The Singles Jukebox

The Year of Cardi continues…

[Video]
[5.67]

Leonel Manzanares de la Rosa: J. Lo is trying her hand at trap with the ultimate boss move — recruiting fellow Bronx success story Cardi B for a trans-generational crossover; getting the DJ Khaled ad-libs because of course that’s what you do when your song is about money; actually naming the song “Dinero,” a three-syllable word that is perfect for the now-customary triplet flow. And yet, the main attraction is the song’s beat. The way the plena/cuatro hybrid rhythm melds with the 808 is just astonishing. There’s more Latin music in these three-and-a-half minutes than in most of the “Latin trap” scene.  
[7]

Juan F. Carruyo: J. Lo again gets caught between paying homage to her roots and whichever demographic she’s trying to conquer now. The theme is suitably superficial, and the addition of Cardi B brightens up the track considerably, with enough swagger to cover up for the fact that DJ Khaled is forever and ever a dead weight no matter how many likes he can rack up in a hour. The constant shift between merengue and trap makes this distinctive enough for me to call it a sleeper track. 
[6]

Alfred Soto: If Cardi makes a habit of dropping disgraceful verses into third-rate tracks like “Dinero,” we’ll burn out faster on her than we thought. The only thing that jingles is the treated crowd noise that acts as a hook. 
[3]

Ryo Miyauchi: The brazen attitude from the main star and the malevolent brass beat exudes more feeling of excess than hunger for money, which qualifies a shallow hook like “yo quiero dinero” out of J. Lo somewhat. But her bilingual rebuttals are too lousy, and it’s a disappointment from her, especially, with her use of Spanish propping the language as more aesthetic than character. Next to Cardi B, who has been running with this kind of money talk for a while, it pales in comparison.
[5]

Rachel Bowles: Jennifer Lopez is really killing it lately with her catchy Spanish-language pop posturing. In these hellish times of Trump, Dreamers, and Justin Bieber cashing in on Latin markets just to sing about tacos, Latinx trap “Dinero” is a gift. Enter Cardi– if we need Nicki, hell knows necesitamos Cardi tambien, another fearless Latinx woman, another female POC insisting on being her own American Dream. “Two bad bitches that came from the Bronx” stack it up. DJ Khaled punctuates this greatness with mediocrity, simply present to introduce and occasionally shout “money!”
[8]

Micha Cavaseno: I don’t think there’s a greater misreading of the present-day music world as thinking it’s a good idea to get DJ Khaled as a feature as opposed to being the feature. “Dinero” is maybe a decent enough attempt at J. Lo trying to go for the current Latin trap audience that presumably she could sneak her way into, but she sounds like an ugly parody of the scene via SNL. Cardi sounds perfectly suitable, even if I’m not sure why her vocals are mixed like that.
[2]

Ian Mathers: Cardi and J. Lo are perfect together, in sync in a couple of different ways, and the production from Khaled et al. is solid verging on great — it sounds pushed into the red in almost a bass-boosted meme sense, but in a great way, and the loop is well-chosen. But everything he does in front of the boards sticks out like a particularly sore thumb. His asides (which I sometimes like!) just feel completely pointless, although if that was the cost of the production I guess it was worth it. The less said about the dumb “De Niro!” joke in the video, the better.
[7]

Ramzi Awn: Jennifer Lopez’s latest attempt at marrying “Candyman”-era Christina with mid-career Ciara is at once horrifying and cute. Too cute. File under “I Luh Ya Papi” cast-offs.  
[4]

Katherine St Asaph: A livelier and far more straightforward track than “Accelerate,” but with the same sense that its star is exhausted. It doesn’t help that Cardi, a supernova of energy if not quite chops, is also on here for contrast; thank goodness that Xtina track didn’t have a feature by, I don’t know, Charli XCX.
[5]

Stephen Eisermann: Both J. Lo and Cardi are immensely talented, have bucketloads of natural swagger, and operate in similar spaces musically. Here, J. Lo begins with her best Beyoncé imitation before finding her own voice in the second verse. It’s interesting to hear her so convincingly deliver rap-singing considering her recent output, but it really shouldn’t be that surprising considering her versatility. Then Cardi comes in and delivers a playful verse full of well-earned arrogance. These ladies are running, or have run, the music scene and now are winking at each other in song, and I’m here for it.
[8]

Will Adams: The optics of “Dinero” — a song in which a Latin sample is flipped into an aggressive trap beat and also Cardi B is involved — being released not long after “I Like It” aren’t great, nor is DJ Khaled’s unnecessary addition. But J. Lo is having fun, Cardi’s verse is one of her stronger features of late, and merengue-trap fusion is a sound I’m happy to be a US radio trend for the summer months.
[7]

Julian Axelrod: J. Lo and Cardi are a no-brainer pairing, and their willingness to fully commit to this frothy frivolity elevates the material. But that makes DJ Khaled feel even more superfluous than usual. Like a creepy dude trying to get women to make out at a club, he ends up ruining everyone’s good time.
[6]