Not an ethnic slur, overly sensitive readers.
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[6.67]
Jonathan Bradley: I understand the history, but I’ve often found it difficult to imagine just how thrilling the explosion of rock ‘n’ roll must have been in the 1950s. Little Richard’s libertine howl, however, has brought me closer to comprehending how bracing this stuff was than, say, Buddy Holly’s square boogie ever did, and perhaps that’s why Lil Chuckee’s dicing up of “Tutti Frutti” does such an excellent job of translating the excitement of another era to the modern day. It helps that Young Money’s Scrappy Doo has grown up a lot since he was first introduced on a Lil Wayne mixtape, and now sounds more like a smart-ass teenager than a Rugrats character. “Wop” is simultaneously reverent and irreverent, with Chuckee shouting out his sample source even while he and producer Mr. Hanky dice it up, holler over it, and electrify it into a stuttering, frantic Frankenstein’s monster of a tune. When I saw Big Freedia last year, she performed a not dissimilar song based on a diced-up “Rock Around the Clock.” If New Orleans’s pilfering of ’50 rock is a new trend, count me in as hoping it lasts at least as long as poodle skirts and hula hoops.
[9]
Brad Shoup: So now I can refer to three hip-hop songs from the last couple years leaning on that first wave of rock and roll. This is kiddie bounce, an instructional exercise with the steps simplified for developing bodies. Mr. Hanky lets out too much Little Richard at a time; instead of curtailing his phrases, Hank allows him to steal the show. As for Chuck, I’m a worried about the implications of a boy that young with a timbre that cataclastic. Either Weezy’s got to let him be his own man, or that plus laying off the menthols.
[5]
Alex Ostroff: Beat: amazing. Lil Chuckee: adequate. Provisional [8] for now, because its grade will improve once it becomes my summer jam, but by summertime I really really want someone – preferably female or queer (or both) – with sufficient charisma or fierceness to not get overpowered by the beat to churn out a [10] of a refix that I can spin instead.
[8]
Iain Mew: It’s not the high level of repetition or even the exuberance of the sample which is the most striking thing about “Wop.” It’s the way in which the slight breaks out of the repetition are so unpredictable, luring you into thinking that you’ve figured out what’s going on only to throw you right back to square one with no time to get your bearings before starting again. I can see that there are contexts in which this would be really thrilling, but shorn of those it quickly gets exhausting.
[3]
John Seroff: Ladies and gentlemen, your song of the summer is here early and it’s a preteen drawling over a bounce version of Tutti Frutti. If that’s basically been done before, it’s not as if people haven’t been ripping off Little Richard for fifty plus years already. “Wop” takes its place in that often unproud heritage as more joyous celebration than homage, giving proof that Richard’s voice booming out of a hooptie at two in the morning can still irritate and inspire. Dozens of spins spun, I still find myself involuntarily pumping hips and fist on the WOPWOPWOPWOPWOP BOPALOOMA to say nothing of the WOPWUHWOPWUHWOPWOP BOPALOOMA, which may ultimately be my favorite lyric of the year; the reduction of TUTTI to a break beat is equally inspired. Lil Chuckee’s Wayne-as-homunculus style is a remarkably good fit here, though really anyone would sound incredible on this hook. I eagerly await the flood of refixes once “Wop” blows up in earnest.
[10]
Jonathan Bogart: A womp bam BOOM.
[10]
Anthony Easton: This reminds me of how much a fan Nik Cohn is of New Orleans Rap, and how much he talks about how rock and roll is foundationally a music of teenagers — that it is still a music for teenagers. It seems ironic to use an old anglo man to make that point, but this reminds me of all the things i love about bounce, and fails to remind me of all the things i hate about Lil wayne, so more power to Lil Chuckee.
[6]
Alfred Soto: Treating the Little Richard sample as counterpoint, sound effect, italics, and historical signifier, Chuckee scores a conceptual triumph that he can’t translate into an artifact I can appreciate in its own light. I mean, the sample is the whole song, and, except for an interlude in which he mimics T.I., Chuckee the earnest archivist hops beside his turntable. Seriously, do you know how close this comes to being Jive Bunny?
[3]
Zach Lyon: Or maybe this is Little (Lil?) Richard ft. Lil Chuckee, seeing as it sounds like someone left the kid alone in a room with the sample playing and told him to try and keep up with it. No problems there, though; Richard’s voice is perfect for it. Also the unofficial twerk video is something to behold.
[6]