Wednesday, March 24th, 2010

Yo Gotti ft. Lil Wayne – Women Lie, Men Lie

Should really be an animated gif of Gotti refusing that water, cos he does that an awful lot in this video…



[Video][Website]
[5.25]

Al Shipley: Even though Yo Gotti’s been kicking around for a decade, his ascent as a mainstream radio presence is pretty recent, and seems like more of a byproduct of him having the right friends, like Wayne, than any particular hitmaking savvy. The first time I heard this song I thought the hook was saying “lemon lime” over and over, and now I know it doesn’t but it’s still annoying. Gotti’s gruff and bland here, and Wayne’s verse is 30% smugly chuckling at himself, 0% him saying anything funny.
[2]

Rodney J. Greene: This is one of those tracks that is only really saved by the fact that Lil Wayne is a joy to listen to, even when he doesn’t have squat to say. Hell, the frequently unimpressive Yo Gotti outraps him, but that doesn’t make him as entertaining.
[6]

John Seroff: “Women Lie” owes its title to a much pronounced Jay-Z aphorism, and the beat overlaps nicely with “On To the Next One”, but this sounds nicer than any of Jay’s recent Blueprint singles. The production is great, even if the rapping is not; I’m curious to hear more from Young and Cayson.
[7]

Michaelangelo Matos: The mimetic title hook comes across less like “A Milli” redux than “ella-ella” to my ear, but either way the hook holds up rather well, just like the track, which is triumphalist in a way I find appealing. Wait, there are words?
[6]

Martin Skidmore: If the title makes you think this will be some sort of evenhanded number, let me disabuse you of that notion. Lines like “I fucked her pussy good, make her cry if I tried” make sex into hate. I guess I tolerate misogyny in rap too easily most of the time, but now and then something, like the title here, makes me listen for the sexual politics, and then I get turned off. I never cared for Yo Gotti anyway – his hoarse voice doesn’t quite catch me, and his flow seems entirely dull, kind of weakly mechanical. The heavily processed vocal riff on this is also very unappealing.
[3]

Matt Cibula: At first I was annoyed by the chipmunk hook. Then I dealt with it, and even started to groove on the Zen repetition aspect of it all. Sadly, I couldn’t get over the utter vapidity of the rest of the song.
[4]

Frank Kogan: The blips and the funny-tongued hook are the whole song, and they’re fine. The rapping’s a wash, Gotti dull and Wayne even more wandering and off-hand than usual and pulling it off. But the hook’s the thing.
[8]

David Moore: Evocative title and hook here, a sleek chrome “A Milli” variation with what I’m hearing as espionage undertones (I see it as an old B-movie trailer: “…Women Lie! …Men Lie! But Who Can You TRUST?”). But the rappers both fall completely flat, ignoring a premise with tons of potential for invention to deliver some tired crap about how money doesn’t lie. But lying is more interesting! The motivations, the schemes, the heartbreak, the intrigue! Work with that! Lil’ Wayne has gotten more lyrical fodder out of a Funyun.
[6]

5 Responses to “Yo Gotti ft. Lil Wayne – Women Lie, Men Lie”

  1. Such low scores! I totally see the sleek chrominess and the espionage undertones, and yeah, the latter isn’t followed through, but the song really grabs me when Gotti goes, “I’m tryin to count to a BILLion, my bitch BraZILian.” At that moment I think he brings in a certain mystery and exoticism to the usual money-chase-rap, a sleek chrome-plated kind of wealth as opposed to the typical “I make a lot of money, then I do hideous things to my expensive car” shit. I don’t see what Wayne’s humor and good cheer is doing here at all, though there’s some insight in “men lie about women/and women lie about plenty,” but otherwise a very successful song, an 8 to me. And let me add, one of, like, two songs on popular rap radio that involves real rapping, as opposed to autotune or the sort of hum-along-with-the-beat stuff you hear on ‘Bedrock.’

  2. Ok the beginning of the video has this static/hum tone + quick reverse sound effect thing that is very familiar to me. Is it from a video game? Bumper sound effects from a TV show? It’s on the tip of my brain. IT IS DRIVING ME NUTS.

    Song’s ok.

  3. “The blips and the funny-tongued hook are the whole song, and they’re fine” is exactly right. For such a simple and short loop the hook is really catchy.

  4. One good thing is that the Chorus here is far less anoying than the one on How Low.

  5. Definitely underrated the hook here, which ended up getting under my skin. Not sure if that’d be enough to lift it to a 7.