Jennifer Lopez combines with Pitbull for a generic, Redone-produced single, for promotion around “American Idol” and the summer-bound months: “On the Floor.” According to Lopez, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and thus a new song is born. “Live It Up” by Jennifer Lopez, featuring Pitbull, dropped today in a haze of deja vu.
“On the Floor” made it to No. 3 on The Hot 100 last year, but just where does “Live It Up” think it’s going? Back to it’s origins. Literally. “We don’t believe in defeat / that’s why we’re back for a three-peat,” Pitbull raps, referring to “Floor” and “Dance Again.” “I know its hard to understand how a boy grew to a man / man turn to a brand / but guess what, here I am / Jenny from the Block let’s rock.”
Three makes a trend — a brand, in this case — the problem being there was only one era of “Jenny from the Block,” and nobody’s thought of Lopez as “Jenny” in a long time.
It’s self-aware, this lab-made dance amalgam, which makes the machinery all the more questionable. Just about any singer could be singing the lines that Lopez does, yet there’s Pitbull co-opting somebody’s else’s “running” dialogue.
“She’s the reason that women’ ‘run it’,” he raps, evoking — of all divas — Beyonce. Wait, Beyonce (or, sh*t, Chris Brown)? Certainly, Queen B is all for universality and enjoys her dance-driven success, but no listener is gonna think J-Lo was the origin of girls who run the world.
It’s cheap, like a seasonal drug store-bought toy. It fits the general guidelines for a summer jam, and plays for it hard in all-neon colors and the banner “Let’s f*** tonight.” And it’s disposable, interchangeable. Good thing they don’t believe in defeat — YOLO in the parlance of our times.