Song of The Year-Whipped Cream by Ari Lennox

by Dan-O

I’m impressed with Dreamville. It’s a talented roster of artists from J.I.D. to Cozz to Bas and Ari Lennox but talent is all over the place. Talent doesn’t surprise me.  Any rap label headed by an artist runs into the same problem: ‘you can be big but not bigger than me’.  J. Cole struck gold with J.I.D. and struck harder with his next album(Dicaprio 2) giving him full spotlight. It takes a real emotionally intelligent person to understand those ‘Is J.I.D. Better than Cole?’ headlines are working In your favor. It is a deeply talented roster but more impressive than that, one where all the artists are growing in different directions together. Not many labels can lay claim to that space and growth at the same time.

The new Ari Lennox album Shea Butter Baby is a masterstroke. When I recommend it to people they snap their fingers and say ‘I heard of that…’ because the title track was on the Creed II soundtrack(I feel like it featured during the sensational sex scene. TESSA THOMPSON IS THE G.O.A.T).  The album itself is brilliant because executive producer (producer or co-producer of 8 out of the 12 tracks) Elite figured out that this album shouldn’t sound hot, fresh and new. Ari Lennox needs to feel like someone you’ve spent your whole life listening to. The kind of soul that always lives in the grooves of your bones and just needs to be let out. By the third listen of the album I felt like it will be playing in the background at a BBQ for my birthday in ten years. That’s the kind of music this is, thick bass horns keyboards and lots of stage for our star to perform on.

Whipped Cream, specifically, is what resonates. Her hooks are always very specific and strange. To start the song with the hook and have the first lines be “I’ve been eatin’ whip cream, having vivid dreams of your face…” differentiates the Lennox experience while the music sounds like the definition of the genre. Shea Butter Baby is classic but it is very now. The short interludes at the end of songs speak about abusive relationships and perceptions of yourself through others eyes. She manages to be funny, sexual, and human at the same time. My favorite part of Whipped Cream is when she says, “Your deceivin’ receivin’ not givin’ head @$$.” She sings it too quickly to fully grasp then sings it again. You can hear the smirk as she mocks this ex but also the real hole that hasn’t refilled. Ari Lennox has songs about making love but none that are frivolous. Everything she sings is part of a three dimensional balance she seeks to achieve. Even as she sings about his inability to give oral pleasure she’s not venomous. She wishes she didn’t care but she does and it’s because that’s who she is. I love this song but if you listen and love it you need to do the whole album. You need to hear how happy she is to be naked and alone in her new apartment on New Apartment. You need to hear how Whipped Cream’s end feeds into the triumphant saxophone that begins Static.