Two days after "Ain't My Friend" by
Jessica Latshaw initially circulated, I'm still thinking about it. Kind of obsessing about it, truthfully. Why is it getting under my skin so much?!? I'm sure to 99% of the population, it's just a cute little video to pass along and forget. Today's cute little video. There'll be plenty others this week. But, I'm experiencing something similar to having a crush on someone—I'm even losing sleep over it! And while I'll admit a small degree of attraction to Jessica (I'm a sucker for girls in pigtails and plain old everyday clothes), it's more like I have a crush on what happened on that train.
For one, I don't usually like diva-style singers with big Broadway voices. And while I can get into a drum circle on occasion (Occupy!), it's not like I seek them out. I don't quite hate ukuleles, but it comes close sometimes and I know I'm not alone in this. The Zooey Deschenal backlash is in full swing. I don't particularly love it when musicians come and take over a car and the Hype Man does the whole "Ladies and Gentlemen" thing. But somehow, all these ingredients combining in this specific way, in this specific day has made for a deeply affecting work of art. And my theory is that the song, while truly great, is only part of what's being passed along by everyone. Every person in the subway car had an important role to play in this brilliant little NYC document.
When the video starts, we catch the tail end of Hype Man's freestyle introduction ("lady" rhyming with "ukelele" is cute, but I think he says "ukulaney"). "Watch carefully… I'm ooooout" is pretty awesome. This guy is such a performer. He immediately found exactly where the camera was and then mugs in that direction. Latshaw's ukelele starts playing and the viewer thinks, "Oh no, this can't be good." We try to forgive it, thinking "At least it's a sweet concept: the hipster girl jamming with the subway drummer (virtuoso percussionist Qdot, in this case). Rah rah rah... multi-culturalism, etc. etc." But really, we feel a bit embarrassed for her at first. "What could she possibly be thinking? Is she really just gonna play her whiny, fey, white girl hipster song for this audience?" We're bracing ourselves for a Rebecca Black-worthy train wreck.
But then as she starts singing, her voice hits us. Oh, okay. She's got some pipes. She knows what she's doing. All these thoughts are mirrored in the surrounding subway rider characters' faces—especially the White Sox cap guy, sitting uncomfortably close to everything, grimacing at first and laughing a little at Latshaw. But then, strum, strum, strum…! "See I don't really really wanna just be your friend…" Holy shit. She's rapping. She's doing a cute rapper voice. And she's pulling it off. There's nothing pathetic about this. She's brave!!! And she's got flow too. Classic 90s style hip hop flow. Okay, this is getting interesting.
Verse 1 is up and now it's back to the chorus, but who pops up? HypeMan again. "Remember where you heard it first, ladies and gentlemen!" Qdot can't believe what he's hearing. How hilarious is it that he's MCing this moment as if it's his own personal radio station. Selling it to us as it's happening. "Only in New York City! Unrehearsed! They don't even know each other!" Playing for the camera. (Let's take a second to compliment the cameraman on his work here. He followed the action beautifully and caught everything essential happening in that car within the brief 3:44). HypeMan continues to lay it down for posterity in the spur of the moment, probably knowing already that this will be up on YouTube within the day. That's a real showman. "Watch carefully! The grand finale!" I love how both times he kind of sneaks off to his seat like he's tiptoeing (maybe keeping his balance on the moving train, but it's totally endearing). Qdot is still cracking up and we see some more background New Yorker characters who could not give less of a shit as to what's transpiring. They have already seen it all. Nothing's gonna get them to look up. God, I love this city!
Back to Jessica. The three guys sitting right near her have been converted, interested grins on their faces. She wraps up the second chorus. Hype man shouting "take it to the bridge" and jumping in with some off-key "oh-oh-oh"s (that is some 90s hip hop styling y'all!!). By now, Qdot has the song down. Enough to add some sweet little accents leading to the second verse. Jessica's all the way warmed up, she can feel that she's made an impact. People are feeling it. She doesn't oversell though. Enthusiastic, fun delivery in that staccato rapid-fire rap style with some eye rolls and neck bobbing for effect. A pan all around the train to the rear of where Jessica sits reveals a typical NYC melting pot scene, as many nationalities as there are people. They all seem to be digging it!
Verse 2 builds to a close and some people already can't help applauding, but Jessica isn't done. She's got another full minute of singing to do, including possibly the best line of the song "I already got quite enough friends now, thank you, yeah. I'll be fine…" (A nice bit of prescience given her soaring Facebook friend requests over the last 48 hours). It's this moment when the camera man feels obliged to insert himself into the scene ("I was here! I saw all of this!"). Jessica strums several instrumental bars, letting the song settle back down. Final chorus is a little quieter, more plaintive at first, but then she lets loose some soul. Hype Man is right there on the "oh oh oh"s and Jessica smiles huge as he joins. Damn, their voices sound great together! Second "oh oh oh"s and Hype Man is on his feet, singing his heart out with her. She lands the whole song on the final bar and HypeMan gets the applause going (people take their hands out of their oversized hoodies to clap—that's respect!). Hype Man wraps the video with "…aaaand, cut, paparazzi!" which is hilariously mean to the one person who made this experience sharable. I'll say it again: I love New Yorkers.
Latshaw just wrote about the experience on her blog and revealed that the whole thing started as a flirtatious encounter. Either Qdot or HypeMan were asking her if she was carrying a cello and then asked for her number. ("Why don't you give me your number?" "So we can jam?" "Among other things.") She demurred, but said she'd take their number and she did. But when they got on the train, they convinced her to start playing with them on the spot. What makes the whole thing a truly remarkable performance is that Latshaw had the courage to say yes. Not only that, she was READY. This song was written, rehearsed (probably with a very different lineup) and waiting to be delivered to the right audience. It takes courage to do this, but I think outstanding courage to jam with guys who just hit on you. And I have to smile at the fact that she's singing "You Ain't My Friend," (to guys who only minutes ago basically told her they want to sleep with her) while MAKING FRIENDS with both of them. By the end of the song, you can imagine the smiles and hugs and mutual admiration between the 3 of them. She's not just a cute girl to chat up, she's a worthy musical peer. They're not just after her for her looks, they hand her the spotlight and amplify her talents. Isn't the friendship that was sparked in less than 4 minutes what really has us all watching this and spreading it?
One more thing. The fact that THIS turned out to be the moment the song was debuted for the planet (yes, the planet at this point), was, I'm guessing, nothing like Latshaw could have imagined. As a trained dancer and Broadway singer, she (in her own words) felt a little embarrassed to have been caught in her normal clothes, her hair in unpretentious pigtails, her leggings from exercise class still on, bags of groceries by her feet. But this is why we love the video and her! I can totally see record execs contacting her and putting her on TV and ruining the exact thing that people are responding to: an unscripted, deeply felt, moment in time that had nothing to do with glamor and polish, and everything to do with heart. Lucky for us, Latshaw seems to grasp this. In her blog post, she writes: "And the magical part is that, well, we all seem to truly be in the same place. This place filled with music. Either listening to it or making it–or both–we’re here. Sharing one space. Together. I am grateful. It was special... It involved every last person that was there; not any one of us could have made that happen alone. Like I said, together."
