Cut Through the Noise: Rae Sremmurd, Juicy J, DJ Khaled, Jay Z, Beyoncé, Logic and Marshmello (Week of March 9)

Illustration+by+Isaac+Wert

Illustration by Isaac Wert

Welcome to “Cut Through the Noise,” an Entertainment column from the St. Louis Park Echo covering new music releases. Every week, a different Echo staffer takes on the role as writer, reviewing recent single releases from a variety of artists.

 

“Powerglide” by Rae Sremmurd (featuring Juicy J): ★★★★☆

Fair use from Interscope

Powerglide” is just what the title suggests: fast, from start to finish. Producer Mike Will Made It provides a quick background that is sure to raise the heart rate of fans at least a few beats, and inserts car noises to make the song significantly more exciting. Rae Sremmurd and Juicy J take full advantage of the instrumentals, speeding up their verses accordingly. I found this song really fun to listen to, even after my second and third time of hitting replay.

However if there is one mistake you can make with this track, it is actually paying attention to the lyrics. Swae Lee and company spew a range of fairly disturbing descriptions of sexual encounters that I think do more harm than good in terms of the overall quality of the song. As a whole, though, I appreciate the musical talent that went into the creation of the track and will continue to queue it up as background music.

 

“Top Off” by DJ Khaled (featuring Jay Z and Beyoncé): ★★★☆☆

Fair use from We The Best Music Records

DJ Khaled enlists the help of Jay Z and Beyoncé to help him brag about the Mercedes Maybachs he has in his garage on his new song, “Top Off.” In typical mainstream hip-hop fashion, most of the song is about flaunting wealth, offering little lyrical substance to fans. However, what this song lacks in real meaning it makes up for in star power. With Beyoncé, Jay Z, and Future on the same track, there is essentially no way this song could not be relatively fun to listen to.

Most of the song is just Future on the hook singing “I took the top off the Maybach” too many times to count with Beyoncé on background vocals and Jay Z on a few pretty mindless verses about driving his Maybach. The beat is really nothing special, but with this star power combined with DJ Khaled, you can be sure you will be hearing this track on the radio for some time to come.

 

“Everyday” by Logic and Marshmello: ★★★☆☆

Fair use from Def Jam Records

On “Everyday,” Logic teams up with producer Marshmello, known for his electronic beats and mascot-like appearance. The result is something much more sing-songy than Logic fans are accustomed to. There are no gory descriptions of childhood trauma, as we saw in “Under Pressure,” nor are there mind-bogglingly fast verses like in Fade Away. This is the new, seemingly more commercial Logic that fans have previously seen on his smash hit, 1-800-273-8255.

The beat accompanying Logic’s rap seems to be an over processed version of his traditional, percussion-heavy, evidence of the marriage of Logic’s style with Marshmello’s EDM sound. Most of the song is just the chorus, repeated variations of the phrase “I work hard every day” over and over; but as much as I can criticize the hook, the one thing I can’t seem to do is stop singing it.