The Sunday Comic: YG f/ Drake and Kamaiyah "Why You Always Hatin?"

YG's latest single "Why You Always Hatin?" featuring Drake and Kamaiyah receives the graphic treatment.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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I chose "Why You Always Hatin?" two weeks ago for this column, but I think I might already be burnt out on it. When I initially heard it, I think it must have been the familiarity of the following that felt exciting:

  • a CT Beats production masquerading as a Mustard beat that wouldn’t sound out of place on a YG mixtape from four years ago;
  • a Drake show-out reminiscent of their last collaboration “Who Do You Love?” (which YG acknowledges in the last verse of this new song: "Drizzy came through with the verse for me both times"); 
  • and a rhetorical question, this time inquiring as to the source of your hatred rather than the object of your love.

When album time comes around, YG has proven himself to—with a team—capable of transforming from mixtape hitmaker to something more cinematic. What made his brazy life so brazy and compelling the first time around was vivid storytelling embedded in skits and impassioned reflection. “Me & My Bitch,” one of my favorites, followed our young protagonist as he fell through the heartbreak of his girl cheating in the first two verses, then you can almost hear him fighting through the tears as he snuffs her later attempts to come back to him.

So, more than likely, this track about hating is supposed to serve as his ace card chart single, and anything more emotionally charged or personal will appear on the album. It may not be a step forward for the Compton rapper, but maybe this Drake and Kamaiyah-assisted track is meant to prepare us for what we need on the album—baiting us with what he knows we already like so we’ll all gladly take what he's about to give us with Still Brazy.

Side note: I sincerely hope YG takes a Rich Homie Quanian approach to album titles and calls his next project I Promise My Life Will Never Stop Being Brazy and then the next one If You Ever Think My Life Will Cease to Be Brazy, Ask Mustard.

Hopefully by now, though, YG’s “Fuck Donald Trump,” with Nipsey Hussle, has worked its way around the political circuit, and has become a staple of presidential rallies around the country. If he had any smarts, Trump would respond to that energy with another YG song: “Please,” he may ask. “Why you always hatin?”

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