BLACK EYED PEAS – “Hey Mama”

Dammit, it’s not like I didn’t have iPod envy as it is. The new ad campaign features silhouettes wearing iPods dancing to this song against a gigantic block of color. The ad is visually arresting, but the SONG! The energy alone is fantastic, propelling BEP firmly toward the forefront of the backpacker partyjam clique that they’ve inhabited since their major label debut. There isn’t anything revolutionary here (beyond of course the addition of a female singer to their ranks, making me wonder if they were big fans of the first season of P. Diddy’s Making The Band and showing that the distance between the “conscious backpacker” and the “chart-topping playa” is about as far as the distance between Madonna and Britney at the last VMAs), but the simple fact of the matter is you don’t have to be revolutionary to get people amped.