Big Sean is basically a Clayton’s Drake now, isn’t he?
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[5.29]
Jonathan Bradley: Meek Mill’s appeal is his volatility: there’s the sense that, whenever he shows up on a track, no one is really in control. Big Sean’s appeal — if it exists — derives from the exact opposite: his couplets are carefully constructed and self-consciously clever: the sort-of funny “hit your girl in my whip, and now that pussy got the new car smell” is a case in point. “Burn” tries to nudge Sean into Meek territory, and is invigorating for the success it has in that endeavor. On the other hand, it also stinks of the effort involved in forcing that boulder uphill.
[6]
Anthony Easton: Pussy has a new car smell is where I turned this off the first couple of times I listened to it, but I finally got to the end. Bells and sirens are mildly interesting, but the aggressive ugliness of this — the ugliness of the production, the spitting of the verses, only reinforce the violence and the misogyny. I find it unpleasant to listen to.
[2]
Alfred Soto: The last time I loved sirens as percussion and punctuation was on a Dizzee Rascal album from 2007, but as part of a track pitched at such a level of hysteria and self-regard it fits the landscape. I mean, this is a track which uses the phrase “grabbin’ her chichis” and I didn’t blink, and neither does Meek, which is the problem. Sean is a whoopee cushion at a dinner party.
[6]
Al Shipley: Now that he’s anchored half a dozen hits with major stars, it’s easier than ever to pretend Big Sean isn’t a cartoonish, Ma$e-voiced lightweight, but putting him next to someone with serious gravitas throws the folly of his stardom into stark relief. Sure it’s a banger, but Meek’s had better ones without any jokers crowding the track.
[6]
Will Adams: Meek Mill and Big Sean switch off in the middle of the verses without losing a beat or the motif: acronyms keep popping up throughout, from Os to CCd to VS to BS. “Burn” mostly rides on this dialogue, though Meek Mill’s captivating takeover on the hook deserves merit points, too.
[7]
Brad Shoup: So the best line is probably Meek’s “End of story, nigga, P.S.,” but Sean’s “new car smell” line hit me too. Yesterday I discovered Wikipedia’s entry for intercrural sex, which paraphrases mythical Ganymede’s judgment towards the “stink and looseness of the female cave”. I don’t know if he had an opinion on coloration, but presumably his characterization would differ from Meek Mill’s Nuvo comparison. Which is all to say: John Koster’s party could only dream of the control these knuckleheads boast. The track’s bells chime like the scarier parts of Christmas dramas; Meek & Sean don’t go hard, but they go fast, so when a joke lands it does so like the result of a precision military drop.
[7]
Jonathan Bogart: I do like the idea of conspicuous consumption taken to such a cartoonish extreme that you burn money just to do it. That’s about all I like, though.
[3]