The Singles Jukebox

She’s finally had her big hit – can she bag another?…

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[6.56]

Peter Parrish: This is getting a six because every lyrics site I can find insists the line is “Take me to Paris / Buy 100 carrots.” Keri’s bunnies accept only the finest in French gourmet vegetables.
[6]

Alex Ostroff: Consensus on In a Perfect World seems to be that it would be perfect if only all the songs were a minute shorter. Get Your Money Up, the shortest, packs a punch without overstaying its welcome. The production is kitchen sink in the best way, morphing from hand claps to woodblocks to synths to sirens, never settling into one mode for too long, and periodically dropping out altogether to let the women do their thing. If their combined powers still can’t match Beyonce’s Diva swagger, it’s not for lack of trying.
[8]

Chuck Eddy: This didn’t jump out of Hilson’s album at me — not like, say, the brief remnant of Patrice Rushen’s “Forget Me Nots” melody in “Alienated” did. But hearing it now, I approve of the swirling repetition, the “stop!” blackouts, the Lakeside “slide slides”, the humor of “stop playing with yourself” (from a guy who I assume is neither Keri, Trina, nor Keyshia). May not approve of the incomprehensible sentiment (pro-bottle service? independent womanhood defined as not picking up the check?), however. And it still doesn’t add up to much of a memorable song.
[6]

Alex Macpherson: Wow, it’s not just conveying her own personality that Keri Hilson struggles with; she can even make Keyshia Cole and Trina, two of the most recognisable voices around, sound anonymous. “Get Your Money Up” succeeds anyway, especially removed from the wearying context of Hilson’s album: Hilson, Cole and Trina are clipped and businesslike, as if they’re multitasking on their Blackberries while laying down their vocals, and this suits the song down to the ground. Meanwhile, the skittery handclaps and bumping bass create all the energy necessary to propel them towards the brilliant outro, that robo-voice concluding, “We don’t like them broke boys, we don’t like them broke boys” in a tone of disdain.
[8]

Michaelangelo Matos: Tune sounds close to the tune of “Turnin’ Me On,” except this is faster, friskier, has two other women instead of Wayne, and while those are all decent things, none of them is quite compelling enough.
[6]

Martin Skidmore: It’s been pointed out many times that Keri’s voice lacks personality. That’s true, but she is technically very strong, and the use of autotune sucks any individual character from singing anyway. This club number makes good use of her agile punchiness, with an energetic clicky backing. Keyshia is a little redundant, but Trina adds a brash aggression, and it’s very danceable. Very good.
[8]

Anthony Miccio: Shouldn’t judge an artist by single number five (somehow the first of Hilson’s I’ve heard), but this track splits the difference between Missy Elliott and Pussycat Dolls in the personality department and is no knock out. Docked a point for a Trina cameo so worthless and rote I can’t even tell why they bothered.
[5]

Martin Kavka: In which love gets stabbed in the heart, to the accompaniment of a quite seductive Polow da Don beat, by a trio of capitalists. Fringe benefit: “I wanna see something bigger than a Hummer truck” should hopefully be the new mantra of gay club boys.
[5]

Ian Mathers: Like most poor people, I tend to resent songs where money is taken to be the sine qua non for attracting sexual partners, but if you’re going to go down that route you might as well be as splashy and unapologetic as this song is. In context, their constant demands for some proof of status from the guys they’re all fending off comes across not so much as mercenary as it does the fed-up response of women who are sick and tired of dealing with phonies and braggarts. That, plus a vaguely hyphy background is enough to make a good single.
[7]