Bodak Yellow is:

It's a great song, not song of the year. Then again, I have no idea what other song could be song of the year. (As a parenthetical, I might vote for It Ain't Me for sentimental reasons). The force of the song is just undeniable. Who she is helps but it's also incredibly muscular and ruthless in its movement from A to B. But who she is is the point.

Just the sheer chutzpah of a Top 1 song talking about bank tellers asking who tf you are.

It feels like an outsider song and it feels like an explosion and her "rich" doesn't sound rich, it sounds like affording to live.

I wanna hear what other people have as their song of the year in this thread to be honest

I might spring for "Disco Tits" by Tove Lo, it didn't make any numbers but goddamn did it give those boys some fun on the dance floor

First time hearing and, holy hell, that was about the most boring thing I've heard in quite some time.

It's pretty much a textbook example of why I stopped listening to hiphop a decade and a half ago. And, considering that so little evolution -indeed, seemingly none at all- has taken place, I miss nothing.

Thanks for your input, Austin

Voted "Terrible Song" by the way.

My pick for my favorite song of the year would either be something off the King Krule or the Nick Hakim albums from this year.

lol

what are the attendant cultural issues?

― crüt, Monday, December 25, 2017 11:15 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

+1

― call all destroyer, Monday, December 25, 2017 8:18 PM (one hour ago)

i was having trouble grasping some of the issues others were bringing up but i'm starting to understand and am now trying to avoid defaulting to obtuse defensiveness whenever people criticize or otherwise bemoan the song. here are bits of some posts in another thread that got me thinking a bit more, not just about the song itself but about other developments in pop...:

They took a beloved celeb & had her do the 30th no flocking freestyle over Asap ferg “work” beat & gave it a million dollar rollout which is more than they’d invest in any female artist famous for u know creativity or style or innovation or anything beyond charisma & the masses of lames who get their rap marching orders from rap caviar decided it was the best female rap record ever made or something. Boring

...

She’s been hugely famous before she had a recording career. Was the obvious breakout star on love & hip hop & iirc appeared on fader before she’d even recorded a mixtape. She was a significant instagram celeb before reality tv. ... She got a million dollar deal at Atlantic when no other female rappers are getting deals at that level, because she was a proven star. ... it’s unquestionable that labels thought she was a better bet than literally any other rapper bc she was already a proven public personality
― Listen to my homeboy Fantano (D-40)

labels are even more into signing people with already existing celebrity these days even if it’s more “notoriety” than anything else. the whole “let the police reports act as the one sheets” wave, bhad bhabie, etc. i know i know pia zadora put out albums too but there’s something much more craven about this edition of it

― maura

I voted for Okay, and I meant #2 on ILX, but it was a joking ref to fkappy bird on another thread + my own baseless hunch that traxx wd come down to this & DNA

(Though I believe lex had it as his #2 single of the year)

A lot of criticisms in this thread feel really weird imo

fyi there are no attendant cultural issues u can just decide whether you like the song or not

i voted great and my feelings on it roughly align with map's even if i know deep down it's not ~really~ an outsider song or w/e

and yes part of its appeal is that "she" (aka she + the label machinery) managed a meteoric rise from a position that it's safe to say most don't particularly respect (stripper/'instathot')

Meh. Nice to see a female rapper hit #1, but I don't find the song particularly compelling and I'm not otherwise invested in her as a personality.

(I don't find it compelling as a piece of music, I should say.)

i am not really bothered by the perhaps-excessive attention this song has commanded in the recent year-end lists, but it does bug me that the majority of accompanying writeups, even from outlets that ordinarily pretend not to care about such things, make sure to mention its most distinctive chart feat, i.e. that it's the first solo female rapper #1 since 1998 when lauryn hill did it. (and i wonder if they would even bother mentioning it if someone less respected than lauryn had been the last.)

i'm a charts nut myself but really, when you wanna write about how great you supposedly think a song is, you should really write about the song!

Annoying

i only ever remember the first 2 lines of this song... i think it's pretty good but otherwise overrated. as far as new york hits the last several years i like it less than "hot n*gga," "ooouuu," "milly rock," a boogie "my shit" etc

c'mon 'bodak yellow' is better than 'my shit'

'ooouu' seems like a good comparison; loved it last year but couldn't remember how it sounded until i put it on just now, mayyy not recall bodak a year from now lol

As someone who doesn’t live in the US the only exposure I can get to Bodak Yellow must be self inflicted. I’ve listened to it 5 times since October and I don’t have the faintest clue why it’s so popular in the US. I still don’t remember a single thing about it nor am I inclined to listen to it another time.

