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Posted by Dave
Rap News Network
8/4/2006 7:11:46 AM
Tags and topics realted to this article include Eamon. Hip Hop, Rap and New Releases.
By the age of 9, singer/songwriter Eamon was performing doo-wop across the Northeast U.S. as a member of his dad’s oldies review, learning to appreciate the legacy of acts like the Coasters, the Drifters and the Platters. Less than a decade later, he was filling stadiums around the world with now-generation hip-hop flavored anthems, charged by his own woman-done-me-wrong global smash “F**k It (I Don’t Want You Back).” His term for the unique blend of influences: “Ho-Wop.”
“There’s a lot more similarity between doo-wop and hip-hop than most people would think,” says Eamon (pronounced Ae-Mon). “They both started out on street corners—whether it was these doo-wop guys in the ‘50s and ‘60s or folks free styling in the ‘80s and ‘90s—as a genuine way for young people to express what they were feeling. I’ve experienced both sides; I feel like an old-school dude in a young person’s body.”
Eamon continues to apply his musical stamp to current pop culture with full-length second chapter Life Is Good due this fall on Jive/Zomba. The album’s lead single “(How Could You) Bring Him Home,” was produced by Happy Perez (Frankie J), with a video clip directed by Lenny Bass.
At 22, Eamon still has plenty of vim and in-your-face vigor that authenticates his Staten Island, N.Y., roots—but he has also matured as a singer, punctuating his Everyman point of view with a more thoughtful lyrical approach and a dexterous musical template that will surprise those who dared to consider him a one-trick pony.
“A lot of songs the last time were recorded was I was 16 to 19,” says Eamon. “When I wrote ‘F**k It,’ I was hurting and I think it hit a spot in people who weren’t used to a guy that had the nerve to express himself like that. I’m just like everybody else… I’m just telling it straight from the heart. People go through break-ups every day, and that’s the way they really talk. They might have been shocked, and maybe I wouldn’t make the effort to be as offensive this time, but it’s on point with the realness, you know?”
“I Don’t Want You Back” appeared an unlikely bid for radio success with its middle-finger send-off to a girl who was caught cheating (with its unforgettable refrain: “F**k what I said, it don’t mean s**t now/f**k the presents, might as well throw ‘em out/F**k all those kisses, it didn’t mean jack/F**k you, you ho, I don’t want you back”). In the U.S., the track spent nine weeks at No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100 Singles Sales and hit the top 10 at both top 40 and rhythmic radio in 2003. The song sold 4 million singles worldwide and the accompanying debut album, “I Don’t Want You Back,” was certified gold.
Overseas, the story grew even bigger. Eamon’s message wowed the world, scoring gold or platinum status in Italy, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Norway and Switzerland. In Europe, he received the Festival Bar award in 2004 as the most successful international artist of the year. According to top40-charts.com, Eamon had the most-played song of the year, based on a worldwide sample of 2,650 top 40 playlist charts throughout 2004.
Ironically, Eamon was a tough sell when first shopping for a record contract. Manager Nat Robinson shopped the young artist to every major label, all of whom acknowledged his talent—and noted interest—but ended up declining, because they couldn’t envision how to break his obvious first single.
“They just couldn’t get the concept,” Robinson explains. “They said, this is certainly different, this is a hit, but ultimately, they all passed on him.”
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