Gucci Mane ft. Swizz Beatz – Gucci Time
I forget what Chico’s second single was…
[Video][Website]
[4.36]
Al Shipley: With his career hovering at about the same level trap star predecessor T.I.’s was circa “Bring Em Out,” there’s something a little too on the nose about Gucci Mane trying to cement his east coast crossover with a Swizz Beatz collab. And even though they’ve done good tracks together and could each rock a club for an hour with their respective hits, there’s just something strained and inert about this.
[4]
Zach Lyon: I’m just waiting for the point where I can see “Gucci Mane ft Swizz Beats” and not know exactly what it’s going to sound like before turning it on.
[3]
John Seroff: Swizz and Gucci are well matched here: both proudly repeat abrasive, nearly atonal lines to the point of near abstraction. Gucci is almost starting to sound a lot better after six forcefed months of Waka; maybe weakening the public’s resistance was part of the grand plan? “Gucci Time” is a bad cough syrup trip; gluey, ugly and interminable.
[2]
Alfred Soto: The insistent (nice beat!) and the inexplicable (“cut the lights on”) meet. Toss in Gucci’s rasp and the results are interesting, which no purported club banger deserves.
[5]
Michaelangelo Matos: This has approximately the same effect as chillwave: miasma-inducing and -sounding, but when it works you like it for… almost said “the details,” but I really mean “the scenery.”
[6]
Mallory O’Donnell: The beat is beyond hypnotic, the rap is beyond rudimentary. Oh look, zebra rhymes with… zebra!
[5]
Asher Steinberg: The best rapper of the last two years bids for hipster acclaim over a Justice sample that’s actually itself a sample from the Goblin soundtrack for awesome Dario Argento slasher flick Tenebrae. Pluses: Gucci’s fine first verse. Not that he actually says anything too clever, but technically it’s a model of how to rap through a chaotic backing track. Minuses: everything else – Gucci’s lackadaisical rapping on the other verses, the repetitive hook, Swizz’s inane vocals, a too-fine chop that transforms the magnificent and ominous Goblin original into something quite dull and not ominous at all.
[5]
Tyrone Palmer: The core elements of this song are good — Gucci’s rap is typical of Gucci in ’10 (filled with multi-syllables and funny lines), and Swizz’s beat is headache-inducing in that lovable way a lot of his beats are. That said, the song falls flat when everything comes together. One of Gucci’s biggest assets is his pop sensibility, but this track seems like it’s trying too hard to be a party anthem, whereas Gucci’s best pop moments seem effortless.
[4]
Martin Skidmore: The production sounds kind of muddy and muddled, which I suppose suits the sloppy rapping, but the title makes you expect a punchier statement. Instead it rather burbles and drones along to no discernible purpose.
[4]
Doug Robertson: This is intro music; it’s big and it’s bold and it gets the crowd pumped up and ready to give it laldy, hands raised, voices primed and plastic cups of what is hopefully only lager in hand ready to hurl as enthusiastically as possible. On its own, it’s just the overture to a symphony that doesn’t take place, all sugar and no snap.
[5]
Chuck Eddy: Exactly half as good as the Schoolly D song.
[5]
this has gotta be really low, maybe rock bottom on the controversy scale, everyone’s scores hovering in the same area
No one’s going to note that Swizz is basically just purloining “Phantom Pt. II” and marrying it to some not-even-trying drums? Okay: Swizz is basically just jacking Justice and trapping Gucci in a cage with a dog that barks.
And if you’ve heard the portion of the Girl Talk whatever it was called that had the Gucci vocal over something less, er, bad, you know the problem here has much to do with Mr. Alicia Keys.