Definitely just say no.
[Video]
[3.22]
Patrick St. Michel: Good: Cashmere Cat delivers a skittery albeit understated track, and Jeremih manages to make what seems impossible on paper (remember the ’90s) sound surprisingly good. Bad: Ludacris is like the lecherous uncle you’d rather not talk to whose also kinda gross (“bad milk”; “gahhhh”). Really bad: Wiz Khalifa barely trying (“wet as a water park”).
[5]
Anthony Easton: It must be difficult to do a parody of a parody, and this use of Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” seems to be missing the point of the track. Extra points for being completely in favour of raw artifice.
[4]
Alfred Soto: With Jeremih playing the Miguel-and-Ne-Yo sensitive mushmouth role while the star gets ridiculous lines like “I beat the pussy to pieces, never lettin’ the cat off the leashes” (they’re not even luda-crous), this sounds like a Keenen Ivory Wayans parody of the real thing.
[3]
Crystal Leww: The fact that Chris Brown gets all the good shit while Jeremih is stuck with a Weeknd-inspired, drugged-out and detached interpolation of “Barbie Girl” is a pretty good argument for “karma isn’t real”.
[2]
Scott Mildenhall: If “Barbie Girl” didn’t exist, that hook would sound ridiculous. As it is, it sounds ridiculous. You’d think Cashmere Cat, being Norwegian, would at least know that “Cartoon Heroes” is Aqua’s actual best single, but no. As a result of such an oversight all he’s overseen is a less dubious but more boring “Barbie Girl”.
[4]
Brad Shoup: Can’t you leave us “Barbie Girl”? I can’t believe the Weeknd didn’t get to this first. Luda runs through his greatest hits over a gorgeously suspended line that’s sidelined to the point of tanking accusations. Even taking the hook into consideration, Jeremih’s still playing dress-up, working the kind of vocal bite Bieber’s never going to develop. Don’t get me wrong — he’s still great, still working lonely ground. Saying he owns this track isn’t saying much, though.
[4]
Edward Okulicz: The winking airheadedness of Aqua is wonderful if exhausting in large doses, but the lazy appropriation of “Party Girls” is boring even in one listen. Oh, the irony — the frisky, aggravating hooks of “Barbie Girl” repurposed to sound exhausted and clapped-out in a song about partying and sex, which are enjoyable activities! How clever Ludacris is today! Gold stars all around! At least his verse isn’t as atrocious as Wiz’s — “get you wet as a waterpark” isn’t even the worst of it. Whatever the comedown these guys are on, it’s not for exertion in coming up with good rhymes.
[2]
Andy Hutchins: Four points for Jeremih’s languorously beautiful singing — one for the parts of that hook that aren’t “I don’t say shit, and they be gettin’ naked,” which I’m really hoping he didn’t write and two points for Cashmere Cat’s snares and the the woozy stuff behind them. Minus two points, one per verse, for Luda and Wiz yelling at me on this song. Let Jeremih do things that are not this.
[4]
Katherine St Asaph: The musical equivalent of whiskey dick. Jeremih’s vocals wouldn’t even need the whiskey.
[1]