A remix, as you will learn from everybody…
[Video]
[5.22]
Micha Cavaseno: Mura Masa & Desiigner’s original “All Around the World” was a gamelan-tinged festival trap banger that deserved a better break than it got. Now the team from 67 have gotten a chance to spring on something other than maudlin drill-influenced instrumentals provided by the likes of Carns Hill or Mazza Beats and turn the should’ve been into a sure-fire. 67 are their usual levels of confident (the ironically mask-clad LD still the most instantly recognizable), and while lacking the transcendental bliss of Desiigner’s hook, they still manage to shimmer.
[8]
Will Adams: Where the original was a taut set piece for the club, this remix adds nearly two extra minutes, swapping Desiigner’s verses for a series of blanks from 67. The hook remains and is as fun as ever, but it only serves as a reminder of how much better the song is with just one voice at the helm.
[5]
Will Rivitz: The original “All Around The World” is practically perfect, Desiigner’s best verse over a beautiful beat, so not much improves when UK grime crew 67 meander in instead. Their lethargy drowns the tune’s manic energy, like adding too much ketchup to a really nice plate of garlic fries. At the very least, though, they show that you can throw pretty much any rapper over this beat and it’ll still do OK, a testament to its versatility.
[6]
Thomas Inskeep: I would happily travel all around the world to never have to hear Desiigner again, but fortunately he’s only on the hook, and the actual rap duties are handled by the UK’s 67 crew, who based on their appearance here are pretty damned good rappers. The track’s more simplistic than I’d like to hear from Mura Masa, but 67 pull it across the finish line.
[6]
Crystal Leww: The original version of this track? Good. The SIROJ edit? A banger. The remix featuring 67? Terminally boring. Dance music works when it grooves or bangs, but when it’s used to show off your technical rap skills, it’s the aural equivalent of a majestic lion that’s been drugged. Big cats shouldn’t be caged like this.
[3]
Ashley John: Mura Masa does best making the sharp, prickly parts of beats and vocals glitter. Tracks with Christine and the Queens and Bonzai shine because Mura Masa backs off and ramps up when the track needs it. In a song where nothing much happens, there’s no room for sliding up and down that scale, leaving verse after boring verse.
[4]
Joshua Minsoo Kim: In the original version, Desiigner’s verses overflow with playfulness and glee. It’s contagious, like watching energetic children show off their newly-learned cartwheeling ability. Without these verses, Mura Masa’s twinkly production has nothing to bounce off and becomes little more than pretty wallpaper. The members of 67 have proven themselves to be great rappers, and they’re not slacking here, but they’re going for something far too subdued for this framework. They deflate Desiigner’s hook and remove the exciting spontaneity of the original. It’s too by-the-numbers, two minutes too long, and too much of a chore.
[4]
Iain Mew: With rapping this laidback, the production’s ratio of sleepy woodwind to fizzing synth is way too stacked to the former. The feeling that it could go off but never does eventually gets wearying.
[4]
Alfred Soto: The original is a petulant, skittering wonder, and while 67 slow the pace, they don’t kill its deadly momentum.
[7]