Layover in Chicago while we refuel for the last leg…
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[5.67]
Crystal Leww: This embodies Chicago drill music perfectly, oozing youth, bravado, and fun. For Katie, lyricism and the raps matter less than flow and aesthetic style. “Pop Out” is a haunting party track, held in caverns from echoing deep drums and repeated “what!”s. Katie and Louie play off each other well, definitely sounding like two halves of a whole, and Louie even shouts out Katie in his verse. A large factor in the charm are the ad-libs, which both Katie and Louie pull off with complete ease. Katie inserts her signature “Katieeeeeee” here and there, and punctuates lines with others like “bow bow”, “drill drill”, and “skkrrt”. Louie goes for variety, changing it up line-after-line with an outrageous assortment, including “do it”, “scratch my back!”, and “ew!”. The punctuation works particularly well with the drums, which are so deep they might as well be kettledrums. For a few months, “Pop Out” was everywhere where there was hip hop in Chicago. Katie just got signed to a label today, largely built off the success of this single. Consider this: one of the biggest tracks in a scene was borne out of a friendship and deep respect between a teenage female rapper and a dude who works hard to represent his city and its local scene first. That’s amazing.
[9]
Jessica Doyle: Those who don’t know much about drill (coughs, raises hand) might still know it comes from reflecting on growing up in the midst of frequent gun violence. But to require drill to be unremittingly grim would be stupidly essentialist–and would leave out Katie Got Bandz’s appealing playfulness. I hope she has a long career.
[6]
Jonathan Bogart: Winter is tightening its fist unmercifully on Chicago; music that blows in exactly such freezing gusts, with the only warmth being whatever cheer is mustered by the playfulness, camaraderie, or self-celebration in the voices of the queen and king of the drill scene, is only appropriate.
[7]
Patrick St. Michel: A beat marrying the granite-tough with playroom bells, good-despite-being-monotone lines from Katie Got Bandz, a slightly more urgent verse from King Louie even if he doesn’t leave much of an impression with his words. Both rappers have had far better moments, and the beat isn’t lifting this one up beyond being perfectly alright.
[5]
Alfred Soto: Awfully thin for okay slogans over a Fisher Price meets Chief Keef syncopation.
[5]
Brad Shoup: Using the same rhyme scheme for the verse and the hook isn’t great form. Would’ve been better if she’d had some fun with it, Project Pat style. Like, you gotta sell a line about not snitching in 2013. King Louie fares better by abandoning the scheme after a few bars. Is Rap Genius right? Is he saying “D12 nut”? That’s kinda gross, kinda awesome. BlockOnDaTrakk threads in a blunted, countermelodic synthline that wouldn’t be out of place on a Kate Boy cut. But you’re not going to that drill twinkle in Sweden.
[5]
Zach Lyon: The all-in hi-fi toy piano rhythm is something to talk about, yeah, but let’s not ignore that Final Fantasy VI line that comes in second — the clearest-sounding Uematsu-ape in a rap song since Danny Brown actually did that. This isn’t Katie at full force, but all it takes is Louie’s forgettable verse to make me rewind and appreciate her charm by comparison.
[6]
Anthony Easton: It’s like sissy bounce half drunk, thinking about taking another Xanax, that mania under a drugged-out ocean.
[7]
Will Adams: My patience with these club beats is wearing thin. How much mileage can those chromatic orchestra stabs and tinkling music boxes have? Katie’s lackadaisical delivery doesn’t help. She aims for cool but sounds bored, which renders the gun play more sad than threatening.
[4]
Mallory O’Donnell: I would find more to say about the childish promotion of amorality on display here but the music itself is so unforgivably dull and reliant on preset keyboard fills that all of it just seems doled out without care or thought.
[2]
Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: BlockOnDaTrakk created a monster with that apocalyptic synth line that appears in the middle of the track, eats Katie and Louie whole, and then slithers back to Dune. There is a song around it that’s not quite on its level — why does Katie sound so hesitant?
[5]
Jonathan Bradley: Katie’s dulled tones are unsettling even with these synths twinkling brighter than usual. Her concerns have now expanded to designer clothing, but she still evinces an eerily limited interest in a confined set of subjects: Chicago street violence, hittas, the law, and the new form of block gossip: who’s saying what on social media. “Fuck that Twitter beef, bitch: pop out/My hittas be on point with that Glock out” follows “I got Twitter hittas that’ll follow you” from “We Ridin’ Round and We Drillin’.” Louie’s more at home and so holds his own, but he’s the one shouting Katie out, not the reverse. The introduction of that elastic melody line is a nice surprise.
[7]