It’s not.
[Video][Website]
[4.17]
Alfred Soto: What the bloody hell? Lamar’s thirty-five seconds of growling qualify him for a “featuring” credit. To strand listeners with Alicia Keys on this raft is akin to being tossed in a sack with an ape, scorpion, and snake. She doesn’t disgrace herself with histrionic shows of soul, but the disco strings and harsh guitar don’t leave her much room to, well, do much of anything. Which is enough.
[4]
Patrick St. Michel: Alicia Keys’ segment will sound great over the opening credit sequence, but geez, Kendrick Lamar shouting over some boring guitar riffage really tries its best to drive you away.
[4]
Scott Mildenhall: Calm down Kendrick! It’s only Alicia Keys. Or is it? Could Alicia Keys quell his rage so suddenly, averting another Jack White situation with a stultifying stream of MOR? She’s already shown superpowers in two of her videos, and then there’s “Superwoman” – after all this time, was she the “Girl On Fire”? Well maybe, but on this song she’s definitely Alicia Keys.
[5]
Brad Shoup: Kendrick hits the ground so fast — a boggling combination of DMX, Eminem, and Pigeon John — that Keys’ entrance comes on like a guest spot. It’s more impressive, how she squeezes the performer’s struggle into spandex. As decreed the shadowy cabal, this is a disco track. There’s a chordal backdrop of electric guitar that barely links to Kendrick’s intro and beat-trailing pings that link to… I don’t know, actually. Maybe there’s a hospital scene?
[6]
Andy Hutchins: HEY YOU GUYS I THINK KENDRICK HAD A RED BULL BEFORE RECORDING HIS VERSE DO YOU THINK SO IT DEFINITELY SOUNDS LIKE IT oh hey wait this is just the same midtempo ballad Alicia Keys has been making for about four years now crossed with “Now or Never,” the only good kid, m.A.A.d city song that would have sounded out of place on the NBA 2K14 soundtrack (and thus, obviously, the one on it). I hate “Now or Never,” but at least both it and “It’s On Again” are forgettably inoffensive.
[3]
Mallory O’Donnell: Slight disco number to which some sub-Eminem posturing over mangled metal chords has been attached. Bizarre, but not really in an interesting way.
[3]