Song #978: "Whatcha Say" by Jason Derulo

Date: Nov 14, 2009
Weeks: 1

Oh come on. You can't do that!

You can't take a song sample that has been used as a joke by a fairly well-known Saturday Night Live sketch and subsequent Internet send-ups, turn it around, and try to build a serious song around it. It's not like this is based on a different part of the source song ("Hide and Seek" by Imogen Heap) and this is all some coincidence. It's the exact same part of the song. So Jason Derulo seems to be trying to leverage that popularity for his own benefit. It's like trying to create a serious song with the lyrics of a knock-knock joke.

So, okay, it's a bad idea, but that doesn't mean it can't overcome that problem and still work, right?

The first thing Jason Derulo sings is "Jason Derulo." Oh boy. As far as I can tell, that's him trying to head off the inevitable question you always hear, "who sings this song?" It doesn't even have any context within the song. It's like an auditory watermark.

The rest of the lyrics are pretty despicable. It's about a guy who got caught cheating on his girlfriend. And I can't help noticing that he's not quite apologizing. "I was caught up in her lust when I don't really want no one else." So he avoids apologizing and blames the other woman for causing him to cheat. Classic jerk tactic. "Cause when the roof cave in and truth came out I just didn't know what to do." He's not sorry he cheated. He's just sorry he got caught. This whole song is like the worst apology ever. The only point on the bad apology checklist he missed was somehow blaming his girlfriend for causing him to cheat.

The music isn't bad. The backing track is varied and interesting enough. Derulo seems to sing well enough. There's clear evidence of Auto-Tune on his voice but at least it's not that overly intentionally fakey Auto-Tuned sound.

And I have to say, despite complaining about the sampling choice earlier, this song does use that "Whatcha say" sample in a better way than the original. In "Hide and Seek", it's just the bridge (I think. That song is kind of formless). In this song, it's the chorus, which is really what it deserves to be. It's a decent hook to center a song around. Musically, at least. I don't understand how it links into the lyrics.

My verdict: Don't like it. The lyrics are really insulting and the whole sampling issue is grating. And the music, while not unpleasant, isn't good enough to save it.