And yes, in case you were wondering, it’s How The Mighty Have Fallen Wednesday, also known as More Like Singles Crankbox Wednesday…
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[3.83]
Micha Cavaseno: His generation’s Mad Skillz, Vic Mensa is the greatest argument for competency without ever bothering to develop a personality. Instead, he’s worked really hard to be an impressively G.O.O.D. rapper. But the reason why Vic’s more dancefloor collaborations work is that he’s a perfect textural complementary piece. Ask him to be the centripetal force on something as dull and gorilla-chinned as this beat (one of its producers, because more than one guy was required for this generic bit of SoundCloud trap, is named Smoko Ono, come ON) and he reveals that he’s little more than a slightly more aggressive J Cole in his posturing and pivoting. Kanye shows up because the song is such an infinite Getty Image of the last five years of Kanye’s career, he needs to make sure you understand whose life Vic’s emulating. A shame, because his verse is almost equally disposable.
[2]
Alfred Soto: If Kanye wants new sounds, he can hook Vic Mensa up with Tyler Farr. What he’s come up with is the hip-hop equivalent of “A Guy Walks Into a Bar.”
[4]
Will Adams: The Sturm und Drang production (bells! choirs! brass!) helps Vic Mensa’s posturing be a bit more convincing. It makes Kanye’s presence a bit unneeded, like a stage dad cheering his son from the wings of the stage.
[5]
Nina Lea Oishi: This is the second Kanye/Mensa collab we’ve heard this year, but “U Mad” eschews the melancholy of “Wolves” for booming, explosive sound (that growling guitar and fat horns), serious swagger, and actual humor (Kanye: “I just talked to 2 Chainz and he said ‘tru'”). The idea that Kanye West and Vic Mensa “don’t know nobody” is hilarious, that deadpan “I guess I don’t” even funnier — and the best part is, we’re in on the joke. Mensa is Yeezus’s star pupil, and the young Chicago rapper is reveling in his newfound fame and travels (“At the Louvre in Paris, still be on the block like a corner store”). But here master and protégé are clearly having fun together, two wordsmiths basking in the glow of their success and laughing at their haters, dancing and stunting and swaggering around that beat. I’d give this a [9] easy, but subtract for the Ray Rice line and you get…
[8]
Thomas Inskeep: “But if she bad I might hit a bitch in the elevator like Ray Rice.” Aaaaand we’re done here. A shame, too: Vic’s got an urgent, pushing-against-the-beat style to his rapping, Kanye does what Kanye does, and the production is all David Banner 2004 horn samples. But I can’t even, with this.
[0]
Ramzi Awn: Mensa ushers Kanye West in seamlessly, and the Nintendo-tinged horns hold their own. Vic’s trips and tricks roll right off his tongue — but he lost me at Ray Rice.
[4]