Five star dick, three star song…
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[6]
Wayne Weizhen Zhang: Of course the potential here would be ruined by a man. Legit hot girls (Cardi, Rihanna, Beyonce, Ariana, Lizzo, Charli, Cupcakke, I could keep going…) would have made this hook iconic, and there’s even men like Drake or Justin Bieber who could have at least sold it better. But any momentum that Megan Thee Stallion and Nicki Minaj build is an uphill battle against Ty Dolla $ign’s lit-as-a-wet-blanket chorus. There’s no chance we can’t cut him out and infinitely remix this with guest features “Old Town Road” style so #hotgirlsummer can get the justice it deserves?
[5]
Tobi Tella: From the “Act Up” sample to the long awaited Nicki and Megan teamup to the numerous references to Megan songs, including the ubiquitous “Hot Girl Summer” finally getting a song titled after it, this feels like the final boss of all summer twerk anthems. Everyone shows up with a strong contribution, from Ty Dolla’s smooth hook, Nicki’s fun verse, and Megan handily carrying the rest of the song. There’s still a sense that the song could have been more, though. I don’t think any part of the song is bad, but it’s missing the it factor that makes something truly great.
[7]
Alfred Soto: The combination of confident rapping and sung chorus brings “Regulate” to mind, and while Ty Dolla is no Nate Dogg he’s shrewd enough to get out of the way as Nicki Minaj offers her fliest rhymes in a long time and Megan keeps up.
[7]
Thomas Inskeep: Love Juicy J’s — sorry — juicy, thumping track he put together for Megan and friends; typically, a conscious attempt at a musical anthem fails, but this gets over on personality and its groove. Megan is an old school rapper who I can listen to rapping for hours, and while I wish Ty didn’t have such a featured role on a female anthem, at least he’s “just” the hook singer. Nicki sounds fine enough. And don’t forget the wisely-used City Girls sample. I expected something bigger from this, but everyone involved acquits themselves nicely; chalk it up as good-not-great. Radio will likely improve it, too.
[7]
Oliver Maier: Obvious criticism out the way first: Ty Dolla $ign is a bad pick both conceptually (having a man hog the runtime feels contrary to the song’s ethos) and musically (his voice sounds like cardboard). Otherwise, “Hot Girl Summer” is more relaxed than I expected it to be, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but as a first collaboration between Megan and Nicki it feels like a wasted opportunity; both emcees are charismatic enough to dual-wield aggression and flirtatiousness, but their verses here feel a bit rudimentary by their standards. Couldn’t we have heard these two trade bars instead of YBN Cordae and Anderson .Paak?
[6]
Katherine St Asaph: Amazing how a song about badass women ends up being mostly about Ty Dolla $ign’s supposed “five-star dick.” Maybe I’m just a prude — I certainly don’t qualify as a “hot girl” according to this song, or, like, y’know, life — but even the most fleeting of encounters, the most one-night of stands, present at least a dozen things that are more of a rush than someone’s dick. So much lately — this, that Tove Lo song, really pop culture in general — just seems to be running on a totally different track.
[4]
Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: “Hot Girl Summer” is not the Hot Girl Summer anthem we asked for– that’s “My Type,” weirdly enough. But it’s charming enough anyways– it’s less about the universalist good spirits that the Hot Girl Summer has come to represent, and more about how cool Megan Thee Stallion is. In that respect, it’s pretty similar to every song Megan’s put out since her breakthrough. The interesting thing about “Hot Girl Summer” is in how she’s able to hold her own against her higher-wattage features. Despite a perfectly struck Ty Dolla $ign hook, good enough to erase most of my concerns that hey, wait, maybe there should’ve been a woman on the hook, and a non-autopilot Nicki Minaj verse, Megan is still the star. It’s easier to tell on her final verse rather than her first, but Megan’s only gotten better as a rapper. She’s not building outwards, exploring new topics or making ambitious plays to new styles, but upwards– she’s the best in the world at being Megan Thee Stallion.
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