I left work an hour and a half later than I was scheduled today, but I didn’t mind. It actually ended up being an okay thing because when I revved up my Lexus, the radio station (B96 – We Are Hip-Hop) played a song I hadn’t heard before – “Day Dreaming” by DJ Drama featuring Akon, Snoop Dogg, and T.I.

The track grabbed my attention from its first lyric:

Shirley Temple on ice

Pardonnez-moi, s'il vous plaît, I believe I may have misheard you, Monsieur Akon. Surely that frosty beverage was the oft-celebrated top-shelf champagne Cristal, or the urban-iconic cognac Hennessy, or Fergie Ferg’s beloved Grey Goose vodka, perhaps even a good-spirited reference to co-collaborator Snoop’s 1995 gin and juice homage. Ready to Tanqueray?

She makes it just right.
That extra grenadine got me feelin’ so nice.

Oh, you’re fucking serious?

I waited for the inevitable label-drop or even mention of nondescript rum or whiskey or whatever additive was sure to become the backbone of the next big gotta-order-it cocktail sensation, any excuse to “blame it on the a-aa-a-aa-alcohol” like Jamie Foxx and, you know, everyone in hip-hop.

It didn’t come.

But the chorus did.

( Clicking on this link will reveal considerable rumination on the evolution of hip-hop music, gender relations in the hip-hop community, the emotional and psychosocial interpretation of hip-hop culture by white suburbia, and, you know, stuff that's like that. )