A rap right for our times

My hubby, Eric, and I got into an argument about T.I. while driving back from the Neil Diamond concert the other night. (I know, it's not typical to mix the Jewish Elvis and Atlanta's illest, but that's the poptimist life we lead.) "Paper Trail," Tip's sixth album, was in the car stereo, and we were admiring the shiny-sharp production from Drumma Boy, Toomp, Just Blaze and others, which sets up the rapper's coolly commanding flow on hit after soon-to-be hit -- the album's already produced three Billboard Top 100 winners, and it's been out only a week.

Foremost among T.I.'s current successes is "Whatever You Like," pop-rap's latest ode to throwing money around. The singsong rap was produced by Jim Jonsin, who also co-produced Lil Wayne's smash "Lollipop"; like that song, it's a rough guy's come-on, deceptively light in tone but with an undertow that represents its hero's driving need for conquest. With five nonconsecutive weeks topping the charts, it's T.I.'s most successful single ever.

It also just might be the perfect soundtrack for a nation in an economic tailspin.

Listening, Eric described the song as "sweet." I thought otherwise. He heard T.I.'s offer to shower goodies on his paramour -- Bentleys, top-shelf tequila, a ride in his gassed-up jet -- as an expression of joy similar to Nelly's still-irresistible 2001 favorite "Ride Wit Me" (who didn't love yelling "Must be the money!" that summer?). I couldn't take my ears off the lines he kept repeating about the girl: "I want your body, I need your body . . ." and more explicit ones too. To me, this sounded like a john's purchase. For Eric, it was a love song and a celebration of good fortune; the magnanimous gesture of someone who considers himself absurdly blessed.

Who was right? Upon further consideration, I think both of us were. And it's that tension that makes "Whatever You Like" more than just another bling litany. In fact, it's one of pop's strongest embodiments of the weird mood afflicting our nation right now.

T.I. starts off by announcing his rhyme as, possibly, a joke. "Hey Jim," he drawls to his producer, "you know them ol' sugar daddies. They be trickin', they tell them girls . . ." And that's when the chorus of offers begins. So this isn't even T.I.'s story. It's an amused account of seduction's age-old game of chance played by two -- a game all of us play, as lovers, but also perhaps as gamblers on other tables, like real estate or the stock market. Jonsin's production enhances the sporting mood. T.I.'s voice is multitracked, and when mixed with Ricco Barrino's nimble, high-pitched backing vocals, it sounds like a child's improvised song to himself. A noodling synthesizer line, like a toy's tinkle, playing against the drama of the sample from Bill Conti's "Redemption" (Theme from "Rocky II").