Chad Love (not Chad Lowe, the abandoned husband of double Oscar winner Hilary Swank), a hip-hop artist who is taking advantage of the “enormous web portal” at JDate to promote his upcoming album. (Visit his site for samples, a theme that borrows heavily from the Six Million Dollar Man and the Terminator–and a bit from The Lion King–and a creepy graphic of the artist as his sunglasses seem to blink at you in an indication that he may be becoming Jeff Goldblum in The Fly.)
His PR people are calling him a “Crossover where all ethic [sic] backgrounds can take center stage in creating new visions using past inspiration in the hip-hop world.”
That’s right…JDate is the new MySpace for somewhat Jewish artists. Um, isn’t this illegal? I went to the Terms of Service to find out. While JDate does impose a 30-message a day limit to protect members against people who might use the site for spam solicitations, the only other limit on what’s in the communications is “You will not engage in advertising to, or solicitation of, other members to buy or sell any products or services through the Service.” Technically speaking, Chad Love’s people are promoting him, which is one technical step removed from contract violations. Maybe. I’m still not convinced.
In any rate, the move makes sense at least in terms of language. Firstly, his name is “Love,” so I get the theoretical connection to JDate as a place that one might (theoretically) find love. Secondly, in record terminology, he’s gonna drop the record like it’s hot (or like it’s humid), and people on JDate get dropped all the time like hot potatoes. So poetically, I’m on board with it.
And after seeing the dude and hearing his tunes, you know the dude’s Jewish–he sounds like Derek Zoolander. The site describes him as an Italian Jue, a “Pizza Bagel”, and someone who grew up in “an upper-class suburb of New York City.” But that don’t mean he ain’t keepin’ it realz, yo.
Does he roll on Shabbos? Probably, because it’s hard out there for a pimp.
as for me, ignorance is blessedly bliss.
*groan*
On so many levels… But don’t get me wrong, I wish Chad only the best. Really. Good luck with the new album.