We return! And where else to start but the undisputed No. 1 song in America (only slightly pejorative)?
[4.89]
Total writers: 18
Highest score: [7]
Lowest score: [1]
Controversy index: 1.76
[4.89]
Total writers: 18Highest score: [7]
Lowest score: [1]
Controversy index: 1.76
Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Last time we checked in, we referred to Jackman Harlow and his raps as "mediocre", "out of ideas", "perfunctory", "lazily gentrifying Babyface Ray", "very boring", "very gross", "smart", and "mumbled noncommittal twaddle." All these things are still absolutely true with regard to his work on "Lovin on Me", and yet something about the song still compels me. It's not just that gorgeous sample – it's something about Harlow himself, how his pathetic charisma feeds so goofily into the beat. His whole career has been positioned as a crux between the suave pop star and man-of-the-people rapper battling in his mind, but "Lovin on Me" succeeds because it rejects that dichotomy. Instead, Harlow simply fills a pop ecosystem niche long vacant: Flo Rida.
[6]
Andrew Karpan: Impressively unpleasant, Harlow’s commitment to impersonating the most unbearable person you know accomplishes rare, unforeseen heights in this curious flip of an entirely forgotten Detroit R&B record dug up from the forgotten embers of 1995. Unlike Cadillac Dale, whose voice carries with it the broken, soulful signification of failure and frustration, Harlow’s career is one of perseverance, a kind of diligent technical precision taking the place of either form or substance. His rapping on “Lovin on Me” is almost good in the kind of tightly-rehearsed/‘90s kind of way that the format demands, even if none of it means anything. The fact that he’s landed three number one hits doing this and, say, J. Cole has netted zero surely says something.
[5]
Taylor Alatorre: Even for someone like me who still regards "selling out" as a relevant concept, it's quietly invigorating to see such a one-to-one match between will and outcome in the music industry. Jack Harlow wanted to release a two-minute loosie that rocketed to #1 off the strength of its TikTok appeal, so he did. He wanted to loosely channel the hip hop histories of Detroit, Oakland, and Toronto in the same song, so he did. He felt like resurrecting hashtag rap for the sake of a left-field Shrek reference, so he did. Nothing succeeds like success, and "Lovin on Me" is so self-assured in its superfluousness that it wraps back around to feeling essential somehow. The part where he apologizes to his po-faced male audience for the impending ubiquity of this female-oriented club hit is, I'm sorry to say, Babe Ruth-coded, and it's the kind of playful self-awareness that's disarming if done with a light touch. You know what, I will cut you some slack today, young Jack. Just this once.
[7]
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