In Defense of Poppery, VIII: "RoboCop"

Pop example: Kanye West's "RoboCop"

What redeems it: This song is misogynist. Let's get that out of the way, first thing.

That said, we've likely come to expect this from rap in general, if we've read any feminist writing on the subject at all (or ever listened to any rap), and from Kanye West in particular. I mean, no one that I know of has ever said of "Gold Digger," "well, at least it's not sexist."

This isn't necessarily the best context to look at any popular song in, but it is worth mentioning -- if for no other reason than to set "RoboCop" against the more serious backdrop of, for example, El-P's "The Overly Dramatic Truth," in which the singer describes exactly what he'll do to the subject of the song if she doesn't "jet."

My defense of "RoboCop" comes down to one two-word sentence: It's funny.

From the sound of a sci-fi-like factory machine affixing rivets or bolts to an unidentified product (a car, maybe?) that's supposed to be the moving joints of Kanye's "RoboCop" girlfriend, to the soaring, pseudo-epic orchestration of the chorus, this song is clearly designed to make fun of overbearing women -- in particular, the "L.A. girl" Kanye finds himself involved with.

The question of whether Kanye's parole-officer-like girlfriend has a right to question his activities isn't presented seriously in the song. Kanye admits that he's made mistakes in the past, and reprimands his gf in part because she just "get[s] mad" when he tells her where he's been -- presumably with another woman. His answer is that she should stop asking.

Monogamy factors into many (or most) of Kanye's songs, though it's usually presented as an untenable or problematic setup for relationships. In "See You In My Nightmares," for instance, the narrator finds himself in the position of being cheated on, and protests -- but his "I thought we were committed" is spoken in such an Urkel-esque voice that it satirizes itself even as it expresses real pain. In "Gold Digger," Kanye's ode to the prenup, women are depicted as enemies to men's success...until the last verse, when Kanye joyously crows (or admits) that if she sticks by her man, the faithful woman is likely to be dumped "for a white girl."

This is the context for Kanye's "let's keep it lighthearted" perspective on his relationship with the "L.A. girl": Not keeping things lighthearted leads to trouble and heartbreak.

And in this way, form fits content. The "RoboCop" sounds are obviously meant to mock the girlfriend, but they also mock the song, whose premise is ridiculous to begin with. The addition of an orchestra adds gravitas and the sense that the song transcends its cultural milieu and immediate context (the way an emotional film score helps the viewer to suspend disbelief enough to become absorbed in the picture); the funny thing about this is that the song never does transcend its subject, which is quotidian, tedious and narrow.

The girlfriend's obsessive focus on Kanye's activities, set into the expansive orchestral background, seems even sillier than it does as Kanye sings about it.

Kanye sews up his diminution of his gf and her concerns with his talking at the end: "Just an L.A. girl / Just a spoiled little L.A. girl...[Laughing] That was a good one. You haven't had a good one in a long time."

But Kanye's singing about this issue, despite his lightheartedness and ironic take on it, makes him complicit in treating it like a serious situation, too. His mockery of his girlfriend for what he says is not an issue proves that it is. He satirizes himself by making much of the chorus, set over the epic orchestral lines, a repetition of the word "okay." The narrator is portrayed more as flabbergasted by his girlfriend's behavior than hostile.

This self-satirizing doesn't go so far as to admit that Kanye is just as much involved in the situation as his gf is, but it is present enough to allow listeners to transcend the song -- "wow, this is a silly song on a silly subject, and involving silly people" -- while still being able to identify with Kanye (or, alternatively, with his girlfriend).

3.5 trips around the Sunset Strip.