Blame It - Jamie Foxx's new music video

No matter what you may think of the skills of Jamie Foxx as a singer, you have to give him credit. The man is big enough from his acting career that he is able to pull out the stops. His latest album features the song Blame It - the video of which puts many entertainers to shame.

The music video is a collection of some of the top entertainers of the past several decades. Ron Howard, Morris Chestnut, Jake Gyllenhaal, Samuel Jackson, Quincy Jones, Forest Whitaker, among several other stars all appear prominently in the video. Oh, there is also T-Pain, who sings on the track. There are enough stars in this one music video to start an awards show.

But having the power to attract big names for a music video does not mean that the song itself is good. Luckily Foxx can sing. Which elevates the song. It has a message which unlike contemporary songs is not overly graphic or over the top with sexual lyrics (though it's not a choir boy song either). That is up until T-Pain starts his part. Then it gets far more graphically explicit.

The title gives you a pretty good idea where the song is going anyway so there are no real surprises. Still the video avoids the mostly naked, butt gyrating theme most videos of this lyrical nature would inspire. A bit of class never hurts, and can be among the reasons so many stars agreed to be available.

The beat is smooth and reminiscent of older R&B, nothing hits you to glaringly - except for the dramatic shift during T-Pain's section. Then again, that's what T-Pain is on the song for. While this may not be the top selling song of the year, I can see how this can do well in a club on Saturday night. I have no doubt it will get people on the dance floor, and massive airtime on the radio. There is just one riff - the stuttering of the word alcohol - that just irks me. But that is a personal irritation, which many may not even notice.

The 2 things that I left the video with are: Who is the Panda? Yes there is a person with a panda head dancing in the video - how often do you get to see that? And if I read it right, the little sister of Jamie Foxx was just introduced to the world in this video as one of the featured dancers of the video. Which I though was a sweet thing to do.

Success in Hollywood - Cosby style

Child stars are notorious for their pitfalls as they grow older. Alcoholism, drugs, early deaths and a lot of jail time seem consistent in all their lives. But there are exceptions like Ron Howard, Drew Barrymore (once she passed the low road mentioned previously), Jessica Alba, Tatyana Ali, Christina Applegate, Sean Austin, and others make up for the far more prevalent Danny Bonaduce’s of the Hollywood machine.

But one thing that I have noticed is that there is only one program from television where all the child actors have gone on and become professionals of high standing. Only one show I can think of where ever child actor has not succumbed to drugs and violence and self-destruction. And that is the actors from The Cosby Show [ok, Lisa Bonet was a bit touch and go for a while but then she calmed down – like Barrymore].

Each of the original, and then subsequent, child actors has gone on to do further work in Hollywood. Several have had multiple hits, like Malcolm-Jamal Warner who has been in Jerimiah and Malcolm & Eddie. This says nothing of his directing and musical abilities.

Tempestt Bledsoe has been in constant work, after she got a degree in finance from NYU. Her most recent appearance was on TNT’s Raising the Bar.

Raven-Symoné Christina Pearman is still huge, though on the Disney channel and this time starring in her own show.

Sabrina Le Beauf (far older during the show but still a child actor/young adult) owns an interior design company, and is a graduate of UCLA and Yale School of Drama.

So you may be wondering who is left.

Keisha-Knight Pulliam. If you don’t recall then name check the video (I like this version better)



Yep I mean Rudy. What has she been up to?

Well she is going to be starring in the next Tyler Perry film Madea Goes to Jail. Considering that Perry is at no loss for talent when it comes to his highly successful films, that says something about Pulliam. Add to that the fact that she has not been in a single headline for any negative and you have a full house with a queen to spare. I call that impressive.

By the way, Pulliam is not just starring in the film. She is departing from the Rudy character and really showing some depth as her role is the least likely to be expected. I’ll keep the suspense going but here is a trailer of the film



and here is what the play was like



So this could be a breakout role.

All in all it’s pretty impressive to see that so many have done so well off of one show. It seems that Dr. Cosby knows what he’s talking about.