The first time I felt a change in the air was when this record came out, in May 2001. Gwen Stefani was the front-woman for No Doubt, which was one of the most successful rock bands in the late nineties, and served as kind of a symbol for the dwindling of rock's power: a nice group, but not much more than that. The fact that this was a leading rock band displayed rock's miserable state, but rock still kept on considering itself as superior to hip-hop and dance, styles that at that stage were actually much more revolutionary, creative and exciting. Even when rock tried to open up and draw from hip-hop, with rap-metal bands like Kid Rock and Limp Bizkit, they remained entrenched in the logic of metal, and the result was painfully mediocre. But then came Gwen Stefani, and made the move that was previously unheard of: crossed the line, and adopted a hip-hop image. This record, in which she features for the rapper Eve, announced the switch, and made my ears prick up.
The video pricked me too. Stefani, who as a rocker was a cute but undistinguished blonde, reinvents herself here as a white girl behaving like a ghetto chick, with a bleached skanky look. This cheap image is completed with an impertinent, taunting expression, exactly the thing she was missing as a rocker. This was a different female attitude, which joined 'Lady Marmalade' and 'Bootylicious', which also came out at the time, and heralded a new era.
Another thing that made my ears stand was the incredibly funky production, and it came as no surprise to me when the guy who bailed Gwen and Eve out at the end of the clip was Dr. Dre. Stefani kept on working with hot black producers, and for a while continued to rock with No Doubt, combining both worlds. Later, she became one of the biggest pop stars of the decade, and a style icon. All the main ingredients of her style can already be found here: a perfect synthesis of dolly and trashy, and a the-whole-world-can-suck-it glance. Word, Biatch!
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