Ray J, the artist better known as Brandy’s brother, continues to chase the pop charts and his respect as a man with new music. While Ray is very talented, that talent is often overshadowed by raunchy lyrics and his larger than life antics on and off the television screen. When it comes to his music, we never know which Ray J we're going to get. Will it be another “One Wish,” or are we going to get “I Hit It First”? His newest single “Brown Sugar” falls somewhere in the middle.
While the song is about Ray J getting high off the love of a former flame, it’s not a D’Angelo remake. (Thank God for small blessings.) The track starts off innocently enough with some beatboxing before going into an engaging piano riff, which brings up images of Ray J’s notorious piano solo at Floyd Mayweather’s mansion. Ray J then launches into his patented “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!” and dives into sweet lyrics such as, “Girl, we could have had kids when you were chopping my timber.” Co-star Lil Wayne delivers even more bizarre lyrics that can only be considered romantic in the most extreme way. Lines such as "I’m all over Uranus / Yeah, I’m crowding your space,” and “I got some cocaine on the mirror / You can powder your face,” while entertaining, aren’t quite the sweet nothings anyone wants to hear in their ear while trying to reconnect with a past lover.
“Brown Sugar” has the makings of a good song, but it falls short a bit with the delivery. Some of the raunchier lyrics disturb the groove and the hardness of the bass line makes the chorus and verses merge together, only separated by the "Yeah-Yeah-Yeah"'s. While we could never say the boy isn't entertaining or talented, what we will say is this wasn’t for us.
