Crazy Like a Foxx

Does he think he's blind now, too? No wonder he always wears sunglasses indoors.

I've been meaning to post this for a while. You see, I thought I had reached Détente with Jamie Foxx. When last we checked in with him, it appeared he had finally given up his Ray Charles schtick. It appeared. I was ready to move on. He wasn't.

So, a couple weeks ago, just before The Grammys, I turned on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Jamie Foxx was the guest. This is some of what he had to say:

I’m gonna tell you why this CD is number one. For one, we did a movie called Ray Charles [sic]. And when we did Ray Charles [sic], a young man by the name of Kanye West who is so genius and myself and Kanye are kinda like the Batman and Robin of number one songs [shouldn't he say "Kanye and myself" because honestly, in that analogy, Jamie Foxx is Robin at best], you know, and after we did that, Kanye was looking at the movie when we were doin’ [sings:]“Well, I got a woman, uh uh, way over town, uh uh, that’s good to me.” And he took this “She take my money, uh, uh…” so he took that and made a special hook called “Gold Digger” as you know, [sings:]“I’m not saying she’s a gold digger, but she ain’t messing with no…” you know the rest…

Okay, so he still doesn't solve the mystery of who sings on the "Gold Digger" hook. Though this article from MTV News might (via Wikipedia):

"He did that beat a while before the movie ['Ray'] was even thought of," West's A&R rep, Patrick "Plain Pat" Reynolds, said of the song many [including, apparently, Jamie Foxx] thought was conceived after West saw Foxx's Oscar-winning performance as Ray Charles.

...

The idea to make Jamie Foxx a part of "Gold Digger," which had initially used a sample of Ray Charles' "I Got a Woman," came after West went to see "Ray" with his friend John Mayer.

"It was the natural thing," Pat explained. "If we couldn't clear the sample, we were going to use Jamie. There's actually a version with Jamie singing all the way through the song. It's good, but it didn't feel the same because we had to replay the instruments too.

So, there you go. Finally!

Anyway, back to Jamie and Ellen:

Yeah, so that’s why it’s so special that it’s number one because Ray’s album came out, after he passed away, it was the number one album in the country without a number one song. And this album is the number one album in the country without a number one song. So it’s because of that.

Um, what?

Ellen responds:

That's incredible.

Uh, yeah. It certainly is. Incredible.

Jamie to Ellen:

Thank you.

Then later, Ellen brings up how he's up for a Grammy. He makes it sound as though he's up for more than one:

We were nominated for “Slow Jamz”, but this one is… I mean “Gold Digger”’s like the national anthem right now. So it’s up for, like, you know, Best Song of the Year [actually, it was up for Record of the Year and Best Rap Solo Performance, not Song of the Year, but that's an easy mistake to make] and also we did a tribute to Luther Vandross and so we’re up for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance [that category, he got right].

Now, he never outright says that he is nominated for his work on "Gold Digger" (he wasn't), but he certainly implies it.

Oh, and one last exhumation of his Ray Charles persona: Near the end of his performance of "Unpredictable" he tosses in this line:

I'm gonna make it do what it do, baby

Anything but unpredictable. Oh, and I just discovered that there's a song on his album called "Do What It Do."

Ray-traction V?

One of this blog's most visited (and most controversial) posts claimed that it was Ray Charles, and not Jamie Foxx, singing the hook on "Gold Digger". A concerned reader commented:

The song Kanye sampled for Gold Digger was from Ray Charles. Jamie resung the hook.

Don't be an idiot your entire life.

I conceded rather easily (and snidely), presuming that someone who founded a professional website dedicated to hip hop (which you can read more about here) would know more about this subject than a casual music fan like myself. And admittedly, as I admitted then, I hadn't done enough research. I'm an idiot, end of story.

Now, today, I look again at the comments section on that old post and see two new ones. The first:

you should at least edit the original post so you don't keep spreading fud

Loathe as I am to spread fud (But was I really spreading fud? Uncertainty and doubt (or "ud"), maybe, but are people really afraid that Jamie Foxx didn't sing the hook on "Gold Digger"? Unless Anonymous was using the word in the Scottish sense, in which case, that's just nasty), I feel the comments section on that post speaks for itself. However, I'm happy to bring this heated debate to a new post, especially after reading the next new comment:

I am a hip hop fan and it annoys and frustrates me that everyone thinks that it is Jamie Fox singing on this track. I live in NYC and even the two hip hop radio stations here seem to think he is singing on this track as well. He is out there taking credit for something the late, great Ray Charles did (Not specifically for this track, he was obviously sampled) did, not him...

Great. So maybe I was right the first time and retracted too quickly. But then again, what makes Freddy a more reputable source than Steven Samuel?

A simple Google search reveals that there is still no consensus. Wikipedia says:

Though he is given full credit as a featured artist on "Gold Digger," Jamie Foxx's only vocal contribution is the a cappella introduction to the song, an interpolation of Charles's "I Got a Woman" (Foxx opens the song with the line "She take my money/when I'm in need/Yeah she's a trifling/friend indeed," and it's repeated throughout the song).

Meanwhile, contactmusic.com offers this take:

Taking it’s framework from Ray Charles "I Got A Woman" and using the man who played him in the movie Jamie Foxx as the vocalist. Jamie’s voice is so uncannily like Ray’s that had ray not died last year I’m sure someone would have claimed that Jamie was Ray’s reincarnation.

Interestingly, when the track was nominated for two Grammys last week, Foxx's name was not included among the nominees, even though De La Soul were cited for their contribution to Gorillaz' "Feel Good Inc.", also nominated for Record of the Year. In addition, "Gold Digger" was mentioned in the Best Rap Solo Performance category and not under the Best Rap/Sung Collaboration umbrella (where West was nominated with John Legend for "They Say").

So at this point, the only thing I feel safe saying with any certainty is that there is a great deal of uncertainty regarding Foxx's involvement in one of the hottest singles of the year. If anybody can point me to a definitive statement, preferably straight from the mouth of either West or Foxx, I would greatly appreciate it.

"I Can't Believe it's a Grammy (Grammy... Grammy... Grammy...)"

The Grammys, to their infinite credit, nominated R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet (Chapters 1-5)" for Best Longform Music Video. Amazing!

With moves like this, they're giving The People's Choice Awards a real run for their money.


"Now I'm nom'd for a Grammy, and if I don't win one, I'ma shoot somebody!"