Rayven Justice – Might As Well
Single of the year.
[Video][Website]
[2.90]
David Sheffieck: Even without the contrast to the self-promotion of the verses, “Might as well fuck me/ Why not?” is easily the weirdest pickup line I’ve heard recently. It’s not just hard to imagine it working, it’s hard to imagine the thinking that it’d work.
[4]
Hazel Robinson: Son, just don’t.
[4]
Micha Cavaseno: Since its emergence as a subunit of rap in the last few years, Ratchet has given us what Jerk, Snap, Crunk, Hyphy, Trap and others failed to: a massive movement of R&B acts. From TY$’ post-Weeknd scumbag piracy, TeeFlii’s slurry self-development, and a cast of characters that include John Hart, Eric Bellinger, Adrian Marcel and others; we now have a whole sub-movement of young talent. Noteworthy for his recent efforts is Rayven Justice, a bay area youth who looks like Frank Ocean gone varsity jock, and abandons traditional R&B song structure for an auto-tune guided rap freestyle technique. “Might As Well” sounds like a toxic sludge dissolving a glass factory from the inside, with Rayven’s voice cyber-piped into the listener’s ears while the brittle beat dissolves besides him, gas bubbles leaking out ghosts of Nelly’s “Dilemma” in morbid wails. He’s a rude bastard, but his desire to inform me of a certain someone’s cold mouth, and the relentless laser intensity of his hook scouring the life from the land suggest more than a hot summer in the Bay for this kid.
[8]
Alfred Soto: Shut the fuck up, bitch, and get down to bizness. Check out my cool electrostutters. Excited yet?
[0]
Crystal Leww: I love rnbass music, the sub-genre of R&B that has blanketed contemporary rap radio this year after being popularized by DJ Mustard. While the icy minimalism of its beats sounds fresh, it also exposes its vocalists, putting the responsibility squarely on their shoulders to sound charming rather than being swallowed by the repetitive pings of the production. This works well for artists like Tinashe and Jeremih, and less so for the Trey Songz of the world. Rayven Justice is somewhere in the middle. He can be compelling like on “Slide Thru,” but despite the best attempts of J Maine and his Young California beat and production, Rayven Justice sounds lazy, just like his game. Probably shouldn’t have asked “Why not?” in your hook, bro because “might as well fuck me” is like the fifth worst way a guy has come onto me.
[4]
Ashley Ellerson: A Chris Brown wannabe who offends you AND still expects you to give up the goods? Only for the desperate.
[1]
Edward Okulicz: The grossness of this would be justified if it came through with any degree of carnality, like the fucking might be as good for the girl Rayven’s negging as it is for him. But it’s pretty clear who the favour’s for, this is basically a song about begging for pity sex. “Pity,” like the word “city,” also fits in as a rhyme for “titties.” Missed opportunity there.
[3]
Brad Shoup: Two things happening here. First, the “hell yeah” grunts — substituted for Mustard’s “hey”s, clearly — sound like the bass in a doo-wop group. Second, even though this thing is a total clone, it sounds a little faster than its antecedents. Phrases are swapped out before the punchlines get a chance to die.
[4]
Thomas Inskeep: It’s like the guys in this video made a rap record, only there’s no inadvertent humor. This is without question the grossest record we’ve reviewed this year. What do people – especially women – see in this shit? (Also, take away the mind-boggling lyrics and it’s still only about a 2, because this track is some dull DJ Mustard-carbon-copy bullshit.)
[0]
hey thomas, instead of condescending down to women about what they should and shouldn’t be offended by, how about you just let the women talk?
Briefly asiding from Crystal’s point, I just want to remind us that there are other producers who do what Mustard do besides Mustard, who’ve done it alongside or precluding Mustard. And while I know he’s THE AUTEUR b/c he gets to have an album b/c he is agreeable to the process of not getting any money from Roc Nation, J Maine (producer) isn’t just emulating Mustard, he’s emulating a style Mustard pioneered, and is a PART of. I personally feel he accomplished some subtle differences.
