The Singles Jukebox

Brooklyn… Deens… Expressway…?

[Video]
[5.38]

Mark Sinker: The focused hum of the beat works for it and yes she goes right bluntly there — even when “there” is a meme three years past its sell-by. In context in itself slowthai’s squeaky-horny guest-rap is a p funny bit, but the way it puts ironic art-marks round everything is also kind of a mood killer.
[7]

Tim de Reuse: Convincingly classless, a surprisingly tense beat, a sense that she’s delivering the line “I need a big dick boy” with a self-aware smile. Maybe it runs out of ideas. But it’s good. Except for — ugh, how do I put this? Look — I appreciate a big dick, okay? But if I came across one as humorless and self-obsessed as slowthai is here, I’d put my clothes back on and go home.
[6]

Claire Biddles: Surely it’s not too late to stop slowthai.
[3]

Thomas Inskeep: This filthy collab makes “WAP” sound like “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You,” but, unfortunately, it doesn’t have any of the spark that “WAP” does. Or art. Matters aren’t helped by slowthai’s verse, which is just kinda vulgar, nor by Shygirl’s would-be Azealia Banks routine. I’ve got no problem with filth, but do something with it; give me a payoff.
[2]

Andrew Karpan: The most curiously erotic feeling on any of Shygirl’s industrial anthems of desire is a kind of knowing, dissatisfied fatigue. “Ain’t nobody slanging it right,” is a vibe — tense, frustrated, recognizable and perhaps existential. It’s a bratty energy that I think an awards show villain like slowthai can handsomely approximate, but is nonetheless too clever to inhabit quite as well.
[6]

Nortey Dowuona: Shygirl has a pretty smooth, sea-glass flow with a low snarl that runs so close to the bouncing bass and percussion-crashed snares she glides along underneath without troubling, but Thai tangles up the bass, his nasally voice ripping through the percussion, rattling and shrieking, sounding horny as all hell. When Shygirl smooths it back down, it’s a bummer.
[7]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: Erotic but not sexy, grotesque but not gross, shrill but not chilly, “BDE” writhes, hangs, and slangs with the megalomania of a graphic fantasy contorting itself to life. Its garishness is positively delicious. 
[9]

Alfred Soto: The metallic echo and bass hum are filthier than the smut proffered archly by all involved. I mean, I guess it’s possible to place scare quotes around sex raps. 
[3]