That’s not us…
[Video][Website]
[4.83]
Will Adams: As usual, Skepta’s beat is the star (how could I not trust someone who thinks to sample Sophie Ellis-Bextor), a collage of undulating synths that makes room for his raps. It’s Nafe Smallz who sinks it, however, with a weak verse bookended by his weaker hook.
[5]
Ian Mathers: The production is beautiful, but it goes so much better with Skepta’s asthmatic weed smoking, palm wine and pepper soup than it does with Nafe Smallz’ post-Rae Sremmurd sex brags that the song feels distinctly uneven.
[6]
Iris Xie: As someone from California, “Greaze Mode” is kind of amusing because Skepta and Nafe Smallz sound like totally horny weed tourists documenting their vacation — I can hear them going “wooooow all that weed and those girls” between their lines. Even the reference of “definitely, I grind” is an extremely corny, if well-utilized, piece of wordplay. But I really like the humming glass flute sound that mixes with the kickdrum and sprinkly synth, because it’s nice to hear flutes that don’t sound tired and overused, like those snake charmer melodies. The combination of rhythms encases the flow in a chill chamber that makes the song prettier, as greasy as it is.
[6]
Katherine St Asaph: The sludgy production and Future vocals are decent, if ever so slightly dated, but lines like “how can she tell me that I’m cute?” and “addicted to the sex” redirect any gravitas to junior high school.
[5]
Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Nafe Smallz’ British Travis Scott take and Skepta’s cool, electronic production are smooth and relatively anonymous, leaving Skepta’s verses the simple job of not sounding awkward. Unfortunately, he can’t seem to clear that low bar here — his raps are so disjointed that it sounds like they’ve stitched his verses together from the remnants of other, better Skepta tracks.
[4]
Joshua Minsoo Kim: Are the Travis Scott warbles only here to convince me this is the significantly worse “Mode”?
[3]