The Singles Jukebox

Only thing we’re here for is Jukeboxing…

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Julian Axelrod: The brothers Sremm somersault through a crystalline Mike-WiLL beat that could soundtrack a haunted house party. You can hear their palpable joy as they string together dense non sequiturs on the hook, a rejoinder to the rap purists who decried Sremmurd as the death of rap. But these guys couldn’t care less; they’re content to burrow deeper into the wormhole and make club bangers weird again. If this is the beginning of Rae Sremmurd’s psychedelic phase, I’m totally here for it.
[7]

Ramzi Awn: The latest edition in the Nintendo hip hop craze might very well be the most accessible. Rae Sremmurd takes a deceptively simple icicles-in-a-Mario-cave synth and puts down a clean vocal that keeps you paying attention. 
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Nortey Dowuona: Energetic raps, nice heavy beat with hard 808’s and glittering, nearly transparent synths.
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Alfred Soto: A “perplexing pegasus” is a moniker in search of a gif, and a “pegasus” a trisyllable in search of rhymes, for which Swae Lee finds “necklace,” “Lexus,” “wishlist,” “flexed it.” Mike WILL supplies another in his inexhaustible supply of what I call ripple beats: atop a shallow pond of sound they stretch beyond the eye’s limits.
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Stephen Eisermann: I’m more perplexed by the forced rhymes and word choice than I am by his “Pegasus.” The beat definitely bumps, but I’m growing tired of rappers releasing flex tracks every album cycle. Do better, y’all.
[5]

Jibril Yassin: SremmLife 2 was an album that completely eschewed SremmLife‘s maximum bangers-only sound. One Billboard #1 hit later and Rae Sremmurd are out here doubling down on that eerie Mike Will Made-It synthpop sound but here it feels lived in. There’s enough space for the duo’s seemingly infinite energy but they opt to go absurd: Swae deciding that rhyming “negligence” with “pegasus” is the way to go while Slim Jxmmi takes the time out to inform us about his 100k chain. It’s an approach that pays off; earlier this year surrounded by ravers and mall bros, I saw the duo perform at a waterpark in West Edmonton Mall. This probably wouldn’t have impacted the way “No Flex Zone” or “Black Beatles” did but for me, it gets close at totally encapsulating just how surreal that entire set felt.
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Joshua Minsoo Kim: The glistening synths conjure up images of gold chains swinging like pendulums, trying to induce listeners into a deep trance-like state. And without a super memorable hook, it seems like that’s the intent. The only issue is that the rhyming ends up being more distracting than inviting, and “Perplexing Pegasus” never sounds as intriguing or magical as its title.
[5]

Ashley John: “Perplexing Pegasus” is a reminder of what Rae Sremmurd does well within a song that does nothing interesting. The back and forth of Swae Lee’s sleek verses to the edges of Slim Jximmi’s balance each other out. The downfall of the song is that the total sum of their two parts ends up being perfectly neutral. 
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