Chris Brown ft. Busta Rhymes and Lil Wayne–Look At Me Now

Released February 01, 2011.
Billboard: #11
UK Charts: –

Posse raps can be interesting, as you get to hear a little slice of each individual’s style. For example, on the remix of Brown’s Deuces, from hearing their voice I could pick out Drake, TI, Kanye and Andre3000 easily without needing to see the list of featured artists. When I first saw the concept on paper – Chris Brown ft. Lil Wayne and Busta Rhymes, I figured it’d be an R&B track, possibly with some extended rap features. I was wrong.

However, I had heard him do a rap section (feature, actually) on Chipmunk’s Champion, in addition to his semi-shouting part on Yeah 3X; now I think about it actually quite a number of R&B singers are doing semi-crossovers (Trey Songz put his own take on Look At Me Now, and Ne-Yo opens One In A Million with some rapping). So I wasn’t too surprised…

Unlike Forever where all four of them had their strengths going for them, the aforementioned Deuces remix where all could be contenders, or perhaps even the depressingly weak yet somewhat egalitarian (bad) nature of Bedrock, this is one of the most one-sided ones I have ever seen, to put it bluntly.

#1 CHRIS BROWN

I don’t see how you can hate from outside of the club
You can’t even get in
Hahaha, leggo

Heh, the lyrics are obnoxious, as is the laugh. Anyway, that was just some random intro bit, so we should get down to the real content of his verse. I

Yellow model chick, yellow bottle sippin’
Yellow Lamborghini, yellow top missin’

Okay… This reminds me of Wiz Khalifa’s song about a car as well (Black And Yellow). Though my critical mind thinks Black And Yellow is bad as a song, I find it pretty catchy as harmless entertainment. The sheer ridiculousness of some parts of the song made it more humorous than anything – which may be a good thing.

That shit look like a toupee
I get what you get in 10 years, in two days

If I earned $10000 a month, I would get approximately $1.2 million in 10 years, not including bonuses. Let’s take the bonus as 1 month so that’s $1,320,000 in 10 years. In 2 days would mean that you earn… $241 million a year. True, that’s not impossible, but I believe that kind of level was surpassed only by Oprah for 2010. Even the top earning popstar, Beyonce clocked in at $87M, a little over one third of that. Pretty ambitious there, eh?

Ladies love me; I’m on my Cool J
If you get what I get, what would you say?
She wax it all off, Mr. Miyagi

No issues, no comments here.

And them suicide doors, hari-kari

LAZY rhyming. The term for suicide is hari kiri… Well, I guess it isn’t too bad that he gets his words on timing most of the time. 3.0 / 10

HOOK – CHRIS BROWN

Look at me now, look at me now
Oh, I’m getting paper
Look at me now, oh, look at me now
Yeah, fresher than a muff(??)

I can’t seem to hear the dirty word that this is supposed to end with. Anyway, could you sing something? At least I sort of liked his oversinging on Champion… He’s a singer first, a dancer up there as well, and a rapper maybe 20th. 4.0 / 10

#2 CHRIS BROWN

Lil nigga, bigger than gorilla
Cause I’m killing every nigga that can try to be on my shit
Better cuff your chick if you with her, I can get her
And she accidentally slip and fall on my dick

Heh, how incredulous (accidentally? It shouldn’t be exposed at all!). He’s trying a bunch of 16th note syllables here, and it’s at least kinda nice to listen to.

Oops, I said on my dick
I ain’t really mean to say on my dick
But since we talking about my dick
All of you haters say hi to it

Suck it, huh? As again, I somehow feel he’s not really trying at least in terms of lyric-writing here.

I’m done.

Well, I hope that was some fun experimentation, but please return to a main singing role in your songs. It wasn’t really terrible, but you can do much better. 4.0 / 10

#3 BUSTA RHYMES

Ayo Breezy, let me show you how to keep the dice rolling when you’re doing that thing over there homie

Yeah. He only did it for around four bars or so. Let’s do this!

Let’s GO!

