please, PLEAASE!!

My continuous search for interesting hip hop blogs has shown that this is exactly what the internet is in major lack of. But yesterday, i found this very wideranging blog site called Digital Meltdown. As i was searching through the site's articles on hip hop, the following video suddenly caught my attention;



In the opening lines of his article in connection with this video, author Zer0_II" states the following:

"I was considering starting another blog to feature musical content that I wouldn't otherwise post on this blog, such as music videos. I may still go through with that plan, but since I've been using the myspace profile that I created for that purpose, I'm going to go ahead and postpone that plan for the moment. However I've decided that it's time to offer a bit of variety on this blog, and I think the best way to do that would be to offer the occasional video. So starting now, I'll be posting the best videos that I've recently discovered each week. I hope that you will enjoy my selections. You can find more on the Digital Meltd0wn MySpace blog. This week's Video of the Week is Paul Dateh & Inka One performing what is simply titled "Hip Hop Violin".

After reading the whole article, i went to musician Paul Dateh's website to listen to the record played in this video. Because i just had to confirm that this sounded as bad in full quality.

The violin traditions and the "contextual rules" that this instrument relies upon, has been challenged in many other, and often original, contexts. The use of the violin as an element in pop, rock and even heavy metal songs has in many cases proved successful, and they are all genres that fits this sound well. This video, however, is as far as i know one of the best examples of the reason why the violin should never EVER be included in a hip hop song again.

For me to like when a violin player hits the high notes would require a really good artist. Paul Dateh is good, but he isn't great. Now, the sound of the violin itself isn't alone what makes me wanna cry. It's a clear abuse of one of the most beloved effects in the history rock and heavy metal music; heavy distortion. This is a crime against the fine art of hip hop and, of course, absolutely non-suitable for violins. This especially becomes evident in the end of this video, when Dateh covers the Gnarls Barkley hit "Crazy". The distortion here emphasizes exactly what i think is so disturbing about the sound of the high tones from the violin, when played by someone not-so-good. If you are in lack of speakers to hear this sample; picture a fork scratching hard against a porcelain plate x 10.

So, byZer0_II, what i wanna know at this point is obviously; exactly which part of this do you regard as good?