Rihanna ft. Drake–What’s My Name?

Released October 29, 2010.
Billboard: #1.
UK Charts: #18, but will probably go up further.

I must admit that I normally prefer the UK charts to the Billboard ones, at least in the way of #1s. With OMG, California Gurls, Like a G6 and We R Who We R all hitting #1, and the former two doing so a lot of weeks, I think it’s not hard to see why I generally prefer the UK charts. While UK-side they too have their weaker ones like Gettin’ Over You, F— You and Promise This, and the earlier two of the aforementioned songs also having their spot on #1, the fact that it’s a lot more dynamic and all generally makes the UK charts much more interesting to listen to. (OMG isn’t THAT bad, still, I think, just annoying. The other three are bad, though, as far as I’m concerned.)

This one’s an exception though to that idea of “Billboard #1s tend to be bad”, and a pretty good song, especially because of Drake. I guess the hook is annoying sometimes, due to its incessant repetition, but in terms of meaning it passes (she’s too engaged in sex that she forgot her name). However, Rihanna’s verses are pretty solid, and like quite a few other songs, this is one where I sort of like the bridge. The beat’s pretty decent, though…

Drake only does the opening verse here, but it’s incredibly well done and adds some little intellectual bits into this song, which is basically about sex. It’s mostly just good, except for this little pair of lines:

The square root of 69 is 8-something, right?
Cause I’ve been tryna work it out

Score points for correct mathematical reference (64 < 69 < 81), and pretty intelligently, those numbers look like they have some significance. Why 69? Well, pretty obviously, especially considering the context of this song about sex, 69 refers to the sexual position, and 8 could be a homonym for “ate”, which makes sense with reference to 69. I’m still not sure exactly what he’s trying to get at here, but it’s pretty interesting. Other than that remarkably nice gem, Drake’s work on this one’s pretty solid, if unimpressive. It’s a very interesting release that I may not always want to listen to due to the pretty overt sexual themes, but nevertheless I think it’s a good song.

OVERALL SCORE = SQRT(69) 7.0 / 10
What’s My Name? features a rather repetitive and at times annoying hook. However, the rest of the song is solid (Rihanna’s verses and bridge, and most of Drake’s verse). Drake unleashes a little mathematical gem here too.