This week has just been one missed opportunity after another. In my confessed disregard of Gallant’s 2016 album Ology, I completely forgot to provide any sort of review of Sunday night’s Grammy awards. Not only that, but I failed to reference one of America’s most infamous holidays: Valentine’s Day. Why not knock out two songbirds with one stone of a post, eh?

I’m not going to go too deep into the handful of personal turnoffs that come along with the the most anticipated musical awards ceremony of the year. There are enough problems with the pop-centric white ideals promoted in the Grammy’s current voting systems as it is. My most blatant disagreement though, surrounds the credentials for several of the award categories. The “Best New Artist” category for example, caused a stir after Chance The Rapper took home the award. Chance has been making/releasing music for 5+ years, but he still qualified for the award since his previous releases weren’t affiliated with a record label. Needless to say, the stake those labels have in the voting process is beyond frustrating to me. Chance is not new! That isn’t to say he didn’t deserve a Grammy for his efforts in creating Coloring Book. The album was a modern hip-hop masterpiece, but that’s why it won the Grammy for the “Best Rap Album”. Chance was nominated for 9 Grammy’s, and honestly, he could have done without the “Best New Artist” nomination.

Chance didn’t only come to mind for today’s Song of the Day because of his success at the Grammy’s. The influential young rapper has a funny way of expressing his feelings, and one of his few songs of endearment “Lady Friend” is a great example of that goofiness packaged perfectly for Valentine’s day. The song was introduced to me by a friend who described it as “a pretty weird song that I bet you would like”, and it has lived up to that impeccable description ever since. Chance meanders through the first half of the song repeating the same phrase over and over as if he himself barely believe that he has a woman at his side. Then, just when the listener starts to ask whether he’s ever going to say anything beyond that reiterated phrase, Chance starts softly promoting his core competencies as a boyfriend and his pet peeves regarding misjudgments of him as a lover. Yes, I spent Valentine’s Day by myself, and of course I got my yearly “maybe next year, son” Hallmark card of pity from my family, but I still thoroughly enjoy Chance sweet talking his way to through the heart of a successful relationship.

 

Want to represent an unaccompanied Valentine’s day with a full-fledged playlist? Be sure to check out one of my original blog posts back on Valentine’s Day of last year, the “Swipe Left VDay Playlist“.