Favorite Song No. 346: Travie McCoy – Billionaire [feat. Bruno Mars]

Here’s a song that I heard non-stop for a couple months while traveling in late 2010 and early 2011. I have no idea if this was a big hit in the US, but you couldn’t escape this song overseas. It’s not really the greatest song, but it cracked my top 366 because of the memories it evokes.

That trip started in London in November, and my original plan was to visit Germany and see the Christmas markets, but weather predictions changed my mind. It was being said that the coldest winter in 1,000 years was set to hit Europe come December. Now, I don’t know how precise that number was,  or who has even been tracking data meteorological since the year 1009, but even if it was only an estimate, I wanted no part of that weather, so I headed south instead.

On the night I left London, I went to Heathrow and considered my options. The next two flights out that were destined for warmer points were to Barcelona and Dakar. The flight to Spain was leaving sooner than the one to Senegal, and as I’d never seen the Iberian peninsula, Barcelona it was. Even so, after about a week and change there, it was already too cold for me, so I fled to  Casablanca, where I spent much of December; much warmer! Next up, Cairo, about which I can, and did, write multiple articles that perhaps one day I’ll dig up and share here, which is where I spent Christmas Day frolicking amongst the pyramids. I made it to Istanbul in time to ring in the new year, and after a number of other stops, wound up back in Iberia, this time in Lisbon.

Why did I bore you with my travel itinerary? I’m not sure. Oh, because, yes, this song– it was everywhere. In each city I mentioned, in every cafe I frequented, every hostel where I rested my head, and on every radio in every taxi, this was one of about three songs I heard, or whose video I saw, time and again. In Lisbon, I became very fond of Brown’s Cafe, and spent 5 or 6 afternoons hunkered down there reading, writing, eating, and drinking. Brown’s has a large television which was always showing music videos, and I became very familiar with the “Billionaire” video.

Go ahead and watch the video. Are you back? Wasn’t that great? It’s such a fun video. I love the travel aesthetic, the supporting characters, and the laid-back, wistful vibe. I’d never before heard of Travie McCoy, and I’ve not heard anything he’s done since, but he looked exactly like the sort of friends I had back home in Oakland before my sojourn. Had I returned to Oakland and showed up to play in the Sunday kickball game in Mosswood Park and found McCoy in the bleachers with the rest of my friends I wouldn’t have batted an eye; it’s almost weird to know that he wasn’t a part of our crew.

Bruno Mars, on the other hand, has become quite famous since this song. It makes sense, too, because he’s clearly  already shining like a star here. If he’d had hits or fame before this, I didn’t know about it, but even though four years passed before I heard anything from him again, I immediately recognized him as the guy from that song I kept hearing when I was traveling.

In parting, let me ask– what would you do with a billion dollars?? I have no strong desire, or realistic hope, of ever acquiring so staggering a sum of money, but if I did, I wonder what I’d do withit. I’ve thought here and there about what I’d do if I won the lottery, but can never come up with very much. This might sound like a joke, but this is my honest-to-god list of what I know I’d do if I had a vast sum of money at my disposal:

1. Buy socks, undershirts, and boxers every year– currently I alternate, and buy one per year, so every three years I get new socks, and so forth.
2. Buy a fresh loaf of Acme bread every single day.

That isn’t a very good list, I know, but there’s nothing else I’ve ever been able to come up with that I’d do. Now it’s your turn– tell me what you’d do if you were a billionaire!