The problem with gifting a young rapper with a guest verse is the possibility that you might be shown up on your own song.

The diamonds in his grill still sparkle in his impish grin, and his eyes remain inscrutable behind tinted shades. But if his tired performance with Chance on “You Song” is any indication, Wayne, a weary rock star at 30, has lost a step.

Chance delivers on this call-up, weaving deftly through the smoke and mirrors of a funhouse Peter Cottontale production, wheeling verses breathlessly, each more clever than the last:

You feel like Kool-Aid in a wine glass
Witchyo’ fine ass
You fine as two grapes getting stomped out by a giant cask
You the best dressed with ya breasts showin’
Like a salad no dress-on
Take ya to ya favorite restaurant

Wayne is as naughty as ever (“Thinking ’bout your ass and how it look like a big smile”), but Tunechi abandons any cohesion for long stretches of his verse, insipid and disjointed next to Chance’s color and wordplay.

She told me that if she ain’t the one, she gon’ throw up the deuce
I laughed at her, we took a bath together and splashed each other

When he skips a beat towards the end of the song (“You remind me of… my memory ain’t what it used to be”), it sounds like an admission of his own mortality — lyrical and otherwise — more than any sweet nothing. 

About The Author

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Raised on the sounds of Smash Mouth, Bob Marley, and Fat Joe, Ben Siegel now subsides on a musical diet of hip-hop, R&B, and Bon Iver and a regular diet of pizza and coffee. He is best known for quitting the trumpet in sixth grade, as well as for his critically acclaimed series of junior-varsity high school basketball warm-up mixtapes.