I’m pumped. That sounds somewhat like Tinie Tempah’s signature before he starts his songs, though…

Cause I feel like I’m running
And I’m feeling like I gotta get away, get away, get away…

This is what I mean by fast. I remember in Forever that Eminem one-upped the others in terms of speed, rapping:

He’s wondering if he should spit this slow
Fuck no! Go for broke,
His cup just runneth over, oh no

You sure about this…? Forever was 158 BPM with a small bunch of 16th triplets. For the most part he’s just doing 8th notes at 158 BPM which a simple calculation would show to be 158 x 2 / 60,or around 5.27 syllables per second. Look At Me Now is only 146, but Busta goes mainly on the sixteenths. In other words, that is (146 x 4 / 60) or 9.73 syllables per second. Following the rappers on Forever would make for a somewhat hard song on DDR; but, Look At Me Now could easily be a boss song that would make Forever look like peanuts.

I’m not going to bother going through the lyrics. It’s fairly standard fare about pushing for the top in spite of haters, rebutting them, etc. Normally, songs that succeed for me do so on the intellectual level a la All of the Lights which I just wrote about; yet this is an example of serious technical proficiency. Good job. It’s the main part of the song which I can put on repeat. Heh looks like it’d be worth it for me to check out more of the guy’s work. This could be pop-slanted though relative to the rest of his work – somehow, like Raekwon’s verse on Runaway Love with Kanye West and Justin Bieber I get this feeling. Nevertheless, he’s very good. 8.0 / 10

Sheesh. This means the expectations are going to be VERY, VERY high for the next person up…

#4 LIL WAYNE

Man, fuck these bitch ass niggas, how y’all doin’?
I’m Lil Tunechi, I’m a nuisance, I go stupid, I go dumb like the Three Stooges
I don’t eat sushi, I’m the shit, no, I’m pollution, no substitution
Got a bitch that play in movies in my jacuzzi, pussy juicy

A porn star. I get it.

Seriously, most of this is also just standard fare about rising to the top and rebutting haters, so I don’t see much point in going through the lines. I’ll just point out the more interesting or uncertain bits.

You niggas ain’t eatin’, fuck it, tell a waiter
Marley said shoot ‘em, and I said okay
If you wanted bullshit then I’m like olé

Don’t quite get this bit. Who is Marley? I’ve heard it’s Wayne’s bodyguard, but still… isn’t this inappropriate especially given that he was just incarcerated for weapon possession?!

I don’t care what you say, so don’t even speak
Your girlfriend a freak like Cirque du Soleil

Ah ha! Like this. She must be a mad contortionist, probably. Nice one there.

Ciroc and Sprite on a private flight, bitch I been tight since Guiding Light

I learned that it (Guiding Light)’s apparently the longest running television drama (from 1975), and someone on rapgenius also commented that it could be a double entendre for God and Light. Nevertheless, going by this idea I don’t see a need for such reading anyway, since Guiding Light in and of itself, without changing the words, could also be an allusion to God, who was around since the beginning of time.

He isn’t bad. However, it’s hard to clear the bar that Busta set in his verse, and from what I see, Wayne doesn’t do it. Nevertheless, this is credibly okay. 5.5 / 10

And of course, the winner for me is Busta, hands down. Lil Wayne is good, but I think it’d be better if he throws in more of those interesting, witty couplets, or at least those that would make me smile amusedly. Brown should stick to singing, really.

OVERALL SCORE = 6.0 / 10
This is a rather unusual case where some elements of the song are excellent and others seem inherently flawed. I settled on a 6, as the hook while not good isn’t terrible, and the featured artists do their job more than satisfactorily (Lil Wayne), if not excellently (Busta). It’s pretty catchy, but probably could have been more cohesive if Brown used a more traditional pattern (e.g. Brown sings or raps v1, and sings the hook rather than just goes Look at me now, Look at me now. Wayne fires v2 and Busta does the bridge or vice versa). Nevertheless, I do respect Busta’s technical proficiency. I’d listen to the song for that part, really.

Jay Sean ft. Lil Wayne–Hit The Lights

To be released: February 8 2011.

When I heard this song, I was reminded of many bad songs that I’d listened to, most notably of Usher’s “OMG” – nevertheless, this isn’t actually that bad, as it seems like it followed up on quite a lot of the lessons I’ve learnt from the bad songs I’ve been reminded of. I’ve kinda liked Jay Sean’s voice on some of his earlier releases, like the acoustic version of “I’m Gone“, and though it wasn’t groundbreaking or anything (very generic, in fact), I actually really liked his earlier collaboration with Lil Wayne on “Down”. I’m not really into rap-focused songs, but nevertheless Lil Wayne has had good spots on many songs, including one that I recently reviewed (“Forever” with Drake, Kanye West and Eminem – I think he pulled the best one on that set). My expectations going into this are quite high, and the song didn’t completely fail, but it didn’t fare that well either.

