Dated slang

Serge F. Kovaleski and Ian Urbina in the New York Times call Ashl3y Al3x4ndra Dµpré's "What We Want"* "an amateurish, hip-hop inflected rhythm and blues tune that asks, 'Can you handle me, boy?' and uses some dated slang, calling someone her 'boo'" (but Kovaleski and Urbina aren't the Times' regular r&b critics). I'd say that the arrangement is spare and needs better balance between voice and drum, but that it's not a bad arrangement, and the tune isn't bad at all either, nor is the singing. Not a hit, but a better song along these lines could be quite good, though not groundbreaking. Certainly prefer it to most of what I heard this week on American Idol. But then, I like hip-hop inflected rhythm and blues.

(And I'd be the last person to have an opinion on whether "boo" is outdated.)

She says the song is "really about trust, something my past has made very difficult for me to feel."

*EDIT: Her MySpace went down for a while, is now back up; anyway her music Webpage streams "What We Want" and "Move Ya Body."