Out of My Head: Five Songs I Listened to This Weekend

After yet another week of surprisingly capable Big Sean releases and dancing_taylor_swift.gifs, I was briefly convinced that commercial music and entertainment.

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Complex Original

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After yet another week of surprisingly capable Big Sean releases and dancing_taylor_swift.gifs, I was briefly convinced that commercial music and entertainment in general had reached a surreal sort of conclusion, with Chris Brown and Tyga's "Westside" as soundtrack to the very end of the Western world. God save Z-Ro and Skepta, however. Kanye's "All Day" is alright, but Bricc Baby Shitro's "6 Drugs" is for the children. [Editor's Note: Drugs aren't for children.] [Editor's Note on Editor's Note: An editor did not write that. Nevertheless, we agree with Charity's statement.]

Jidenna "Classic Man"

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Released: Feb. 3, 2015

Several boneheaded members of the New York music media establishment have wished (prayed, even) for "Drop That Kitty" to be Ty Dolla $ign's true breakout single and crossover coup, i.e., the "Fancy" of 2015. All this despite the fact that "Kitty" sounds like a tone-deaf junior high schooler dragging his cat across the keys of his Yamaha, with no respect for scales or chords or anything. No, if there's gonna be a worthy successor to "Fancy," it's "Classic Man," a hipster-ratchet jam from one of Janelle Monae's buppie-couture goons, a singer named Jidenna. Here the singer pairs his impeccable Akon impersonation to a DJ Mustard-type beat that I don't hate and a straight visual jack of those million-dollar Old Spice commercials. B-plus for all involved. Jidenna is bout to blow.

Bricc Baby Shitro "6 Drugs"

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Released: Feb. 12, 2015

Hey look/listen, it's King Louie's entire steez, but pitched up a couple octaves and then suited to a fantastic horrorcore trap beat. The opening shot of the music vid features a beaker in a lab, and considering how the song and video play out, I was hoping for a hilarious Christopher Lloyd cameo appearance, however brief. One day, Bricc Baby. Presumably when you get that call from a booking producer for Fallon. A few weeks ago, our contributor Meaghan Garvey called it: "6 Drugs" is so far one of the hardest songs of 2015. It gets no better. Your move, OVO Louie.

Z-Ro "Don't Stop Now"

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Released: Feb. 21, 2015

Z-Ro's new tape, Melting the Crown, is entirely clutch. Something about Z-Ro's occasional synthesis of Lionel Richie and Eminem (a la Nate Dogg) excites and reminds me that hip-hop can do literally anything, including (and not limited to) singing quite preciously about paternity scams. "It's ain't even about that money/Cuz you ain't getting nothing but a week of gas money/So fill up yo' carrrrrrrrrrr!" Disclaimer: "Don't Stop Now" is #problematic; it's Z-Ro, it's street rap, of course it is.

Big Sean f/ Ariana Grande "Research"

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Released: Feb. 24, 2015

Why is it that half of Big Sean's biggest songs pan out from the bonus cuts bin? His boo, Ariana Grande, broke Sean off with those vintage Mariah vocals, and that's the most prominent placement he could afford her on his album? Track 14 on the deluxe edition only? Meanwhile "All Your Fault," a lazy sort of wannabe hit featuring Kanye, is Track 3? HOW, SWAY.

Skepta "SHUTDOWN"

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Released: Feb. 28, 2015

As a lazy, formulaic Trap Banger that wouldn't have made the cut as a b-side on Cruel Summer, Kanye's "All Day" is as middling as the hitmaker gets. Consolation prize being that Kanye has dedicated much of his promo run for So Help Me God to throwing spotlights to his many collaborators, including Skepta, a marquee grime vet whose world just got larger by a hemisphere or two. (Aside from Wiley, Dizzee, and a few legendary posse cuts, I'm understudied in grime; I'm working on it.) Quickly after Kanye had Skepta mobbing on stage at the 2015 BRIT Awards last week, Skepta dropped "SHUTDOWN," rapping about black tracksuits, false Rastas, and whatnot. "It's just not what I expect to see on primetime TV," says the woman on the song's interlude, presumably aghast at all of Kanye's on-stage, primetime swearing that ITV failed to censor.

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