And we close our week with a Nigerian all-star party jam.
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Joshua Minsoo Kim: If there’s any justice in this world, Davido will go down as one of the most crucial pop stars of the 2010s. His importance to Nigerian pop music is hard to overstate, and part of it is for how his countless collaborations have a tendency to bring out the best of every artist involved. Here, there’s a smart sequencing that sandwiches Naira Marley and Zlatan’s typically amelodic verses between sweeter crooning. Like so many other Davido singles, it goes down so smooth that by the time it ends you underestimate how much has actually happened. There’s a depth to the sweet talk; you can sense it in their contrasting vocal timbres, in the tenderness with which they work with the production.
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Brad Shoup: Pop says it deals in sweetness, but it’s usually a saccharin. It’s hard to sing about sweetness and evoke taste, rather than anticipation. But it has been done, and it’s done here. Vybz, by the way, gets a shout-out from Marley; he’s demanding, Zlatan’s the sensualist, Wurld’s dreaming, and Davido is detached. It ends up being an idealistic, piano-padded version of “Int’l Players Anthem,” without any of the rancid bits.
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Edward Okulicz: Sweet on all sides, and just about every instrumental ingredient too. Naira Marley’s verse is the one that sticks out, and I’m not sure if it’s for good or bad reasons — his sounds the most different, but I also think his (relatively mild, sure) dick (having) and pussy (getting) bragging is a little out of sync in an otherwise fun and playful party lover song. What does feel in sync is Wurld referring to a lover as “my sweet potato.” I love this line, and I love this song for giving it to me.
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Iain Mew: Too consistently sweet can turn to sickly, and begins to as Davido and Wurld don’t deviate from a groove too soft to stick with for that long. Relief comes from Zlatan, who provides something sour in the middle.
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Juana Giaimo: After many years of autotune being in so many songs, I’m still surprised when artists find a way to make it work. In “Sweet in the Middle”, Davido’s autotuned vocals pair perfectly with the soft beat, partly because his vocal melody is also very delicate and seductve. The rap verses make this song more dynamic — although I would have loved if they were more integrated to the song!
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Thomas Inskeep: Upbeat, buoyant Afrobeat from one of its kings, featuring rap cameos that actually make sense and don’t feel dropped in from another song; I especially like the way that Wurld piggybacks off Davido’s lyrics. The groove is nice & summery, and Davido’s singing, as ever, just sounds so lithe.
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