Ernest Baker and the boys at Noisey spun sets at a packed dance floor in Greenpoint this past Saturday, and I'm still sweating, in 27 degree weather, meaning my nipples sting like a motherfucker.
Saturday night aside, I spent the daylight hours of my weekend editing nonsense while streaming Graham Central Station, Mitski, the Billboard Hot 100, my SoundCloud likes, and assorted U.K. grime. Accordingly, this week's Five Songs is a cosmopolitan mash of hip-hop and R&B, shouts out to London, Houston, Philly, Vegas, and L.A. We global. We da best. Forever.
Slim Thug f/ Propain "All I Know"
Released: Jan. 16, 2015
Slim Thug snoozes through this one, I admit, but Propain's caffeinated French Montana impersonation is, in this case, priceless: "Chop shop, get our dollars up/Back then if you came outside and your shit was missing, it was probably us." The beat is crystalline guitar and what sounds like punk drums at a live venue; this is music for bullying red lights and smaller cars, as you stunt by volume.
The Heavytrackerz f/ D Double, Footsie, P Money, Stormzy, Narstie, Flirta, Tef, and Despa "TRKRZ"
Released: Jan. 21, 2015
For much of Saturday afternoon I was on a Wiley and Dizzee Rascal binge, which, by Sunday, had led me to a full-on grime tour via freestyles and classic posse cuts. With eight rappers featured on a nearly four-minute track, these verses are god-awfully short, with P Money and D Double E making due with 11 and 13 seconds, respectively. Not that P Money is one to waste oxygen: "Said he was a badman, said he was a G/Said he knew blacks, and he said he knew P/But I didn't know him and neither did he."
Meek Mill f/ Big Sean and A$AP Ferg "B-Boy"
Released: Jan. 29, 2015
Does Big Sean rinse Meek on "B-Boy"? Yes. Does A$AP Ferg wash both Meek and Sean just on the strength of that "fucked your girl and your neighbor" refrain? Arguably. Indisputably, it's this beat, with its syncopated interference and sampled shouts-from-the-wild that squeezes the juice from all involved. Lawd-a-mercy from start to finish.
Anjali World f/ Sage the Gemini and Tyga "Nobody"
Released: Jan. 29, 2015
Sage and Iamsu! are both on a regimen, I'm guessing, by which they've pledged to drop at least one guest verse per week, every week, for the next 900 years. This plan of attack has been working out well enough for Sage, who's stolen many a song over the past year or so; he kills "Nobody" in just eight bars. Tyga's verse, however, is one-hunnid percent patchwork of 2010 major label rap cliche (e.g., "My campaign presidential"), but look, it's not like we're deciphering Kierkegaard in the club or during rush hour. I'm coolin'.
Ne-Yo f/ Trey Songz, T-Pain, and The-Dream "She Knows (Remix)"
Released: Jan. 30, 2015
Ne-Yo's Non-Fiction is gross and corny overall, with "She Knows" being the phenomenal exception. After T-Pain released his own T-Mix of the song just in time for New Year's Eve, Ne-Yo raises the stakes with an all-star remix featuring Dream and Trigga, with the T-Mix tacked to the end, in place of Juicy J.'s original verse, which I don't even miss. "I told my partner Ne-Yo to hit me when she come around." Is this remix the int'l Eskimo brothers' anthem?
