The Singles Jukebox

[Nicki Minaj voice] i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i

[Video][Website]
[5.67]

Alfred Soto: This GOOD Music signee and his OK Future mimicry persuaded Kanye West to hire him for The Life of Pablo, but the mimicry disappears, replaced by a rushed polysyllabic flow with a pronounced accent and producer Menace’s strategic whoops and woos.
[5]

Crystal Leww: “Panda” is most listenable Future song we’ve gotten since “Move That Dope!” Desiigner’s mumbles sound just slightly more enunciated, and much importantly, Desiigner manages to give the beat just enough room to breathe without leaving it out for too long at each time. This ends up making “Panda” feel like more than just a yell-able chorus to be spliced into a rap DJ set, which is what Future has sounded like for too long.
[8]

Micha Cavaseno: Fuck Future. It’s been a year of hearing an echo chamber of ineffectual parrots squawk about his worst album being some sort of artistic triumph, or a mixtape run full of play-it-safe alliances with established commercial entities, dire monotonic trap, and little to no emphasis on the pop sensibility that made him impressive as “mesmerizing.” At this point, I’m glad that a teenager from Brooklyn is provoking such disdain and mockery for simply having the audacity to be a rapper who sounds like Future. “HOW DARE HE RESEMBLE THE MAJORITY OF STREET RAP OUT NOW,” they sniff and preen, while pretending the rapper all their friends like who they learned via Fader posts, PR hypes, and poorly mixed DJ sets by private school graduates does something entirely different. But you wanna know what? DESIIGNER RAPS BETTER THAN FUTURE DOES NOW. “Panda” relies on UK producer Menace’s hybrid of drill/ratchet/trap/road rap and whatever idea, and it seems to inspire Desiigner to spit his ass off and provide some of the meanest and leanest sort of flow pivots this side of Peewee Longway and Skippa Da Flippa. This kid is rapping his ass off, his mealy mouthed flow handling that rolling double-time like most celebrated rappers make sound unnatural and cartoonish (YOU CAN GET IT TOO KENDRICK STANS!). Forget Kanye! Forget Future! Forget this pantheon of rappers who someone told you it’s okay to like. Look at this song on its own merits and ask yourself, “Is this teenager killing it?” And if you say yes, simply wait until he does it again, or until he vanishes. Until then, don’t talk to me about no motherfucking Future, because that man has been stuck in the present for a long ass time, and it won’t be long until he becomes past tense at the rate of his output.
[6]

Thomas Inskeep: Future x 50 Cent = far less than the sum of its parts. And what’s with the badly dated 2005 production?
[2]

Brad Shoup: To make the meter, he goes nearly London: the way he pronounces “X6” is special enough. So’s the way he rips the hook open for the first verse. Menace’s bought beat boasts a warped crotchet hook, but it’s almost an also-ran to Desiigner, who surrounds himself with ad-libbed shouts and trills, depicting his come-up in real time.
[7]

Jibril Yassin: We all scoffed when we heard his appearance on The Life of Pablo and damned if this doesn’t sound like Future Hendrix. Yet Desiigner’s attacking the material in a playful way we’ve rarely seen from Future. Stripped of Kanye’s beat orchestrations, “Panda” comes into its own as a somewhat effective first single and an insight into what could happen when we start getting really sick of Future’s dejected pathos as art delivery model. 
[6]