Lesson 1: Repetitive choruses/lyrics, though not always bad, often are.
Offenders: ‘Imma Be’ – Black Eyed Peas, ‘Eenie Meenie’ – Justin Bieber/Sean Kingston
Good Examples: ‘Ridin’ Solo’ – Jason Derulo, ‘Lover, Lover’ – Jerrod Niemann
This is bad. Hit The Lights repeats the titular phrase all over the place. Probably not as bad as the 106 times in Imma Be, but still, I find the phrase is over-spammed. Doesn’t automatically make it bad (it worked for me in Ridin’ Solo), especially if the repetition is done with some variation (as in Lover, Lover) but I find this one lacking. And what does it mean to hit the lights anyway? Which brings me to…

Lesson 2: Ambiguity or referencing in lyrics is usually nice, but not when taken too far.
Offenders: ‘Bedrock’ – Young Money ft. Lloyd, ‘All The Right Moves’ – OneRepublic
Good Examples: ‘Airplanes’ – B.o.B ft. Hayley Williams, ‘If I Die Young’ – The Band Perry
Most of the song is okay, although the lyrics are very cliched – standard fare on being in a club and all. Not much referencing per se except ‘YMCMB’ in Lil Wayne’s verse that I can see, but the problem still lies in the repeated phrase. Hit the lights. Does it have anything to do with the lighters in the air that he opens the chorus with? Or perhaps, we can have a look at another song’s discussion of some… types… of lights:

All of the lights –
Cop lights, flash lights, spot lights, strobe lights, street lights
(All of the lights, all of the lights)
(All of the Lights, Kanye West ft. Rihanna, Elton John, Kid Cudi et al.)

Probably the strobe lights in a club, so hitting the lights would probably refer to going to a club. Which leads to another question. If he’s singing this in a club environment, presumably, then what’s the point of the song? Or maybe more specifically it’s about dancing? This would be possible given that he says ‘come out of the dark and let the DJ lead the way (the way, the way)’. Still, I’m not really convinced. I know the lyrics aren’t critical to a song’s success at all, but when they’re bad it can really undermine the song. This one isn’t as distractingly bad as what I found All The Right Moves to be, and it isn’t stupidly bad (like Blah Blah Blah) but still the titular phrase seems to come off as rather vague to me.

Lesson 3: Low, background voices speaking/shouting are generally best avoided.
Offenders: ‘OMG’ – Usher ft will.i.am, ‘Boom Boom Pow’ – Black Eyed Peas
Good Examples: Can’t see any…
A bit annoying in the introduction, but generally not too bad. Forgivable, I guess. But I wonder what’s with this trend. For me, it’s just annoying and often detracts from the song.

Lesson 4: ‘OH’, ‘HEY’ and ‘AYO’ are often bad, bad words.
Offenders: ‘OMG’ – Usher ft will.i.am, ‘Just A Dream’ – Nelly
Good Examples: ‘Dynamite’ – Taio Cruz
Probably the section before Lil Wayne comes in would have made me compare this song to OMG which was much more egregious (this one’s only a very short section, not brutally repeated for most of the song). Nevertheless, this is one area where I find the song is incredibly annoying as well. It’s sad when we consider that these 2 guys released Down around 2 years back. That said I enjoyed the high AYO in Dynamite for some reason – perhaps because it wasn’t repeated so much, and its use made sense in context.

Lesson 5: Be careful with featured artists.
Offenders: ‘Do You Remember’ – Jay Sean ft. Sean Paul and Lil Jon, ‘California Gurls’ – Katy Perry ft. Snoop Dogg
Good Examples: ‘Nothin’ on You’ – B.o.B ft. Bruno Mars, ‘Love The Way You Lie’ – Eminem ft. Rihanna, ‘Little Freak’ – Usher ft. Nicki Minaj
Pop rap collaborations are extremely common nowadays, whether it’s a rapper with a singer supplying the hook (and possibly the bridge or one verse) or a singer with a rapper tackling a verse or bridge (which is the case in this song) – B.o.B is a special case who can tackle both (though better at rapping). The inclusion of Lil Jon in Do You Remember made the song almost unlistenable for me, and Snoop Dogg sounded honestly rather ridiculous in California Gurls. The three good examples for me were very, very solid pop-rap collaborations that had both elements (singer and rapper) nailed well. Weezy’s spot here is good, though perhaps not really that impressive (compared to Bruno Mars’ vocal feature on Nothin’ on You, for example).

