One doesn’t have to look beyond the Valentine’s Day Instagram reel of American rapper Don Toliver and Columbian-American singer/songwriter Kali Uchis to feel the chemistry between the lovers. Their three-year love affair can be seen in flower-giving, loving touches, and goofy choreography. The comfort the two of them display when around each other is as infectious as it is on their latest single, ‘4 Me’, which serves as the second single for LoveSick, Toliver’s third studio album due for released this month.
Following ‘Drugs N Hella Melodies’ from Toliver’s Life of a DON (2021), the couple pair their vocal strengths over a groovy tempo with an understated bass to come up with a rap-sung duet. With Atlanta-born producer Wheezy behind the beats, the track features a prominent sample of ‘Girls Dem Sugar’ by Beenie Man and Maya.
The bouncy bop matrix of the production lends the track a colourful tone; this is the kind of song to play on a summer afternoon in your car with the windows rolled down and with your lover right there with you.
Don’s brief verses seamlessly mesh with Kali’s cameos in which she sings with an airy voice: “If I could be your girl / If I could be your girl”. Throughout the song, the Texan rapper laces his succinct verses with references to sultry sex (“I’m like, “Whatever” when she mad the sex better”), intimacy (“I need to hold you my bae, baby / I need to feel your heart my bae, baby”), and lavish living (“I put the diamond on your face, Rockefeller”).
The twenty-eight-year-old couple shapes the outline of their performance by trading proclamations of their love through Toliver’s chorus (“You’re the only girl for me / You’re the only girl I need, yeah”) and Kali’s refrain (“I will take the stars out the sky for you / There’s nothin’ in this world that I wouldn’t do”). The output is an overlapping joint that spontaneously jumps from verse to hook to post-hook to verse to refrain, but not in an unpleasant way. If anything, Kali’s siren-like crooning acts as the ray of sunshine that blasts through the clouds of an already warm day. Toliver does enough, but the way Kali comes in complements her lover’s efforts, doubling the pleasure.
Sonically different from their 2021 collaboration, ‘4 Me’ is a wonderous reminder of what love is and what it can be when two people who love and understand each other cross paths. The song is an example of what it is to understand the dance of an R&B collabo and the art of doing your part without being pressed to outshine each other.
Listen to the full song here:
