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This is why "This Is Why I'm Hot" is hot: Because it's hot. There are
of course other reasons the breakout single from Mims, a Washington
Heights rapper who intends to carry New York hip-hop on his back and
restore us to glory, is hot. It ascended to number one on Billboard's
Hot 100, for example, and topped iTunes' singles chart as well. But
consider these other, purer, more intangible reasons why it's hot, best
explained by Mims himself over the course of the song. Where
appropriate, we will back him up with visual aids.
The most amazing line in "This Is Why I'm Hot"—and, even at this
early a juncture, quite possibly the most amazing line of any song to
see release in 2007—is "I'm hot 'cause I'm fly/You ain't 'cause you
not." Brutal and unassailable in its simplicity. Consider the
reasoning, first, of just "I'm hot 'cause I'm fly":
Mims is hot because he's fly. But it raises the question: Does
being hot guarantee one's being fly? "You ain't 'cause you not" would
seem to clear that up:
It would appear that fly and hot are interchangable. If you are one, you are both; if you aren't at least one, you are neither.
If you find completely overlapping Venn diagrams visually unhelpful, consider this tautology:
If that's a bit pretentious, then maybe a blunt flowchart works best:
The other remarkable, oft-quoted line in "This
Is Why I'm Hot" is "I could sell a mil' sayin' nothin' on a track."
Critics gibe that "This Is Why I'm Hot" proves precisely that; others
muse on what Mims would sell if he deigned to actually say something on
a track. Would he sell less than a mil'? Exactly a mil', as when he
said nothing? Or a great deal more than a mil'? The song does not
elaborate. In any event, note that he can do those things, not will,
which suggests he might not. As these claims and predictions are
speculative, there are more possible outcomes; it seems reasonable to
assert that Mims can't sell more than a mil' sayin' nothin'. Though we
would love to see him try.
Sonically, the most entertaining part of "This Is Why
I'm Hot" is the first verse, in which Mims underscores his hotness by
touting his skill at adapting to regional styles, as the slow, minimal,
eerie beat morphs beneath him, sampling both "Nuthin' But a G Thang"
and "Jesus Walks." In the Dirty Dirty (South) he makes the ladies
bounce. He slows it down in the Midwest per their preference. He does
it the Cali way in L.A., and in Chi, in addition to adeptly moving the
crowds from side to side, everyone loves his fashion sense. (If you
enjoy nothing else about "This Is Why I'm Hot," acknowledge the rakish,
immensely appealing way Mims says the word attire.)
Our quarrel lies with "If you need it hyphy/I take it to the Bay,"
an homage to the Oakland–San Francisco Bay Area's relentlessly
knuckleheaded and sorta wonderful hyphy movement, with its proclivities
for going dumb, making thizz faces, ghost-riding the whip, etc.
(Yahdidabooboo.) But unlike Mims's other geographical shout-outs,
that's all he says here—"I take it to the Bay/'Frisco to Sac-town/They
do it e'y'day." First of all, no one calls it "Frisco" except
rhyme-starved rappers, and the only worthwhile MCs living anywhere near
Sacramento are in prison. But even worse, there's no style adjustment
here—he just takes it to the Bay. This is wholly insufficient for
hotness—several entities that take it to the Bay do not qualify: The song's other two verses are a relative letdown—Mims
can get chopped birds by the flock, he's got money in the bag, he
coordinates his outfits, he compels you to Google the word guap, people tend to like how he records, he's into big
spendin', bah. He does intimate that we will find him "with different
women" that we personally have "never had," which is awfully
gentlemanly of him, really. Since we're feeling charitable we'll assume
all of Mims's women are hot; with regard to our own conquests, it's
best to be honest with ourselves.
Though a fantastic song, "This Is Why I'm Hot"
verily reeks of Skee-Lo. It's so distinctive and goofy that no
follow-up could possibly do it justice. But even if Mims is not built
for endurance, he has given us an invaluable gift
nonetheless—reclaiming and re-energizing the word hot after years of abuse. Plumbing one's memory (with a bit of
Internet aid) reveals how even reputable musicians have overused the
"I'm hot like _____" construction. Behold:
Yes. Mere mortals are hot like other people or
things; having ascended to a higher plane, Mims is hot like Mims. It
doesn't get hotter than that.
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