Staff Pix 3/24: Best Collaborations
The Milk Crate staff’s favorite musical collaborations of the week, presented with blurbs worthy of a promotional sticker on a jewel case. Tune in Fridays from 2-3 EST to the Staff Pix radio show.
Karenna Umscheid
Dang! by Mac Miller, Anderson Paak
Mac Miller’s The Divine Feminine is chock-full of dreamy, lively, romantic collaborations, but my absolute favorite is “Dang!” It’s a lovely dance beat chronicling an attempt to keep a relationship as it deteriorates. In the chorus Anderson Paak repeatedly sings “I can’t keep on/Losin’ you over complications/Gone too soon/Wait!/We was just hangin,” as he watches his love slip away from him so easily, desperate to keep her. Mac Miller splices in his signature clever and fun lyricism, rapping “I use every bone in my body/Keep on holding on to your trust/I know you don’t want nothin to do with me/But just one more time let’s make love,” grappling to keep his girl in any way he can, a romantic and tragic ode to true love as it dissipates like sand through his fingers. The perfect lyrics and incredibly dance-able melody, and the magical pairing of Anderson Paak and Mac Miller, make for a timeless hip-hop track of beauty and love.
Salem Ross
STARSTUD by Matt Watson, Sarah Bonito
Sarah Bonito is no stranger to a bubblegum pop ballad due to her Kero Kero Bonito fame, But Matt Watson definitely is. With his first album See You There releasing in November, it was unexpected that another internet artist produced something tolerable. It’s catchy keyboard opening paired with Watsons sing-song-y vocals leave the taste of ice cream and seeing your hometown friends at the beach. Although Matt is probably more commercially known for making parody skits and playing forgotten flash games as half of the channel Supermega, Starstud takes on a whole new direction with Sarah Bonito. Kero Kero Bonito’s sound is greatly represented by their 2016 album Bonito Generation. The heavily saturated colors beam from Sarah’s vocals, bringing pop back to its state of a toy store sound. With their similar vivid hyper adorable aesthetic, the pair make an unexpected collaboration meant to be played while riding bikes with neighborhood kids.
Parker Bennett
holy terrain by FKA Twigs, Future
When FKA Twigs’ 2019 album MAGDALENE was released, the 9 song tracklist labeled only one collaborator: multi-platinum rapper and self-proclaimed “toxic king,” Future. It was an eyebrow-raising inclusion, considering Future’s well-documented accusations of misogyny and the fact that MAGDALENE was an experimental depiction of Twigs’ own femininity through the conceptual lens of embodying Mary Magdalene. Regardless of those behind the scenes factors, the resulting track is an absolute banger that showcases the best of both artists and revels in their unexpected chemistry. Built around a distorted vocal sample and twittering trap drums, the instrumental is an energetic playground for the vocalists to explore. Twigs’ performance is a lyrical assertion of her own manifestation of divine femininity, delivered in her signature, haunting falsetto. Future switches things up with his auto-tune-soaked vocals, shrouding lyrics of heartbreak behind a bouncing delivery and undeniable charm. It’s an incredible track, and songs like this are the embodiment of what artistic collaboration can create.
Amelia Oei
Over Everything by Kurt Vile, Courtney Barnett
Vile and Barnett are each known for their signature styles: Vile’s swinging garage rock and Barnett’s sarcastic storytelling. However, the two artists have slowly shifted away from these bounds, almost switching places. In company with their friendship, this shift is the perfect basis for their work as artists together. According to Vile, he began writing the melody and some lyrics for “Over Everything” a couple years before the lead single was released for their 2017 album Lotta Sea Lice, with Barnett in mind. In the song, their styles and thoughts overlap in a perfect trade-off of guitar licks and sweet storytelling that illustrate their compatibility as artists and people. Vile’s words are right where they need to be: the headspace one reaches between optimism and pessimism when dealing with growing up and the loneliness that comes with it. As Vile and Barnett trade off verses, they remind us that though the world is overwhelming and sometimes forlorn, we can find solace through music. The two certainly demonstrate this deep human connection with each other through their composition, as well as a boundless bond to any listener who finds themselves singing along.
Lily Suckow Ziemer
Beg For You by Charli XCX, Rina Sawayama
Charli XCX and Rina Sawayama are the ULTIMATE pop duo, so it’s obvious that their 2022 collaboration, “Beg For You,” is a hit. The two had wanted to collaborate for a long time, messaging on and off for years. After Sawayama rewrote the second chorus and sent her vocals over to Charli, the duo knew this song was the one they had been waiting for. The song is an homage to September’s 2006 queer anthem, “Cry for You.” The entire song is extremely reminiscent of early 2000s pop anthems. Charli and Sawayama’s voices, energy, and even dancing fits perfectly with the upbeat energy of “Beg For You.” It’s an extremely enjoyable listen and will leave you pressing shuffle on the two artists’ discographies.
