Week #33 ('20) Singles
Welcome to my Singles post, where I go over all of the loose songs released over the past week so. These are songs that are not currently attached to projects, and may either be promotional singles for an upcoming project or songs dropped at the random whim of the artist. I’ll show you the single, where to find it out in the wild, and a little blurb about it for my thoughts/further context. Click here to see previous Singles posts.
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Anderson .Paak (Feat. Rick Ross) – CUT EM IN
A lot of songs dropped this week that will be included in the soundtrack for the upcoming Madden game, and this one is far and away the best of the bunch. There is no way a track of this quality will only live on a video game, so I’m also treating this as another escalation in the leadup to a new Anderson .Paak project. The lead melody on this track is so powerful with that SWANK, loving how it’s sharp guitars on the hook, but on the verses it’s hard piano in the same arrangement. There’s a weight to the production on here that is so satisfying and catching. Both .Paak and Ross approach the beat in their own way, but I find myself coming back to that instrumental more than anything… that is until Anderson hits this crazy flow right near the end of the song. This is a perfect Anderson .Paak song, and has be thinking back to Malibu and hoping to baby Jesus this new project has the same quality.
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Internet Money & Gunna (Feat. Don Toliver & NAV) – Lemonade
What a fantastic collaboration between these three artists. NAV and Gunna kill their verses with superb melodies (I’ll say NAV gets some extra style points for following up the melody on the hook with a similar one), and god damn Toliver on this hook is smooth as fucking butter. The writing on this hook, both lyrically and melodically, is top-notch, being both catchy and sing-along-ready in a way that only the best of song-makers can do. Internet Money, a production collective made up of Taz Taylor and Nick Mira, both deep in good standing with artists like Trippie Redd, iann dior, and the late JuiceWRLD, did not pull any punches with this crisp trap banger either; loving the acoustic guitars, dense hi-hats, and the way they let the beat pull back naturally around the more important moments is all just so satisfying to hear. Clean, mainstream trap music, much like what you would hear from the three vocalists in their own solo music, is what you will find here. Listen.
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Drake (Feat. Lil Durk) – Laugh Now Cry Later
I like this. It takes it’s time getting started in the beginning, and the hook really grinds things to a halt, but it’s fun to get the song revving again on the verses. Drake hits his melodies well, a little more vocal processing than I’m used to from him but it’s not overbearing, and it actually makes the song a little more believable whenever Lil Durk is on here on full-auto mode. Durk could have had a lot more time on the track to shine, but I think, in collaborating with the biggest artist in the world, I’m sure the label just wanted to play it safe; in any case, it’s a solid verse from him. The memes from both the song and the video will probably be around for a long time, so I’m going to need everyone to put that to the side and look at this from a musical perspective. It’s a track that will probably grow on me (it’s catchy, people aren’t making memes without any reason… unless it’s those memes made in OVO’s laboratory), so I’m looking forward to Drake’s next album, which is rumored to be titled “Certified Lover Boy”, with some positive vibes.
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Sheff G & Sleepy Hallow – Tip Toe
I’ll come out and say it: hip-hop needs more Tiny Tim samples. The man has SO MANY performances that can be looped in the same way that these two do here, scratching an itch for surreal and odd hip-hop while also still being hard as nails in it’s New York Drill attitude. There isn’t much of a “hook” to speak of, but both Sheff and Hallow get two pretty long verses to show their styles with; the two are very similar, but I think Sleepy takes the cake on this one for his hilarious lyrics. A track that doesn’t take itself too seriously, in a subgenre that prides itself for how serious it is, is a great aesthetic that I’m fucking with. Listen if you want to have some fun, but also still keep it gangsta.
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Lute – Get It And Go
Besides the fast flows Lute hits throughout the track, it doesn’t really “feel” like a Lute song if that makes any sense. Maybe it’s because this is a track meant to be included on that new Madden 21 soundtrack, but the tough horn-backed beat and the screwed up hook from Blakk Soul feels a lot less introspective than a lot of his other material. Not to say that Lute can’t leave that lane, but don’t go into this expecting Dreamville lyricism. Still, I think for a fun banger with came-from-the-bottom bars and a couple of football-isms thrown out there, this could have been a lot worse. I can definitely see this playing on a game menu or inbetween plays on Madden. We really need a new Lute project though… like a true-to-form Dreamville album from him, and soon.
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YBN Nahmir – I Remember
The beat slaps, the hooks is actually surprisingly catchy in that chanting sort of way, and YBN is as loud and energetic as he’s ever been. He recently said that YBN as a collective is dead, which means that this track (and the couple of other ones he’s dropped this year) are hopefully leading up to a long-overdue solo project from Nahmir. He obviously still has label clout, connections, and the potential to drop some stellar quasi-west-coast music, they’ve just gotta pull the trigger. If you like loud and disrespectful trap music, then give this a spin.
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Buddy (Feat. Matt OX) – Ain’t Sweet
This trap beat is absolutely fantastic, with the plucky guitars and very large sub-bass hits; it still has enough hip-hop to it to not be considered something like Old Town Road, but I think some inspirations were taken here in regards to the instrumental. However, the lyricists go the normal trap rapper routes, with Buddy in particular getting into those quick flows and funny bars. I’ve never been the biggest Buddy fan, but he came through with some one-liners on this one that had me laughing. I honestly have no idea what Matt OX was trying to do here, and while I don’t appreciate his verse musically, on a primal human level I respect it. Explosive and robust trap lovers unite for this one.
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Smokepurpp – Said a Lotta Things
Old Town Road ran so this track could… exist. You get through that intro and the first hook, and you think you’re about to get a pretty standard auto-Smoke track. Whenever he starts into the verse, and he starts that country twang… boy when I tell you I was fucking crying. It was so unexpected and goofy that I just can’t hate this song. It’s funny, joke of a song to keep our spirits up, and it’s only 92 seconds so you could just throw it on for a minute and feel like all is right with the world. Listen to this if you got the horses in the back, if your hat is matte black, and if you love riding on your tractor.
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