Posted by Andrew Unterberger on 03/23/2011 at 11:00 AM Videos

The Popdust Files: Kansas Boyz, rebecca black

Once we done being so excited for Friday, only one thing remains: Saturday and Sunday. But with Rebecca Black indisposed as a cog in the Ark Music hype machine, who will take responsibility for properly saluting those days of the week? Luckily for us, teen rapping trio Kansas Boyz appear to be up to the task. The group gives its propers to that short-but-sweet period in between school weeks in its undoubtedly soon-to-be-viral clip for “It’s the Weekend.”

Both video and song are undoubtedly well-intentioned, and the kids even have fairly decent flow for grade-schoolers. But where Kansas Boyz falter is in their attempt to properly convey their intended message of weekend partying, partying, as the KBs are impossibly hampered by both their young age and their low budget.

Half-hearted boasts of “So many ladies / all up in my business” and “I got a new friend / Black, Puerto Rican” ring hollow when the only shots of women in the video are taken from across the street or through a diner window, as if their involvement in the video was involuntary. Shots cruising in the SUV don’t properly reflect the baller lifestyle when it’s obvious that the car is actually remaining stationary. And teases about what the big Saturday night plan is (“What I’m doin’ on the weekend is what they ask me / I say ‘Nothin’, man’ / They say ‘Stop acting’”) fizzle a little when the big payoff is a 9:00 showing of Drive Angry in 3-D.

Instead, Kansas Boyz are better off taking pleasure in the little things. A lazily-spent Saturday morning (“On Saturday in my PJs / A bowl of cereal is my favorite thing / I’m watching cartoons / Or the House of Payne“), or a bout of tomfoolery on the bus home (“A paper airplane / Somebody threw one at me”), or a weekend display of earth-shaking video game prowess (“I might turn on the P3 / I got Madden / You don’t wanna see me / Truth is, it is difficult to beat me.”). And indeed, as anyone whoever stayed up till 11:30 doing a book report on The Scarlet Letter knows, sometimes the weekend is best used to just catch up on some shut-eye (“It’s what I need / A little extra sleep”—you and us both, brother.)

Anyway, no need to rush the adult pleasures, young’ns. Trust us, once you start with that nonsense, the weekends of Madden, cereal and Nicholas Cage are never quite the same.