Created a BuzzFeed account to make this. Unsure it was worth it…
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[5.12]
Brad Shoup: It’s grime! Did not see that coming.
[6]
Alfred Soto: This grime move is three years too late but to the millions discovering A$AP it introduces them to a genre that depends on an aural and vocal overkill, dependent on staccatoed patterns. But those millions need no introduction to Skrillex, who’s been doing this shit for a while but digs the company of a hungry up and comer.
[3]
Patrick St. Michel: The fact this isn’t a total disaster is pretty amazing, until you realize A$AP Rocky’s greatest strength as a rapper up to now has been his ability to adapt well with whatever beat was thrown his way. As plenty have pointed out, Rocky isn’t exactly the most intriguing personality going right now; his character is best summed up as “guy who likes fashion a lot.” However, he’s ace at blending in with whatever comes his way, whether it be a woozy Clams Casino beat or something more menacing like “Brand New Guy.” So teaming up with Skrillex sorta makes sense — Rocky fits in decently over the only-can-be-Skrillex production. Still, even if this isn’t a trainwreck, it also isn’t particularly memorable. This is a neutered bit of dubstep headed up by a rapper who isn’t bad but isn’t going to elevate all this noise to the next level.
[5]
Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: Rocky’s success owes something to the fact that he is a relatively blank canvas. He is DAT PMF, reps Harlem and raps about Ann Demeulemeester and lean. And that is about it. Which is fine! Because Rocky is a construct, an easy personality to project onto, he is relatable to a young audience that accepts attractive and luxurious aesthetic leanings (high fashion, contextless rap-nerd discovery, exotic slo-mo drug usage) as being evocative of their personal tastes. It ticks a lot of boxes at the one time, so, in a way, we are all Rocky. If he is a PMF, we are all PMFs too. So Rocky is enough of a blank page to ride Skrillex’s ridiculous laser-fried dub beat and not come off looking like a cornball, because he remembered to bring his typical screwed-down devil voice and sing-song Midwest flow to the show too. It’s yet another box ticked — he’s repping the club kid in each of us, each one of us that fucks with Soundcloud-sourced fluctuations as much as we fuck with Andre 3K (“it’s a fact she lives in my lap”). The problem is that there still isn’t much sense of what makes Rocky more savvy curator than creator. Granted, there’s an absurdity to the boast “you probably own some tazers!” that hints at an odd humour, his oft-quoted “weirdo but real though” line finally given some context. However, it stays cloaked in the pitch-shifted murk, surrounded by more catchy blankness — a new type of anonymity.
[4]
Jonathan Bradley: More of a curio than it could be, which is a shame; I despise the critical condescension directed at Skrillex. (Even if he rarely proves he doesn’t deserve it.) This isn’t the rap “I Knew You Were Trouble.,” however, because, adept as Rocky is at nestling into foreign sounds, he’s still forced to compete for attention with the electronic hysterics here. The sproinging sound-effects of the hook are effectively attention-grabbing, but, forced to share room with a rapper even as wordy as A$AP Rocky, they can’t dominate as they should. Incidentally: underrated element number one is the skanking dub beat beneath the verses. Number two: the way he acknowledges “calling women bitches” is disrespectful but does it anyway.
[5]
Scott Mildenhall: He really mustn’t be interested in being polite, daring to invoke André 3000 amidst such a conference call of phoning-ins. Reminding listeners of him, Big Boi, or Speakerboxxx/The Love Below probably wasn’t the best idea.
[4]
Andy Hutchins: I wish this were far wilder: Neither Skrillex’s dubstep-via-gazpacho beat, which goes from slow to less slow, nor Rocky’s flow, which goes from plodding to swift, ever gets off the rails; it’s wild in the sense that “ft. Skrillex” is, and nothing more. But for what it is, it’s quite good, with Rocky’s performative rapperness not stretching the beat and a few choice lines (“Me and my nigga Skrillex” just feels like the payoff for the infamous “aloud” tweet; “Drunk and disrespectful, callin’ women biiiiiitches” has as much self-awareness and more brio) standing out. And I have listened to this far, far more often than I would have anticipated listening to a Rocky album cut.
[6]
Will Adams: How long will it take until a Skrillex feature credit is no longer a promotional gimmick? I ask because his production here steals the show. It’s all about that hook: a deep “wild for the night, fuck being polite,” tuned into its own power chord, followed by Skrillex’s signature rave siren. A$AP is clearly having fun, too, bouncing across the beat in tandem with the ricocheting synths. And it’s all topped with warehouse reverb that fills the space of the club where this will undoubtedly be requested.
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