Calvin Harris, Frank Ocean, and Migos Start the Song of the Summer Race With the Surprising ‘Slide’

Updated on March 1, 2017

“Frank Ocean appears with the kind authorization of Frank Ocean”, reads the notes of the lining of the new single of Calvin Harris “Slide”, which, in this unusually hot battle at the end of February, launched the battle of the song of summer 2017. Most of the artists appear only everywhere with the kind authorization of their label, but Ocean is a free agent and this song is another surprise decision Pop celebrity.

Last summer, singer R&B Buzzy broke years of unexplained silence with an album duo, Endlessly And Blond)who have challenged conventions both musically and at business level. The latter of the two outings – the one who was really for sale and had distinctable songs, unlike the audiovisual streaming project of free form Endlessly– did not come via his record company, Def Jam, but independently. Through years of argument (and Apple’s help, the new corporate patron of pop-voting artists), he had freed himself from the type of contract which was once considered both the price and the need for new singers.

It seemed possible that he then used this new freedom to search more deeply in an anti-commercial and anti-pop state of mind. Blond) is a masterpiece, but strange: mainly exempt from drums, recognizable song structures and everything that could be a success. It took him four years to do, had two competing spelling for his name and presented a linked printed magazine. You can understand why its creator may not want to have to manage all the A&R of his Music Music Group material. And you might guess that future ocean projects would become even more esoteric.

But today brings most of the good news that Ocean has not entirely decided to refuse his talents – a voice that gives both feeling and attitude, an adventurous ear, an intelligent and funny – lyric sensitivity of the radio. He is twinned with Calvin Harris, the Scottish star EDM famous for a top 40 top 40 insufficient but irresistible like “This is what you come for” (her summer smash 2016, with Rihanna) and “We Found Love” (her summer of summer 2011, with Rihanna). The bill completes two thirds of migos, the Atlanta rap group benefiting from revolutionary national success in 2017 with the delicate album Culture And the hit n ° 1 “bad & boujee”.

The talent of Harris for the consolidation of popular trends and always pushing them so slightly forward is exposed here, with the rhythm for “Slide” Packing in Bruno Mars revivaliste funk and the tropical house of Justin Bieber for a mixture which will reveal its complete potential only when heard on the beach. One of the signatures of the last days of Ocean, a handling handling voice, opens the track with the Distic “I could empty my bank account / and buy this boy with a pipe”, apparently referring to a Picasso paint he wants on his wall.

The appearance of artists here is more remarkable for musical reasons. Asked about rapper Makonnen who had just released gay, Migos said that it seemed “fucked up” and “Wack” which he had previously put on a hard character and Streetwise. The group then expressed excuses that said that they were good with the gays, but which did not quite address the stereotypes which they seemed to approve. In any case, they are now on a track with Frank Ocean, who rocked hip -hop with an admission in 2012 of an affair with a man – and who has since scrambled all kinds of expectations concerning culture, machismo and sex.

The migos themselves sound well, the adhesiveness of their distinctive flows suddenly clearer than ever about a rhythm as robust and sunny. The ocean verses seem cryptically, speak with weariness from moment to the end of a night in the club when the lights appear and you see who you could bring home; Migos’ words are explicit boastful of winner and heterosexual vision in the world. The divisions between the ocean, Migos and Harris’ sensitivity could not be clearer, but the song recalls the power of pop so that the very different elements slide together.

* This article initially cited the words of the Ocean badly as “buy this boy a wooden pipe”. We regret the error.