Pop Shots - What’s That Smell?

Welcome to your weekly dose of pop world musings. Covering all things pop culture, this week Pop Shots is hitting you with thoughts on everything from the smell of Grammy success, to what stinks at Wyclef’s charity, to the sweet scents of Snooki and JWOWW. Also, I make fun of Teen Mom multiple times for no reason whatsoever, and since it’s Pop Shots you know everything is seasoned with a little bit of attitude.

* The Grammy nominees were announced last week and, for all the major awards, a whole bunch of people who’ve already been rewarded enough will once again be rewarded. The most interesting category looks to be Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical, which pits Skrillex against Afrojack and Deadmau5. If the Grammys wanted to be awesome they’d give us some of those acts as performers during the show. That little gramophone could use some fist pumps!

* Kanye West, in an ego filled clip on VOYR, which is a $5 a month streaming service that has decided to lead it’s sales pitch with this, mused that he hoped world leaders would be at his eventual funeral, a funeral that will not be happening due to any bouts with excessive humility. The world leaders he wants there aren’t just any world leaders, though, he wants world leaders who “were, like, affected, that said, you know, ‘Kanye gave me my shot here,’ or ‘he pushed me,’ or ‘he told me to believe in myself.’” Those are some heavy quotes I have a hard time imagining any world leader saying... unless he was about to marry a gold digger just as “Gold Digger” came on in the club, in which case, yeah, Kanye probably did him a solid.

* Wyclef is in a little bit of hot water. According to an article in the New York Daily News less than a third of the $16 million he raised for Haitian relief efforts actually made it to the emergency efforts. To be fair, Clef is used to taking more than his fair share from years of not bothering to pay Pras.

* Ladies, if you’ve ever watched an episode of Jersey Shore and thought “I’d really like to smell like that,” you are in luck! Both JWOWW and Snooki have released fragrances named after themselves. Surprisingly, the girls of Teen Mom haven’t found such marketing success. Then again, who wants to smell like dirty diapers and day old placenta?

* Country singer Mindy McCready probably won’t be receiving a “Worlds Greatest Mom” mug for Christmas, as her five year old son, whom she refused to bring back from Tennessee to Florida despite violating a custody agreement and a judge’s order, was found in Arkansas on Friday and returned to his legal guardian, his grandmother. It’s OK, though, McCready’s going to get another shot, as she says she’s pregnant with twins... and suddenly those girls on Teen Mom seem so much more well suited for parenthood.

* According to Michael Anthony Sullivan, Tommy Lee isn’t very fun to work for. The rocker’s former assistant filed a lawsuit against Lee and Lee's company, Mayhem Touring, claiming that he was worked 24/7, and that Lee made improper deductions from his paycheck. Sullivan also claims to have lost two tour-manager positions, with Godsmack and Bush, because of an alleged smear campaign created by Lee. There’s no word, however, on whether or not Lee made Sullivan “Get Naked.”

* Georgetown has decided to give its students a layup of a class with Sociology of Hip-Hop: Jay-Z. Taught by Michael Eric Dyson, who has written some really amazing books on hip-hop and culture, the course delves into the social commentary behind Hov’s lyrics. This course could also be called Obviousness 101. If Georgetown really wanted to create an interesting course based one emcee’s lyrics they really should have gone with Ghostface Killah.


And with that, my time is up for the week, but I'll be back next week with more shots on all things pop.