Covered in Songs, Part 1: Criteria

February 2016 was probably the most eventful Black History Month I've experienced, both good and bad. One of the lowlights was discovering multiple crappy acoustic covers of Beyonce' Formation and Rihanna's Work in one day. The highlight was finding that Black Twitter and Black Tumblr made the same discoveries and decided to clapback with trap covers of beloved white songs like The Beatle's Hey Jude, Adele's Hello, and Nickleback's Photograph.

You can find one of the worst Formation covers here. You can find a compilation of the trap covers here.

This got me wondering what constitutes a good cover. I posed a request to my Facebook friends: supply me with the finest covers you've heard. I was overwhelmed by the amount of submission.

After a month of "research," I am ready to supply you with a fine crop of cover songs. But first, I feel it mandatory to explore what makes one successful.

It is important to note that cover songs are the highest compliment another musician can pay another. You know, imitation is the greatest form of flattery. Unless you're one of the white men that bastardized Formation because you wanted to be included. I suppose some people cover songs to one-up the originator, too. Those are usually the crappier ones, yeah?

When remaking a song, you need to decide how you want to change it, if at all. I learned from the Food Network you get penalized for not transforming the ingredients. How are you going to present the song in a way we haven't heard yet? Most people go about this by changing the instrumental, either by reimagining the original production or changing the genre completely. There's also the acoustic route.

If you're going to bend the genre, it should be one that makes sense. Changing a rap song to a country song, you better have a good reason other than being controversial. Although, if a song has the right meter, almost anything can be turned into a rap. Granted the lyricist will usually add in their own lyrics to show off their creativity, but the cover still holds if he or she uses more than the hook.

Acoustic covers are meant to show off one of two things: the lyrics of the song or the singer's vocal range. Either slay the song melodically or have a funny enough voice to make it amusing. The same goes for covering songs without changing anything at all. Either be Whitney Houston singing And I Will Always Love You or don't attempt it at all. If your cover makes us forget the original and becomes the new standard, kudos.

For moderate singers and performers, the more unconventional your fresh take the better. Beatles covers are far too common. How will you make us love yours and forget the rest?

Lastly, the most crucial criteria is respect. Harping back to genre-bending having a reason, the source material shouldn't be so far mutated that no one can recognize it. It's important to pay homage. If you do a great job, maybe the original artist will even cover one of your songs.


You can look forward to my list of great covers this Thursday. It obviously won't be all inclusive, but it should be enough to wet your palate. Until then, jam on, my good friends (and associates).


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