I love hip hop and rap music. As a writer and producer myself, the power of the art form has inspired me personally to fearlessly speak the truth no matter what. Music is the rhythm that keeps my heart motivated to continue forward for every waking moment of time and paints the soundtrack to my everyday life. With this said, the recent release of a remix to an old classic is some of the most cringeworthy expression I have personally heard in my entire life. 

The new song, “Vax That Thang Up” is a remix to the song “Back That Thang Up” with features from Juvenile, Mannie Fresh and Mia X. It is an advertisement to help inspire people to go and get vaccinated, while also serving as a promotional piece for a new dating app online. The intention here is to use sex to sell vaccination efforts, in a time where vaccination numbers are in steady decline.

Now, do let me say that I am not an anti-vaxer. I believe that everyone should have the freedom to choose whether or not the vaccine is a good option for them as individual humans. I am happy that a solution exists to be offered to the public. Those with weaker immune systems or that are more susceptible to the effects of the covid 19 virus should be happy that an option exists. There are those who have naturally stronger immune systems that may choose not to take the vaccine, as their potential to have adverse effects from the virus are considerably lower. Not only that, but to those who have already survived the virus, it is shown by science that natural immunity is built within for those people. Vaccinated people shouldn’t be worried about those who choose not to have the vaccine, for if they get vaccinated they have that defense already within their system against the virus. Really, it comes down to for each to their own.

The new song though, to me, personally, is about as silly as it gets. Nothing against any of the artists featured on the track, as hopefully they all got paid very well for the exercise. Still though, I have to say that I am not sure that I have ever heard a song so lame. This comes at a time when efforts are being spoken of to go door to door to convince the public to take the vaccine, and I am not for that honestly. Again, I believe everyone should have the freedom to choose for themselves about the vaccine. Everyone knows about it and we do not need additional advertisement to convince us of it existing. Everyone knows about the virus. Everyone knows about the vaccines. Now it is just on the people themselves to make decisions on what is best for themselves and for their families. 

The Guardian calls the song, “a fun, funny and creative solution to a major obstacle to defeating the Covid 19 pandemic.” That praise, in itself, is also lame to me. Rap is about being real, and if this is what is real in the modern world, I am not even sure what else to say.

Some of the lyrics go, from Juvenile, “Before you find a date, yeah, you gotta wait, yeah / Gotta go vaccinate yeah, get it straight, yeah”. From Mannie Fresh, “Girl, you can be the queen after quarantine / We can meet up at the spot and we can do the thing”. From Mia X, “ If you wanna get sticky and hot / Go, go, go, go get the shot”. 

On second thought, maybe that is real. At least for them. If people want to restrict themselves to relationships only to others who have been vaccinated first, I suppose there is nothing wrong with that. Again, to each their own. 

I just find the whole thing strange and silly, but hopefully a well paid gimmick. Everyone can get vaccinated as they please, just don’t hate on others for supporting natural health and the freedom to choose as well. I still have love for all three of the artists on the song, and have been specifically a fan of Mannie Fresh for a long while. That won’t change. But I do call things like I see it, and to me, this is just lame. 

You can find the song on Youtube for free if you want to check it out. If you want to hear something else real from a different perspective, feel free to search out my new album I released this month called “Robot Duality” by M4ch1n3, an album about America, freedom and the future of technology. Another shameless plug, I know, but you can find the album on all streaming platforms now. If I didn’t continue to share my own work myself online, it would all be buried in the internet and covered up from folks knowing that it even exists out there. If you’d like to hear something different, it exists. If you want to hear the vaccine rap, it exists as well.