Fiddy’s going to get a summer jam, even if it kills us…
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[3.83]
Alfred Soto: Treating a vagina as if it were a plastic ketchup bottle generally doesn’t guarantee success.
[1]
Anthony Easton: Someone should tell Fiddy that explicit consent is hot, and therefore that he should wait for the woman to tell him what she needs–and in fact that he needs to have her say something, because he cannot read minds as well as he thinks does. He also should note that someone who has sex as much as he does should most likely wrap that cock up. Also, beating the pussy up seems to be establishing his patriarchal power, and not engaging in consensual rough sex. Not only is this song really boring, it seems dangerous.
[0]
Michelle Myers: For all the talk of post-regionalism these days, I still find nothing more satisfying than a rap single that can manage to balance idiosyncratic local flavor with good pop sensibilities. With it’s soft, melodic beat “Up!” sounds perfectly at home in the post-Take Care radio rap landscape. The song is so pretty that J. Valentine, Pleasure P. and Chris Brown turned into a decent R&B song. And though “Up!” is not overtly hyphy, it has a Bay Area vibe that makes the song far more interesting. Rance has that classic jovial, extroverted Bay attitude, and the way the hook drones up, up, up, rendering the word itself meaningless is exquisitely dumb. I actually prefer the radio edit, if only because the chorus sounds better when it’s more repetitive.
[9]
Brad Shoup: Sadly, this is the loverman single with 50 that’s on the charts. An unhurried tempo, synth riffs like bad massage, and the slow clap: everyone sounds winded. “I Just Wanna” was a coked-up itinerary; this is Cinemax carefully blocking the view with a bedpost and a rustling curtain.
[3]
Edward Okulicz: The conflict in me about this song: it’s gross, but it is not just gross, it’s also nimble and fleet-footed and musically it is bizarrely, cognitive dissonance-inducingly good natured about its grossness. Not to mention that the spotlit sounds are fine 3am fare even if I’m listening to this at 10pm. And if I’m going to dock it a few points for the tired hookline, I’ve got to give at least one back for the K-Fed reference.
[5]