These are my ten favorite songs of the first half of the year. Half of them, incidentally, are about doing drugs.
10. Gucci Mane ft. Wiz Khalifa - 2 Timez
Drumma Boy doing seductive bedroom funk is pretty cool. Much cooler is Gucci’s Escher drawing of a verse, wherein he folds his rhyme scheme in on itself in a calm, yet dizzying fashion. Months in and I’m still rewinding back in a daze. Wiz fulfilling the Snoop prophecy is maybe a bit unnecessary, but it fits.
Soulja has found himself. After cycling through personae (violent gangster, based druggie) that produced some good music but ultimately rang false, he seems to have settled in comfortably in a post-Wiz, post-Currensy world. As Gucci’s & OJ’s little sidekick, and later as a copper of all things Lil B, Soulja was able to fit in just fine, but never did he add anything to the character he had adopted. In his current incarnation, Soulja twists the video game playing and weed smoking persona by playing a grown, corrupted Richie Rich, illustrating a life that doesn’t go far beyond having money and sitting around with friends, toys, and drugs (more on this later). “I just wanna smoke weed and buy shoes / and do what fly guys do,” goes “Weed & Shoes,” and it’s the truest to himself, and most relatable to us, that Soulja has been since his first album. Relaxed, content, and enveloped by a warm beat that radiates those sentiments.
08. Estelle ft. Rick Ross - Break My Heart
There’s a lot to like here: Don Cannon doing his best J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League impersonation, Rick Ross further cementing his ability to pen luxurious descriptions of luxury (check those first two bars) and Estelle casting herself as a flirtatious skeptic (and roughly in that order). Deeper even is the song showing us that the antidote to the flatness of the forgotten r&b bluster of “Magnificent” and “Super High” was merely to flip the script.
07. Desloc Piccalo ft. Adiah - Drumz
I spent the better part of a few weeks tracking “Drumz” down after DJ Entice kept dropping the chorus in his rush hour sets, so it’s a bit of a pet pick. That said, it’s a fantastic bit of island pop, the type of summer comfort food you want to hear just about every waking second. “Drumz” straddles the line between ruthless professionalism and stitched-together amateurism, with expert tension build/release and a beautifully fluttering hook fighting an imperfect concept and a resolution that sort of floats away. It’s the professionalism that wins out, but the endearing amateurism adds something.
There are songs in which you can pick out every individual instrument or element of production and say “this is really great,” but it all sounds even better when put together. “Sure Thing”— with its bubblewrap drums, sighing synth line, chunky guitar chords and screwed refrain— is one of those songs.
This leaked right around the time when The-Dream was performing Sam Cooke covers on Ustream, but it also reminds me of R. Kelly’s gospel classicism. The lyrics are ridiculous in places and heartfelt in others (as is often the case with Terius’s songs), but this is a showcase for Beyonce as a vocalist. And she sings the shit out of it.
04. Soulja Boy - Zan With That Lean
Where “Weed & Shoes” is a zoned out, plaintive celebration of getting high, “Zan With That Lean” zooms by in its exuberance. “I keep the hammer on me / I ain’t worried ‘bout a thing,” sang gleefully, comes off not as a chest-thumping boast, but a true reflection of a fun, stress-free existence.
“Novacane”, with its cold, metallic beat that’s barely even there and its mysterious and entrancing story, was noticeable right out of the gate, when it was just another song on the internet. But as a radio single it can stop you dead in your tracks, and that says a lot more about Frank Ocean than it does r&b radio.
02. 151 Feva Gang - Kush Groove
Sometimes songs and videos become inextricable, and that’s the case with “Kush Groove”. The video is like a low budget, bastard take on the one for “Summertime”, with rapper Dapper Don and crew flying down the streets of suburban Jersey while sitting on a flatbed. But this is a weed anthem, so Jazzy & Will’s stately set up is replaced with a black leather couch, a Playstation, numerous bags of potato chips bought at a gas station, and… a yellow python. Dapper Don doesn’t as much rap on the beat (a loop of “Music Sounds Better With You”) as he does race it, sounding like he recorded his verses, well, while flying down the streets of suburban Jersey on a flatbed. Both the song and the video are energizing and addictively fun, true summer classics like “Summertime” itself.
It’s increasingly looking like “Gucci Gucci” is lightning in a bottle, but it’s not the result of an accident. The song is bizarrely the precise sort of thing you’d get from a girl whose mother was in a punk band, who grew up in Oakland and has worked with guys like Lil B and DB Tha General, and who wants to be the “rapper Spice Girl”. “Gucci Gucci” works at first on subversion of both tropes and personal expectations, but it can stand on its own merits: the production, the hooks, the interplay between Kreayshawn’s writing and her nonchalance. Strip away all the noise, and “Gucci Gucci” is the best meeting of weirdo rap and chart pop that we’ve seen this year (apologies to “Super Bass”).
Others: Ace Hood ft. Rick Ross & Lil Wayne - “Hustle Hard (remix)”, Black Eyed Peas - “Just Can’t Get Enough”, Cass McCombs - “County Line”, Dirty Money - “No Ordinary Love”, Gucci Mane - “Up My Alley”, Jamie XX - “Far Nearer”, Katy Perry - “T.G.I.F.”, LEP Bogus Boys ft. Gucci Mane - “Handlin My Bizness”, Lil B - “Motivation”, LMFAO - “Party Rock Anthem”, Mr. Lucci ft. Twista & Bohagon - “Bout Gone”, Max B - “Money Make Me Feel Better”, Nicki Minaj - “Super Bass”, N.O.R.E. ft. Pharrell & Lil Wayne - “Finito”, Riff Raff - “Jose Canseco”, Sleepy Brown - “You’re My Lady”, Squadda B - “Fakest Year Ever”, Travis Porter - “Bring it Back”
