You’re welcome, AMERICA

[Video]
[5.88]

Alfred Soto: A throwback refracted through a queer sensibility, imbued with what The Queer Sensibility sounds like in 2013 in a genre like this. It lacks replay value, but, boy, is it fun to hear RuPaul throwing back brand names.
[6]

Edward Okulicz: RuPaul does us all a huge favour by getting a bunch of people who are predisposed to love Big Freedia some mightly fine exposure. The problem is that while Freedia has serious presence on stage and record, RuPaul’s outrageous stage persona doesn’t carry over into a song. So you’ve got a mediocre bounce track with a decent and ridiculous hook with RuPaul marking time over and under it, and then Big Freedia does her amazing thing for a minute and eats the whole thing alive. It’s great in parts, and those parts totally shade the rest.
[5]

Will Adams: The two breakdowns — first orchestral, second cinematic — suck the life out of a song that was already completely featureless. Between the sterile drum machine loop and flat rapping, I can’t even be bothered to care about the PB&J euphemism.
[2]

Brad Shoup: Freedia’s going to do her thing, but RuPaul sublimates stardom in order to take sidewalk potshots. It’s not “Reading Is Fundamental” — too many targets — more like gleeful gossip in a Little Richard mode. “Peanut Butter” doesn’t have the breakass pace of the most thrilling bounce, but clearly that isn’t the aim, not when Ru’s got that cutout pop extract up her sleeve.
[8]

Anthony Easton: Freedia dominates here, and Ru lets her dominate in an act of precise generosity. Combine that with the mark of genuine and remembered poverty in the midst of a loose, almost improvisational energy, and add to it a pretty fantastic chorus, and you have something genuinely fascinating. 
[10]

Patrick St. Michel: I have never seen RuPaul’s TV shows, so maybe I’m missing a reference or a joke. That said, this sounds like Tim and Eric recorded a send-up of old hip-hop and managed to rope in a good guest to make it even more ludicrous.
[1]

Jonathan Bogart: The point, it seems to me, is: how hard can you rock to it? Pretty hard, turns out.
[7]

Crystal Leww: I rang in the new year at a Big Freedia show, and it was the best New Year’s Eve I’ve ever had. The Shake Squad girls twerked standing up, lying down, against walls, on top of one another, and I was mesmerized by Flash, the only male backup dancer, doing the real Harlem Shake before all this bad Harlem Shake nonsense started. There were girls and guys of all shapes, sizes and colors all over the club shaking their stuff. At the center of this scene was Big Freedia herself, rapping, yelling, laughing, complimenting and just exuding confidence, comfort and general positive vibes. “Peanut Butter” is a RuPaul track, but it’s Freedia’s bounce music at the center of it. Like her thrilling, heart-pounding live show, I am left at the end of the track full of joy and positive energy and exhausted but ready to dance some more.
[8]