Song #889: "Bump, Bump, Bump" by B2K and P. Diddy

Date: Feb 1, 2003
Weeks: 1

After listening to "Can't Buy Me Love" (#106) several times yesterday, I immediately checked to see what song came up next to give it a listen. And I immediately thought this was the worst song I'd ever heard.

24 hours later, my opinion has softened quite a bit. I realized that after raving about the full sound the Beatles were getting out of little more than a bass guitar, I got a bit of auditory whiplash moving on to the spare sound of this song.

The music is just so bare. It's a little light guitar and a very sparse thumping bass. Most of the music comes from the lead singer's voice, which I have to admit is pretty decent. He's expressive and has a good range. When he really explores his vocal range it seems like he's trying to create music, not that he's just showing off his range for the sake of showing it off. With very little music support he's carrying the song, and he does a pretty good job of it.

Unfortunately, he can't save the song from the terrible background vocals, nor from the awful orchestra stings that happen whenever they sing the title. It's an okay little song up to that point, then suddenly there is this musical slap in the face to get your attention. The song ought to be titled "BUMP, BUMP, BUMP" to properly express how hard and obnoxious that hit is. It's like they took all the music they drained out of the rest of the song and compressed it into those moments.

Then you have a rap break by P. Diddy. I've always liked P. Diddy's rapping well enough. He has a good rhythmic sense and matches his performance to the music he's using. His rap break here is generally okay. Except for the moment when a wimpy female voice comes in to sing "do do do do." That's pretty awful.

As for the lyrics, it's pretty typical "you're so sexy and I want to get with you" stuff. It objectifies women pretty badly, with lyrics like "Baby turn around and let me see that sexy body go bump, bump, bump. That is all I want to see." Don't show me your face, I just want to see your body, because that's the best thing about you. That's pretty bad objectification. Also, is it really supposed to be a compliment to call a woman a "ghetto queen?" Really? I'm going to leave alone the fact that P. Diddy keeps referring to the woman as "mommy" because according to the lyrics site I saw it's actually "mami." I know that's a thing in some cultures, and although I'm not sure P. Diddy belongs to those cultures, I don't know enough about the expression to make that assertion with any confidence. So I'll leave it alone. Except for the two sentences I just wrote about it. Ahem.

My verdict: Don't like it. It's not a good song, but don't listen to it right after listening to the Beatles, because then it'll seem worse.