Lesson 6: Sometimes going for a raunchier/more daring image is a bad idea if not well executed.
Offenders: ‘Can’t Be Tamed’ – Miley Cyrus, ‘Alejandro’ – Lady Gaga
Good Examples(?): ‘Bad Romance’ – Lady Gaga, ‘Forever’ – Drake ft. Kanye et al
I don’t really like the direction Jay Sean’s been going with the recent singles he’s released. Down was pleasurable, and I enjoyed some of his earlier singles like Stay. Do You Remember left me somewhat underwhelmed, but now he’s becoming somewhat more daring. It’s so hot there’s girls just taking all their clothes off doesn’t sound like a very nice message to send, honestly. Such a song might work by Sean Kingston (humorous), or Usher (appropriate, perhaps), or Trey Songz. It doesn’t seem very convincing to me delivered by Jay Sean.

Lesson 7: Product placement can bring in money, and sometimes it works, but at times it seems out of place.
Offenders: ‘Leavin’’ – Jesse McCartney, “Like A G6” – Far East Movement
Non-offensive Examples: “Replay” – Iyaz, “Like A G6” – Far East Movement
Good (??) Examples: “Hard” – Rihanna ft. Young Jeezy (the Louis Man joke is hilarious.)
The iPhone is featured in this one. It’s not too bad and with his accent it kind of rhymes with off but even then it’s quite a stretch. I’d consider it non-offensive, really. I listed G6 twice because the champagne name uses (Moet and Cristal) are okay, but the titular G6 just looks like leaving loads of questions to be asked.

Lesson 8: Don’t waste your singers’ potential.
Offenders: ‘OMG’ – Usher ft. will.i.am, ‘Sexy Chick’ – David Guetta ft. Akon
Good Examples: ‘There Goes My Baby’ or ‘Burn’ or ‘Moving Mountains’ or ‘You Make Me Wanna…” – Usher, ‘King of Anything’ – Sara Bareilles
I was fearful of this when I heard the first part of the verse, it’s low and doesn’t show off his vocal range. Fortunately (though the song may be autotuned) it takes off a bit, giving it a more interesting character than the ‘bad’ songs. This is decent, and his note at the end of the bridge section was at least reasonably nice… I’d say this is addressed somewhat, though I wouldn’t say it uses the full potential of his voice. His voice is smooth, which works well in those contemporary R&B or light dance songs, but its potential is wasted on dance tracks like this. Not as terrible as OMG or Sexy Chick – he does get to use it, but I feel it’s overshadowed by the production.

That said, I have to admit the song works as a party song. The harder sound he’s been going with isn’t something I quite like, and while it can work in some of his songs (I listened to Break Ya Back which seems to work better while also going with a slightly edgier image) I’m not so sure it’s going well with this one. Nevertheless, it’ll probably chart well, it looks like one of those calculated songs… Somehow his singing in I Made It that:

See I don’t live for glamour, and I don’t care for fame
I’m in this for the love of the game

Seems to be less believable now. He did well in I Made It, I thought. Unless he really enjoys such party tracks? And I’m getting underwhelmed by Cash Money’s release choices too. They sorta-wanted yet decided not to release War, which I felt was the best track on All or Nothing, and now this over Break Ya Back or the title track Freeze Time? I’m disappointed. Probably marginally better than 2012 (I’d rate 4.5), and definitely better than Do You Remember (I’d rate 3.0) but this seems to lack the appeal of Down (which I’d rate 7.5 or so). Not unlistenable, but it gets grating after a few plays.

Then again, I do find myself wanting to listen to the song. It’s probably catchy. A well crafted, yet terrible hook.

OVERALL SCORE = 5.0 / 10
While I was expecting much more from Jay Sean, Hit The Lights is serviceable as a dance/club song. His voice is smooth as usual and used decently, and Weezy’s verse is alright, but the material that is presented here isn’t impressive at all; I’d even say disappointing. The song isn’t terrible; I wouldn’t say it’s bad, but it feels like a letdown.

