To make up for yesterday’s April Fool’s festivities, here’s an early post. YES WE SAID EARLY…
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Abby Waysdorf: Pop music travels. This isn’t always straightforward. In some ways pop is more generically “international” than it’s ever been, in other ways it’s always going to be interpreted differently depending on background, cultural influences, even the sound and meaning of language. “Misschien Wel Hè” shows how polyvalent this can be — clearly American-influenced, American-looking (the R. Kelly-naming chorus, bragging that his producer is calling from America), but still clearly his version of Dutchness. The trap/dance beats are global, with some background in the Amsterdam take on the genre, but Cho’s delivery is grounded in the language — the cadence of consonants drawled in places and sharp in others, the harsh “ch,” the rhythms of speaking. He’s got a better grip on it than most, which is why “Misschien Wel Hè” works. Hip-hop at its most enjoyable to me is about the sound of a language, the way it works and sounds to the people who know how to use it best. This is as true in America is it is elsewhere, and what makes it work as a traveling concept (when it does, anyway). Every language and accent can theoretically be celebrated.
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Ramzi Awn: You lost me at Rolex.
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Micha Cavaseno: Very cool to know that Migos flow is an international brand. I just wish that Zaytoven’s production style was somehow able to transcend the South, because this Spanker beat is a generic time-waster. Cho is a good rapper as far as technique, and every minute he’s ready to burst out a smile at how perfectly cocky he is without even knowing a word he says; such is the beauty of rap. Shame he can’t do much else other than perform well based on this track.
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Will Adams: Cho’s got a great flow, even when toggling between Dutch and English. The beat tries to crowd him out, though, as if it’s jealous he’s getting all the fun.
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Katherine St Asaph: Has many charms even before it bursts into a laugh; my favorite might be how “misschien wel hè” becomes, solely for the hashtag-rap assonance, “R. Kelly.”
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Iain Mew: That hook, squeezed playfully into barely three syllables, is fantastic and Cho knows it. It’s best demonstrated in the end section of the song, where he and the producer add all kinds of disruptive chaos and push the song to the brink only for the hook to bring it back every time, a constant delight.
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