And we get our first Craig David namecheck of the week…

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[6.67]

Martin Skidmore: This is one of the few this week that I didn’t already know, and it’s probably not one I’ll remember for long. Mos Def and Pharoahe Monch are okay, but have rarely excited me, and Nate sounds sort of lazy. There are some nice pizzicato notes in the backing, but it’s sort of ordinary.
[6]

Asher Steinberg: All I can think of when I hear this song is how it was brilliantly retrofitted by DJ Premier, Mos Def and Craig David on “7 Days (DJ Premier Remix)”, which, perhaps not coincidentally, features a Craig David imitation of Nate Dogg (often miscredited as Nate Dogg), but no Nate himself.
[6]

Alfred Soto: “Dick ridin ain’t my thang,” Mos Def boasts, heralding the shift from West Coast decadence. So Nate Dogg obliges with an okay chorus just faceless enough to work in 1993.
[7]

Anthony Easton: I love his voice, how he sings “oh no”, for example. I love how he sings in relaiton to other voices, I love how collaborative it has been — he seems so confident in his voice that it’s almost egoless.
[8]

Al Shipley: It’s amusing to think now about how Nate seems like such an uncontroversial and beloved hip hop institution, but a decade ago enough undie nerds bristled at him appearing with Rawkus’s two big stars on a Lyricist Lounge compilation for this song to be kind of polarizing. Now, it just feels like an unremarkable footnote for everyone involved, but the beat’s aight.
[6]

Ian Mathers: It’s always nice to hear Pharoahe Monch (not to mention a reminder of why Mos, a fine actor, originally got big as a rapper), but compared to “Can’t Deny It” and “Ooh Wee” this song just feels slightly too restrained, whether it’s the funk (which sounds like it would only fracture your nose if you walked into it), the beat, or Nate’s hook. This is a good track, but except for Monch it’s just a little bit of momentum away from a great one.
[7]