Second: a funky song that most of us grooved to.

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[6.38]Adaora Ede: Looks like we’ve got a snake charmer here. It’s a funk bassline that nearly tricks us into basking into the sublimity of crying “WHAT’S THE YAMS???”. Paak’s deliberate black disco influence reaches past the stalwart that has infiltrated the mainstream in Bruno Mars’s Bimonthly Corniness–for one, Paak serves some vocal histronics–but the punk sway tails his discernible apathy. It sounds like he’s sorta pissed, but after a while, it’s clear that the only thing that is going to save us from an enervated chorus is TI’s feature. I am highly in favor of TI’s radicalization of a weed metaphor, but at what cost? TI injects a dose of old-head wisdom with a babysat flow that seems more suited to an mellow urban hit, that even your parents can nod along to in the car, than that of his tacked on political commentary. It’s all very, very enchanting and very, very equivocal. Follow the bass for a good time.
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Will Rivitz: Malibu was bar none my favorite album of 2016, and this is one of the standout tracks. It only truly comes into its own live–.Paak is most vibrant when he’s grooving hard, and this one definitely fits the bill–but it sounds pristine on a recording too. The little stutter-steps the bass does, the delivery of “let me take these bitches off, let me get the full scope” (n.b. in reference to “Gucci frames”), everything has these neat flourishes about them that demonstrates .Paak’s performance bona fides expertly. I welcome .Paak’s inevitable takeover of the hip-hop world, and we’ll be all the better for it when everyone’s listening.
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Alfred Soto: I almost forgot Malibu last month when completing a best-of list. Intelligent and goofball in equal measure, it often stumbles into grooves instead of creating them. “Come Down” was always a highlight, a chance for Anderson .Paak to flaunt his undeniable stage charisma (as I saw at Pitchfork Festival last July). But this good drummer still has a groove problem.
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Katie Gill: Malibu has been on plenty of Best of 2016 lists and it deserves every nod it’s gotten. Despite 2016’s overall musical turn towards gloom, malaise, and glumness, Anderson .Paak makes an album that’s bright, hopeful, and actually happy. “Come Down” extends Malibu‘s brightness with an infectious slightly dance, slightly funk piece that leaves you nodding your head and chanting along by the end of the song. “Don’t I make it look good,” he effortlessly raps, and we believe him 100%.
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Anthony Easton: The excess of this–excess of highs, of drugs, of politics, of desire functioning as a critique of excess–is an ongoing strategy of hip-hop this year: hip hop that doesn’t want to give up its wokeness, its cocaine, or its love of Gucci. Since I love two of those three things, I can’t disagree.
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Micha Cavaseno: Kendrick over the square root of Mark Ronson reduced to Jurassic 5, factored at a rate of The Roots opening for Dave Matthews Band for two years. Multiply that by trench-weed and white people dreadlocks, figure in the percentage chance Bela Fleck is in the vicinity, and remember to weigh that against Chance The Rapper’s stupid cartoon noises. The result is “Come Down”.
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Thomas Inskeep: I’ve liked .Paak more the more I’ve heard him, and the reason is increasingly simple, I think: he’s the distaff Missy Elliott. He can rap and sing with equal aplomb, and his band the Free Nationals come from (or more accurately, sound like) the same LA scene as the folks who play with guys like Kendrick Lamar. This flexible, bendable gutbucket soul is for 2017 and beyond. If Sly Stone were young and thriving these days, I suspect he’d sound like this.
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Megan Harrington: In perfume there’s a musk note. If you’re unfamiliar or a novice you might think this note is earthy, even a bit sweaty. After all, musk is also a euphemism for body odor. Often, however, the musk is “scrubbed” — it smells clean, like soap. “Come Down” is that scrubbed musk note in funk.
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