The Singles Jukebox

How you respond depends on your weakness for slant rhymes.

[Video][Website]
[7.29]Katie Gill: It’s really such a pity that this otherwise good song (and a killer bridge) starts with the horrible rhyme “Ferrari/salary.” Some slant rhymes I can tolerate, but others downright push it.
[6]

Cassy Gress: Yemi Alade’s voice has the golden timbre of someone who knows exactly what her comfortable range is and is not going to push it too far to one end or the other, and it’s not adventurous but it’s soothing. That bridge (“My front eh, my back eh, dey do you ishi ngbaka”) is stupendous, with the sudden explosion of brass and drums and triplets.
[7]

Leonel Manzanares de la Rosa: Yemi’s voice is one of the biggest, most commanding in Nigerian Pop, and this number about encouraging your man to dream bigger (or pure gold-digging, whatever your position may be) finds her at the peak of her confidence. The beat is its own kind of monster, but it only comes to life with Yemi’s flow. Those rhythmic vocal patterns create a beautiful dialogue with the guitar figures, and when that stomping, stringed pre-chorus arrives, it’s all triumph. I can bounce to this any day, and i’m an expert at avoiding any possibility of dancing.
[8]

Tim de Reuse: How many songs can you get stuck in your head by tapping them out on a desk? I mean, don’t get me wrong, catchy melodies are the bedrock of western civilization and everything, but a catchy beat is something so much harder to get just right, isn’t it? The crisp syncopation on “Ferrari’s” chorus is so perfect that it would be as engaging a listen if transcribed for performance on a snare drum in an empty room. I’m barely exaggerating! Every little push and pull of Alade’s performance is a genuine treat, like the way the insistent one-two-three-four rolls of the pre-chorus dissolve into the song’s refrain mid-measure. The rest of the song is pulled off with the same kind of effortless confidence, including the track’s main lyrical draw: the delicious stretched rhyming of “Ferrari” and “Salary.” Her attitude is almost as infectious as her sense of rhythm. I’ve been tapping this on my desk for a while and I’m pretty sure my co-workers are ready to break my fingers.
[9]

Alfred Soto: Over one of the simplest and among the most perfect syncopation I’ve heard this year, this Nigerian singer is so insouciant about her crush that she’ll out-sparkle the high life guitars, so whatever that she’ll rhyme “Ferrari” and “salary.”
[8]

Will Adams: It’s got the same giddy materialism as Wynter Gordon’s “Buy My Love,” so it’s hard not to love. The sudden pre-choruses, halting all progress for a triple meter breakdown, are less enjoyable, sapping a chunk of the otherwise affable momentum.
[6]

Anthony Easton: Charming, upbeat, and catchy, mostly for its honesty about mercenary qualities — it’s a Nigerian reworking of Pet Shop Boys’ “Rent.” Also, her voice continues to delight.
[7]