Video: “Chocolate Rain”

posted at 8:19 am on July 23, 2007 by Allahpundit

The perfect surreal note on which to start another long, long, long week. Anyone know the whole story on this? I know his name’s Tay Zonday, I know the clip was on YouTube for three months before suddenly going viral very recently, but that’s it. Opie & Anthony picked it up at some point (which prompted a call-in from the great man himself), but I can’t tell if they turned it into a phenomenon or came to it late like I did.

Like I say, the first clip is the one for which he’s famous — note the array of goof remixes piling up on the ‘Tube — but the second one, released four days ago after Zondaymania took the web by storm, is where he embraces the camp and deploys that basser-than-bass instrument of his to make pop magic. I like to think of him as what a young James Earl Jones could have done if he’d been an awful, awful singer/songwriter instead.

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Sidney Poitier Karaoke

trubble on July 23, 2007 at 8:26 AM

My first thought was that “chocolate rain” must be some sort of reference to Romney’s dog. My second thought was that anybody with a first name and a last name that rhyme and also includes the letter Z was born to be a star. Tell ‘em why you angry Tay!

D0WNT0WN on July 23, 2007 at 8:31 AM

I thought it was going to be some New Orleans/Katrina reference.

RiteWingFascist on July 23, 2007 at 8:39 AM

Who would have dreamed someone could top the ridiculousness of the Rick Astley original. Wow.

Malpaso on July 23, 2007 at 8:42 AM

Actually, the kid’s got great pipes. The material and the presentation leave a lot to be desired, but there’s raw ability there.

Get me Simon Cowell!

Pablo on July 23, 2007 at 8:54 AM

Interesting voice. Someone else needs to write music for him. Why is he singing out of the side of his mouth?

Jaibones on July 23, 2007 at 9:05 AM

R Kelly’s new single?

flipflopper on July 23, 2007 at 9:13 AM

Ahh yes, another variation of the Rick Roll.

I love it!

jharada on July 23, 2007 at 9:26 AM

“Chocolate Rain. Flippin cars in France tonight!”

krabbas on July 23, 2007 at 9:28 AM

It’s the theme song to the “Vanilla Sky” sequel.

saint kansas on July 23, 2007 at 9:33 AM

Where do I buy “minutes of my life back” offsets?

csdeven on July 23, 2007 at 9:36 AM

Me thinks “free” is way too high a price.

TheSitRep on July 23, 2007 at 9:51 AM

I like to think of him as what a young James Earl Jones could have done if he’d been an awful, awful singer/songwriter instead.

What video were you watching!? “Awful”? Please, this man is a genius! Move over William Hung… Seriously William, I said you could crash on my couch for a couple days but this is getting ridiculous.

Seriously though, I have no idea what this guy is talking about, but reading the lyrics I get the impression he’s singing the song of all those black “victims” of the system out there, no? Something about using them, bell curve, GDP, DNA, etc… I don’t know, it doesn’t make sense either way… especially with “Chocolate Rain” repeated after each line…. At first I thought that was a euphemism for something, and this was really a song about Taco Bell, but after reading the lyrics I’m just totally confused.

RightWinged on July 23, 2007 at 9:54 AM

Barry White’s kid?

Danny B on July 23, 2007 at 9:56 AM

The biggest problem with this song is that he’s only written two bars of music.

Farmer_Joe on July 23, 2007 at 10:10 AM

Hmmm…I’m at work and cannot watch videos, and in this case I am thinking I might just be lucky in that.

Heh.

Bob's Kid on July 23, 2007 at 10:18 AM

Darth Vader’s cut of the song.

Spirit of 1776 on July 23, 2007 at 10:36 AM

I love the voice.

pugsly on July 23, 2007 at 10:36 AM

Chocolate MigRaine

fogw on July 23, 2007 at 10:56 AM

I think he’s actually burping out the words – that’s why he has to move away from the mic to breathe. He’s got to do that air swallowing thing to sing/burp the song.

Candy Slice on July 23, 2007 at 10:59 AM

And the second video is a bit “pitchy.”

Candy Slice on July 23, 2007 at 11:01 AM

You’ve got a lot of work to do to reach this level fella
http://youtube.com/watch?v=GAMCEUGlzn4

RightWinged on July 23, 2007 at 11:14 AM

hehe a little deja vu…after watching the first video, the first thing I thought of was Rick Astley..and then there it was in the second…

Well, if anything, he could be the new voice of “This…is CNN”

JetBoy on July 23, 2007 at 11:41 AM

The first time I heard it I thought he was 50. Sounds like James Earl Jones, looks like Urkel.

Jim Treacher on July 23, 2007 at 11:58 AM

I’d never put that voice with that kid. He sounds a lot like Artrell Hawkins (Free Safety with the Patriots). Great pipes.

TheBigOldDog on July 23, 2007 at 12:10 PM

If you haven’t seen Zardoz yet, Allah…you need to.

Asher on July 23, 2007 at 12:12 PM

Yikes – not the best song for him to cover. He needs to do some Barry White… You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine comes immediately to mind.

How long before he goes on American Idol?

TheBigOldDog on July 23, 2007 at 12:18 PM

I’m going to have that stuck in my head all day now.

- The Cat

MirCat on July 23, 2007 at 12:46 PM

You’re not alone there, Cat…

btw I finally figured out where I had heard the basic chords in “Chocolate Rain” before….it just HIT ME

JetBoy on July 23, 2007 at 12:58 PM

Well, that was painful. I only played the first video, went upstairs, checked on the dog and came back down to hear the very same sentences over and over.

If you want something good, check out this video from this years Canadian Idol. Jaydee is talented, in the top 9 and way too wholesome for the music business. In one show, someone held up a sign asking ‘Jaydee – will you marry my grand-daughter?’ Hard to lose when grandmas are ready to throw their panties on the stage.

To top things off, in the top ten show, the kid sang Conway Twitty.

Canadian Infidel on July 23, 2007 at 1:48 PM

Darn, the video’s gone. Sorry. It was hilarious.

Canadian Infidel on July 23, 2007 at 1:50 PM

Whiskey.Tango.Foxtrot. Over……

all that and a rick roll, I’m “outraged”.

liquidflorian on July 23, 2007 at 4:02 PM

“Cowell on line one”

TBinSTL on July 23, 2007 at 5:04 PM

Judging from the lack of strain in his neck muscles, and the minimal expansion/collapsing of his chest, he’s lip-syncing. To push that level of sound requires a fair amount of air, and all evidence in the video denies that he is using that much. In the second vid, even his facial muscles are completely relaxed, which is not easy to do while singing that powerfully.

As for the pitch, it would take a pretty good filter, but it sounds like it was artificially dropped an octave.

Freelancer on July 23, 2007 at 6:48 PM

>R Kelly’s new single?

heh. Chocolate rain = brown shower

manfriend on July 23, 2007 at 7:10 PM

That guy is a voice-over dream come true. What a great spoken voice! All he needs to do is remove the “victim” hat that they issue in grad school and he’ll be fine.

Mojave Mark on July 23, 2007 at 9:53 PM