For a track about money and being the best at obtaining it, "Cash In Cash out," by Pharrell Williams Ft. 21 Savage and Tyler, the Creator, is an inadequate example of these three musicians' ability to innovate the music industry and bag from it millions. The boldness and defiance frequent from each musician are absent in "Cash In Cash Out."
21 with his drawl vocal style and raunchy lyrics, Tyler with wavy flows and vivid imagery, Pharrell all Neptune's with his space-rap instrumentals are superficially present within the track, but they are tired. Pharrell, 21, and Tyler merely give an insipid performance for artists known for their entertainment and controversy.
Out of sheer disappointment, while listening to "Cash In Cash Out," this listener imagines the best years of these artists' musical careers when their musical output matched how many times they changed musical approaches.
I remember in 2015 when 21 Savage released his first mixtape, "The Slaughter Tape." My co-workers and I couldn't stop talking about it, reciting his macabre lyrics, reminiscent of Three-Six Mafia, and marveling at his disregard for any rap flow. To me, it made him a scary force that I knew would soon shake the rap industry. And he did!
21 Savage's 2016 album, "Savage Mode," with producer Metro Boomin’, is some of the best rap music to come out that year. His lyrics and presence were prodigious, hitting the instrumental and the audience like the "ratchet" in his lyrics. His intense, fun ad-libs added to the mixture, riddling his songs with 21 like doo-doo poppers. He was unmatched then, as shown in XXL's freshmen cypher.
But that 21 Savage is nowhere to be found in "Cash In Cash Out." His flow is stilted, never leaving the most fundamental tool of his repertoire, a monotone 4/4 drawl, and never playing with the beat like he's accustomed to doing, changing registers, forgetting about it, or merely ceasing to rap together.
Then, to make his contribution worse, there is no energy in his vocals, no life in his ad-libs, no hate in his lyrics, and no power in his presence. "Money turned me to an assholе," he says, but it has also turned him into a ghost, something the audience will forget after the curtain closes.
This listener can say much for Tyler, the Creator's verse: tired, played out, out-of-date, boring, whatever one wants to call it.
In 2011, when Tyler, the Creator, came out with "Yonkers," he shook the whole internet. His experimental and psychedelic instrumentals, and grotesque, surreal, and often offensive lyrics and visuals were new, stunning people into watching and listening repetitively. Tyler and Odd Future showed us the dark side of our generation, just like 21 Savage.
In his prime, Tyler mixed genres and modes, not only in music but through his art, fashion, and ideas. And, one short year later, he and his band of misfits, Odd Future, were signed musicians. At the time, their success made sense. Who was doing what they were doing? Still, who can say there's any other song like "Yonkers"? But where is that Tyler in "Cash In Cash Out?"
Out of all three artists, Tyler was known for his boldness and his out-of-the-box thinking, but after Tyler's first eight bars in "Cash In Cash Out," there's nothing more for him to say. It seems he knows it, for, by the end of his verse, he's rapping off nonsense with no confidence.
One half of the Neptune's, Pharrell came on the scene blending Hip-hop, r&b, funk, rock, and the works. The Neptunes were Gorillaz before Gorillaz was Gorillaz, working with every sound and every artist under the sun. Their sounds were spacey, psychedelic, but current, and hip, with a bump that made every song an instant success. And when Pharrell went solo, it didn't stop there. Everyone knows "Happy," "Hot in Here," "Beautiful," Drop It Like It's Hot," Get Lucky," and the list goes on. I can say two things about Pharrell's productions: they are creative, different, and fresh.
That creative Pharrell, too, is absent from "Cash In Cash Out." The idea of repeat success — cashing in and cashing out all the earnings from music — is evident in the repetition and vaudevillian-like effects in the 4/4 instrumental. But soon, this, like 21 Savage and Tyler's verses, becomes quickly tired. The bass drum sounds like a wrung-out 808, and the song's pacing is droll, never moving from the same idea, not even for the hook.
The song is not worth a second listen. There is nothing to revel over. The song isn't fun — not that it's the only merit for a good track — and I don’t know…
Sadly, the audience has heard it all before, and this time, with no effort from the artist, as if they wanted to say to the audience, "we can make a mediocre song and still cash in, cash out."
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