Adventures in Parenting #8: Can't Hold Us

So it may come as a surprise to most of you that, on occasion, I have been known to enjoy a little bit of hip hop. Not much, mind you; of the 10,510 songs on my iPod, I imagine hip hop/rap is responsible for maybe 150 entries and some of that is made up of Will Smith hits that can hardly be considered hip hop. I listen to a wide range of music, though, and occasionally a hip hop song catches my ear. And so it is with Macklemore. Now, I had heard Macklemore's last song, "Thrift Shop", a few times while flipping channels in my car on those days when I left my iPod at home and I HATED it. In fact, it cannot be overstated how much I hate that song. If given the option to listen to "Thrift Shop" five times or stab myself in the hand, I guess I'd probably choose to listen to the bloody song but I would really have to think about it. Awful. So I had written Macklemore off entirely. By chance, however, I happened to catch him on Conan singing "Can't Hold Us" a few weeks ago with Ryan Lewis rockin' the turntable and Ray Dalton dropping the chorus. And I kind of dug it. Then I heard it again and I really dug it. Then I grabbed it off of iTunes and listened to it a dozen times and it's been stuck in my head ever since. And I'm still not tired of it. The song has an infectious energy to it, a major prerequisite in good hip hop for me, and...well, what can I say, the performance was oddly enjoyable. See for yourself and pay particular attention to Mr. Dalton, the brother dressed as a milk man with a gold bowtie:

http://youtu.be/W5dDcA6M7JM

Lindsey is a bigger fan of the hip hop than I am and was pretty keen on "Can't Hold Us" from the get go. We talked about the performance on Conan several times before Cooper was born and decided that, in our family band version of "Can't Hold Us" (which is OBVIOUSLY a thing that is going to happen since both of us are incredibly musical, right?), Cooper would be responsible for the chorus which calls for everyone to "Throw our hands up/Like the ceiling can't hold us." Since his arrival, we haven't been driving much and as such, my iPod has remained on pretty much the same playlist, meaning "Can't Hold Us" has been playing nonstop for the last four weeks every time we're in the car. Each time it gets started, one of us will usually turn to Cooper, asleep in the backseat, and demand that he sing his part. I don't know why, we just do it.

Well, yesterday I came into the room to find Cooper in this state:

I am left with only one conclusion: Cooper was so concerned with fulfilling the expectations that we so unfairly placed on him that he fell asleep working on his part of the song. Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is dedication. At this point I feel pretty good about him nailing his part but unfortunately that means Lindsey and I have some serious work to do.

Dibs on the turntable, Brian