Love In This Club

If you surf the FM radio within roughly 60 miles of almost any major city it will not be too long before you will hear Usher's hit song “Love In This Club (feat. Young Jeezy).” While the hip-hop/pop favorite is not in as extremely heavy rotation as it was at other times in the past year, it is definitely still a staple on the airwaves. I would guess that many of you have heard it – and many of you have switched stations or turned the radio off, mourning the days of “good” music. This song is actually really “good” music, but there is a lot to unpack.

Usher is almost like a black Justin Timberlake...or maybe Justin is like a white Usher. Regardless, they both follow (pretty closely at times) in the footsteps of the superior Michael Jackson, while still managing to be established entertainers on their own. Like JT, Usher seems to treat his image with care. He wants to come off as cool, soulful, sexy, and sensitive, but also have a hint of badass credibility.

I haven't heard any full albums by the 5 time Grammy winning R&B star, but based on his radio singles he seems pretty consistent. He usually seems like the most collected and respectable guy of whichever group he is hanging with. Take his song “Yeah!” for example. He spends most of it yelping “yeah / yeah” in a falsetto and singing things like “next thing I knew / she was all up on me / screamin' 'yeah, yeah.'” He leaves the animalistic calls of “what?!”, “ye-uh!!”, and “okaay!” to his comrade Lil' Jon. And the most ridiculous lines of the song come out of Ludacris's mouth, “We want a lady in the street, but a freak in the bed.” Usher comes off looking like the least womanizing one of the bunch. After all “she” is the one to blame for getting it on. All he was doing was looking hot and putting out the vibe in the club. And he's so sensitive. Remember his “Confessions”?

But this post is about “Love In This Club,” Usher's eighth number one single. The incredibly infectious and memorable 1 5 6 4 chord progression is played throughout the song on a synthesizer while a piano seems to follow with 8^th or 16^th note arpeggios of each chord. Throw this over a kickin' hip-hop beat and you have a major pop hit. Definitely not the most inventive song, but well arranged and produced nonetheless.

I'm going to do a step by step analysis of the song following the lyrics. While it would be immensely fun to apply Freud and the whole male/female, viewer/viewed dynamic of film and art to this song, I'm going to try to keep it simple. Instead of listening to the song in the role of the female character in Usher's club world (This would mean Usher singing to me, wooing me, wanting to make love with me. Not me, Christopher per say, but me the person in the shoes of the imaginary female in the song.), I chose to listen from the perspective of a non-participating third-person voyeur (which is how we listen to songs 99% percent of the time) who has never heard the song before.

For this to make the most sense you will need to hear the song. You can stream it here http://thenotes.tumblr.com/post/94587275/usher-ft-young-jeezy-love-in-this-club.

Here goes. (Lyrics in bold)

 

Spoken: “Gotta do it for the ladies, And I gotta keep it hood, Where we at Polo? Aye” 

Typical opening babble, creates some hip-hop atmosphere, establishes Usher's attitude.

"You say you searchin' for somebody

That'll take you out and do you right

Well, come here, baby

And let daddy show you what it feel like"

Rather Michael Jackson so far – not the strange controversial Michael Jackson, but the romantic pop guy from Thriller. Lines like 'do you right' and 'show you what it feel like,' while sexual, allow for an element of mystery and romance to them. He's not being explicit. So, if I give him the benefit of the doubt, this far it's still a love song – kind of refreshing compared to all the “I wanna slap yo booty, get low shorty, superman that ho, crank that, etc.” crap that is commonplace for mainstream hip-hop and club music these days. I start to suspect the song might get a bit inappropriate (especially with that outrageous synth melody), but at this point it's still loosely in the sexual territory of Marvin Gaye's “Let's Get It On.” Mature, but relatively tasteful.

“You know all you gotta do is

Tell me what you sippin' on

And I promise that I'm gonna keep it comin'

All night long”

That last line could be interpreted sexually, but considering many clubs are open until 5:00—even 6:00—in the morning, I'm willing to believe he is really just talking about providing constant refills of her drink. What a gentleman...maybe.

“Lookin' in your eyes while you on the other side

And I think that shorty I've got a thing for you, yeah

Doin' it on purpose, windin' and workin' it

I can tell by the way you lookin' at me, girl”

So they're making a connection, making eyes. Flirting, dancing around the obvious attraction. Alright so far.

"I wanna make love in this club, yea

in this club, yea, in this club, yea, in this club

I wanna make love in this club, yea

in this club, yea, in this club, yea, in this club"

Woah. Okay. There it is. Rather obvious, but still the phrase “make love.” I'm not personally feeling the romance, but it's conceivable. “Make love” sound emotional and spiritual, not just carnal. I picture candles, maybe soft music. Then again they are in a club (noisy, smelly, crowded), but still it's plausible. At least I get the feeling Usher means it to be legitimately romantic.

“I see you got some friends rollin' with you

Baby, then that's cool

You can leave them with my homies

Let 'em know that I got you

If you didn't know

You're the only thing that's on my mind

'Cause the way I'm starin' at you

Got me wantin' to give it to you all night

Lookin' in your eyes while you on the other side

I can't take it no more

Baby, I'm comin' for you

You keep doin' it on purpose windin' and workin' it

If we close our eyes it could be just me and you”

In light of the chorus we just heard this second verse is definitely sounding more explicit. I'm having complete and utter difficulty trying to make this work in my head. It's not feeling romantic, and I'm really doubting Usher is looking for anything more than literally “doing it” in a crowded noisy sweaty club. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. If he repeated the chorus a couple times and ended the song, it would still be mildly clean (and even ever so slightly romantic) compared to most radio hip-hop songs about clubs and sex.

So then he goes into the chorus again “I wanna make love in this club, etc.” and as he's coming out of it Young Jeezy (who's is actually a rather talented rapper) busts on the scene and uses thuggish flow and gangsta cadence to obliterate any remaining hint of romance or sensitivity that this ridiculous song had left (if it was ever fooling anyone to begin with).

“Let's go! 

I'm what you want, I'm what you need

He got you trapped, I'll set you free

Sexually, mentally, physically, emotionally

I'll be like your medicine, you'll take every dose of me

 

It's goin' down on aisle 3

I'll bag you like some groceries

And every time you think about it

You gon' want some more of me

 

About to hit the club

Make a movie, yeah rated R

Pulled up like a trap star

That's if you have yo' regular car

 

You ever made love to a thug

In the club with his sights on

'87 jeans

And a fresh pair of Nike's on

 

On the couch, on the table

On the bar or on the floor

You can meet me in the bathroom

Yeah, you know I'm tryin' go”

Holy cow! This is for real! "Bag you like some groceries?" Every one of my worst fears about this song is coming true. Usher somehow still has his hands clean (after all it's this guest rapper who is really getting dirty), but the vibe is completely ruined. It's not like Usher had concocted much of a convincing fine dining experience, but Young Jeezy showed up to the banquet like a kid from McDonald's and shoved his face in the Bavarian creme pie!

Then it's back to Usher singing as smooth as ever – as if nothing has changed.   

“Might as well give me a kiss

If we keep touchin' like this

I know you scared baby

They don't know what we doin'

Let's both get undressed right here

Keep it up girl then I swear

I'mma give it to you non stop

And I don't care who's watchin'

Watchin', watchin'

Watchin', watchin', ohh

In this club, on the floor

Baby's let's make love”

Then a final chorus.

Wow. What an experience.