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Music

In Defense of Ray J's "I Hit It First"

On why the Kim Kardashian-dissing, Kanye-baiting "I Hit It First" is beautiful art, even if it's kind of evil and definitely sad.

Like a seagull taking a juvenile but still probably emotionally cathartic shit, Ray J dropped the video for "I Hit It First" upon the world yesterday. If you were wondering whether or not the track was a song-length subtweet to Ray J's ex Kim Kardashian, have no fear because the video stars a woman who looks exactly like Kim K and prominently involves a camera. To be fair, one of the main reasons we still think about Ray J is that he very confidently had sex with her in front of a camera, so it's understandable that he might be a bit insecure about the whole Kim thing.

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Naming the track "I Hit It First" and releasing the cover art—a thinly veiled visual reference to Kardashian—guaranteed that all eyes would be on him for when the song actually dropped. And amazingly, through Ray J's self-serving attention grubbing and tabloid baiting, one truth shines: "I Hit It First" is actually a pretty fucking amazing song. It's operating pretty clearly within the realm of the West Coast's ratchet sound, subtly stretching the admittedly limited constraints of the movement by incorporating this fun little talkboxy, electrofunk groove imported straight from the Roger Troutman era.

What's more, "I Hit It First" is actually sad as shit when you think about it, even if it's a diss to Kim. Like, he's saying his girl left him for another dude and he can't get over it, and his only defense mechanism is to sink to fuckboy juvenalia, slurking like someone on an Internet comment board priding themselves on having the first (and therefore most authentic and original) comment. When Ray J's saying, "You know I hit it first" to a faint echo of a chorus of dudes going, "OHHHHH!" in the background, I can't help but feel a little depressed. Like, Ray J's professional work is revealing his personal insecurities. That's art, man. Fuck.

Lastly, think of the impact that this video is going to have on Kanye West, who has legendarily thin skin and issued a random diss to Kardashian's ex Kris Humphries for having the audacity to marry Kardashian before he had a chance to date her. This honestly might deserve a hate-album or something. People are reporting that Kanye's new album is "finished" and "dark," whatever that means. Either way, if I were Ray J I would stay off the Internet in the next few months, because Kanye will has his revenge, and no matter how good "I Hit It First" is, whatever Kanye has up his sleeve will be terrifyingly perfect, because that's just how that dude does.

Drew Millard did not write this post; Bobby Brackens actually wrote it. He's on Twitter - @drewmillard