You’d never know just from the opening bars of “Slow Twerkin’” just how potent a melodic presence 3B Rich can be when they’ve got nothing in their way to slow them down, but as the song presses on, it becomes clear how much of a sonic juggernaut this 3-piece unit can be in the right circumstances. 3B Rich unleash a wave of harmony-based thunder in this piece, toeing the line between R&B and hip-hop like the two aesthetics were always meant to run together as opposed to separately, and while they’re a fresh face to me and a lot of international critics at the moment, they don’t appear poised to remain under the radar of the mainstream for very much longer.
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/3bRich
The hook in “Slow Twerkin’” is strong, but I wouldn’t say it’s the main draw in this single. If anything, it’s the lead-in to the chorus that really sets up the most exciting moment for the track, as the vocals gain pressure from the ascending bassline and the percussion breaks up the tension in one single swoop. I wouldn’t normally want the drums as loud as they are at the climax of this song, but I can also appreciate the angle that 3B Rich was trying to go for in giving them as much of a presence as they did. More percussive energy means less oomph from the bass, and compared to what their peers have been going with on a consistent basis in 2022, this is a much leaner, meaner look for sure.
Pop music usually revolves around a chorus that binds together the verses with the melodies in a singular, profound moment, and it’s in this department that you could say 3B Rich’s debut is on par with the standard in the genre. That said, I think the climactic release in “Slow Twerkin’” is just a bit more significant than most because of the manner in which it’s being presented by the players; they’re all-in on this harmony, pushing the verses into a cauldron of conservative melodic surrealism, and by the time they get to the other side of the chorus it feels like we’ve learned something greater about their depth as performers than we would from listening to entire albums from most of the artists in their scene today.
I didn’t know anything about 3B Rich ahead of hearing “Slow Twerkin’” for the first time just recently, but it’s quite obvious that they’re sitting on a superb style of R&B that needs to score some spotlight ahead of summer’s official start. The plasticity of the modern melodic hip-hop aesthetic is largely missing from this piece, and better yet, the pseudo-punkishness of cloud rap’s more harmony-driven content is also nowhere to be found in “Slow Twerkin’.” This is a unique hybrid of contemporary pop conceptualism and old school R&B framing, and if it’s used without a lot of indulgence worked into the mix, I think it’s going to bring 3B Rich a lot of much-deserved attention from both critics and listeners hungry for original hooks around the globe.
Garth Thomas