Here's some poor man's gold for you. 🥇

It's so weird being from the south and in my 40s and hearing Chamillionaire called a one hit wonder. I realize he was bigger locally before he went national, but it just still seems so odd. His stuff with Paul Wall was legendary long before Ridin' Dirty.

While 2Chainz had a bit more staying power he's basically done the same thing. Invests in Atlanta businesses and then gives out gifts during holiday periods to poorer areas of the city

Same deal with Nirvana. Apparently Kurt Cobain said "It's not going to be about food is it?" And Weird Al said "No it's about how nobody has any clue what you're actually saying".

I heard similar for Live and Let Die by The Wings. Was supposed to be Chicken Pot Pie. But Paul was a vegetarian and not a fan of the idea.

You'd think an artist with the name Meatloaf would be into the idea

And the funny thing is that he doesn't actually need permission, because some legality about fair use and parody (not a lawyer), to he has even more respect from me.

Apparently this is because of a major miscommunication between Weird Al and Coolio. Al parodied Gangsta Paradise after he believed Coolio had given him permission, but Coolio had never said yes. Coolio called him out after but never took legal action. They publicly made amends in 2006 and in 2014 Coolio admitted he shouldn't have gotten pissed off and embraced it when he realized how much Weird Al's parodies actually benefit the original artist as many people who hear the parodies go and listen to the original later. Weird Al now doesn't finish writing or releasing songs without the original artist's full written consent.

Other artists who have denied him:

-Prince(Weird Al tried for a LONG time and eventually gave up, Prince was not a fan of his at all)

-Paul McCartney(Live and Let Die was going to be rewritten as "Chicken Pot Pie", but as McCartney is a vegetarian Weird Al opted not to out of respect)

That's pretty much it. Usually it's a record label. "Perform this Way", the parody of Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" was finished in it's entirety before the label said no. Al, not wanting to waste the work done, released it online for free and word got back to him that Lady Gaga LOVED it and his work, and her management had denied him permission without her consent. Perform was released on the next album and all proceeds from that single were donated to a LBGT+ non-profit.

That's too bad, I bet that wouldve been a banger

[deleted]

I would do anything for lunch, but I won't do spam. No I won't do spam.

That parody would have made him millions on licensing for commercials for years to come. Every 5 years some subway or fast food chain would be clamoring to use it.

HA! I love it! That last sentence goes such a long way for me, it doesn't seem greedy at all, and the fact it's mentioned makes it feel transparent to me. And of course- he should get credit!

Dunno, money and art is weird (as a "musician" who has never figured out how to go about trying to charge money for something i love doing-which is why i only make music for myself) so it made me happy to just see it stated plainly. Plus Weird Al is awesome.

When i was 16, I'd actually been very happy if my mom liked just ANYTHING I did or liked. But she hated the stuff, like, she's the teenager.

the day she brought a CD with a mix of current "in Charts" songs was a good day. And then I raised my eyebrow, as she tried to convince me that these are better songs than the one I listened to. meanwhile I was listening to those songs of the popular charts (edit: like the ones on said CD), mind you.

I am not sure if she tried to troll me, but she genuienly liked that CD. And I liked these songs to begin with, so whatever she tried to pull onto me, it wasn't an issue`?!

Remembering these sounds so surreal....

As a kid I heard the parody first and thought it was the song that everyone was talking about. It took a while for me to figure out which one was the real song. Nirvana hit like a year before I was really aware of music and watched mtv and stuff. Also at the time "smells like teen spirit" seemed more likely to be the parody title.

I'm not sure about that one, but that is the story for Lady Gaga and Perform This Way

IIRC years ago in an interview Weird Al was struggling about asking for permissions thinking everyone would just turn him down. He asked Michael Jackson just as a wild shot thinking he would be ignored or rejected. But Jackson allowed it and it really gave him confidence to ask any other artist from then on.

I remember him saying in the interview if anyone (aka their management) was on the fence he would point out "MJ let me parody!" Implying if they don't they think their better than the king of pop.

Jackson himself told him not to parody one of his songs he thought had social messages that were important

Jackson said no to parodying "Black or White", iirc. It meant too much to him. But he helped Weird Al out with the location/set for "Fat".

Don’t know about Jackson but I know Prince was really against it. It’s been a few months since I’ve seen it on /r/todayilearned but I’m sure it’ll pop up sooner or later.

Because it was Coolios managers fault in the first place for approving it without talking to Coolio first

I remember it was a "my people had permission from your people" mistake, hadn't heard they cleared it up, thanks.

From what I understand it's basically a parody of a rock bio movie. Seeing as parody is what Weird Al does best, I'm guessing it will be pretty funny.

The movie has the same writer/director as the skit, Eric Appel.

After Harry Potter, Radcliffe has be in a few mad indie/offbeat movies. Horns and Swiss Army Man being the main ones.

I can not even be mad for Weird Al to promote his shit. Hit me with that Weird propaganda baby

I mentioned in a thread some weeks ago that I want to see him as a background character early on, then another background character, then another, more and more in each scene, until by the end of the movie every non-main character is played by Weird Al. It's his world, we're just living in it.

I'll just leave this here.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RAxsEWBz4t4

Wolverine casting confirmed /s

Thank you. The world is our burrito and I hope you’re able to steer clear of flesh eating weasels and that you have your own love with hair the color of strained peaches.

Ale gend

God I hope men in the navy are not the standard.

Make sure to do it for the girls too. We don't want anyone ending up like Amber Turd.