…except we already liked Mary Mary, whoops…
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[5.62]
Thomas Inskeep: I can only guess that those in the gospel music field who find this song “shocking” haven’t been paying attention: Not only is Campbell half of Mary Mary, who’ve played a huge role in broadening the audience for gospel (see: 2000’s “Shackles” and, especially, 2009’s “God In Me” – which spent 74 weeks on Billboard‘s Hot R&B Singles chart), but her husband and producer is Warryn Campbell, who’s got Grammys for producing everyone from gospel superstar Yolanda Adams to Alicia Keys to Kanye West. Gospel eventually takes in influences from every flavor of R&B and hip-hop, so it was inevitable that someone would make a trap gospel record. This is better than your average, however, thanks to an eerie John Carpenter-esque piano figure and a bassline that you could use as a trampoline. And then there’s its sass: “I luh God/You don’t luh God? What’s wrong wit’chu?” Campbell asks. She will clearly corner you at a party and make you answer, and even as a nonbeliever, I’m okay with that, because she earns my respect.
[8]
Alfred Soto: A couple of her intonations are OK, but sure, I get it — you luv God.
[5]
Micha Cavaseno: This beat is so absurdly bad and Erica isn’t any better or worse at rapping than records aimed for a secular audience. But it’s also so blatantly tongue-in-cheek with the “LUH” out there that you can’t ride out for it.
[2]
Mo Kim: I luh “luh” both for how Campbell coos it without a hint of self-consciousness and how I imagine hippity-hop-fearing pastors explaining in circles why their disapproval is justified and not at all racist (hardly a spoiler, but it is). I luh the intersection of homegrown American faith with this harsh, trap-heavy sound, the quiet subversion of the idea that these things have ever been mutually exclusive, that one community is blessed and the other is not. I luh the silliness in coexistence with the seriousness of this endeavor, the hyperbole of a question like “What’s wrong with you?” played both as comedic effect and as a straight pitch. But most of all, I luh Campbell’s voice, and how it can be sly and questioning; raw and relentless; gorgeous and understated. She speaks for herself fine: how those listening react may say more about them than about her.
[8]
Ramzi Awn: Goddammit, I didn’t think anyone could make me like God like Erica Campbell. If God wants anything, it must be originality.
[5]
Megan Harrington: If you don’t luh God (what’s wrong with you?) just make this hook about guacamole made with avocados or fried chicken or Chrissy Teigen’s Instagram or whatever it is you do love.
[8]
Brad Shoup: I love Big Shizz. I am all about Big Shizz. There was only zero set of footprints because Drake was too busy getting swole to get Big Shizz to write a second sentence. You don’t love Big Shizz? What’s wrong with you?
[2]
Jessica Doyle: What’s wrong with me, to answer the specific question being posed, is that I’m Jewish (and interfaith, and neither bat mitzvahed nor Birthright-ed, and something of a materialist, and couldn’t get through three paragraphs at a time of this essay without wanting to throw it out a window). In this interview Erica Campbell talks about “the enemy,” and she may actualize the idea as much as implied, but I hear it and nod: yes, exactly, self-doubt, self-pity, helped along by exhaustion, requiring mental discipline to battle, exactly. I suspect if another artist, working in another form, with just a shade less joy and more self-satisfaction in the presentation, had asked, “What’s wrong with you?” my answer would be, “Ain’t none of your goddamn business.” But somehow here I’m actually inspired. Not towards God, or Erica Campbell’s version of God; but towards gratitude, and love; and I ought to know better but those two still feel to me more the provenance of the New Testament than the Old.
[7]