“Ice Box” by Omarion ft. Timbaland, Tuesday, July 18, 2023
I GOT MEMORIES. THIS IS CRAZY. Chris Molanphy described Virginia-bast artists Pharrell, Timbaland, and Missy Elliot as three nerds who "added quirk" to the modern hip-hop sound. These talented musicians didn't just work in hip-hop, but also helped to craft pop and R&B. Take for example Timbaland's contribution to pop music. From creating a mature sound for former *NSYNC leader Justin Timberlake to reinventing Nelly Furtado, to introducing the world to OneRepublic, Timbaland's production skills in the '00s were like no other producer's at the time. Omarion's first two releases, O and 21 contain some of the singer's most famous songs, and the jointly-produced "Ice Box" is Omarion's highest charting song to date. Peaking at number 12 on Billboard's Hot 100, "Ice Box" highlights Omarion's smooth vocals. Produced by The Royal Court, a production team founded by Timbaland and Solomon "King" Logan. Lyrically, the song deals with becoming numb to love, but the speaker is at a critical moment realizing that he has become numb.
I'M SO COLD. I know "Ice Box" not from Omarion's 2006 hit, but rather from Punk Goes Pop, Vol. 2, released in 2009, though I didn't listen to the album until years after that. I had listened to the first Punk Goes Pop record years before trying Volume 2, mainly for all of the Tooth & Nail bands featured on the record, but I was disappointed by the lack of quality. Then I tried Punk Goes Metal and Punk Goes Acoustic, Punk Goes '80s, and Punk Goes '90s, and Punk Goes Crunk. Punk Goes '90s was the best, I thought with a few fun songs on Punk Goes '80s. Punk Goes Metal was boring because I didn't know the original songs or care about the bands covering them. The worst, though, was Punk Goes Crunk. The compilation was full of punk bands ruining classic hip-hop tracks from the '90s. Sure, The Secret Handshake's cover of Skee-Lo's "I Wish" was enduring, but other tracks with the mostly gentrified genre of pop-punk covering songs by black artists, sometimes not changing the lyrics when a white artist really should have, definitely wouldn't have been recorded today. But as for Punk Goes Pop, there was a drastic shift in production quality between the first installment and the second. While many of the bands on the later Punk Goes compilations never really made a mark on the scene, there are still some interesting arrangements. Take for example, a cover of today's song by There for Tomorrow. Keeping the R&B beat and the slow guitar, singer Maika Maile sings the song with the conviction like he wrote it (fortunately, he changed the lyric to "friends") and the band makes the song their own. While There for Tomorrow is no longer together, Maile's pipes live on as a solo pop act. So today, I post both versions of "Ice Box." I love both of them.
Music video:
There for Tomorrow Cover:
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