The Singles Jukebox

In which we try to pick a Vince Vaughn flick for our next movie night…

[Video][Website]
[5.71]

Crystal Leww: It’s still unclear how Isaiah Rashad fits into the greater TDE collective besides being The One Who Is Not From California and maybe The One Who is Younger. His induction makes sense though; Isaiah Rashad is a rapping emcee, the type of rapper that is technically proficient and doesn’t ruffle any feathers, the type of rapper who raps well and can hopefully turn it up on a track here and there. “Soliloquy” is full of specific statements, specific imagery, and dizzying rhymes. It’s…fine. It’s good! It doesn’t do much beyond that.
[5]

David Sheffieck: TDE could use someone else with the same great ear for beats as Schoolboy Q, and Rashad’s been pulling it off so far — he tends to go a little more low-key and spacey than Q, but that seems like a choice designed to give his raw energy something to bounce off. The production here commands plenty of attention, but there’s no mistaking that Rashad’s in charge the entire time. More of this, please.
[8]

Andy Hutchins: A Southern rapper on the West Coast’s most notable label tapdances similes and a few stories all over a classically New York beat, and in 115 seconds, it is clear that TDE has another star in the making. Hope he’s watching one of the movies in which Vince Vaughn was actually a funny cat.
[7]

Anthony Easton: The Vince Vaughn reference is as unfunny and dated as the rest of the song. 
[2]

Brad Shoup: In a track full of overshare, watching Fred Claus and Trapped in the Closet back-to-back took me the most aback. He doesn’t string couplets like Kendrick (“Walter White”/”poltergeist” gets a B), but he’s sly with the puns and smart with the omissions. This is an intro stranded in the middle, a jump-out-the-van-rapping number juiced by Farhot’s shined-up RZA creep.
[7]

Alfred Soto: Excellent timbre: intelligible, lucid, distinct. Producer Farhot deploys a sample of early sixties jazz organ runs with shrewdness. I was ready to hate it after he used “white” and “Aryan” in the same verse.
[7]

Mallory O’Donnell: Smart beat, tiresome metaphors, length that everyone ought to emulate, sexist and racist banter that should be put to sleep. 
[4]