The Dream Mode

Playboi Carti featuring Skepta “Lean 4 Real”

“Lean 4 Real” gives you more or less what you’d expect from a song glorifying getting zonked out on opiates: It’s woozy, warm, repetitive, and mesmerizing. Playboi Carti’s voice is mumbly but magnetic, and Skepta’s verse adds a touch of coherence and focus to a song that’s otherwise oblique and blurry. The thing that really makes this song click is something that it took me a few listens to truly notice – there’s an ambient “crickets” sound going through the entire track. It’s a very odd bit of atmosphere, and makes the song sound like it’s a field recording of a campfire behind a strip club. I’m not sure whether Indigo Child used a recording of actual crickets, or if it’s some other thing, but I love the way it contrasts familiar sounds – the wilderness in summertime and trap beats – so they both sound alien.

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