Oh shit. Here’s the weirdest song of the year: “Swagger Like Us” by T.I., featuring Kanye West, Jay-Z, AND Lil Wayne. Sounds exciting with the four biggest rappers on the planet on one joint, only it’s terrible. The hook (and basically the whole song) is a sample from M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” where she says “no one on the corner has a swagger like us.” So yeah, it’s a UK hipster ironically jacking real rappers, sampled by real rappers. And no, it ain’t a hoax perpetrated by some blogger-DJ, it’s legit. It doesn’t work at all, and the verses aren’t even hot. Kanye turns on the auto-tune but doesn’t sound awesome like he did on “Put On” and Hov and Weez sound like they just recorded over their iphone after getting the paypal confirmation. Only Tip really goes hard, but by the time he comes in, you just want the song to be over.
I could see this being a Kanye song, or maybe Hov or Wayne trying to be daring, but I really can’t wrap my head around T.I. getting behind this. The man has the best taste of any rapper, he never drops anything questionable, and even his joints for the ladies are perfectly respectable. This is like getting your college friends together with your high school buddies, or eating cole slaw and pancakes — you just can’t believe it’s happening. I hope this doesn’t end up on Paper Trail.
TAGS: Jay Z, Lil Wayne, M.I.A., Paper Planes, Paper Trail, Swagger Like Us, T.I., Young Jeezy
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August 29th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
i think it’s about time US hip hop takes notice of some of the good shit coming out of the UK, particularly East London. Kano is the shit.