Don’t let the score fool you – we’ve missed you Eve!
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[5.14]
Brad Shoup: The track bangs so Eve doesn’t have to. There was always something easygoing about her, even in her pre-Hollywood Ruff Ryder days… or maybe it was Swizz’s cartoon library music. Rather than siphon some of the excitement from the production, she just flexes generic, a strange explorer from another land.
[5]
Crystal Leww: In her first single from her first album in eleven years, Eve’s aware that a lot of time has passed. The space of female rappers has been filled by an array of talent but she’s trying to take the throne back, proclaiming “Now I’m back, forget about them other chicks; man, you won’t miss them.” The problem is that she doesn’t really succeed in this regard; “She Bad Bad” is perfectly pleasant, it’s forgettable. I’d rather be listening to Nicki.
[5]
Alfred Soto: Has it really been a decade-plus? Damn. She’s still not buying what you’re selling and not offensive about it, which is her perennial problem. This track joins the list of not bad bad Eve tracks.
[5]
Josh Langhoff: I get bored real easy. This must explain why I’m looking at Rap Genius, where I learn, “She has a fragrance that make men submit to her, as much as they front and pretend she isn’t who she say she is, they eventually are overcome with passion.” And I thought they were drawn to her bludgeoning sense of rhythm.
[4]
Sabina Tang: I like the onomatopoeic chant, and the intermittent jolts of electro energy — each of which builds for a few seconds, then dissolves back into nothingness instead of kicking into the next gear. This is not a virtue when it takes an effort of will (and goodwill) just to keep my attention on Eve’s flow, from which it has a marked tendency to wander.
[5]
Jonathan Bogart: After Missy’s fogeyish fizzle and Lil Kim’s increasingly desperate attempts to troll Nicki Minaj for relevance, it’s great to hear a turn-of-the-millennium female rapper staging a comeback focus on the fundamentals — which very much include snappy pop hooks in addition to murderous down-the-line rhyming.
[8]
Edward Okulicz: Quarters of the Internet are abuzz as to the origin of the chorus, with many people tying it to “oshe baba” from the Yoruba language, seemingly a popular title of modern songs of praise in Nigeria. If true, it’s an interesting if brief bit of soramimi, and in fact one that overshadows Eve herself. Jukebox’s production is like a monochrome “Whip My Hair,” and Eve’s delivery is fierce but curiously lacking in stand-out lines to grip you — you recognise her but you’re not going to forget “them other chicks” for this. Is it worth coming back just for competence and an arresting chorus hook you can’t outshine?
[4]