School Of Rock, with Sasha Frere-Jones
Oct. 27 2008, Published 7:07 a.m. ET
FOR THE UNINITIATED Eustace Taken straight from the pages of our March 2008 issue (on newsstands February 12!), RadarOnline.com recounts New Yorker pop music critic Sasha Frere-Jones's most insightful exegeses of some potentially confusing concepts ...
"Cleveland, make some noise!": "A stock phrase intended to invigorate the proceedings.—September 3, 2007
"Hood": "Could be a reference to R. Kelly's Chicago neighborhood, or to the black community in general."—July 2, 2007
"I'm a flirt": "Can mean either 'I am a flirtatious person' or 'I'm going to flirt right now."—July 2, 2007
"Making the 'dope boys go crazy": "Young Jeezy could be describing competitiveness among drug vendors, or resurrecting the '80s meaning of 'dope' as slang for 'good.'"—December 25, 2006
"Michael Jackson": "Another soul singer."—October 22, 2007
"The Beatles": "A pop combo from England."—December 11, 2006
UPDATE: Sasha Frere-Jones notes that he was "poking fun at Eustace himself with the Beatles and Michael Jackson bits" and is reasonably confident that the New Yorker's readers are familiar with those musical acts. You win this round, Frere-Jones, but next time you pen a treatise on Lil' Mama's new album, you can be sure we'll be watching to see that you're keepin' it hip.