Friday, November 15th, 2019

Arizona Zervas – Roxanne

The red light means stop…


[Video][Website]
[3.38]

Katherine St Asaph: The TikTok ecosystem seems maximally suited to spawning a meme-era “Roxanne’s Revenge,” right? If so, can we skip to it?
[2]

Kylo Nocom: TikTok has gone from a platform with the slightest (perhaps naively perceived) potential for the democratization of hitmaking into another hellscape of astroturfed, concerningly white mediocrity. One wonders why the biggest hits by non-established artists off TikTok nowadays aren’t from Flo Milli or Kaash Paige, but from bbno$, Ashnikko, Ant Saunders, and now Arizona Zervas. On an app which has a community criticized for many of its creators profiting off black content, it feels indicative of something rather gross that these are the artists that will be launched into relative “stardom.” “Roxanne” is the sound of post-Post Malone garbage spreading further, poised for the airplay that most actual rappers won’t get. His whines aren’t as evil as Blackbear’s, but more irritating in that they seem like negging. There’s no way to explain how this blew up organically because it’s too nondescript to justify its success based on pure merit or humor.
[3]

Natasha Genet Avery: Thematically, “Roxanne” is pretty empty — another misogy-lite riff on the rich girl diss track — but its accoutrements are lovely. The production is light and airy (“brr! brr!”), the melody is repetitive and immensely singable, and the line “shorty only like cocaine and whole foods” is a great second verse surprise. Much like its titular muse, “Roxanne” just wants to have fun.
[5]

Edward Okulicz: Dismissive? Yes. Sexist? Probably, I mean there are doofus fuckboys on Instagram too. But damned if this isn’t as sunny as Malibu (sorry, Maaaalibu), catchy enough to sing on a road trip (someone make a kid-friendly set of lyrics, seriously) and gross enough to be a real source of conflict. I keep thinking about this song, and how guilty I feel for liking it, which means it’s doing something right.
[8]

Oliver Maier: Zervas’ boyish voice and the sweetly infectious hook melody would be better suited to bashful infatuation than another entry into the canon of condescending odes to a party girl who Definitely Exists. “She keep comin’ back though / Only ’cause I pay her” does not make her sound like the desperate one in this scenario! Passably pleasant if you ignore that lyric and pretty much every single other one, and it’s hard not to get toothache from those guitars.
[3]

Thomas Inskeep: This new rapper is white, heavily Auto-Tuned, and clearly wants to be the new Post Malone. I ain’t got time for that.
[0]

Alfred Soto: Party slobber sung and rapped with vehemence if not skill. In tracks like this, who’s using whom, who’s most adept at boasting about bad behavior and spending Daddy’s money — these questions assume an ontological importance. 
[3]

Isabel Cole: More straightforwardly rude and therefore maybe less condescending than The Police, nowhere near as fun as the second-best scene in Moulin Rouge!
[3]

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