Rewind: The Bizarre Career Of One-Hit Wonder Macy Gray

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Rewind: The Bizarre Career Of One-Hit Wonder Macy Gray

On May 13, 2011

So I had completely forgotten about one-hit wonder Macy Gray, except I'll occasionally listen to "I Try" on my iPod when I've had one too many daquiris. But a few months ago, I (taking a huge risk to my personal safety) visited Ologist Benny Gammerman's Long Island home and, while there, helped him obtain his mother's birthday present. What was the present, you ask? Macy Gray's new CD, The Sellout.

So Carolyn Gammerman jammed to The Sellout, dropping it like it was hotter than any forty-something year old woman has the right to drop "it" or anything else, and I had a moment of reflection in the backseat of the Gammerman family car. Wedged between Benny and his far more attractive brother Sammy, I used this moment to contemplate the storied career of Macy Gray.

"I Try" was a single from her album On How Life Is, and featured prominently on the sountrack of the Jennifer Aniston comedy Picture Perfect in 1999.

Her follow-up CD, The Id, underperformed severely, at which point Gray decided to give acting a shot. So if you ever wondered "Wait, is that one-hit-wonder Macy-whoever-the-f*ck in Training Day/Spider-Man/Scary Movie 3/Lackawanna Blues/Idlewild?" the answer is yes. Yes, it is.

She's been doing better this decade, musically; tracks fromThe Sellout were used in Ugly Betty, a 2010 commercial campaign for the Bravo network, the feature Confessions Of A Shopaholic, Shrek 3, and the trailer for Kristen Wiig's film Bridesmaids.

Other Macy Gray Facts, via the immesely credible news source Wikipedia:

Gray opened up a music academy called The Macy Gray Music Academy in 2005 and it was the scene for an episode of MTV's Punk'd because of "black mold in the building".
Gray performed at the Brazilian leg of Live Earth at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Gray and her band members wore clothes bearing political messages. Gray's dress carried the message "Darfur Red Alert." (Because the people need a voice. A funny voice.)
Gray was a Neopet for a short period of time on the popular virtual pets site of the same name.
In 2008, Macy launched a new campaign under the name Nemesis Jaxson, with upcoming single "Slap a B*tch."

We tried to walk away and we choked, tried to walk away and we stumbled, because Nemesis Jaxson slapped the sh*t out of us.

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