There are many great things about Vulture, but their best recurring feature is Umbrella Watch. What track is going to be the Umbrella of the summer (or the next Hey Ya!, the next Crazy in Love , In Da Club…)?
So far, I think the best nominee, despite Vulture’s hate, and the fact that it was constructed using Garage Band samples, is Usher’s “Love In This Club.” Now, it’s not the best blockbuster pop track that’s come out recently, or even the best that’s Vulture has nominated ( that would be Estelle’s American Boy), but it has the advantage of already being a “club banger” and near-totaly ubiquity on both hip-hop and pop radio stations. And like Umbrella or Dangerous in Love, it has the combination of slightly weak pop singer and a legit rapper. And…it’s just a good summer pop song. My only complaint, besides that the entire song is based around Usher asking some girl to “copulate in the middle of a crowded dance floor” is purely semantical. Here’s a bit of Jeezy’s verse:
Have you ever made love to a thug in the club with his sights on?
87 Jeans and a fresh pair of Nikes on
On the couch, on the table, on the bar, or on the floor
You can meet me in the bathroom yeah you know I’m tryna go
I don’t want to get too deep in the linguistic weeds here, but if we’re going to maintain “making love” as distinct from other forms of copulation (banging, knockin boots etc), then it seem like anything done on the bar, table, bar, floor or in the bathroom should be described some other way.
