JUSTICE

Photo by Cesar Sebastien.

I set aside Sunday night to watch the MTV Video Awards. My one word review: unprofessional. Metric tons of Viacom money were tossed at this event, yet the result showcased little visual quality response. Many parts of the show involved uncomplicated, unnecessary disasters. At one point, Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz hyped into a microphone that wasn't on for nearly a minute; Britney Spears nearly fell over, like five times; Paris Hilton looked like Barbara Walters; the singer of Gym Class Heroes seemed to be receiving alcohol poisoning instead of his Best New Artist award; the extra special guest announced by Mary J. Blige was Dr. Dre, who wasn’t here to perform—he was only there to announce Video Of The Year. (Also, Dr. Dre now has neck muscles that America can’t relate to.) No R. Kelly? Appalling. Tommy Lee was slapped by Kid Rock and they didn't even show it! Through some cruel, post-Darwinian evolutionary miracle I was still entertained at the disaster of it all, beginning with the unmentioned ubiquity of Justice.

Justice is two guys from Paris (not the heir): Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay. They are on Ed Banger Records, a label owned by Busy P, a.k.a. Pedro Winter, a.k.a. Daft Punk’s manager. (If you don't know Daft Punk's story by now, label yourself and get to the Wiki Page.) If someone would finally develop a chart system that measures new media awareness and number of shared downloads, Justice’s debut (released early this summer) would have been number one. All the hype crested (sort of) last night at the VMA's. Justice was everywhere without being there at all.

The album (the title is the sign of a cross) is awesome. Justice songs are meaty. Huge drum sounds war with frequency-damning synthesizers. There’s no verses, just occasional, brain-branding hooks. The music sounds like a child playing an old racing arcade game from the '80's in a thunderdome. It’s not that complicated to see why Viacom, or MTV, or the major labels that distribute Justice around the world see reasons to invest.

Justice has exploded into a developing moment in pop convergence, where going to the club to hear a DJ spin music stopped involving only hip-hop, or only pop, or only techno. Instead, college kids became obsessed with LCD Soundsystem, a band that’s cheaper to hear at a disco than see at, say, The Fillmore. Meanwhile, hip-hop’s biggest producers (Pharrell and Timbaland) turned their best ideas towards pop stars (like Justin Timberlake), and these ideas were disco-based. Then there’s the convergence: the top tier in the underground (pre-popular popular music) gets to remix the pop songs so bloggers can chat up Justice and Justin at the same time at the same party. It might be tough to explain the industry right now, but everyone wants a piece of the next big thing.

This was probably the intent of the VMA’s, where Justice appeared in a bunch of bizarre moments throughout the broadcast: the song "Waters Of Nazareth" appeared at the end of at least six Rhapsody commercials, and following Ms. Spears’ wobbly performance (as an overdubbed outro into a commercial break featuring a Rhapsody commercial); also the Justice song "D.A.N.C.E." was covered by DJ Mark Ronson and some rapper coming out of a commercial break, and the video for "D.A.N.C.E." received a high profile courtesy nomination for Best Video Of The Year (losing to Rihanna). That's what pop culture is all about: context. It's about how one popular thing spreads out across the spectrum of popular things, getting bigger and more significant as it goes.

The nominated video for "D.A.N.C.E."

In these ways, Justice became part of the evening’s wallpaper, the background score to all mishandled transitions in and out of performances and commercials. Transition is not something I’ve seen MTV understand. More than ever, the station has true-believed in test marketing over hiring people with trust-able aesthetics. MTV does what its parent company says, which might be alright if the results weren’t so temporary: what’s more accessible right now than three minute videos of attractive people that can sing? The Hills. Sad, perhaps, but also obvious. Kids find music from each other; they find drama in the barely-real lives of skinny white nimwits. Justin Timberlake (who Justice remixed—check out the Brilliant MP3 below) kept winning awards and avoided actually thanking anyone in favor of asking MTV to “play more videos.”

MTV(iacom) should listen to—or at least interpret—Mr. Timberlake. Instead of more shows that make Southern California look ethnically cleansed (There's a new show called Newport Harbor? Seriously?). I'm not complaining. I don't watch MTV. I watch Youtube. The thing is, I would watch MTV if it was more like Youtube. Youtube was one of the many ways I found out about Justice. Look what happened to them.

Kanye West interrupts Justice's video production teams acceptance speech at the MTV Europe Awards.

Justice's first international super hit: a remix of a Simian song. This is the video that won the award Mr. West interrupts above.


Mr. West doesn't really apologize for anything.

BRILLIANT MP3's
(Click to download)

“The Party,” from the album Cross by Justice will make your night hotter.
“Waters Of Nazareth,” from the album Cross by Justice defines the sound of this band.
“D.A.N.C.E.,” from the album Cross by Justice is the feel-great-breakout-of-the-summer.
“Lovestoned (Justice Remix),” by Justin Timberlake. I don't know how I feel about it.

JUSTICE on WIKIPEDIA.
JUSTICE on MYSPACE.
JUSTICE on LAST.FM.
JUSTICE on YOUTUBE.
JUSTICE on HYPEMACHINE.
One of JUSTICE'S LABELS.