DJ Khaled – “Top Off” (Feat. Jay-Z, Beyoncé, & Future)
DJ Khaled singles can feel more like fame-flexing celebrity events than like actual songs, but “Top Off,” his latest, somehow sounds like both. Two years ago, Khaled paired up Jay-Z with Future on “I Got The Keys.” Last year, he got Jay-Z and Beyoncé on the same song with “Shining.” And today, he’s got Jay, Future, and Beyoncé on “Top Off,” apparently the first single from Khaled’s coming album Summer Of Asahd. And as a nice little bonus, it’s also a pretty good song!
Jay dominates the song, and it’s a different look for him. After hearing Jay-Z get all humble and inward-looking on 4:44, it’s fun to hear him recover some of his old swagger for “Top Off.” It’s not like he’s back at 1998 levels or anything, but Jay is back to talking shit, and it’s one of his finer shit-talking performances in recent years. Production is credited to Joe Zarillo, Beyoncé, and DJ Khaled, and it’s a hammering trap track, miles removed from the graceful No I.D. tracks of 4:44. Jay attacks it nicely.
The Future hook is fairly autopilot, but the song does jump up a couple of levels when Beyoncé arrives in fuck-you-up vengeful-goddess form. After a couple of years of public drama, it seems that she and Jay are once again a united world-domination front, which is oddly reassuring. And it’s just a blast to hear her shooting lasers out of her eyeballs like this. Check out the track below.
Summer Of Asahd is on the way. Let’s see how many famous people Khaled can throw on tracks together this time!