Willow Smith -- "Whip My Hair" (2010)

I whip my hair back and forth

I whip my hair back and forth (whip it real good)

I don't know if Willow Smith ever heard of Devo, but these lines certainly remind me of that very odd band's 1980 hit, "Whip It."  (Here's the official music video for "Whip It.")

I'm betting that Willow Smith has never heard of Devo, because Willow Smith -- the daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith is barely TEN YEARS OLD.  (She was NINE YEARS OLD when the song was recorded.)  This song made it to #11 on the "Billboard Hot 100," and she is the youngest solo artist in history to have a song do that well.

Willow Smith (from the "Whip My Hair" video)

The chorus of this song grabbed me the second time I heard it.  The rest of the song is nothing special, but that chorus is irresistible.  I don't think this is a song I'll be listening to in six months or a year, but right now it's guaranteed to make me crank up the volume every time it comes on my car radio.

Someone has labeled "Whip my Hair" a "sass anthem," and that's a perfect description.

The music video for this song is totally bizarre.  Note Willow's fake lip and eyelid piercings -- at least, I hope they are fake.  (Are there people who have real piercings like these?  I have a feeling there are, and that makes me ask whether I should just stay in my house with the doors locked after dark from now on.)

There is what purports to be an alternate mix of this song featuring Nicky Minaj.  It is very difficult to listen to more than two songs on a rap/R&B station these days with hearing a song "featuring" Nicki Minaj.  I assume she has done solo recordings, but her real forte is the one-verse guest appearance on another artist's song.

I'm really not exaggerating when I say that there must be a couple of dozen "featuring Nicki Minaj" songs currently on the radio.  This woman is everywhere.  

Nicki Minaj

There's a reason for that.  She has a very distinctive voice (she spent the first five years of her life in Trindad and Tobago) and has great timing.  Plus she is amazingly hot -- a bigger and better ass than Jennifer Lopez or what's-her-name Kardashian ever dreamed of. 

We'll be exploring Nicki's oeuvre in more detail in a future post.  I don't know much about her, but I do know that veteran rapper Lil' Kim is not a fan.  Lil' Kim had this to say after a performance in Queens, Nicki's home: "I got more love for Queens than this b*tch do.  I will erase this b*tch's Social Security number!"  

The version of "Whip My Hair" that supposedly features Nicki is a fake -- someone took a verse from a song she released a year ago and inserted it into Willow's song.  (Some of Nicki's lines -- e.g., "I grabbed my juicy" -- are not exactly suitable for inclusion in a song by a nine-year-old.  Of course, some people would say that a nine-year-old has no business being in the "Whip my Hair" music video.)

Here's a short video of a photo shoot featuring Nicki in various provocative poses and her verse from the fake version of "Whip My Hair." 

Here's a link you can use to buy "Whip My Hair" from iTunes:

Here's a link for Amazon: