In Defense of Justin Bieber & Chance the Rapper’s “Confident” Posted by Lucas G. on 12/09/13 | Filed under Opinion, Justin Bieber, Chance The Rapper, In Defense

Back in 2004, when I wasn’t busy watching Napoleon Dynamite or Shrek 2, you could find be blasting “Hey Ya” in-between Maroon 5 and Kelly Clarkson. While I am ashamed of most of my popular culture selections, except Kelly Clarkson (Since U Been Gone is and forever will be fire), I was 16; what the fuck do you want from me. The teens out there might not be able to understand, but I’m sure anyone who is a little older would likely cringe at his or her 16 year old self. Nobody who is 16 years old knows anything about anything, so its hard to judge right? Well, how come we don’t afford Justin Bieber that same leeway? He might only be 19 and still acts like a doofus (I mean look at that fucking hat!) but can we please stop treating him like he is a 16-year-old bubblegum pop singer? I think with his new single, “Confident” featuring Chance The Rapper should go a long way in proving the Biebz deserves a little respect.

To describe how I feel about Bieber, I will go the route we often go, a food analogy. For a good 23 years I despised Swiss cheese. There are a few foods I have on my never under any circumstances will I ever eat ever list and Swiss cheese was high up there; tired it once, hated it, and swore it off forever. Recently I got some slammin' sandwich only to realize that there was Swiss cheese on it after eating. Since then, I have been selectively eating Swiss cheese and finding it isn’t a bad as I thought, especially when it has something to cover it up (steak is my favorite). Justin Bieber is essentially swiss cheese. There was a long time where I dismissed him because of “Baby” figuring that once he hit puberty he would be rendered useless and was nothing more than the flavor of the week for teenage girls. Recently however, I have been giving him more and more of a chance, and I have grown to appreciate him in some context.  Like Swiss Cheese, I am not sold yet--too many bad memories--but am reallt doing my best to give him a fair shake. Also like Swiss cheese I find he is best with something else. I actually gave his album a listen and was underwhelmed, but the songs that stand out to me are the ones where he works with a rapper or singer that can add a unique flavor to the song. In other words if it is just Biebz I’ll probably pass, but if he has someone like Drake, Luda, or in this instance, Chance serving as the anchor of the dish, I can get down with it.

“Confident” is the strongest effort from Bieber yet, and in fact, it showed me he might be more than just Swiss cheese. You might hate him, but vocally, he has a special sound. I hear a little bit of Trey Songz, a little bit of usher, and a lot a bit of JT in this song; his vocals have that same “pop” the others do while not feeling manufactured by the studio or too poppy. His vocals are really growing and so too is his sound. So much so that Chance, someone who wants to remain independent because he cares about authenticity and his creative control, is down to work with him. I don’t see Chance signing on with Bieber just to get radio play (he has already earned a bazillion fans this year) so that only lends me to believe that he thinks Bieber can sing...GASP!!! I never really pictured Chance as an R&B, more traditional beat kind of guy, but was thoroughly impressed with his verse. Similarly I was impressed at how well their sounds fit together. Also, the other way around, how cool is it that Bieber fucks with Chance? Doesn’t that count for something? Bieber and Chance aren’t the duo I think of when discussion collaborations, but both have energy and charisma that work really well with together. The other benefit is that Chance makes it cool to listen to this song, whereas you might have to sneak listens if it was just Biebz—can’t have your homies knowing you are down with this guy—so they have that working for them.

Still want to hate him? Fine, feel free, but you better get used to him because he ain't going anywhere. Recently, Biebz has taken a much more respectable path, working with some of hip-hop’s biggest names and while you might want to judge based on what he did when he was 16, it is time that you start to give him another shot. He has the voice, the name, the connections and the drive to be successful (hell, he already is) and now it looks like he wants to venture into the hip-hop and R&B world. If the rest of his work sounds like “Confident” are you going to continue to dismiss him?