Sorry for Planet Rocking…

[Video]
[6.40]

Thomas Inskeep: If you were to simply tell me, “City Girls are gonna talk some shit over a chunk of ‘Planet Rock,’ and interpolate the Chicago house classic ‘Percolator‘ while they do it,” I’d probably give this at least a [6] without even hearing it. And then I heard it, and it’s even better than that, because these Miami rappers know how to ride these electro beats.  
[8]

Aaron Bergstrom: By one unofficial count, “Planet Rock” has been sampled more than four hundred times. Luther Campbell recently turned sixty. Bunny D from L’Trimm is married with four kids, working as a nurse and writing children’s books. The original “Coffee Pot (It’s Time for the Percolator)” turns thirty next year. “Tootsee Roll” is twenty-seven. Godmother Trina is more than two decades removed from her debut. “B.M.F.” came out in 2010. Since it’s fun to reappropriate the adages of dead racists in a context they would hate: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past. It’s time for the twerkulator.”
[9]

Alfred Soto: Like Dante’s Divine Comedy and James Jamerson’s bass lines, “Planet Rock” has proven sturdy enough to endure myriad re-imaginings, re-purposings, and outright thefts. My home girls can write smart smut. “Twerkulator” has a by-the-numbers approach, as if some wag had asked City Girls to perform at a birthday party.
[5]

Will Adams: The appeal of the hook is obvious. “Planet Rock”‘s legacy makes it a cross-generational nostalgia goldmine, and the titlular riff on “Percolator” is as memorable as Songs of the Summer get. But the fun starts and ends there. On their respective verses, neither of the City Girls make any effort to match the hook’s energy. Yung Miami in particular, sounds especially stiff, to the point that it’s hard to listen to.
[5]

Oliver Maier: It’s not that Yung Miami would’ve had to be good at rapping for this to be a success — JT herself is only ever just fine — it’s that she is so very bad at rapping that it kills all the irreverent, head-empty fun. Stop the twerkulator please, I want to get off.
[5]

Nortey Dowuona: Boring but competent first verse, interesting but boringly sloppy second verse, the beat is a meh reskin of a pederast’s work… we sure this isn’t “Juicy Booty?” 
[4]

Samson Savill de Jong: Sounds like a New Orleans bounce pastiche, but this is dull and uninspired to my ear. Maybe because I’m a white English dude, but this doesn’t put me in the mood to get down and dirty at all. JT’s verse, the one that went viral when the song leaked, is fine, and Yung Miami will thank me for not commenting on her verse.
[3]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Unlike prior City Girls hits, which have minimized either JT or (mostly) Miami depending on the mood, “Twerkulator” balances their respective prerogatives — JT gets hook duty and most of the quotable lines, but Miami still makes more of an emotive impression, breaking from the rigid cadence of JT’s verse and the “Planet Rock” rip with something more anarchistic in its approach to rhythm. They’re stronger together! Bonus points for Lil Yachty (the secret third City Girl, at this point) on the whisper intro-outro-bookends, which really just add to the late ’80s retro feel.
[7]

Ady Thapliyal: 1) SOB x RBE proved that triplet flows over ’80s beats is très magnifique 2) this is faaaar better than City Girls’ previous attempt at a twerk anthem 3) this song had me dancing the entire weekend — can that be aesthetically valuable? 4) “Twerkulator” is no more or no less that what it should be. I think that’s enough. 
[10]

Rachel Saywitz: While I wish that the tracks off of City on Lock could have gotten the same chart love that “Twerkulator” is getting, the song’s hype and eventual release provides once again the power of narrative and collective togetherness  — the song traveled around TikTok as an unreleased snippet late last year and went viral, a story that has become increasingly familiar in the music industry. But anyway, song-wise, “Twerkulator” is thankfully more than just a few seconds of JT — it’s a whole party-throwing vibe emphasized by its Afrika Bambaataa sample, which hops in with its eerie synths at each drop of the hook, sounding like a command blaring down from a UFO: “IT’S TIME FOR THE TWERKULATOR.” I can’t not obey such a tempting demand as that! 
[8]