As the rap world celebrates the long-awaited return of the Robb Report of the Snort, Justin Bieber has turned July 11 very suddenly into a true summer-blockbuster weekend, returning from a five-year sabbatical with a surprise full-length album of his own. But scan the credits on Bieber’s album, Swag, and you’ll see the two projects aren’t as far apart as one might initially assume. Outside of Dijon, all of the credited guests on Swag are rappers: Sexyy Red, Gunna, Cash Cobain, and Lil B. With the arguable exception of Gunna—who’s proven his malleability multiple times over the past several years—the rest of those features all inspired an eyebrow-raise over how they’d mesh. Off the first couple of spins though, they all work, with Bieber finding ways to bring them into his world without compromising any of their distinctness. Let’s rank them, excluding Lil B (because the Based God, disappointingly, does not unlock his treasure chest of different styles, flows and bizarre non-sequitur bars for an actual verse on here.)
3. Gunna
Gunna’s contribution to “Way It Is” is perfectly fine—it’s disappointing only by his standards. Some might argue that when Gunna gets in his melodic, post-modern R&B bag it’s as good if not better than when he’s flowing. He and Biebs should’ve gone croon for croon.
2. Sexyy Red
