted by P.o.B. at 10:49 AM on October 13, 2011

Wow, there was so much unbridled happiness and sense of fun in those videos, especially the last! It reminded me of when I was a kid and I listened to, and sang, certain songs over and over again because I unselfconsciously just loved the way they sounded. What a memory that girl is going to have--I'm almost jealous. If I'd had the chance to meet Madonna and sing Like a Prayer with her on stage, for example, my mind would have been blown forever.


p.s. I was not expecting the harrumphing that is prevalent in this thread! Geez, a little girl met a pop star she loves and got to sing with her! Let the cynicism and music snobbery (and classism) go for a second, you know?
posted by swingbraid at 10:55 AM on October 13, 2011 [4 favorites]

p.s. I was not expecting the harrumphing that is prevalent in this thread!

new here?
posted by Think_Long at 10:57 AM on October 13, 2011

My dog gets that excited when I come home, it's pretty amazing- maybe I should stop feeding her so much sugar.
posted by TheBones at 10:58 AM on October 13, 2011

Think_Long: "p.s. I was not expecting the harrumphing that is prevalent in this thread!

new here?"

No, but apparently I haven't crusted over yet!
posted by swingbraid at 10:59 AM on October 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

eww
posted by Think_Long at 11:00 AM on October 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

love nicki
love ellen
love this
haters stay pressed.
posted by nadawi at 11:24 AM on October 13, 2011 [6 favorites]

Wait these lyrics are crazy did she say she's a Doozer?
posted by mintcake! at 11:45 AM on October 13, 2011

Absolutely ADORABLE!
posted by ericb at 12:01 PM on October 13, 2011

If I were to have met my idol when I was 8, he would have been drunk and I would have been too shy to say anything (read: it was Dave Van Ronk, who also sang a lot about drugs and sex. One of my favorite tunes of his, and one I had all the words to memorized as an 8 year-old, was the Reverend Gary Davis tune 'Cocaine Blues').

That said, I love Nicki Minaj to pieces and hope that one day she falls hopelessly in love with me and moves into my apartment.
posted by Pecinpah at 12:11 PM on October 13, 2011

HEY 8 YEAR OLD KID YOUR FAVORITE ARTIST SUCKS.

This, my friend, is the only piece of modern equipment I will touch.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:10 PM on October 13, 2011

As I kid I had all the lyrics to Salt n Pepa's Shoop memorized

I remember my entire first grade class singing along to 'Like a Virgin' during art period. I think our teacher must have brought that record to school just for the entertainment value. And this was in Catholic school.
posted by emeiji at 3:13 PM on October 13, 2011

Just got around to watching the video.

Those are the most adorable goddamned kids i've ever seen, and I usually HATE cute kids..
posted by empath at 6:01 PM on October 13, 2011

When I was 8, my favorite song was Darling Nikki by Prince. I loved that song. Still do actually. But my mom didn't want me listening to it, and I was so mad. It was a great song, why I couldn't I play the record. I understand now why she didnt want me to listen to it, but back then I had no idea what they song meant. I thought he was saying "master baby" and was a bit curious about what that meant. I just liked the way the song sounded.
posted by nooneyouknow at 7:00 PM on October 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Man, some of you guys are real debbie downers on this. I thought the videos were totally adorable, and reminded me of one of my very first childhood memories ever--being 4 years old, sitting on the floor of my sisters room, and singing (shouting) along to "Like a Virgin" on the record player, over and over again. The lyrics don't really matter when you're a kid - you're more drawn to the overall sound, and perhaps certain words (Shiny and New! Hearts!).

When My niece was around 3-4, she loved to listen/sing to the Black Eyed Peas' "my humps, my humps, my lovely lady lumps" when it came on the radio. Letting your kids listen to total crap doesn't make anyone bad parents - I imagine anything sounds great when you usually listen to "the wheels on the bus" and "apples and bananas", and something (anything) else in the background besides kiddie songs while you're driving around running errands, sounds like the most amazing piece of music and artistry you've ever heard in your entire life.

I made it through the wilderness of childhood ok--I'm sure these girls will be just fine.
posted by raztaj at 8:19 PM on October 13, 2011

. Letting your kids listen to total crap doesn't make anyone bad parents - I imagine anything sounds great when you usually listen to "the wheels on the bus" and "apples and bananas", and something (anything) else in the background besides kiddie songs while you're driving around running errands, sounds like the most amazing piece of music and artistry you've ever heard in your entire life.

My son doesn't listen to much "kiddie" music because I can't stand it. Sesame Street and Raffi - I got your back. The rest of it can see me in hell.

Anyhow - the other piece of it is that when you're a kid and singing along to things with words like "SEX!" and "VIRGIN!" and "BLAZIN UP!" you have absolutely no idea what in the hell you're saying, but it feels awesome because you feel like you're in on this big grown-up secret and you're such an adult knowing all of these words. Added to the fun is your parents laughing and you having absolutely no idea why Little Red Corvette is so hilarious - I mean, it's a song about a really fast car! It's a car that goes really fast!

(Yeah, I loved Prince and parts of that album were off limits because my singing "Little Red Corvette" at age 8 was bad enough, my mom wasn't going to even let me HEAR "Dance Music Sex Romance" knowing full well that if I did it would be my favorite song ever. Not that she thought it would damage me, she just understood that someday I would sing it full volume in the grocery store. Wise, wise woman.)
posted by sonika at 8:43 PM on October 13, 2011

It just occurred to me they played physical during calisthenics in the gym when I was a kid. "there's nothing left to talk about unless it's horizontally" really school? That was appropriate? (of course it took me 20 years to figure it out, but now I am traumatized)
posted by Ad hominem at 10:52 PM on October 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I loved Prince and parts of that album were off limits because my singing "Little Red Corvette" at age 8 was bad enough

Yep, 1999 and Purple Rain were my favorite albums when I was like 8 or 10. I listened to both of them over and over again, and I had no idea what they were about.

Any song from that era of Prince takes me right back to my childhood.
posted by empath at 10:57 PM on October 13, 2011

When I was 9, I asked my parents to get me the 45 of Me and Mrs. Jones by Billy Paul, for my birthday. I had no idea the song was about having an extramarital affair, and my mom was, now that I look back on it, suspiciously suspicious that I was interested in that song.
posted by crunchland at 6:49 AM on October 14, 2011 [1 favorite]