The Singles Jukebox

And true to his form, DJ Khaled wins today’s DJ Somebody ft. Everybody Thursday!

[Video][Website]
[5.40]

Andy Hutchins: As relentless as any DJ Khaled single since … “All I Do Is Win”? “Out Here Grindin”? (“Bugatti” is, of course, an Ace Hood song.) There must be millions who know the Major Key Khaled best, and those folks quite possibly consider him more Snapchat curio than summer anthem curator; there are great and quintessential Khaled tracks, though, Cool and Dre- or Runners-produced cauldrons of chaos over which a bunch of rappers from south of the Smokies yelled or growled. The outstanding tracks that broke that mold on Khaled albums (“Grammy Family,” “We Takin Over,” “I’m On One”) all tended to be produced by outsiders (Kanye, Danja, 40 and T-Minus) and feature show-stealing rappers (Chicago’s Kanye, Mars’s Lil Wayne, Toronto’s Drake) from much further afield. “I Got the Keys” is more like the latter in concept — produced by very strange bedfellows Southside and Jake One, and laced by definitely-not-Southern Jay — but sounds more like the old Khaled updated to 2016, to my ear. Future is here to screech about keys and Wraiths and alerts in between Jay switching up flows as deftly as he has in years, making on-point sports references (Josh Norman joins Juan Pierre on a list), and accurately bragging about marrying Beyoncé and having a child with her as the crowning achievements of his life. It works: This is a song I like hearing and feeling in my chest over and over. Khaled has always been one of the best at conjuring the forces to create those.
[8]

Katie Gill: I still hate Future. But oh my god is he so much more tolerable when you banish him to the hook and leave Jay Z on the verse. Jay Z’s one of the most talented rappers in the business for a reason. The lyrics are self-affirming and self-aggrandizing without the ‘here is all my money and here are all my hoes’ degradation you hear in most brag raps. Add in a good beat and you’ve got something I won’t mind listening to over and over again.
[7]

Ryo Miyauchi: Leave it to Twitter to fire 20 jokes per second on Jay’s off-beat flow. At this point though, after two decades of cold calculation, I get a kick from him rapping imperfectly as long as I get a sense he’s looking for something in the mess. None of the styles — the awkward run-ons, the “what else!?” ad lib — fit too well on him. But at least, like he says, he brags different. This could’ve been another fine Future song that he throws to the hive daily without a thought. Instead, we got a peculiarly odd Jay Z song produced by 808 Mafia.
[5]

Thomas Inskeep: Well, hello, Jay, welcome back. He rips through two crisp verses here, leaving Future to the chorus, which feels correct. Jay’s rapping is so damn nimble, I like it even when I don’t like his lyrics or his tracks. But in this case, I like both. Also, asking for a friend: when exactly did DJ Khaled become the hip-hop Tony Robbins? 
[6]

Juana Giaimo: Considering that I like neither Jay Z nor Future, the only possibility of my liking this sound would have been if DJ Khaled made them sound less like them. It seems he did the opposite — which is great, I guess, for the people who do like them. Plus it features an unbearable hook and boring lyrics about how awesome they all are.
[4]

Will Rivitz: An uncharacteristically iffy Future hook, two boring Jay Z verses, and way too many DJ Khaled interjections walk into a bar, and the party stops dead.
[3]

Brad Shoup: Little need to drop anthems when your brand is anthemic. After a gargled Future hook that pairs with the snare to sound like actual jingling keys, the set is handed to Jay, who promptly drops them down a stormdrain. The man said “life goals”! Good production, though: it sounds like a submarine shanty. But I do miss the posse cuts, if only because it would’ve drawn Jay down to his eight least-forced bars.
[5]

Alfred Soto: With Future transmogrified into a squeak as fetching as the high-pitched whistle sample and a strategically deployed title hook, “I Got the Keys” would be a triumph of pleasure if Sean Carter didn’t rap as if he’s strapped in a car seat.
[7]

Edward Okulicz: I dream in black and white, so I’m quite impressed by Jay’s brag that he dreams in colour, because I actually envy him there. Future sounds like ass, as he generally does these days, though. The urgent squeal of the track suggests swerving all over the road to an extent, but mostly a car door alarm.
[4]

Jibril Yassin: Bludgeoned Future hook aside, this is surprisingly low key for a DJ Khaled major anthem. The man’s boasting feels muted and Jay Z delivers only a satisfying verse — good but not great.
[5]