Joey Bada$$ - “Victory”

When someone said we absolutely had to check out the latest music video from NYC true-school savior Joey Bada$$, I didn't realize they were fucking with us. Probably should have seen that coming.

"Victory," you see, is an advertisement for both Mountain Dew and the National Basketball Association. This is One Of Those Things that rapping-ass rappers have to do; your boy Chance funded two years of his life doing this for the turtleneck fascists at Apple, Rakim had to pay respects to the hip hop legend that is Sprite, and Common buys rare Dilla beats thanks to brands like Lincoln and Microsoft. It's not like anyone is out here paying them for rap music, so they had to diversify. These things happen.

The beat is cleverly composed and the hook is overcooked as fuck. Curtis Jackson could probably sue if he got bored. The video looks like an advertisement for fatally caffeinated diabetes juice should: colorful, sharp, and gently seizure-inducing. It looks very much like they saved big money by shooting this at an EDM festival before the gates opened that day. Do The Dew, right?

The verses are at least clever, for whatever clever is worth. I know it takes GZA time to write a song like "Labels" or "Fame," but I also know those songs are corny as fuck. Joey weaves a bunch of team & player names into some raps. It's mostly paint-by-numbers with flashes of dope (like "every day another triple double entendre" - this is Joey, after all).

So: how do we rate this? Such quandaries would be agonizing if I wasn't getting drunk. The fact of the matter is, nothing could ever redeem product placement trash like this. Nothing against Joey Bada$$, but someone has to have some motherfucking standards around here.