A year from now you’ll all be joinining me as noone will remember this forgettable piece of trap.

lol @ 'self inflicted'

i don't really listen to this type of music, but i feel like it doesn't stand out from what little i've heard. and while i found it pretty catchy (and occasionally striking, like when she rapped about her vagina) it also seemed kind of flat. i would rather just listen to gangsta boo, trina, remy ma, etc etc etc instead. maybe i'm just old. actually i know i'm old, and that's the ultimate old person stance to take a new music. whatever, i voted ok song.

also flopson and call all destroyer otm i think.

i know the artists i named have different styles from cardi b (and each other) so i don't mean to draw too strong a comparison. just naming some artists that appeal to me more. it sounds like from what people are saying here she has this huge personality but it doesn't really come through for me in this song.

i am curious

She’s been hugely famous before she had a recording career. Was the obvious breakout star on love & hip hop & iirc appeared on fader before she’d even recorded a mixtape. She was a significant instagram celeb before reality tv. ... She got a million dollar deal at Atlantic when no other female rappers are getting deals at that level, because she was a proven star. ... it’s unquestionable that labels thought she was a better bet than literally any other rapper bc she was already a proven public personality
― Listen to my homeboy Fantano (D-40)

how does this work? is she like super-good at social media or something?

She was a pro stripper & Instagram girl who was hugely popular & conveyed tons of personality thru online video before getting picked up for love & hip hop, which propelled her even higher cuz she was such an obvious star & also kind of outspoken

This thing went viral, where she tells off Peter gunz (yes that Peter gunz)

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4023vn

fwiw I find her pretty likeable, the notion that she’s somehow the best female rapper out & should be deified as an artist ultimately sells short hip hop as an art form imo, in order to prop her up

She was a pro stripper & Instagram girl who was hugely popular & conveyed tons of personality thru online video before getting picked up for love & hip hop, which propelled her even higher cuz she was such an obvious star & also kind of outspoken

This thing went viral, where she tells off Peter gunz (yes that Peter gunz)

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4023vn

fwiw I find her pretty likeable, the notion that she’s somehow the best female rapper out & should be deified as an artist ultimately sells short hip hop as an art form imo, in order to prop her up

Damn double post

haha lol he got roasted

As someone who doesn’t live in the US the only exposure I can get to Bodak Yellow must be self inflicted. I’ve listened to it 5 times since October and I don’t have the faintest clue why it’s so popular in the US. I still don’t remember a single thing about it nor am I inclined to listen to it another time.

haha, this is v otm - it takes some effort to follow the US scene in this regard

a song as forgettable as Black Beatles for me

black beatles >>>>> bodak yellow

yeah I hear a lot of rap out (not in usa) & haven't heard this song until now, when I'm streaming it chez moi. looks like it hit #70 on the chart here. usa rap does fine here, "black beatles" hit #2.

im not at all surprised its popular, its built on the gulf between rap smashes & pop smashes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE_-obgiWm0

and the fact that a massive portion of the population has no idea what this song is, and another smaller portion (though still huge... 123 million views huge) treated it as one of the most important songs of the last 5 years

not putting myself through reading the shitty opinions on this thread, this song is great

back in march 2016 a basically-unknown female rapper from Texas named Asian Doll flipped her own freestyle version of that song & it went viral among hip hop / soundcloud / youtube teens, setting off a bunch of female rap imitators & launching her mainly underground career.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UU2-XKlKoEw

im not saying this to delegitimize cardi b or this song or whatever, ppl can like it all they want, just think this context puts the hyperbole in perspective ... ppl can of course love pop songs by charismatic stars which lift from less well known auteurs (sometimes i do in spite of this) to me its hard to take it out of the dispiriting sense of nyc trend hopping & claiming the crown for it

based on a comprehensive listen to the EOY traxnoms, ppl should be listening to rico nasty over cardi b

I prefer her bit in "Motor Sport"

A little catchy, and I like her slow “cuttaaaaa...niggaaaaaaa...” delivery. It’s okay.

I see it’s one of those “the title has fuckall to do with the song” kinda songs.

she's def got personality especially compared to 21 Savage who is a black hole of charisma

I voted "great" because I liked it the first time I heard it and I haven't gotten tired of it yet. I actually like it better than "No Flockin," but I also like that she named it in tribute (and also made a ton of money for Kodak Black). I like her new one too.

Fwiw in re its popularity my wife, at best a casual hip-hop fan, loves it. Maybe Cardi's voice and persona help put across trap fundamentals to people they would otherwise bounce off -- which means trap fundamentalists roll their eyes, along with people who don't like trap at all.

the first solo female rapper #1 since 1998 when lauryn hill did it

This factoid surprised me mainly because I would've figured Missy had a couple. But "Work It" only got to #2. Robbed.

Kinda reminds me of the Cash Me Outside girl. Does she rap yet? Is she part of this discourse?

Answering own question:

labels are even more into signing people with already existing celebrity these days even if it’s more “notoriety” than anything else. the whole “let the police reports act as the one sheets” wave, bhad bhabie, etc. i know i know pia zadora put out albums too but there’s something much more craven about this edition of it

― maura

lol

Eh, I think that kind of reading is selling her short. Cardi may or may not have staying power, but she's gotten where she is on her own chutzpah.

Good song, with several memorable lines, and it's awesome to see the videos of crowds shouting the words, but I still feel like the year-end dominance is more a reaction to her inspiring-as-hell overarching arc, not so much to the actual song.

