Just say no?

[Video]
[7.67]

Crystal Leww: God bless Mike WiLL, who returns to hip hop from his little deviation with Miley Cyrus. This is appropriately tense with creepy synths and a flipped Salt-n-Pepa sample, turning the dance-floor energy of “Push It” into a sinister, well-oiled factory. The hook is practically automatic, drone-like in its willingness to turn its participants into a mere cog within the machine. Future and his famous friends just serve the purpose of churning out the verses here, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t a few standout moments: the unbridled enthusiasm of Future’s “leaning way over to the side!”, the way Pusha T not-so-subtlely lets the young ones know who came first with “Versace way before Migos,” Pharrell’s any number of moments (“me and twenty girls doing yoga naked”, “#WIZARDHAT”, the slew of lines that begin with “these niggas”), and hell, even Casino’s impatient “me no wait!” But still, the sum of the parts is the machine, and Mike WiLL makes it sound like one indeed.
[7]

Alfred Soto: Marvelous programming: a couple of bass notes, whoops, and pants. Of course Pusha T would guest on a track in which Future raps “the dirty new money is homicide” — Pusha probably offered his services without charge. Even Pharrell unshackles his tongue for lightning-quick rhyming (I’m surprised Casino got the Micky Munday line and not Rick Ross though). Fun but rote.
[7]

Iain Mew: Between Mike Will’s methodical beat and its air blast interjections, and the perpetual motion chorus, things are set up brilliantly for the verses. The overall effect is zooming in to individual people before panning out to a machine that they’re all part of — the movement of dope as in industrial process. That would almost be enough to carry the track but everyone apart from Casino does more than just go along with it anyway. Pharrell’s fast stream of assonant lines is impressive, and Pusha T’s mugging for “nose better” continues to make me giggle.
[8]

Cédric Le Merrer: Not all verses are equal, obviously, but the beat is propulsive enough to make even Pharell’s rhymes pass off easily. The murky, sexy vibe set by the breathy “push it” loop and burping bass probably makes this the first trap beat reminiscent of 90s Depeche Mode forays into trip hop.
[8]

Anthony Easton: The answer to the drug problem right now — “it makes you feel so good” — and the breathless, insistent directive to this suggests the race to feel good. For a song about both capital and pleasure, it has the moral ambiguity and a profound complexity. The answer, within the framing of the song is yes, no, it doesn’t matter, and no, but I need to do it anyways. Extra points for the care and detail — the matching of fishscale and fishtail, the sniffing sounds, how they say the word “yo,” how the verses work over and under the chorus, manically rejecting or reworking a narrative linearity. 
[9]

Patrick St. Michel: The Salt-N-Pepa interpolation could have just been a funny way to start the song, a clever little throwback and nothing else. Instead, it’s flipped into a grimy whisper right next to the listener’s ear through the whole song, a detail that when matched up with the black-hole-test-tone beat takes an already good rap song (everyone billed here delivers, even if Pharrell is a little too meme-y) up a level.
[8]

Andy Hutchins: A bunch of really good rappers and Casino rapping extremely well about selling drugs — or, in Pharrell’s case, “all medicine” — over a molten, sinister Mike Will Made It beat. More music should be this obviously excellent, even if Pusha didn’t need to be obvious the “Nose/knows” bit. Dude, you ripped a song called “Everyone Nose” to bits. Some of us remember that. (By June, no one will remember that Casino did a passable Gunplay impression here.)
[9]

Brad Shoup: There’s recent nostalgia (said a Clipse agnostic; looks like neither him nor y’all are tired of this — also, Mike WiLL Made It!) and older nostalgia (those Rubinesque hits). Not even the bloggingest heads let a rapper age in context, so enjoy the way Future falls off his axis, singing all the way out of orbit, while you can. Pusha’s the weak link, dropping the pun twice before the unwelcome nudge. Casino’s got a Cheshire grin, and I caught it right around “say it give ’em hope”. Pharrell… well, he comes off like a Times writer in an unfamiliar neighborhood.
[5]

David Sheffieck: I am 100% in favor of anything that makes DJ Mustard into a vague memory, even if it ends up being the producer who Mustard arguably supplanted. None of the verses here really kill, but they’re all solid enough to contain a few great lines. And Mike WiLL Made It seems energized and in full effect, ready to reclaim his crown. Fingers crossed.
[8]