L.A. battle rapper hits the studio…
[Video]
[5.67]
Madeleine Lee: A friend of mine who used to listen to a lot of Dumbfoundead during his YouTube come-up phase defended himself to me: “He’s a good storyteller,” which he quickly amended to, “He’s an okay storyteller.” The dull gyopo fuckboy adventures Dumbfoundead raps about in “Water” are made more interesting by his fluid bilingual way of rapping them, but the material still is what it is. He’s fortunate to be paired with a fascinating beat. G.Soul is wasted as extraneous detail; much more mileage comes out of Jessi’s uncredited single line in the hook.
[6]
Will Rivitz: I cannot say enough good things about this song’s instrumental. A violin-bow-on-oil-drum-lid percussive synth shouldn’t by any reasonable set of expectations sound good, but its persistence and slightly imprecise quantization dovetails with the 808 bass pneumatically, forceful and sharp. Dumbfoundead’s nonchalant flow fits in perfectly as well, lazily tracing the beat like a cat toying with a mouse. Lyrically, he’s been better — given his cleverness as a battle rapper, his boasts here feel kinda lazy — but that doesn’t really matter when everything sounds this clean.
[8]
David Moore: A pleasing and steamy bounce ‘n’ clatter that, alas, never really develops. This is the sort of beat that really requires unabashed filth, and though I caught some no-foolin’ curse words and a few references to moisture that might make Lil’ Wayne smirk, the sort of raunch-pop that this is approximating was light years ahead more than a decade ago.
[6]
Crystal Leww: Frat rap is here to stay, but it’s very rare that you’ll get a “Black and Yellow” or “Girls @” and more likely that you’ll get a… Mac Miller song.
[5]
Nortey Dowuona: Solid raps, hollow synth rattling, and heavy 808s pushing Dumbfoundead up while G.Soul bubbles around in the background.
[6]
Joshua Minsoo Kim: If you had talked with me a few years ago, I would have told you that I wasn’t particularly upset by the lack of Korean-American representation in art. That all changed last year when I watched Andrew Ahn’s Spa Night, a film that felt achingly familiar in its depiction of life for so many second generation Korean-Americans. Despite this, I was still convinced that I would only care about such representation if it was relatable. But two months ago, I found myself heartened by seeing Steven Yeun in Bong Joon-ho’s Okja. It was the first time I had seen a Korean-American onscreen while in a completely packed theater, and I now earnestly hope that such experiences are more common in the future. Hearing Dumbfounded traverse both Korean and English on “Water” is undeniably exciting, and it helps to satisfy my newfound craving for Korean-American art. But after the novelty wears off, it becomes clear that his utilization of the Korean language is meant to be clever in and of itself. In other words, these lyrics are undeniably banal and Dumbfoundead is merely masking how obvious it is for those who can’t understand them. Granted, his bilingual rapping is far more interesting here than when I first heard it, but it’s also not surprising that there’s a line as lazy and uninspired as “She wants a wedding dress but I ain’t Taeyang.” I’m happy “Water” exists but if it’s making me wish for more Korean-American art, it’s only because it comes up so short. The beat is fine, and Jessi’s voice grants the song a bit of panache that G.Soul never could, but Dumbfoundead has always been corny. And this single doesn’t convince me otherwise. After all, it wasn’t “Safe” that flipped my opinion on Asian-American visibility in film.
[3]