I have delved into TikTok lately. I find it funny, scary, fascinating, informative, and it makes me feel old. I’m turning 47 in two months. This app is used by young adults who are old enough to be my children. Despite this ancient feeling, it’s awfully entertaining.
Tik tok has turned into an experience I used to have while listening to the radio in the car. Tik tok is where I find new music and hear songs so often sometimes, i get sick of them. The newest song I have heard lately, which I am not sick of, not yet at least, is “Million Dollar Baby” by Tommy Richman. I have seen a number of tik toks featuring this song, with the question posed in text, “What is this genre?!” I don’t understand this question. Perhaps this is because I come from a different space and time from these young people.
The vocals are an homage to Curtis Mayfield, intentional or not. The song is one of the few examples of modern R&B with fully modern hip-hop beats in the background. I’m afraid R&B fell out of the mainstream maybe 15 years ago, as hip-hop fully ascended. However, there was a time when hip-hop and R&B were both big and exciting; that was the 1990s. Tommy Richman is a sort of throwback, but it is fully 2024 at the same time. The young people have not been exposed to the 21st-century equivalents of Jodeci, Ginuwine, and even a Mary J. Blige. Besides reminding me of Curtis Mayfield, Tommy Richman doesn’t sound like anything from the past. Somebody just as easily could’ve rapped over those beats instead of singing to them like he does. But alas, that falsetto voice is there, and as the kids say these days, I think this song is a banger.
Blue Thumb Music Collective 