But a less than blasé score…
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[6.43]
Thomas Inskeep: I’ve never cared for any of the artists involved much, before. But something about this pulls me in — actually, multiple somethings. Maybe it’s DJ Spinz’s production, which is spare, synthy and has a chorus bassline to devastate your woofers. Maybe it’s the Nate Dogg callout. Maybe repeated exposure to Future is breaking down my resistance, and I’m starting to appreciate his voice almost as another instrument — and that as goes my reaction to Future, so goes my reaction to Ty Dolla $ign. Maybe it’s that I read the recent GQ article on Magic City and now feel like I have a much better understanding of ATL’s strip-club music scene, into which Ty$, Future, and Rae Sremmurd all fit. Maybe it’s the brilliant-stupid rhymes like “blasé/Maserati”. It’s all of these; resistance is futile.
[9]
Andy Hutchins: While today’s other anthemic rap play featuring Future tries so hard to make “Them boys up to something” more than a tease, Ty$ and the Sremmers (a band I would see in concert, for the record) have a bit more vividity to their tale of semi-bored consumption, mostly thanks to the miscreants from Mississippi. Ty, who outsings Mr. Cash on the hook, isn’t saying much new, actually: His accomplishment here is saying “Nate Dogg” and excising the O entirely from his surname. But Slim Jimmy and Swae Lee are here to spout swaggy shit for eight bars each, and between “Shawty crunk drunk, fuckin’ up her new Louboutins,” “Ball on these niggas, I need knee replacements” and “I was (uh) hopin’ you were salty when you saw me,” there’s plenty of sauce on the plate. There’s a great Tumblr post to be written on their deliveries (it’s “BALL on THESE NIGgas, I NEED KNEE rePLACEments”), too, and it’s nice to know that DJ Spinz was able to recycle the malfunctioning arcade cabinet from The Throne’s “Made in America.”
[8]
Megan Harrington: This should be better than it is. There’s a mostly effective verse from Ty Dolla $ign, a great verse from Swae Lee, and Future relegated to the hook. But the production is dated, and worse, a boring hindrance to a group so bubbling over with inventiveness.
[4]
Alfred Soto: Simulating ennui is hard without sounding like you’re steeped in ennui. From Rae and Future’s rhymes it’s obvious to me that the title refers to their unobtrusive skill. DJ Spinz’s spare track complements them.
[7]
Brad Shoup: That track is sly: it’s like a diorama of a cartoon factory. The guys aren’t as sly, but I love the idea of going through the motions so hard you break the looking glass.
[7]
Crystal Leww: “Blasé” has grown on me immensely on the last couple of months, quickly becoming one of the most underrated tracks of 2015. This song, built on a kinda silly Future hook, has held up at work, at bus stops, in the club, in the car. Everyone has done better, but everyone sounds perfectly fine here, too.
[7]
Micha Cavaseno: Look, listen, I’m not going to tell you this generic filler DJ Spinz track with throwaway performances by Future and the two weirdos in Rae Sremmurd is worth your time. It’s not, the same way “Drop That Kitty” wasn’t, as it’s yet another example of cynical “Well, Ty can write hooks! He’s been writing hooks for disposable singles for half the business this past year! Let him fulfill that role ON HIS OWN DAMN SONG!” This song is what the radio pushed, and not the minimal goth-dread of DJ Mustard and Mike Free reuniting on “Only Right” (a testimony of the perfection of the Pushaz axis, marred by a video where even scumbag savant Joe Moses can’t make beating up a mentally disabled person enjoyable), which astounds me. But it’s all good, guys, because, Ty is dropping an album! Its got Sa-Ra and Babyface on it, and this is how he’s going to get out of this ridiculous novelty position of being some T-Pain for ratchet, and simply be the artist he wants to be. And we’re all buying the album, right?
[3]