There's a lot going on with "U," the third track in Jaden Smith's new album SYRE, and the third part of the opening "B L U E" tetralogy. There are multiple movements within the track itself. Jaden battles with a choir of voices and glossy piano chords in the intro, auto-tune-belting over maximal textures that evoke Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Not long after that, he's delivering urgent double time that would make Meek Mill proud. A minute later, he's sing-rapping like his hero Kid Cudi, before launching into a rap-rock freak out where he repeatedly yells "Jimi Hendrix with the shits" in a Future-esque triplet flow. Eventually, he's on to conversational, drumless Andre 3000 raps. Jaden's influences are clear across the track, but his ambition in uniting so many seemingly disparate styles with his strong personality means that he pulls it off. Honestly, who else do you know who could turn artichokin' into a verb before rhyming it with "art of choking?"
Quotable Lyrics:
Girl, I'm fallin' to the ground
And you'll never get me up
I'm just a baby
With a stack of needles and a sippy cup
And this shit sucks, need some love
My Aphrodite I can touch
Elvis Presley's coming out of me
My head has got a rush
Didn't pick a fight
The FBI just picked a fight with me
When I cry at night
Like every night
Just come right here and see