Posted by Andrew Unterberger on 05/15/2012 at 11:37 AM Reviews

The Popdust Files: new songs, rick ross, touch'n you, usher

“It’s a real lyrical album, It’s a real street album,” Rick Ross said of much-anticipated upcoming LP God Forgives I Don’t in a recent video blog entry. “But I wanted to most definitely let all the sexy ladies know that I got something for y’all. I’ma take care of y’all. That’s what the Usher record is.” The “Usher record” in question is presumptive GFID lead single “Touch’n You,” which appears to  be the album’s designated slow jam, as well as Usher returning the favor for Rozay showing up for a guest verse on the “Lemme See” track from his own soon-released album Looking for Myself.

Ross, a hard man by most estimations, is no stranger to showing his softer side—in very limited, guarded doses, such as “Aston Martin Music” and “You the Boss,” tracks ostensibly for the ladies that still manage to be fairly self-aggrandizing. (Sorry, girls—Rozay is who he is.) “Touch’n You” is a worthy enough addition to this mini-catalogue of Ricky’s, a softly produced number with incessant synth-claps (a la The-Dream’s work on Rihanna’s “Birthday Cake,” though without anything resembling that number’s edginess) and a lyrical theme on the subject of…well, the song’s not inaccurately titled, anyway.

It’s not a particularly noteworthy or memorable song, really. Usher sings about how he’s “been touch’n’ you all day / Still can’t get my mind off your body” (of course you can’t get your mind off it if you’re in the process of spending all day touching it, Ush), while Rick Ross chimes in “I love it when she speak a different language / I touch it at so many different angles.” (90 degrees? 180 degrees? 45 DEGREES????) Ross also takes the time to throw in yet another 2Pac reference (“Smoking on that Cali bumping 2 Pac / It’s me against the world”) and get a Ciroc shoutout in just before the end (“Another bottle of Ciroc, baby, let’s have a toast”), finishing off the checklist with record efficiency. Not terrible, but let’s hope this wasn’t the song holding up the album’s release.

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POPDUST SAYS:
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