The Singles Jukebox

Trap king?

[Video][Website]
[4.38]

Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: Bryson Tiller is a much-ballyhood artist as far as Twitter and music PRs are concerned, but it’s good to know that he simply makes solid late-night music up until he raps his way into a forced finale. Rappers want to be singers, singer want to be rappers — a tale as old as time. 
[6]

Micha Cavaseno: You gotta give it to Bryson Tiller; his brand of “TRAPSOUL” is an amusing bit of a mirage. In reality, the kid is just the latest of the Kirko Bangz parade of kids trying to latch onto Shopping Bag Drizzy’s coat-tails and fulfill the need that they’re not getting from any of the dozen other rappers or ‘singers’ who one could choose from. Bryson is at least brilliant in determining that he is not going to attempt to be anything other than petty as fuck, but he doesn’t provide any room for dimension in his subjects. Whether its his city, those girls, or himself, you just can’t comprehend what has made this guy such a little pissant. Oh, and of course he barely carries any sort of tune, but when you’re that much of a miserabalist hitting notes is far too much effort, ain’t it?
[0]

John Seroff: Although I generally like his voice and choices quite a bit, “Exchange” crystallizes my nagging problem with Tiller’s reduce/reuse/recycle approach to thoughtful soul in that the first thing I did after thirty seconds of “Exchange” was switch it for “Swing My Way.” Lord knows there’s nothing wrong with a good pop paint job; I think it was Jasper Johns who allegedly said “Art is when you take a thing and change it, then change it again.” The issue is I hear very little evidence that anyone got around to “change it again.”
[5]

Brad Shoup: He doesn’t have much vibrato, and his thinness infects what he’s got: the bass synth, the trap drums, the replying sample that finds herself buried under his Drakkisms.
[4]

Danilo Bortoli: K.P. & Envyi’s “Swing My Beat”, a slightly upbeat track about simply finding someone, eerily enters “Exchange” as a sample — as it turns out, the original track’s vocals end up so distilled they sound ghostlike, ultimately unintelligible and somewhat forced. “You got my soul”, Tiller says in the end. For now, it sounds convincing and even impressive (given Envyi’s track and its original mood), but mostly for simple technical reasons.
[5]

Thomas Inskeep: Tiller has the sole writing credit on “Exchange,” but what makes this track is the sample from K.P. & Envyi’s minor bass classic, 1998’s “Swing My Way.” It’s stretched waaaay out and sounds ghostly, reduced to a voice wailing in the background and what sounds like a blues guitar lick. Credit producers the Mekanics then, but I’ll also credit Tiller for his delivery, and the ease with which he flips from crooning to rapping and back again. 
[7]

Alfred Soto: This Drake, Kanye, Jeremih and who knows who else amalgam is either the apotheosis or the nadir of the loutish talk-singers. Depends on your tolerance for a man who tries to sell all of him for some of her — I mean, he’s gotta be worth two bits, right?
[5]

Katherine St Asaph: The Weeknd 2.0: the guy with actual mainstream success is the guy dismissed by critics as an interloper. Too bad it’s harder to defend this guy.
[3]