Every once in a while, you have to trust that the "shuffle" button will do you a solid and generate an at-least-not-totally-terrible playlist. This morning, after skipping through maybe every song ever recorded by Yeah Yeah Yeahs, some odd magic began coming through on my iPod. First, it was Dru Hill's "How Deep Is Your Love," a song I spent a lot of the colder months of 2012 listening to after a really good car sing-a-long during a Labor Day road trip. Then "Everything On Me," a horns-in-hyperspeed track from T.I.'s oft-maligned comeback album No Mercy. ("This is what I'll write about!" I thought, crammed on the F train.) And then shuffle threw another curveball: Rick Ross' almost-saccharine 2008 single "Here I Am."
Ross has never really been a Casanova. We know he loves his bitches, but the tales he weaves are usually of cocaine riches and lobster dishes. But before the "U.O.E.N.O." lyrics fracas, there was this collaboration with Nelly. The song is about fully dedicating yourself to a woman. You want to pay for college and mediate her issues with her mom. What could be any less Rozayan?
But it works. One of the things that makes it stick to your ears is Drumma Boy's production, which takes the languid piano line of Steve Wonder's "Lately" and flips it into a bassline. Sure, there are still tough guy elements ("fuck chauffeurs/I went and bought more killers") and slightly dubious takes on monogamy ("still blow weed together/cheated on her/but we still gon' be together"), but it is his most euphorically pop effort. And when your current feelings of The State Of Rick Ross are bummed out and disappointed, it's nice to remember that he has little off-brand gems like these in his catalogue.
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