Ariana Grande seems to be one of the only ones who has recently had a smooth transition from teen fame to adult fame... ignoring that awful Sam & Cat show. But yeah, her music's been spot-on and she's managed to carve out a surprisingly charming personality for herself, like a less in-your-face Mariah Carey. It's brilliant.
And now, she's scored her first Top 5 hit with "Problem", featuring...
I-G-G-Y
Yeah. Yeah. Uh... wow. This could seriously go either way. Will Ariana save Iggy, or will Iggy bring down Ariana? Well, there's only one way to find out: read reviews by other people! Or, I could just listen to it myself and form my own thoughts on the song. Seems harder, but it also seems familiar. All right, let's do it.
The song starts off with a pretty fucking awesome sax solo, and Iggy delivering a spoken intro.
It's Iggy Iggs!
I got one more problem with you girl
Oh, oh. Catfight. CATFIGHT!
All right, that's not what this song is about. The "problem" Iggy and Ariana share is this toxic on-again, off-again relationship. So... why is Iggy saying she's got a problem with Ariana? I don't know.
But I can forgive it because the rest of this song ROCKS. Going back to the question I posed near the beginning, on whether Ariana saves Iggy or Iggy destroys Ariana, it's definitely closer to the former. I say "closer" because Iggy's verse is... surprisingly okay.
Smart money bettin' I'll be better off without you
I mean, it's nothing spectacular. In fact, there's one verse that kinda pisses me off.
I got 99 problems but you won't be one
If you're going to make a mediocre verse, you don't get to channel Jay-Z (though it is slowly becoming more and more appropriate to do so, given his recent work). But other than that, I don't really have any problems with the verse. It could be more interesting, but let's be real here: The star of this song is Grande.
Ariana absolutely kills it here, especially if you compare her to other singers around her age. She really is the second coming of Mariah Carey. The new, fresher version.
Now, I like Mariah Carey. I think she's obviously a talented singer. But as the years go by, she's slowly becoming less and less relevant in the music industry. So enter Ariana Grande to blow her away.
Big Sean, who performs on the song but is not featured, also does well with the chorus. The whispery chorus does well to contrast Ariana's big vocals. It's a nice surprise. And did I mention that sax solo? See, that's how you do it, Jason.
Yeah, I can't really say anything else except that I'm so glad to finally have a song that I love near the top of the charts. It's been a while. Count on Ariana Grande to bring me joy on the Billboard Charts. No problems with this song.
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