Emperor of France, meet the Queen Diva…
[Video]
[6.33]
Nortey Dowuona: Skip to 3:11 and read this in Chris Griffin’s voice: If you think I’m going to cosign bang average Memphis revivalist rap after the 47th time hearing it from two white guys… you’re right!
[7]
Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Contents are suspect but the container they come in is sublime; the trick of having Big Freedia proclaim all over your song has not yet gotten old for me at least. In gaudy, incoherent form, “Napoleon” feels like the weirdest house party you’ve ever been to — you can barely make out what anyone is saying, the mood is shifting too rapidly to track, and yet everyone is clearly having as good of a time as they can.
[8]
Leah Isobel: The thick layer of sludge coating the piano and the hi-hats emphasizes the grime in the lyrics: “I was raised up in the slime”; “like I’m pouring up in Flint.” But that systemic dirt only offsets the song’s rollicking, mischievous energy — the world sucks, but we’re still dancing. Yeah, man.
[8]
Dave Moore: ANAKIN: These guys show up every single week when I listen to new music, and I always hear them first because I go alphabetically by artist. I listen to them for a few seconds and think, “this is kind of good maybe? I should figure out what their deal is,” but every time the thought fades immediately and I forget about it until the following week. PADME: So this has given you an opportunity to figure out what their deal is, right?”
[5]
Ian Mathers: An act I have never heard of outside of incessant PR emails telling me how incredibly successful they are. And I believe them! The world of music is big enough there are tons of acts that are huge in their context that I’ve never heard of. But those emails never actually made a case for listening to $UICIDEBOY$, so I never did. And now I don’t need to!
[3]
Joshua Lu: Underground rap duo finding Jesus, randomly making a bounce track that still preserves all of their caustic energy, then throwing it on their latest, vaguely Christian album? You don’t need narrative cohesion when the song bops this hard.
[7]