Everyone hating Rayven is fine w/ me tho, since he’s probably a bit of a dickhead, and looks like he’d stuff one of us in a locker (by that I mean me).
It’s how he raps about his dickhead that bothers me.
Crystal, it was meant as a sincere question. I’m befuddled by the popularity of this new batch of rappers who seem to have nothing but rapey come-ons.
and women are somehow responsible for policing the terrible behavior of men?
Crystal, by no means are women “responsible for policing the terrible behavior of men.” There was no condescending whatsoever intended, or meant, in my question. It was simply a question. Based on this single, Rayven Justice sounds to me like a colossal creep, and I find the reasons for his appeal genuinely elusive. That’s all.
You hold women particularly responsible, you offset them in the sentence, as though you are convinced women love this song in greater quantity or quality than men (though that’s not substantiated anywhere.)
I think there’s another reading of that, the one I found in it, which is that equal levels of support aren’t equally explicable – male privilege means we can on average shrug off creepy stuff easier than women.
what are you suggesting? that as a man thomas is responsible for holding women responsible for rayven justice?
You’ve kind of lost me there, I’m afraid? At the risk of A Chunk of Mansplaining (and of course the possibility that what I read into it isn’t what Thomas intended!):
. Thomas finds this song incredibly gross.
. Specifically in a long line of mysogynistic creepy songs from men about women.
. He has no idea why anyone would like this song on a lyrical level.
. But men can* ignore creepy stuff that women can’t (because “being able to ignore stuff” is one of the purest forms of privilege)
. So he _really_ has no idea why women would like this song on a lyrical level.
. So he puts a line in the review trying to indicate both of those puzzlements on his part.
* some men can’t, some women can, but structural sexism means men generally have a greater capacity to just let it flow past them.
but why would any woman have to account for liking this song? also where was it established that any woman did?
I don’t know the answer (to the first), I’m not sure that’s what Thomas was asking?
being asked, “as a woman”, “what do you see in this?” has a lot of echoes of nicki minaj and critics typing about “revolutions we don’t need” or academics comparing beyonce’s body to an act of terrorism by way of worrying about her impact on young women, you ask me.
it’s a question proposed by a mindset that sees women as more habitually/instinctively/inherently thoughtful and virtuous and inoffensively minded than men, and for those of us who operate within cultural spheres far enough outside the acceptable borders of taste can tell you firsthand, that’s not how it works. we’re not any cleaner-minded. we’re just more likely to be punished for when we’re not, so we learn to keep that part to ourselves.
men, reacting with bemusement when some women don’t, aren’t exactly acting as welcome reminders of how little range of expression we really have.
we don’t really get to be the ugly ones, much less ever be given space to accept our own ugly bits. defending female ugliness in the name of community solidarity is mostly a privilege extended to the taylor swifts of the world, the rich white megalomaniacs with money and dimpled cheeks to match. it doesn’t extend to the really weird ones. nicki and bey aren’t even the really weird ones! but you wouldn’t know it from the shocked responses their confidence and disinterest will draw from people – and what crystal and megan are proposing here, well, that’s on a whole ‘nother level of unforgivably unladylike for the average bear, i guess. it doesn’t seem to make sense, are women supposed to sit back and take it when we’re condescended to like feral animals who can’t understand the cage is a good thing for us?
“bitch bad”? – bitch, i wanna do me in verse. fuck you.
Big nod for pretty much all of that, never any hate from me for the unladylike – I’d add that even above “boys are doing things that we think are bad for them” being a rarer story than “girls are doing things that we think are bad for them”, one of them tends to end up closer to “thinkpieces” and the other tends closer to “legislation”.
I don’t entirely get how it applies to the review – is ‘not liking Rayven’ the cage? – but my not getting it is of course not your problem.