Mac Miller – “Dang!” (feat. Anderson .Paak) (Singles Going Steady)

Nathaniel Schwass: Pairing up with XXL Freshman Anderson .Paak, Mac Miller proves time and again that the craft must evolve with the artist. On this new single “Dang!,” Miller teases fans with jazzy preview for his upcoming album, The Divine Feminine. Featuring the crooning, brassy timbre of .Paak’s vocals, Mac and Paak piece together a saccharine ballad to alienated lovers, as Miller raps “Fuck ’em all, let’s be us, summer’s soft sweetness/ Heartache drunk and hang up/ What a mess I made, sense I make none.” This single is a shining example of Mac’s penchant for surprising fans and gaining new ones, all the while remaining true to his artistic vision and aesthetic pleasure. Mac and .Paak make for a great duo over the acoustic percussion and swooning synths of Pomo’s production, a sure fire summer hit and an excellent tidbit of Mac’s forthcoming release. [8/10]

Chris Ingalls: Anderson .Paak is clearly channeling Marvin Gaye with smooth pleas to a woman who’s already halfway out the door. The music, while containing plenty of contemporary touches, also has a classic soul feel — complete with sunny horn charts — that should please a nice cross-section of generations. Mac Miller’s rhymes are bawdy but breezy and glide through the track with an effortless swagger. Another great summer single. [8/10]

Chad Miller: Decent song. Anderson .Paak does a good job with the music. The song’s beat sounds pretty lazy though. The singing on the other hand is somewhat infectious. There’s a lot of emotion in the delivery. The words delivered in this song really aren’t great though. The song describes an allegedly “complicated” situation between lovers, but the song hardly has any grays in it, merely making the love interest out to be a bad person. [6/10]

SCORE: 7.33