The Singles Jukebox

What we lack in quantity (of blurbs) we make up for in quantity (of words) and hopefully quality (of our sexy bods)…

[Video][Website]
[6.00]

Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: “The Baddest Female”, ostensibly produced by YG Entertainment honcho Teddy Park, sounds like it could have easily slipped into one of Rustie’s forward-thinking mixes: alien and woozy enough to feel cutting edge, but brushed with momentary bursts of hip-hop-infused melody to feel familiar. After CL’s intro to U.S. audiences as the best thing on a will.i.am song, this feels more up her lane with its adventurousness, attitude, and sense of fun (her good-natured dedication to “bad girls everywhere” can’t be frowned at). The dubstep squiggles in the third verse split the song in half, with all the empty space from the start of the song filled, every pocket of the beat occupied by pulsating bass and chanting vocals. Rather than dragging the song down, it turns it into a savvy reversal of Beyonce’s “Bow Down/I Been On” by presenting stamping-ground experimentation before the more accessible pop swipe. Like “Bow Down/I Been On”, it functions as a statement of bad-assery intent whilst offering a glimpse at the woman behind the curtain: notice how CL chants “hey unni!” in the chorus, turning a term of sisterly respect into something cool. Look at how her moniker chooses “Baddest Female”, too, over the more standard “Baddest Bitch”. It’s nice to be important, she seems to say, but it’s important to be nice.
[8]

Tara Hillegeist: It is unfortunate, but justifiable, that the discussion of this song will be completely swallowed whole by its associated video. Unfortunate: Like the best K-Pop in local earspace right now, “Baddest Female” achieves Girl Talk levels of transcendent theft, stealing from so many places at once even something as simple as CL’s choices for what (and when) to juxtapose smashes the euphoria switch. CL steals liberally from G Dragon’s playbook here, solely, it feels, to prove she can beat her senior with his own game. This is a great song, real fuck-you-pay-me shit. Justifiable: Not all theft is equal. The video for “The Baddest Female” accomplishes a feat of holy-cats-that’s-racist cultural appropriation and its only saving grace (and it’s a slim one, don’t misunderstand me) is the unapologetic zeal CL puts into her swagger (and whoever it was in the costuming department that made her that shiny gold vampire grill). This is nowhere near as vile as some of the tricks I’ve seen white pop stars in the US of A pull over the years, but the home team being more racist doesn’t make this video any less. What a fucking terrible decision.
[3]

Patrick St. Michel: Talk about a conflicted introduction. On one side, “The Baddest Female” seems like a bit of a cop out on the part of YG Entertainment, home to CL and the group she fronts, 2NE1. This is her latest stab at being a solo act, but it bares a lot of resemblances to other artists on her label. The general sound and the all-over-the-place video (complete with problematic cultural appropriation!) paints her as the female G-Dragon, while the tacked on ending portion imploring us to “do the Unni” seems like a half-assed attempt at making a new horsey dance. Still, there is a lot here signaling potential. “The Baddest Female” hop-scotches between styles, from a hip-hop beat inspired by “Harlem Shake” to a brostep breakdown that mutates into an outro. CL herself melds in with all of this, working in references to past 2NE1 hits and Far East Movement. Her boast “I’m like a rugby ball, don’t know where I’ll bounce to next,” is almost on point — “The Baddest Female” is bogged down by unavoidable labelmate comparisons, but shows just enough of what makes CL unique to make this worthwhile.
[7]

Alfred Soto: As aural experience this thing doesn’t quit: protean rhythm, “Simon Says” keyboards, sampled crowd noise, strings. Whether testifying in English, the singer of 2NE1 makes it sound effortless.
[7]

Iain Mew: The best member of an amazing group going solo has to be amazing, right? It’s not as simple as that, of course. CL can’t so easily maintain the same kind of incendiary impact over a whole song as when she’s given the spotlight on 2NE1 songs. So it’s not that surprising or dismaying when some of the verses of “The Baddest Female” are a bit fluffed, and the rest of the song offers several opportunities for her to shine plenty on her own. I’ve seen comparisons to Lee Hyori’s recent “Bad Girls” (video recommended) but the “Bad Girls” that the chorus makes me think of is M.I.A.’s. CL’s chain is swinging left-right rather than hitting her chest but she gives the chorus the same kind of infectiously confident lollop. The “I Am the Best” references are fun, too, and when she invents a new chant at the end in sync with the ramping up of the hard electro, it finally reaches the giddy energy I hoped for. If at that point it becomes tempting to cheerlead, though, it does need to be noted that much of what Cecily said on G-Dragon and appropriation applies again here. Even more so for the bit of the video that he turns up for.
[7]

Brad Shoup: A snap track isn’t great support for CL’s popstar snottiness. She’s mostly uninterested in creeping, so it’s a shame the track has to. Funnily enough, when the brostep makes its contractual appearance, she tempers the volume, goes full-catchphrase and brings things to a decently thrilling close.
[5]

Edward Okulicz: For the length of its verses, “The Baddest Female” seems like the work of someone who knows CL is a star, a scene-stealer and more, but not what to do with her, and the song is exactly pitched between M.I.A. and (forgive me) Kreayshawn. The chorus is an atomic bomb and sounds like it but you’ve got to dig through a lot of dross to get there. The spoken-word bit is embarrassing.
[5]