Comments on "What's My Name ft. Drake"

I'm late to this I know, but I've been brooding over this thing for quite a while. To me, this is Rihanna's "What You Know" or "Wuthering Heights", all three being virtuoso displays that somehow fail to give the impression that anyone is showing off. As everyone has said, Drake sounds like a idiot here, and whether or not he intended that, it really works as part of the song. Try listening to the Rihanna-only version of this track, you'll find its not nearly as good. Drake's verse, to some extent, allows the consequence that impregnates the beat to go unfulfilled for quite a while, so that when Rhi Rhi arises in swirling lights, cutting Drake off practically mid-sentence, she sounds like the most nonchalantly confident "girl in the world", rolling three progressively more monstrous hooks into our ears without introduction or interruption. As far as the T.I. and Kate Bush reference goes, she just doesn't stop, rotating from hook to hook to hook to just enough "na-na"s for us to catch our breath and back again. And like T.I., what's key is that she has enough confidence that she can act like she's not just repeating herself, enough calm that she can make the same "what you know about that" or "it's me i'm Kathy"s or "go down town witta girl like me"s sound like development rather than repetition. And in the end, its better that way, because I never want that chorus to end.