Keri Hilson f/ Lil Wayne: "Turnin' Me On"

Is Lil Wayne adulation passé in 2009? Because if so he is going to break the internet. Here’s the thing: this would be a good song already. Keri Hilson may be the poor woman’s Rihanna, all confrontational haircut and uncertain point of origin or destination, but to her credit she also jacked Rihanna’s penchant for forward-thinking production. Here, it’s the synthesis of gang chants, cellphone pings and marching band brass, like every Timbaland phase happening at once. This would be a good song already: she does come with some impressively specific instances of dude-wackness that five-ups Beyonce’s academic euphemism “it,” even telling a dude that he can touch her butt one more time but after that free grabs are over (this is barely a paraphrase). And that’s a funny line. And Polow da Don’s production’s good. This would be a good song already. It doesn’t need twenty bars of extraterrestrial pornography from Lil Wayne. Our enjoyment of this song never hinged upon the inclusion of the line, “I hope your vagina tight.” As it happens, we get this anyway.