Flo Rida - Wild Ones Review

In the newest edition of Pop-Rap Monopoly, Jay-Z is Boardwalk and Kanye is Park Place—royal blue, printing money, crushing all opposition while flaunting their luxury tax. Lil’ Wayne, Luda, and Nicki Minaj are right behind them in the green zone. Drake is Marvin Gardens. Wiz Khalifa is something purple, obviously. Asher Roth and Travie McCoy are the worthless brown properties, while Chris Brown is that sad little dude peering through the jail bars. (This game is largely about wish fulfillment.) In this schematic Flo Rida is a railroad, just like his tourmate B.o.B. (B&O.B.?) These guys will never win the game, but they’re reliable cash cows, they blow a lot of smoke, and they are everywhere.


Flo’s new nine-song album Wild Ones is a study in how little personality a rapper needs to succeed. The guy raps a lot of words, but good luck remembering any of them once the music stops. His raps aggressively avoid meaning, which can be exhausting if you pay too much attention to what he’s saying. From the title track, which I heard four times on the radio yesterday: “Get loose, loose, after bottle / We all get bit and again tomorrow / Gotta break loose ‘cause that’s the motto / Club shuts down, I heard you super models.” What is that? Those are barely sentences, let alone sentient thoughts. Four “ah-oh” rhymes, some rote club signifiers, and then you’re sucked into a swirling vortex of nothingness: no jokes, puns, or references to anything outside Flo’s Club Nihilismo. Great rappers, even hashtag rappers, often pack as much information as possible into a few words. Flo does the opposite. He sounds like he was handed an assignment two hours before the recording session. “Write two verses expounding the theme of ‘wild ones’, with moderate syncopation, and FYI, at one point your hook girl Sia’s gonna compare herself to a horse. Giddyup!”


Throughout Wild Ones, Flo is routinely upstaged by his guest stars, be they living or dead. You listen to “Good Feeling”, his other ubiquitous hit, for its well-deployed Etta James sample and Dr. Luke’s cheeky production, including stuttering Fatboy Slim-isms and a dubstep breakdown. Flo’s forthcoming ubiquitous hit “Let It Roll” features Freddie King singing the chorus along with euphoric synth handclaps, funk guitar, organ, and horn stabs, courtesy two French producers and a Swedish House Mafioso. When RedFoo from LMFAO saunters onto the album’s final minute, he provides a jolt of personality that feels like the dawn of man, especially given his rudimentary rapping skills: “I got your tickets, they’re on FanDANgo / Back row, no fro, I’ll be eating a MANgo!” Say what you will about the doofus, but RedFoo’s verse is funnier and more recitable than anything Flo manages. The personality nadir comes (heh heh) during “Sweet Spot”, where a blank-voiced Jennifer Lopez shows up to coo about her g-spot. It’s like Clash of the Ciphers: two enter, but only one will… wait, what is it they’re trying to do again?...full text If not for the mesmerizing contributions of Australian singer-songwriter Sia, "Wild Ones" would be standard issue Flo Rida. Fortunately, her vocals elevate the song ensuring that we believe every word about her being a "wild one." This is another song that will fill the dance floor and bring any party to a peak. Flo Rida continues his phenomenal hit streak....full text Wild Ones is the fourth album from rapper/pop artist Flo Rida and is far and ahead the best album to date from the artist. Unlike Flo Rida’s previous albums which featured hit singles, but mediocre or worse tracks filling the album Wild Ones is filled with all songs worthy of being singles. On his new album Flo Rida has figured out a successful formula to put together a well-rounded album which features multiple hit songs.

Flo Rida manages to deliver a very good album filled with pop/rap music which is just the right length at 10 tracks. On his fourth album Flo Rida uses great samples and creates catchy hooks which results in half of the album being hit songs. Although Flo Rida isn’t that great of a rapper he matches up well with the upbeat tracks which fill the album and are specialized for radio. Wild Ones has two of the possible songs of the year in Wild Ones and Good Feeling which are both excellent songs featuring great vocals to go along with fantastic upbeat production. The album also features three other songs which are sure to be hits in Sweet Spot which features good vocals from Jennifer Lopez, Let It Roll which uses a good sample and the already popular single Whistle. I Cry and Run are both pretty solid tracks which follow the same formula as his singles and Let It Roll Pt.2 is the same song as Let It Roll except with an alright verse added from Lil Wayne. In My Mind (Part 2) is a decent track while Thinking Of You is a good change of pace towards a solid slower song from Flo Rida. With Wild Ones Flo Rida delivers a pop/rap album filled with hit songs on an album which overall is very good.

With his fourth album Flo Rida perfects the formula which previously was just found on his singles and manages to create a well rounded album filled with hit radio friendly tracks. Wild Ones is the best album which Flo Rida has put out to date and gets 4 stars....full text