Who’s providing the career boost to whom, we wonder…
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[6.17]
Kat Stevens: Smashing flute sample combined with the DO YOU SEE of the song actually Slowing Down! It’s got the same lazy momentum of “Concrete Schoolyard,” and I like it a great deal.
[8]
Alfred Soto: The whistle sample and bass are eeriness commensurate with the sounds Master Ace and Doom would hear after getting walloped with a brick, not to mention how addled logic would reassemble his narrative.
[6]
Jonathan Bogart: After about a decade of diligently listening to every highly praised MF Doom record and collaboration, I am no closer to figuring out what makes him so beloved. Is it really all just anti-chart sentiment?
[5]
Brad Shoup: The bass/flute breakdowns remind me of Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s “Seasons,” which is an automatic reblog, as the kids say. “Slow Down” is simultaneously disarming and prickly — the scheming groupie is nothing new, even if the aural recreation of the mickey is a sweet touch.
[6]
Zach Lyon: The flutey bit sounds like vintage Def Jux production (sorry, Doom), which is actually quite nice behind a non-Def Jux rapper. And I’m easily won over by storytelling in hip hop, but the stipulation, I guess, is that the story has to go somewhere. Instead we get a verse of story, a verse of recap, and a verse of reflection, all of which convinces me they just wanted an excuse to overuse the silly Slowing Down Trick. But still, that first verse plus the first flashback interlude (chorus?) is good work.
[6]
Iain Mew: I love the clever “bang your brains out” gag at the end and the way that he seems to be fighting against the sleepy instrumental passages all the way through, drifting in and out of conciousness. I don’t understand why we hear the same story twice, both as it is happening and in retelling, though. Perhaps a concession too far to drugged logic.
[6]