Album review: Black Eyed Peas, 'The Beginning'
1.5 stars (out of 4)
No contemporary pop group understands the power of cross-promotion, branding and product placement quite like the Black Eyed Peas, so it should come as no surprise that their latest single plays like a free ad for a 23-year-old song that most everyone already knows.
Audacity more than inventiveness drives “The Time (Dirty Bit),” the song that introduces the Peas’ sixth album, “The Beginning” (Interscope).
The single lifts its chorus from “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life,” the theme from the 1987 movie “Dirty Dancing.” It’s not the finest moment in the history of sampling. Rather, it’s reminiscent of the way MC Hammer copped Rick James’ “Super Freak” for the rapper’s 1990 hit “U Can’t Touch This” or Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs appropriated the Police’s “Every Breath You Take” for the 1997 smash “I’ll Be Missing You”: clumsy, obvious, crass.
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