April 2009 Song of the Month: N.A.S.A – Gifted

I struggled with April’s song of the month, “Gifted,” which appears on the album  Spirit of Apollo by N.A.S.A.  N.A.S.A (North America / South America) is a project of Sam Spiegel aka Squeak E. Clean and  Brazilian DJ Zego spent five years assembling a gang of artists spilling across genres.

Performers on this record include:  George Clinton, David Byrne, Cee-Lo, Seu Jorge, Sean Lennon, RHCP, Tom Waits, Ol’ Dirty, RZA, Method Man, oh and Kanye West.

The struggle with choosing “Gifted” was that Kanye is on the track.  I was into Kanye before he failed his Bonnaroo performance so miserably in 2008.  Since then, I’ve felt the inclination to leave a room where his music is playing at a party.

Then South Park came and swatted Kanye down this past week.  It was a public thrashing that no one else could deliver, because he admitted to bad behavior and said “I need to just get past myself.  Drop the bravado and just make dope product.”

Speaking of the astounding effect of animation, the music video forGifted is an awesome work by Three Legged Legs.  Done in just three weeks, they put together a story of a crashlanded spaceman stuck on a deserted planet.  It has a sort of a Heavy Metal feel only scarier.  A full writeup on the video is available on their website.  They also have a full HD version available for download.

Congrats to everyone who went into creating Gifted and for Kanye for just barely not screwing it up for everyone.