Will Ingman
DELICIOUS APE by HEALTH, Xiu Xiu
A cursory dive into HEALTH’s body of work might not give the impression they play nice with others, but nothing could be further from the truth. The group’s 2020 & 2022 dual-albums DISCO4:: PART I & II ran the gamut from Nine Inch Nails to Soccer Mommy, proving the only surefire way to success is in fact moving to Los Angeles. Yet, no matter what corporate weapon of mass destruction HEALTH are pointing at every record label on the West Coast, they’ve never lost the taunting, inscrutable energy of true auteurs, demanding their work be not just heard, but understood. And, to be quite frank, I can’t wrap my head around this one. Jamie Stewart from Xiu Xiu is rarely a transparent writer, but I just can’t get what makes me “un-delicious ape / comic, hairy, gross / childish arms banging out of time on garbage drums”. Apes aside, the imagery left behind by this collision of soundscape and spoken word is as enrapturing as it is incomprehensible, painting a picture of something that doesn’t exist in the space between my ears. Delicious ape, you are undelicious ape.
Adri Pray
Play Pretend by Mac Wetha and spill tab
This song came to me in a fever dream. When Izzy and Karenna declared staff pix to be “collaborations,” I knew I could not pass up the opportunity to write about spill tab and Mac Wetha. This was my inaugural song into the spill tab world and I haven’t been able to escape since (not that I’d want to, let’s be honest)! “Play Pretend” is raw, honest, and doesn’t stifle either artists’ feelings toward the perpetrator. If you haven’t heard this song or of these artists, I strongly encourage you to pop in some earbuds now and take yourself on a wild, emotional ride.
Stephanie Weber
WAP by Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion
Released in August 2020, “WAP,” standing for “Wet Ass Pussy,” was one of the best songs to come out of the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s an epically vulgar song rapped by icons Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion. It is so raunchy that I can’t listen to it without cringing but simultaneously singing along with it. It opens and closes the same way, with repeating lyrics “There's some whores in this house.” The lyrics are hardly coherent, but catchy and mesmerizing too. I’m fascinated by the lines “Bring a bucket and a mop for this wet ass pussy,” “Now get your boots and your coat for this wet ass pussy,” and “Macaroni in a pot, that's some wet ass pussy, huh.” The song itself is monumental, but was later turned into a meme, with conservative TV personalities reciting it like slam poetry. “WAP” remains one of the most tasteless and crass songs of the decade, performed by two of the biggest names in rap. “WAP” put both Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion on the map, with over a million streams on Spotify.
Rachel Charles
Lean Beef Patty by JPEGMAFIA, Danny Brown
Jpegmafia and Danny Brown's single “Lean Beef Patty” just recently released early this month after speculation of a collaborative album titled, Scaring The Hoes Vol.1.. This song is an alternative hip hop gem pitching and sampling another iconic collaborative track “I Need A Girl”. Lean beef patty titled after Tik Tok gym influencer “leanbeefpatty” stands out as one of Jpeg's best work as a producer with its dynamic hyper-pop beats and flawless use of sampling and ad-libs. Danny Brown and JPEGMAFIA’s work together in this song makes me incredibly excited for this duo's new album in the works.
Anne O’Leary
See You Again by Tyler, The Creator, Kali Uchis
“Can I get a kiss?/And can you make it last forever?” This iconic indie rap collab definitely captured the 2017 bedroom pop scene by storm. Additionally, the album this song is off of, Flower Boy, cemented Tyler’s place in the industry from a controversial rapper to an innovative and complex musician. The collaboration also introduced Colombian-American singer Kali Uchis onto the scene. Flower Boy actually has a lot of collaborations, including artists like Frank Ocean, A$AP Rocky, Jaden, Anna of the North, Steve Lacy, and Lil Wayne. Uchis smooth vocals contrasting Tyler’s harsh voice along with the orchestral-like sound is somehow a pleasant track.
Nathan Hilyard
Guilty by Barbra Streisand, Barry Gibbs
In the great tradition of mid to late 20th century broadway starlets, Barbra Streisand takes a brief sojourn into easy-listening pop with her 1980 album Guilty. Its opening track is a smooth and buttery pop hit, slowing down and enclosing this funny girl’s vocals with satin sheets and hairspray. “Out on the street anybody you’ll meet got a heartache of their own,” she begins, pulling the song into a world of romantic yearning and emotional ooze. As she progresses, we soon meet her romantic interest, Barry Gibbs, and the two entangle themselves in a melodic love affair, deciding there’s nothing to fear, “And we’ve got nothing to be guilty of, our love / We’ll climb any mountain.” “Guilty” is a prime example of a broadway starlet making the switch from the stage to the turn-table, Steisand presenting a romance so smoldering and sultry it can only be shown through this angelic veil of soulful jazz.