The Singles Jukebox

This is our song against ham-fisted message songs.

[Video][Website]
[3.50]

Edward Okulicz: No doubt Snoop’s love of reggae is real, but listening to this I could be convinced he just spent a large part of the 2000s stoned listening to “Clint Eastwood.” Drake’s verse is fine, but makes you wonder what a guest rapper like Snoop Dogg could do in his place.
[3]

Alfred Soto: “Police and Thieves” reconfigured as Nickelodeon afternoon anthem, it’s not charmless and it’s even disorienting, like that first scene of “The Wire”‘s Stringer Bell taking a community college accounting class. 
[4]

Patrick St. Michel: I do not expect anyone to hear “No Guns Allowed” and suddenly switch sides when it comes to the American gun-control debate. This is the sort of “political” song that, at best, has good intentions in mind but adds nothing to the conversation or, at worst, is exploiting issues. I’m gonna give Snoop the benefit of the doubt and assume his heart is in the right place…but “No Guns Allowed” amounts to watching the news with Snoop and his entire commentary being “man, what the fuck?” Which, hey, I could have come to that conclusion too, but without a Beirut sample. All the points here come from Drake’s verse, which frames the issue in a personal way that’s actually affecting. 
[3]

Crystal Leww: This is a good effort, but the whole thing comes off sounding clumsy. Snoop was always a better rapper than a singer. If Snoop insists on bringing on his daughter to sing the hook, he should actually let her sing the hook as opposed to poorly harmonizing over her in the background. Don’t be that dad, dude. The whole thing sounds like even more of a mess when you bring in Drake to do a little rap about gun violence in Toronto. Who is this song trying to appeal to? Who is the intended audience? If this is a timely appeal to Congress and Americans on behalf of gun control activists, then why have the most compelling part of the song be about Canada?
[3]

Jonathan Bogart: Laudable intentions almost always make for godawful pop. Add to that Snoop’s still hard-to-take rastafication and Drake’s total inability to project sincerity or empathy, and you have a monument of self-absorption masquerading as charity work.
[3]

Brad Shoup: You can’t buy stank — hell, you probably can. The Clint Eastwood riddim is more Jamie xx than Jamaica, but it’s not like Drake was gonna start toasting. The switch to reggae was a shrewd move for a man spoiling for a vocal challenge; he loses here. Too focused on the pronouncements, he can’t make them stick. I dunno if I’m hearing several Coris on the chorus, but her pitch freaks me out: I can’t imagine kids’d be allowed at the show either.
[4]

Anthony Easton: He is taking this reggae conversion seriously, and it’s smart work and quite inspirational. It’s kind of interesting to note that this complicates and adds to his legacy, and it doesn’t seem like a weakness or a cheap domestication (see Ice Cube doing family comedies).
[7]

David Lee: Is this the rap game version of “going country?”
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