“It was that controversial? Damn. How can we get those kinds of numbers?”
[Video][Website]
[5.44]
Katherine St Asaph: When did Wayne redevelop a pulse?
[7]
Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: On TV last night, there was an hour of music channel programming entitled “10 Years of Young Money!” And goddamn, that’s one anniversary I didn’t see coming, especially seeing as it’s wrong (that anniversary will be next year). Everything about Young Money seems nigh-on ridiculous when you consider how many things had to go right for the faction to sit atop the rap mainstream: the one remaining rapper of the classic Cash Money lineup needed to become a star while he mutated into some Jim Morrison goblin, then develop a platform to launch an ex soap-opera actor and a drama nerd as hip-hop’s new stars, as well as give Lil Twist a way to become part of Bieber’s squadron. Weirder things have happened, but Young Money’s commercial rise is plenty weird. Weirder still is that this bucks the trend of Wayne’s eye-crust-level recent material. This slaps, with quotables for days and shout-outs alike to Noreaga and Niall Horan. Maybe that anniversary will be worth a true coronation next year.
[7]
Alfred Soto: Skip ahead 90 seconds, way past Fucking Drake’s introspection-as-pounce (i.e. I’ll show you my heart, you show me your breasts). Get to Wayne, at his best when he as usual he loses his place in a narrative and free associates.
[6]
Anthony Easton: I could take or leave the rest of the track, but the steely, isolating, almost austere metronome-like bit near the very end — intimidating and difficult, and as good as anything on Sonic Youth’s Goodbye 20th Century — I want more that sounds like that. I want more that sounds so isolating.
[6]
Megan Harrington: Drake is playing that trick where you bury a lie in a haystack of truth; don’t believe him. Young Thug, Lil Silk, even Rich Homie Quan have lapped Wayne. It’s exhausting simply listening to this song, flinching at every labored over line and cringing at every sloppy bar. These two couldn’t be more anxious for the bell to ring.
[3]
Crystal Leww: Lil Wayne hasn’t sounded this good or rapped with this much agency in years (yeah, low bar, I know). Drake has never sounded this much like a dead fish.
[5]
Brad Shoup: Weezy sounds great! He’s not cackling or ingratiating; he’s just mean. Unless you’re Mahbod Moghadam, though, Drake’s prose isn’t anything special, just a lot of huffing around the same line endings. Love the fifty-dollar beat, which remains just as boring at half the speed. Though at one-sixteenth, it’s downright doomy.
[4]
Patrick St. Michel: Considering that Lil Wayne’s gone and released a far better song following this plodding number, the only element here of any interest is Drake saying he does “One Direction numbers.”
[3]
David Turner: You haven’t had your hair cut in weeks. Your mom notices that your skin has actually acquired a tan. The A/C for your car is just rolling down the front windows. But none of that means it’s summer until Drizzy says so. Though it’s Lil Wayne’s opening single, Drake is the nigga commanding to “Believe Me.” But I’ve believed Drake since he noted we’re all on one and my summer circumstances haven’t changed much, believe me.
[8]