Shade Sheist, oddly enough, did not get an international airport named after him…
[Video]
[7.75]
Alfred Soto: Overlook the smut and Nate Dogg is the Bill Withers of hip-hop soul: modest, warm when required, incapable of narcissism even if you looked the word up for him. The comparison makes even more sense in this would-be summer anthem I don’t remember. Riding a Toto keyboard sample as well as Withers coasted through “Lovely Day,” Nate D is in his own world, pretending his $10 CVS shades are Ray-Bans, and the melanoma on his chick’s ass is a birthmark.
[8]
Ian Mathers: Holy crap, I don’t think I’ve ever heard Nate sound this uncomplicatedly happy before. Marry the laid-back joy of his hook with the smooth bump of the production and this is just such a perfect summer song, I want to be driving somewhere in the sun with the windows down right now. Why have I never heard this before? Blame Canada, maybe.
[9]
Martin Skidmore: I’ve always liked summery hip hop, and this is a fine example of that, despite Shade’s rather unexciting rapping. Nate’s hook is an irresistibly lovely summer driving sound, and it feels rather like a Nate Dogg single both in the amount he’s involved and because the appeal is largely in his part.
[9]
Zach Lyon: This is a good pick because Nate Dogg is the only part of it I notice or remember. And it’s a good example of how seamless the transitions were from his hooks to his inevitable verse. It doesn’t seem to be automatically expected for the guest-singer-on-a-rap-track to get a full verse in, but Nate never seems to NOT get one. Respect, I suppose.
[7]
Michaelangelo Matos: Everything about the track percolates, including both MCs, but not including Nate, whose sonorities blanket the track rather than bubbling to the surface along with everything else. It establishes him as the center of gravity, so to speak.
[7]
Asher Steinberg: Chilled-out ode to lazy afternoons fails to actually evoke lazy afternoons. Shade is strictly along for the ride, and Nate, rather than invite the listener in, is entombed in self-regard of his famed dulcet tones. Kurupt comes the closest to getting in the proper spirit, though his verse isn’t much more than a list of names.
[5]
Mallory O’Donnell: Surely a landmark of some kind in the aeons-slow confrontation between hip-hop and house. The sample is pure disco, the insistence pure house, the vocal supplies all the melody and the raps provide a convenient interruption of the beat, just enough to turn monotony into hypnosis. Just enough to distill summer by the glass. Like you’d be sober enough to notice.
[8]
Al Shipley: “Summer jam” is a term that gets thrown around rather loosely these days, but sunshine seeps through every fucking pore of this track, especially that gorgeously bubbly Toto sample. The second half of Nate’s chorus is some typical business about lighting up chronic, but the warmth of the song really comes from the first half: “this is where I wanna be, right here with my loved ones.” You should never have a cookout and not want to play this song at it.
[9]