I was a sickly puppy this weekend, sipping on DayQuil and binge-watching Terror in Resonance, a series that one TV critic has summarized as "teenagers do 9/11." And so the world got me fucked up on all fronts, with Big Sean about to drop a classic rap album complete with breakup hymns and Negro spirituals, while Just Blaze leaks previously unheard gems from his mythical space vault. Also: Missy Elliott back, again. It's Monday and my sinuses are clear; I'm feeling better.
PJ f/ Hit-Boy "I Mean It"
Released: Feb. 13, 2015
Never mind Hit-Boy's Jaden Smith-inflected struggle rapping ("I'm on a reach for glory/Fuck whoever don't see it for me"); this is an R&B jam and you know it. Hit-Boy bangs that piano like he was scorned by the Fifty Shades soundtrack (in favor of the Weeknd's fake Adele song, "Earned It"). PJ licks her verses like a deliciously toxic stamp: "My life's a story/They don't have to read it." Could Tink and PJ form a rap-sung supergroup to vanquish Young Money once and for all? Stay tuned.
Big Sean f/ Kanye West and John Legend "One Man Can Change the World"
Released: Feb. 16, 2015
Drake is a frequently corny rapper whose reputation is emotional honesty and depth. Big Sean is a frequently introspective and compassionate rapper whose reputation is straight corniness. I'll be damned if I ever make sense of this divergence, other than to say that in 2015, Big Sean makes better Drake albums than Drake does—which, I suppose, is why Drake has now resorted to carbon-copying hit records of his that already exist.
Dark Sky Paradise's whole marketing pose is Jaded and Foreboding a la Drake's If You're Reading This It's Too Late, but Sean's "One Man Can Change the World" is the mightier pathos, a misty synthesis of Kendrick's "i" and Kanye's "Only One." In two bars, Sean/Kanye/Legend's hook synthesizes all the wisdom that at 17-year-old could ever need to hear: "I hope you learn to make it on your own/And if you love yourself, just know you'll never be alone." No drums, but it's heavy.
Jack Ü f/ Kiesza "Take Ü There" (Missy Elliott Remix)
Released: Feb. 17, 2015
Diplo, Skrillex, Kiesza, Missy, ye merry band of riff raff. I'd previously spent zero minutes with the original version of "Take Ü There," not that Missy's alters much. It's just, you know, a new Missy Elliott verse in 2015, the biggest sort of blessing since the new Missy Elliott verse we got via J.Cole back in 2011. Missy took her sweet time hopping on a hot post-Super Bowl remix of an EDM track, no less. This beat—Kiesza's hook, especially—leaves me feeling manhandled, like the shortest boy on a rollercoaster's steepest dive.
Bobby Shmurda f/ Rowdy Rebel and French Montana "Right Now"
Released: Feb. 18, 2015
One-hit wonders or no, the fall of GS9 is too gruesome and tragic for me to enjoy watching, and yes, that goes for all these encore attempts at hit records. I appreciate "Right Now" more than "Bobby Bitch" or Rowdy Rebel's "Computers," if only because French swooped through to make this shit goofy and fun, like blue face paint and a tire fire. Sounds rather like a dancefloor and nothing like Rikers, is what I'm saying.
Just Blaze "Miracle"
Released: Feb. 22, 2015
I can't tell if this would've worked best as a 2011 rap beat, a 2013 R&B beat, or a 2015 Watanabe anime intro. Just Blaze says he shopped it to Jeezy, Rozay, Chris Brown, yet none of them could flow correct over that infinite piano riff, and those drums! Essentially, this is a super whimsical, genteel take on the "Self Made" beat, in which Just Blaze broke Wale and Meek off with that Roger Klotz guitar. Dare I say, I prefer "Miracle."