Drake ft. Kanye West, Lil Wayne and Eminem–Forever

Released September 15 2009.
Billboard: #8 peak, #88 (2009 chart) and #71 (2010 chart)
UK: #42

Jay-Z described this song as the best posse cut of the year, and honestly I can’t really comment not having heard many good posse cuts before. I don’t know if Run This Town (Jay-Z and Kanye West) counts, though that was decent; Bedrock and Finale by the Young Money crew were both quite disastrous, and though it’s not bad I couldn’t really enjoy Monster (Kanye West featuring many many people!). Nevertheless, as a rap song it’s quite enjoyable, and as a song in general it’s decent. The production is VERY good. Boi-1-Da was onto a winner here, it seems.

Anyway the last time I did Bedrock I analysed the hook and then each rapper’s shot at it. Unlike the last time though, the competition here is much more dangerous. Drake himself probably emerged among the winners in Bedrock, even if that’s not much, and I did like his work on Best I Ever Had, and though it’s not a rap song Find Your Love worked very well for me. Kanye of course has had many hits, from the rather old and still brilliant (to me, well) Through The Wire to the more recent Runaway and All of the Lights (review for that one should be done too). And I also found his pop endeavours of Love Lockdown and Heartless (basically 808s & Heartbreak) good. Lil Wayne I’m not so much into, but his ubiquitous presence on the pop charts should stand for something, and I still remember that Down like the economy line in, well, Down. In a good light. Finally Eminem has been around for a while too and has had his successes, and amazingly when I was much younger I enjoyed The Real Slim Shady, and then he’s had Stan, and… His rapping isn’t really my kind of thing, but I know in terms of technical ability, he’s to be taken seriously.

HOOK (Drake)

It may not mean nothing to y’all
But understand nothing was done for me
So I don’t plan on stopping at all
I want this shit forever mane

Oh-kay… Something about this looks not right. Nothing was done for (you)??? Lyrically this is just plain wrong. The singing is okay, the melody is nice, but the lyrics here are a litle obnoxious. I know (especially considering his 1st verse) that the idea behind this is that he wasn’t signed by a record label that early on. Some research shows, though, that while this is true, his uncle was in a band and helped secure Drake a management team. So this line is a pretty dangerous generalisation that, well, is inaccurate after all.

I’m shutting shit down in the mall
And telling every girl she the one for me
And I ain’t even planning to call
I want this shit forever mane

Okay. He references his time on Degrassi, presumably with the first two lines. And honestly by now I’ve had enough of these songs that not just smash the ideals of monogamous love, but furthermore explicitly take pride in doing it. It’s quite a tired message, and probably why I found Nothin’ on You (review) so refreshing.

This isn’t a very good hook. Well, let’s have a look at the verses. 3.5 / 10

VERSE 1 – DRAKE

Last name “Ever”, first name “Greatest”
Like a sprained ankle, boy, I ain’t nothing to play with
Started off local but thanks to all the haters
I know G-IV pilots on a first name basis

Are haters and basis a proper rhyme? Anyway it’s okay, though we’ve moved on to the G5 with Jesse McCartney’s Leavin’ and of course the G6 in the Far East Movement hit Like A G6 (review). On a side note, Like A G6 has grown on me a bit. It’s still bad, but probably not as much as I wrote against it in the review.

Second line is suspect, though believable and makes sense with a little look at the fact that this song is inspired by the movie More Than A Game (basketball documentary).

In your city faded off the brown, Nino
She insist she got more class…we know

Good… We know (him and the listener? Or is it using the royal ‘we’ as some have said?) – that he’ll find some way to get her clothes off…

Swimming in the money, come and find me, Nemo

Disney references?!?! Would there be a better way to convey that idea? It’s making it a little hard to take you seriously here…

If I was at the club you know I balled, chemo

Okay, again the basketball thing, and ‘balling’ as rich, with the homonym ‘bald’ which happens often to people undergoing chemotherapy. Okay.

Dropped the mixtape, that shit sounded like an album
Who’d have thought a country wide tour be the outcome
Labels want my name beside a X like Malcolm
Everybody got a deal, I did it without one

Okay. The Malcolm X reference I understand (it’s somewhere in my history knowledge; he was a civil rights leader for the blacks) and he is referring to his mixtape So Far Gone which, yes, did make him quite successful. But can he really say he did it without a contract? The mixtape, yes, but doing it as a career? I’m not so sure. Nevertheless the stimulus for his contracts was done by his own talent…

Yeah, nigga I’m about my business
Killing all these rappers, you would swear I had a hit list
Everyone who doubted me is asking for forgiveness
If you ain’t been a part of it, at least you got to witness

Okay, pretty decent way to finish off verse 1. But it’s not a very good start to the song, is it? Who knows – maybe he’s better as a singer of heartbreak songs. Find Your Love, as I’d say again, was excellent; his voice when used well has a certain timbre that seems appropriate for conveying some kind of vulnerability and desperation. 4.0 / 10

Let’s hope things get better.

