The 2024 Remix Report Card Vol. 4
Monday, November 18, 2024
"Aquamarine / Arcamarine" by Addison Rae featuring Arca
In three years, Addison Rae went from being a deeply uncool TikTok influencer who got famous doing arm dances and was widely mocked for her Benny Blanco-produced debut single to being a hip ascendant major label pop star who people like Arca and Charli XCX want to work with. A weird and unexpected turn of events, but good for her, I guess. "Diet Pepsi" is her biggest hit so far, and "Aquamarine" is her follow-up single, with Arca on the entertainingly retitled remix. I don't really like remix, though, it's like they took a middling house song and made it into a worse reggaeton song.
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: C-
"Baby I'm Back (Remix)" by The Kid Laroi featuring Gunna
Player's "Baby Come Back" was one of the biggest songs by a White band on the R&B charts in the '70s. Australia's The Kid Laroi is kind of one of the biggest White rappers on the charts today, but he's really more a singer than a rapper, and only really gets played on pop radio. Laroi's latest single samples "Baby Come Back" and it's not bad, but it's definitely better with the Gunna verse added.
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B
"Critical (Remix)" by RXKNephew featuring Sada Baby, Tony Shhnow, Rx Papi, and Quadie Diesel
Everyone on this remix is some variety of regional rap star that a lot of other music critics like a lot more than I do. I lived in Delaware for 10 years when I was younger, so I feel like rooting for Quadie Diesel, though, cool to see a rapper from Wilmington doing things. It's funny that the "Critical" remix with four guest rappers is shorter than RXKNephew's original solo track. I really don't enjoy his rap style, just gracelessly stammering out a chaotic string of vaguely edgy punchlines, listening to RXKNephew feels a lot like listening to Uncle Murda (no pun intended).
Best Verse: Quadie Diesel
Overall Grade: D
"DJ Play A Christmas Song (Remix)" by Cher featuring Kelly Clarkson
"DJ Play A Christmas Song" made chart history last year when it topped Billboard's Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales chart, making her the first artist to ever have #1 songs in seven different decades. It's not a very good song, though. Kelly Clarkson makes everything better, this song included, it's just a completely different track with all her runs and harmonies, if still not a great one.
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B
"Fuel (Shady Edition)" by Eminem featuring Westside Boogie and Grip
The original "Fuel" features a verse by JID, and the remix features two artists from Eminem's label. One of them, Grip, is a rappity rap Atlanta guy, much like JID, and his verse is pretty good, but Boogie really kicks off the track well, great verse.
Best Verse: Westside Boogie
Overall Grade: B+
"Mamushi (Remix)" by Megan Thee Stallion featuring Twice
It was a bit of a surprise when a song featuring Japanese rapper Yuki Chiba wound up being one of the biggest hits from Megan Thee Stallion's latest album, and the deluxe version of the album features a remix of the song with the Korean girl group Twice. Meg's new verse on the remix is great, in fact way better than her verse on the original "Mamushi," the Twice verse is pretty anticlimactic after that. And as always I have to give kudos whenever an artist puts a new verse on a remix of one of their own songs, it's so rare these days.
Best Verse: Megan Thee Stallion
Overall Grade: B
"M.N.E.I.G. (Remix)" by idontknowjeffery featuring GloRilla, NLE Choppa, Juicy J and Marcus.901
"M.N.E.I.G. (G-Mix)" by idontknowjeffery featuring Duke Deuce and Marcus.901
idontknowjeffery released "M.N.E.I.G." in 2023 with guest verses by Duke Deuce and Marcus.901. In September, an all-star remix with GloRilla, NLE Choppa and Juicy J and a great new beat hit streaming services, and then at some point in the last few weeks it was pulled off Spotify (you can still hear it on YouTube). Then in November, another version was put on streaming services that just has the song's original verses over the remix beat. I hope the first remix gets put back on streaming soon, I love hearing a Memphis anthem with several big names from the city on it. A lot of people take NLE Choppa as kind of a joke, but his verse on there is great.
Best Verse: GloRilla
Overall Grade: A-
"Mutt (Remix)" by Leon Thomas featuring Freddie Gibbs
Leon Thomas III was in the cast of Nickelodeon's "Victorious" alongside Ariana Grande and got a foot in the door in the music industry working on Grande's first album. Since then he's worked on hits by huge artists like SZA and Drake, and has been getting a lot of enthusiastic buzz for his second solo album on Motown, Mutt. I think it's an alright album, the title track and lead single is pleasant, but I've never really seen what people see in Freddie Gibbs and don't think he adds much of value to the song.
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: C
"People's Favorite (Remix)" by Chicken P featuring 42 Dugg
I feel like I should be up on more Milwaukee rap because my brother and mom live there and I occasionally go out there for visits, it's a nice town. Anyway, Chicken P's from Milwaukee and I really like "People's Favorite." 42 Dugg feels like an appropriate guest because this song kinda reminds me of his hit "Maybach."
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B+
"South of France (Remix)" by Future featuring Travis Scott
Future has never done a lot of super short songs like many other Atlanta trap guys, but Mixtape Pluto had a few songs under 2 minutes, including the 108-second "South of France," and those songs sounded almost incomplete by his standards. A "South of France" remix with Travis Scott was released 6 weeks after the album, which makes me wonder if that song was always supposed to be a collaboration and Travis just missed the album deadline. In any event, Future and Travis have a lot of songs together and I've found very few of them to be particularly good or memorable, but I like this one.
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B
"Sympathy Is A Knife (Remix)" by Charli XCX featuring Ariana Grande
Back when Brat was released, people very quickly figured out that "Girl, So Confusing" was about Lorde and "Sympathy Is A Knife" was about Taylor Swift. Charli and Lorde worked it out on the "Girl" remix, which naturally made me wonder if it was possible that Taylor would come down from the mountaintop and do a remix with Charli. That didn't happen, but "Sympathy" did get the biggest guest on the Brat remix album so it still felt like an event. Charli and Ariana say "it's a knife" on here so many times that I kind of wish they had 21 Savage on here too.
Best Verse: Ariana Grande
Overall Grade: B+
"Team Tomodachi (Bun B IITIGHT Remix)" by Yuki Chiba featuring Bun B
"Team Tomodachi (Duke Deuce Remix)" by Yuki Chiba featuring Duke Deuce
"Team Tomodachi (Will Smith Remix)" by Yuki Chiba featuring Will Smith
Yuki Chiba, the Japanese rapper featured on Megan Thee Stallion's "Mamushi," evidently wants to expand on his newfound fame in America, and his latest single has three different remixes with U.S. rappers. Will Smith has had a few of these "wow, Will Smith still raps and he doesn't sound bad" viral moments the last few years, but this one feels pretty minor even by that standard. But Bun B, one of the greatest guest verse gunslingers of all time, has not appeared in this column since 2013, and it's so nice to hear him kill a remix again. Duke Deuce's verse is really funny too, he should get invited to do remixes more often.
Best Verse: Bun B
Overall Grade: B-
"10PM In Miami (Remix)" by Trillian featuring Cash Cobain and R2R Moe
You would never guess from Trillian's music, which is kind of riding the 'sexy drill' wave, that he's the son of Busta Rhymes (which kind of makes me wonder if Busta is a Hitchhiker's Guide To The Universe fan). The original song really sucks, the remix is a slight improvement.
Best Verse: Cash Cobain
Overall Grade: C+
Overall Grade: C+
