Asake and Travis Scott – Active
[Video]
[6.62]
Julian Axelrod: Asake’s made his financial status clear when he named his debut Mr Money with the Vibe (still one of the decade’s best album titles) but “Active” sounds like a young man obtaining an ungodly amount of money and trying to spend it all in one song. The video features a private jet, a marching band and a fleet of horses. The beat interpolates Nigerian rap, New Orleans bounce and threatens to veer into Jock Jams territory. Even the Travis Scott verse feels like a tax write-off proposed by the label’s accountant. The whole thing is so hyper-active (sorry) that it should fold in on itself, but every time Asake pops up on his own track (which isn’t often enough) you can hear the joy in his voice, like he can’t believe the heights he’s reached and isn’t sure he’ll get to stay there. He sounds like a kid in a candy store, but there are less deserving kids and worse candy stores.
[6]
Ian Mathers: Asake is such a winning presence, and that “oh man, I’m active” hook so fun, that it feels like a waste of our limited time when Travis Scott shows up. He’s not bad, just beside the point (or, you know, minus one).
[7]
Alfred Soto: A collaboration that makes sense, “Active” reanimates Travis Scott; he’s an amiable, game presence despite stating he wants his dick sucked like he’s the first one to come up with the order. But Asake’s the star, singing over the quiet wet beats in search of intimacy.
[7]
Taylor Alatorre: I really wish this had fulfilled its initial promise of transplanting the ’90s Jock Jams ethos into 2024 Lagos — it’s even got the title for it! As a demonstration of the breadth and elasticity of the artist’s “fuji vibe,” though, it does what it sets out to do, forcing its American influences, including the N.O. bounce-style vocal chop, to play by Asake’s rules. The choice to bleep out Travis Scott on the wrong words is the kind of dumb joke that works, whose humor stems mostly from the fact that they actually decided to go through with it.
[7]
Jonathan Bradley: Wedging jock jam chords into Afrobeats turns out to be an exercise more interesting than exciting, which is the exact opposite of what jock jams are supposed to be. Wedging Travis Scott into Afrobeats turns out to be exactly as dull as wedging Travis Scott into anything else he’s ever been wedged into. Forget interesting or exciting; I don’t think the man has rapped a quotable bar in his life.
[4]
Katherine St. Asaph: Was Travis Scott necessary? (Evergreen blurb.)
[5]
Nortey Dowuona: Asake got a good verse out of Travis Scott. He is HIM.
[10]
Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Asake’s first two albums were thrilling — two concise journeys through the pop internationale, using the vernacular of contemporary afropop to venture into far stranger territory. “Active” instead dives fully into what musicologists refer to as the jock jam zone; part of me wants to be mad at how crass this is, but an even larger and more powerful part of me thinks this would sound so sick as the backing track for an Anthony Edwards highlight reel.
[7]
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