Ever, ever, Mr West is in the building
Ain’t no question about who’s gonna kill’em

VERSE 2 – KANYE WEST

I used to have hood dreams, big fame, big chains
I stuck my dick inside this life until that bitch came

Okay, this is descriptive and though nothing special, it’s a pass. The metaphor of life as a bitch is there too… It’s not unsound, to say the least.

And went hard, all fall like the ball teams
Just so I can make it rain all spring

This probably involves the basketball league seasons. Making it rain has a double meaning here, of throwing $$$ in the air, and also of shooting well (many many baskets) in basketball. It, well, makes some kind of sense.

Y’all seen my story, my glory
I had raped the game young, you can call it statutory

Yay for vocabulary. And anyway, Through the Wire remains one of my favourites among his songs, and he produced many more songs that were successful, so yup I can see how these lines work.

When a nigga blow up they gonna build statues for me
Old money, Benjamin Button (what?) nothin’

This needs research. He’s right. I’d ask what? indeed. Except I’m not gonna be satisfied with that answer. Apparently it’s about age confusion – Benjamin Button looking old but actually being young. Kanye is young but often perceived as old. Hmm…. I guess I can accept such an explanation. At least this is lyrically more interesting than verse 1.

Now super bad chicks givin’ me McLovin’

This deserves the what? from me more than the previous line. But apparently it shouldn’t, it seems that Superbad was quite a popular movie. Perhaps being an Asian and not staying in the US I wasn’t exposed to it so much. I don’t watch movies that frequently, anyway. I don’t really grasp this line.

You would think I ran the world like Michelle’s husband

Okay. Can it be said that Obama runs the world? Ah well, I’m no politics expert.

You would think these niggas know me when they really doesn’t
Like they was down with the old me, no you fuckin’ wasn’t

Phenomenon of claiming knowledge or connections once someone becomes successful. Been discussed before. Nevertheless, it’s okay given the context.

Um, you’re such a fuckin’ loser
He ain’t even go to class, Bueller

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off reference, obviously, and perhaps College Dropout as well. No complaints here.

Trade the Grammy plaques, just to have my granny back
Remember she had that bad hip like a fanny pack

Not really appropriate for a boast track, but I guess a moment of sobriety here doesn’t strike me as too bad here either. It’s not bad, just out of place. Which makes it bad, actually.

Chasing the stardom will turn you to a maniac
All the way in Hollywood and I can’t even act
They pull the cameras out, and God damn, he snap
I used to want this thing forever, you can have it back

A good finish, thematically something like B.o.B’s Airplanes and though I enjoyed Airplanes’ lyricism more this is more straightforward, but works well too.

This was decent, and made a couple of references that I could recognise and appreciate. Not Kanye’s best, but it’s still pretty solid. 6.0 / 10

VERSE 3 – LIL WAYNE

Okay
Hello it’s the Martian, Space Jam Jordans
I want this shit forever, wake up and smell the garden

His relaxed tone kind of works, as though he’s in control. Wake up and smell the garden is pretty intelligent – combining wake up and smell the coffee and smell the roses… the moral here is that being attentive is critical to success, it seems.

Fresher than the harvest, step up to the target

Okay. Nothing special, but this will do.

If I had one guess then I guess I’m just New Orleans

One guess at WHAT? New Orleans is his hometown, yes, but there seems to be a gap in the logic here.

And I will never stop like I’m runnin’ from the cops
Hop up in my car and told my chauffeur “to the top”

Filling space? It’s not bad, really. But somehow I get this feeling that it could, and should have been done better.

Life is such a fucking roller coaster then it drops
But what should I scream for? This is my theme park

Yes. This works.

My mind shine even when my thoughts seem dark
Pistol on my side, you don’t wanna hear that thing talk

And this does too.

