Downgoes.Fraser got a viral hit on his hands after making a parody of Next’s popular 1997 song, “Too Close.” Fraser’s version, “Why You Always Lyin,” is still making the rounds, and there’s even several versions of it in other languages, and general parodies of the parody. However, RL from Next isn’t too keen on the popularity of it.
In a recent interview with the You Know You Got Soul podcast he stated:
Vlad asked me to make a video to make light of it and I did it reluctantly because I am going to be honest: I don’t know how I feel about it. You are making a parody of my life’s work. And on one end, I don’t want to be a stickler and, you know, seem like I am bitter or anything. But you are kind of making a parody of something that I really worked hard with. It is something that I continue to get residuals from and you know, it is part of my identity…I promise you, people will send me different languages and like, ‘Did you see this?’ And I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ I try to make light of it but it is getting to the point of overkill.
Speaking of overkill, he added that he’s tired of people constantly bringing it to his attention:
I always give props to anyone that is creative, that is doing something funny. And I know on the Internet you don’t really have to have much talent or anything to get a bunch of followers or to get something that becomes a meme or whatever. But you know, more power to the guy. God Bless him. But for me, this is my life. This isn’t a hobby; this is something that I do. So I try to make light of it as best as I can…I try to respond to a bunch of people on Instagram and read a bunch of messages that I can. But it is to the point that I don’t even want to read any of the messages cause all of them are just tags about different videos that I have seen a million times. It was never funny to me and now it is to the point that is really frustrating to be honest.
I guess artists really are sensitive about their ish. However, the bright side is, there’s probably a spike in song downloads by people who have just been put on the the original song, or reminded about it by the parody.
RL can’t be too frustrated, though, because he met up with the meme’s creator and it seemed to be all love.
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