The Singles Jukebox

goddamn goddamn

[Video]
[7.00]

Alfred Soto: Cheerfully insistent about its chowderheadness, “wokeuplikethis*” is the Playboi Carti ethos at its simplest. The title hook’s wish fulfillment gains charm every time it comes around.
[8]

Crystal Leww: Playboi Carti and Lil Uzi Vert each made one of the five or so songs that I heard New York City go off to my first summer here. Was it inevitable that this was going to be a banger? Probably, but ‘wokeuplikethis*’ is so playful, so fun, so full of life and personality that even a fan like me wouldn’t have guessed it.
[9]

Ryo Miyauchi: Words don’t retain much of their substance in “wokeuplikethis*.” Carti’s instead all energy that obscures words into blurred shapes, like what the world looks like out the window of a speeding bullet train: there’s something impressionistic about his singles. The frequency at which his hook appears might make it a chorus, but such distinction isn’t too reliable as the refrain also quickly melts into the scene at large. What’s most telling of how elusive Carti can be is this: the only remotely vivid line here is one that’s really not his, one Uzi Vert also later clarifies its origins, and that Dem Franchise Boyz nod by Uzi alone tells so much more about him than whatever Carti told in his minute and a half.
[7]

Julian Baldsing: There’s something strangely inspiring about Playboi Carti chucking out a four minute song that mostly comprises of him lackadaisically repeating the same assertion again and again. I’m choosing to understand “wokeuplikethis*” as Carti being so unthreatened by his copiers that the only energy he’s willing to expend on them is a clapback that sounds like the audio equivalent of him rolling his eyes and buzzing for security. Uzi’s guest verse adds a bit more merit to this interpretation (“No I cannot see a lame/’cause my Rolls Royce got curtains”) — which is great because I love being right, but also because for the most part, it’s this attitude that makes the song. Hashtag-goals, as the saying goes.
[7]

Nortey Dowuona: Average bass kicks. Average rattling hi-hats. Flat palm claps. Flat whistling synths. Average raps by Carti. Bleh raps by Uzi. Shrug rap.
[3]

Micha Cavaseno: The voice as irritant. The synth as irritant. The rapper as irritant. The drone as irritant. The Leo as irritant (YEAHYEAHYEAHYEAH!). Capitalism as irritant. Violence as irritant. Pride as irritant. Masculinity as irritant. Motion as irritant. Memetic as irritant. Co-opting as irritant. Young Scooter_-_annoying_(ft._future_&_waka_flocka_flame).m4a as framework, even if “Mr. Me Too” is the thesis. It’s great.
[8]