Review of "Forever" Remix Featuring Drake, Lil Wayne, Kanye West and Eminem

I remember when I first heard that Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Kanye West and T.I. were going to collaborate on the remix of "Swagger Like Us". I felt as if these four gentlemen were a perfect fit for the ode to everything cocky, conceited and arrogant related as all four had their own unique swagger that profusely emanated from them like sweat from a fat man on a treadmill. The collaboration sounded like a gift from the rap gods on paper but when practically applied in real life, the song was more or less an epic let down. The only rapper who really epitomized the hook of the song and utterly annihilated it was T.I. and for good reason. T.I. was currently fending off an attempted coup d'etat from fellow Atlanta native Shawty Lo, who was attempting to throw rocks at the "King of the South's" throne. Therefore, T.I. used "Swagger Like Us" as a vehicle to show that his reign as southern rap's "supreme ruler of all surveyed" was far from over. He completely bodied the track and outshined the other three MC's like a solar flare against a candle.

Word must have gotten around to Jay-Z that his less than stellar performance on the song was causing a stir as he stated that he was going to raise the song from the dead in order to properly murder and rebury it, this time with the help of Andre 3000, Nas and Young Jeezy. Unfortunately, this track never materialized as Jay-Z took a different route with The Blueprint 3 and claimed the "Death of Autotune", which completely washed away any chance of a SLU pt. 2. So when I heard rumors that another uber collaboration of epic proportions was under development, I have to admit that I couldn't wait to find out who all would be involved. When I found out that Drake, Lil Wayne, Kanye West, and Eminem were going to attempt to accomplish what the "Swagger Like Us" remix couldn't, I started to salivate copiously.

In my mind I could just picture Drake, Wayne, and Kanye completely annihilating whichever beat some magnificent producer put up for sacrificial slaughter to the beat gods and then when it hit me that on top of having three of the top rappers in the game on one track, that the human personification of lyricism himself, Eminem, was going to be on the track, I think I lost consciousness for a moment. As individuals, all four rappers have outshined other rappers on their own tracks multiple times so I just knew that this lyrical pissing match would be one for the ages or so I thought.

When I first downloaded the song and listened to the beginning of it I instantaneously realized that I had heard this beat before. The beat they decided to use was a track titled "Forever", which interestingly enough had actually come out previously almost a year ago as a song on one of Drake's mixtapes. The original track featured Drake, Wayne and Kid Kid and was ok at best. I was actually kind of disappointed that the four hadn't decided to abuse an unreleased beat instead as it would have added to the excitement. The remix is a good song, I'll give it that, but unfortunately it doesn't live up to the hype whatsoever. Each MC "owned" a different aspect of the track but no one really completely decimated the track, something I found shocking seeing how each one has the potential to completely and utterly tear a beat apart piece by piece.

Lyrically, I would say that Kanye did the best as his metaphors were the most creative out of the bunch. It is one thing to have a few punch lines and metaphors as those are expected but when the metaphor is complex enough to make you replay what the rapper just said in your head to try to understand it-that means he did a good job. Mr. West's metaphors were witty and original, something extremely lacking in today's hip hop world. This is nothing new for Kanye though as he has always had that knack for saying things that no one has ever really said before.

Swagger wise, I think the award for most swagger of the night belongs to Drake. In his first bar alone he had the testicular fortitude to proclaim that he was the greatest ever, a gutsy move when your song mates included the "best rapper alive", "the best lyricist ever" and "the cockiest and most conceited rapper in history". Nevertheless, he pulled it off though, clearly staking a claim in the game by standing his ground against three rap juggernauts.

Wayne's bars were clearly the most effortless, not that that is a bad thing though. You could tell that it just came so easy to him that it was almost like it was child's play. I can picture Wayne stepping into the booth, spitting the first thing that came out of his mouth and then exiting the booth. Plain and simple. The thing about Wayne is that he seems to spit the best when it matters the least and spit the worst when it matters the most. A prime example of this is Mr. Carter, his song with Jay-Z. . In my opinion, the majority of his best material was spit on mixtapes like the Dedication series or SQAD UP series.

Wayne has publicly stated multiple times that he greatly admires Eminem's lyrical prowess and that he would love to collaborate with him and then when it actually happens, he doesn't rap any different than usual. That was a huge letdown for me.

The best overall flow was that of Eminem. It wasn't necessarily what he said that made the spotlight shine brightest on him, it was more how he said it. He completely rode the flow with flawless rhythm and cadence, the same method that allowed T.I. to steal the spotlight on SLU. He had a few witty metaphors, said a couple of crazy things, and rode the beat like an old school huffy- typical Marshall.

Overall, the song is an ok song, good but not great. If four different rappers had of spit the exact same bars as Drake, Wayne, Ye' and Em did and on the same track, it would be a great song. But since it was Drake, Wayne, Kanye, and Eminem, everyone is fully aware of what could have been and what should have been. Those four have way too much potential and lyrical ability to just do a mediocre track, even if a mediocre track from them is a great track from anyone else. In the end, "Forever" remix is like a sample piece of cake without the icing as it leaves a great taste in your mouth but leaves something to be desired.