Let the king talk, check the price and pay attention
Lil Wayne, that’s what they gotta say or mention

Indeed. (To be fair to them, Eminem, Jay Sean and Chris Brown have had songs which I’ve appreciated too. Eminem was discussed above. For Jay Sean, it’s mainly his non-single songs War and I’m Gone that worked really well for me – but his smooth tonal quality in general works well and in my opinion shined through when featured on I Made It. For Chris Brown, I did considerably like With You and his recent song Yeah 3X grew on me after quite a few listens.)

I’m like Nevada in the middle of the summer

Hot.

I’m resting in the lead, I need a pillow and a cover
My foot’s sleeping on the gas
No brake pads, no such thing as last, uh

The car imagery reminds me of Ne-Yo driving the car in the video for Plies’ Bust it Baby Pt2. No brake pads, but you better hope you wake up before the next turn catches you off guard.

Pretty good verse, actually. I don’t really like some parts but for the most part this is actually quite good. 6.0 / 10

Finally we have

VERSE 4 – EMINEM

There they go, packing stadiums as Shady spits his flow
Nuts they go, macadamia, they go so ballistic, whoa

The macadamia nuts idea is bad. Not as bad as the window-pane line from Love The Way You Lie though.

He can make them look like bozos
He’s wondering if he should spit this slow;
Fuck no! Go for broke
His cup just runneth over, oh no

I do not appreciate the Psalms reference, it’s poorly taken out of context. Minus points for that. Nevertheless this is sound, and as you can probably tell he’s going to go faster after this, which sounds… pretty interesting, really! And the use of the f word here actually seems somewhat appropriate, unlike this song which I find abused it brutally.

He ain’t had him a real buzz like this since the last time that he overdosed
They been waiting patiently for Pinocchio to poke his nose

References to his drug period, okay, and the Pinocchio part apparently has to do with Gucci Mane’s attack on him in Mariah Carey’s Obsessed remix.

Back into the game and they know rap will never be same as before
Bashing in the brains of these hoes and establishing the name as he goes

You’re successful, yes. but that’s a pretty ambitious claim to make…

The passion in the flame is ignited, you can’t put it out once we light it
This shit is exactly what the fuck that I’m talking about when we riot

The passion line is fine, but WAIT. Riot? You’re reminding me of Ke$ha’s TiK ToK:

Don’t stop, make it pop, DJ blow my speakers up
Tonight, Imma fight till we see the sunlight

Still more plausible here than there. But anyway.

You dealing with a few true villains
Who stand inside of a booth, truth spilling
And spit true feelings until our tooth fillings
Come flying outta our mouths, now rewind it

Makes sense, though not very believable given the public image some of them have built up (their real beliefs? I don’t know, especially in Kanye’s case). Rewind it is clever, though.

Pay back motherfucker for the way that you doubted me, how’s it taste?
When I slap the taste outta your mouth
With the bass so loud that it shakes the place
I’m Hannibal Lecter, so just in case you’re thinking of saving face
You ain’t gonna have no face to save by the time I’m through with this place

Deuces. Seriously.
(I’m referencing the keep it drama free part of the Chris Brown song)

Is it really so useful to fight, fight, fight, fight, fight for a love gone so wrong?

I’m not feeling Eminem’s verse. He does have technical ability and demonstrates this very clearly. But technical ability does not make a song alone (otherwise if Mariah Carey sang a five octave arpeggio up and down it would sell well – and it probably won’t!). Beyond his technical skill, the lyrics and meaning of it are just okay, and a bit sensitive as well (the Psalms reference, and the whole Nick Cannon/Mariah Carey controversy). Sigh… 4.5 / 10

Overall I think Lil Wayne’s verse was the best, and of course Boi-1-Da (seriously, the production was VERY, VERY appropriate and good). Kanye was good but needed some research to figure out what he was trying to get at at some points; he shouldn’t be faulted for this – but his message goes against the grain of most of the song. Eminem has technical skill, but I didn’t appreciate the content, and as for Drake, I’m not sure what he was trying to do with his part on the song. Nevertheless,

OVERALL SCORE = 6.5 / 10
Forever has sleeper-standard to moderately good rapping on it, but nevertheless with very strong production succeeds as a song, in my opinion. It’s one of the better (if not the best) of the (very few) posse cuts that I’ve heard.

And yes, I gave the song as a whole a higher score than I gave any of the rappers. It sums up to a solid song despite individual weaknesses.