Monday, June 8th, 2015

Diplo x CL x Riff Raff x OG Maco – Doctor Pepper

No Rod Stewart?


[Video][Website]
[4.86]

Will Adams: Dr Pepper is my favorite soda, but I’ve often found that I have to drink a can quickly because it goes flat really fast, and there is nothing worse than flat Dr Pepper. It’s an easy metaphor for this song: CL provides the fizz for Diplo’s taffy beat; Riff Raff and OG Maco turn it into stagnant corn syrup.
[5]

Ramzi Awn: Why didn’t I buy soda today? Diet DP sounds just about right right now. Besides being a great deli run anthem, the dark Nintendo synths almost steal the show.  
[9]

Cédric Le Merrer: Dr Pepper isn’t widely distributed in France, and when you do find one it’s expensive. Consequently, there’s a small cult of enthusiasts pining for Dr Pepper to become mainstream here. At which point I’m sure it’ll quickly lose all its charm because Dr Pepper is no better or worse than all those other carbonated drinks it’d be lined up with in supermarkets. Replacing 2NE1 and Teddy with b-list rappers and Diplo, CL sounds like widely available Dr Pepper to me.
[6]

Iain Mew: It’s summer of sorts in the UK, and the pop-hiss of drink cans is a more appealing sound than usual. “Doctor Pepper” doesn’t quite do that sound, but it infers it through its sentiment and its cold clicking, and it seems that being handed a cool can of something not particularly great is about the level of experience they’re aspiring to. Everyone succeeds, but CL isn’t even the only one that could obviously be doing much better.
[4]

Thomas Inskeep: Great production from Diplo, based around that “click” noise you make by releasing your tongue from the roof of your mouth, and a super-nasty synth bassline. CL sounds mean-nasty, Riff Raff is an idiot who just names names, and OG Maco comes off as a seriously b- or c-list Dirty South rapper. I bet the instrumental’s awesome. 
[5]

Josh Winters: I have no idea what CL sees in some fuckboy producer who compulsively makes farty drops and turgid synth riffs that sound like diarrhea. She deserves so much more than to be stuck making the funhouse version of “Only” devoid of any fun whatsoever.
[3]

Jessica Doyle: So: it’s dumb. Not even OG Maco’s more relaxed flow can elevate it out of stifling summer-heat dumbitude. That said, having previously found it less enjoyable when CL tried too hard, I like this idea of her approaching the American market with, “Screw it, let’s just rap about this random can of soda I was holding.” (And sneak in a certain melancholy, talking about always traveling, just when we’ve been convinced of the total throwaway dumbness.) As if she’s establishing herself by presenting herself as too firmly established already to need exertion: refusing to stoop to conquer. As a long-term marketing position, it may turn out to be smart.
[4]

Madeleine Lee: Here’s an argument for the ideal timing of CL’s US debut that I didn’t see coming: the new sing-rapping is a good fit for her, both fresher and more forgiving than her usual shouty, syllable-by-syllable flow. (In retrospect, this is should have been obvious from the potential in the verses of “Can’t Nobody.”) Her impressive moments as a rapper come from landing punchlines, and “chillin’ in the freezer when I’m under pressure/I put it on ice, bitch, Dr. Pepper” is one of her wittiest. Not that it has much competition here. Diplo’s two-note creep is adequate, the rest of CL’s verse gets distracted by its own style, Riff Raff names a bunch of unrelated celebrities, and OG Maco aces the triplets but literally says “going on tangents.”
[5]

Anthony Easton: CL is Korean but this is pretty much an example of pop’s new internationalism. Her voice is more interesting than the men who surround her, and I wish that she had gotten more verses — just for how she works the double Ps in pepper is one of my favourite sounds of the year.
[7]

Mo Kim: CL’s personality has lost none of its fizz crossing the Pacific: she does a better Rihanna on her first verse than Rihanna has in at least three years. On the chorus she’s all bottled anticipation, playing it cool even when the stakes of stardom have never been higher. Both Riff Raff and OG Maco pitch their verses on the right side of goofy, but everything you need to take away from “Doctor Pepper” can be summed up with the tongue clicks at track’s beginning — the cracking open of a new chapter for Korean musicians in the West.
[7]

Brad Shoup: CL’s got great ok billing and an expert take on an American pop hook, but man that hook. Thank God for Riff Raff trolling Anna Kournikova, and the rest of us, as always, by extension.
[5]

Katherine St Asaph: Diplo, being Diplo, has a lot to prove before I stop thinking he assembled this lineup as an Internet Grab Bag of rappers-as-memes he’s laughing about behind the scenes. The track sounding like a self-conscious Game Boy Camera version of “Rack City” does not dispel this notion, nor does Riff Raff hashtagging his way through the past two decades of sports. What snap “Doctor Pepper” does have is entirely thanks to CL, who deserves a better setting.
[5]

Micha Cavaseno: The internet can chew up artists and spit them out because it’s so vast and constantly changing and doing things to distract you. I can sympathize, because as I’m writing this, I got an album queued in Winamp by a friend to analyze, Skype pinging in my ear, and about 20 or so tabs open in Chrome. I have two dozen thought threads going about this song alone that will undoubtedly fail to get touched, like the irony of proud meninists like OG Makonnen Father (or whatever name of this new unfortunate uninteresting biter Fader keeps reselling me every other month) and Diplo being on a song with CL who probably is unable to realize how shitty a look that is b/c HITS, VIEWS, GET EVERYONE TALKING. Why else would you bring in RAP GAME AL JOLSON over this clunky non-beat? In some ways, the way the internet forces CL to keep pace with it makes me feel sympathy for her, because whereas GD’s infectious spamming and mugging is perfect for his insolence, her data gets corrupted all the time. Her name-dropping of Thizz faces and her Rihanna intonations are tired, and this will not matter to anyone who doesn’t think about reblogging and spamming to look like you’re keeping up. This song is not a hit, and unlike the tongue clicks, nothing here is remotely popping.
[0]

Alfred Soto: An awful lot of Xs.
[3]

Reader average: [4] (3 votes)

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9 Responses to “Diplo x CL x Riff Raff x OG Maco – Doctor Pepper”

  1. once you remove CL from the fake swag train that is YG entertainment, she actually comes off as a relatively legit artist/songwriter. it sounds half assed because it is; according to CL she threw the lyrics together in a rush so she could go home after diplo cancelled a session on her. imagine friends, if someone put in some real effort it could be great!

    or still bad. but like less bad.

  2. Maxwell is my hero ITT. I can’t believe this was almost a [5].

  3. sheer number of 5 & above is alarming. turn on the radio sometimes. at home cleaning, while driving, and such. get out of your own heads. take a walk. we’re living in the last days – no time for the hood internet, ratatat, or deadmaufive

  4. what if i don’t clean or drive or such

  5. adidah, i also call that deadmaufive. when can we join forces?

  6. I’d listen to the radio but I am afraid of encountering Honey, I’m Good

  7. megan-we can join forces anytime. you know where to find me
    winters-learn how to clean you snark shark
    katherine-which type of Labyrinth(1986) transmission receivers are you using

  8. i’ll leave a message for you in maxwell’s ask box. goodbye.

  9. All you nerds talking about Catan and whichever promoted actually alliances being drawn. Who will survive…