I think it's fair to wonder if Bodak would've topped year-end lists if the song didn't reach #1 on the charts (unseating Taylor Swift, no less)

at the very least this is a fun song and she's an engaging personality and has a good way of rapping imo and if i started a list of "what's wrong w. popular music and/or hip hop in 2017" she'd be about 10,000th on the list

I think the reason it’s twken off with fans of female rappers is obvious: there aren’t too many female rappers actively making good songs engaged with the culture who’ve been invested in to the extent that is true of male rappers

I can complain all day (and do) that Post Malone (worse than cardi) is topping the charts instead of artists i think are better and more original creative etc but to some extent you have to think, this is what America wants

W cardi I feel like the disparity between female rappers being taken seriously and the one who gets the biggest platform for crossover artists is almost certainly not accidental but by design... and that her rarity (to people who don’t pay attention to the genre closely ie most people) means she ends up on the receiving end of the audience’s enthusiasm bc there’s no one else there

Nah. That's bad faith and you know it.

Um, why?

Because my position doesn't imply shaming or blaming sex workers for anything? On the contrary? I mean, plenty of countries have legislations that allow the sale of sex but not its purchase (Canada, France, Sweden, Norway, Ireland).

No, but you're shaming the other partner in the relationship.

Oh, so there's the plot twist. Yeah, sure, I'm cool that.

But why?

Because there’s a reason economically privileged women tend not to become sex workers, just as there’s a reason more than 2/3 of Germany’s brothels are filled with foreign sex workers. There are exceptions, of course, but as a general rule most women, when given the choice, opt for other ways to make a living. I wonder why?

knowing she really did that makes me like the music more

Otm

Cardi: not a studio thug

love this

Woke #UP to a new @iamcardib song today so had to cover it!
Watch on https://t.co/bFFr7nleNw pic.twitter.com/GKSKDRpF3x

— Chloe Flower (@ChloeFlower) February 5, 2021

These options are very mild.

not feeling the new song much yet

gonna be a hit anyway

haven't heard the new one either but if it has piano in it that's anything like what's in that video i'm sold

funny to think that back in 2017 people were wondering if Bodak Yellow would be just a flash in the pan and now it only feels like a small part of her career

Up sounds good on first listen!

Bodak Yellow is: Diamond
https://www.vulture.com/2021/03/cardi-b-bodak-yellow-certified-diamond-history.html

I'm sorry not to know anything, did she do other tracks with a hard staccato flow like Bartier Cardi?

https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/9544280/cardi-b-up-number-one-hot-100
First female rapper to chart 5 #1 tracks on Billboard Hot 100 with an amazingly bizarre selection of crossover and noncrossover hits

so...is she ever putting out another album? seems like something weird is going on at this point

gotta think something's coming early next year

she's indicated in interviews that becoming a parent really got in the road, but i don't think that's the only thing

She just won a $3.8mm verdict in a defamation suit against a YouTuber (Cardi took the stand and everything), but not sure how much something like that would slow the wheels.

so...is she ever putting out another album? seems like something weird is going on at this point

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, October 31, 2022 5:03 PM (seven months ago) bookmarkflaglink

i wonder if it's ever coming out

....seven months pass

great verse here tho

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WtNCR3EDS4

I think she kind of retired to be a mother.

wtf is a john?

― Mr. Snrub, Monday, April 1, 2019 6:48 PM (four years ago) bookmarkflaglink

hahahaha

― cheese canopy (map), Monday, April 1, 2019 6:53 PM (four years ago) bookmarkflaglink

correct me if i'm wrong? but i think it's a fan of gorillaz

― cheese canopy (map), Monday, April 1, 2019 6:56 PM (four years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Can't remember if this has been discussed upthread, but what would be the benefit of her putting out another album at this point? Why not just drops songs/features every few months for the rest of time?

I guess an album rollout would be a bigger publicity bump, but she seems to be doing just fine.

Album is usually linked to a tour, which she may not be ready for yet.

i think she pretty quickly reached the level of celebrity where, in terms of income, music becomes a secondary concern. at this point she has definitely done a number of endorsement deals that brought or bring her more money than she makes off even a big hit. and i don't think it's an insult to cardi to say that music was prob a means to an end for her as opposed to an insatiable burning artistic desire. and those ends have been reached

haha yeah i guess i think of musicians as wanting to make albums because they like making albums but i guess this is definitely more of an overall entertainment brand thing.

i suppose in a way, an album is risky, if it's perceived as a dud it would damage things.

i don't mean to imply that she's never gonna put an album out again or anything. i'm positive she's recorded more than enough music in the last few years to put another full length out. but given that she's raising kids, makes more money off non music endeavors and is still collecting off huge hits... i don't think there's an onus on her to do much more than highly selective features. i think president keyes is right that it will prob be tied to when she's ready to go out on the road

all aligned with what i was thinking ... i can't remember if she has *ever* toured extensively, but yeah ... she doesn't need touring or an album at this point.

we'll probably get a new album and tour in 10 years or w/e when other revenues decline.

i guess i asked my question because i don't think there's necessarily something weird going on.

also, Cardi seems like she'd be a fun mom!

yeah that all makes a lot of sense

still tru, btw:

Get Up 10 is fire

― The Desus & Mero Chain (upper mississippi sh@kedown)

just reiterating that her verse on this is really good, even better than "tomorrow 2" imo