Fabolous ft. The-Dream – Throw It In The Bag
Skip-diving time! No? Oh…
[Video][Myspace]
[4.71]
Andrew Unterberger: Fabolous: Doing less with more since 2002.
[4]
Al Shipley: Fab’s a unique entity in the rap game for his ability to do soft R&B radio jams without dumbing down his punchlines or seeming too conflicted about the whole thing. But as far as his girl songs go, this ain’t “Can’t Let You Go”; shit, it ain’t even “Make Me Better.” The-Dream coulda saved his horribly annoying hook with one his out-of-nowhere bridges, but instead we get Loso doing a dumbass chant.
[2]
Ian Mathers: While I still love “Breathe”, the fact that Fabolous’ best line here is a shout out to Ruffles chips (it’s a shame their All Dressed flavour is Canada-only, you guys are missing out) indicates that he’s not exactly at the top of his game.
[6]
Spencer Ackerman: What underprivileged heterosexual hasn’t sat on his fire escape, staring at the moon on a humid evening, dreaming of writing songs about taking women on shopping sprees and then composing dances about taking women on shopping sprees? Given the current economic disaster, Fabo and The-Dream are actually offering a jingle for the latest predatory lending scheme. The drums are also too aggressive and the Auto-Tune is irritating.
[2]
Anthony Easton: What is a bag of chips slang for? How does it work with the references to bank robbery? I could look it up on Urban Dictionary, but that would suggest caring.
[2]
Martin Kavka: I have little patience with this kind of materialist hip-hop, how it mimes the worst parts of the worst Bret Easton Ellis novels. It’s difficult for me to decide whether releasing this as a single in a recession is galling, or a genius pop fantasyy for our recessionary times. Certainly this plodding Tricky Stewart production doesn’t make me think about anything over and above the marketing.
[3]
Michaelangelo Matos: So automatic-sounding, over and above the Auto-tune, that what might make me admire it just curdles into the fear that this is going to be inescapable for the rest of the summer.
[4]
Jordan Sargent: For a sort of frivolous song “Throw It in the Bag” has an impressive insistence, and the stomping momentum here seems to invigorate Fab, especially on the second verse where he really locks into his flow and even slips into threats of violence that cut with sneering nonchalance. And really it’s that indignant bent -— like the world owes Fab shades and dresses for his girl -— that sets “Throw It in the Bag” apart from other songs about boutique-jumping. It’s a for-the-ladies song that’s not actually for the ladies.
[8]
Hillary Brown: Yay for ratings that don’t have to correlate with a level of sensicalness. This is a dance number or something? Whatever it is, it’s a summery, sparkling delight, with Fabolous acquitting himself almost as nicely as the extreme happy smoothness that is The-Dream.
[7]
Anthony Miccio: It’d be easy to just say “sequel is a 5,” but the sonic familiarity isn’t the problem. What sucks is that the focus is on the workmanlike Fabo marveling at his financial chivalry, instead of The-Dream flinging woo and reveling in the sound of his voice.
[5]
Alex Ostroff: Hearkens back to the lighter moments of LoveHate, a sound The-Dream’s ditched in favour of the towering opulence of his more recent work. In these times of economic hardship, it’s nice to hear an antiquated ode to indiscriminate spending, and a B-grade ‘Shawty is the Sh*!’ is still a far cry better than your average summer jam. Loso always surprises me with his adeptness, perpetually underrated and pleasantly surprising, especially when nothing’s at stake.
[7]
Alfred Soto: Another week, another iteration of The-Dream sound. This time the plinky keyboards and background “eh-eh”s are put in the service of a rap that’s on the right side of brain-dead. Love vs Money often lacked the human voices required to put over the silly dichotomies; with Fabulous at the helm the team wipe the bathetic cobwebs off “Fancy,” putting their avarice front and center and daring you to tsk-tsk them. Still, all the melodic ideas they put in the bag make for heavy lifting two-thirds of the way through.
[6]
Additional Scores
Chuck Eddy: [4]
Martin Skidmore: [6]
Old Dutch All Dressed potato chips > Ruffles All Dressed potato chips
Fabolous’ appeal has eluded me throughout this decade…it doesn’t matter what good beats he’s on or how funny he can be lyrically, that monotone just sends me to sleep without fail every single time. He is TERRIBLE to listen to.
The video seems to suggest this is about shoplifting; the general reaction here suggests it’s about shopping sprees. Which is it? Do I gotta look up the lyrics?
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