Berner (feat. Wiz Khalifa & Big K.R.I.T.) – Yoko (internet, 2011)
- by Yayo

I saw this track today for the first time, and was shocked that I hadn’t read anything about it in the weeks previous. This came out on Berner’s The White Album (the cover of which features white rapper Berner sitting in a white room on a white couch in a white tracksuit with some cocaine in front of him and an albino behind him), which was released at the tail end of April. It went largely unnoticed and for good reason. I mean, look at the guy (pause); that image isn’t exactly drawing me into whatever persona he’s trying to establish.

Strangely enough, Mr. Berner enlisted the help of Wiz Khalifa and Big K.R.I.T. for their first collaboration since last year’s Glass House. If that didn’t already seem like Pitchfork bait to you, keep in mind that the title of this song is “YOKO.” In retrospect, Lil Wayne’s “John” single fairs far better if only because of how banal this track, promising on paper as it appears, ended up being.

I’m all for songs named after random celebrities – I’m a Lil B fan after all – and while they do a decent job of executing the concept (it’s about crazy bitches, obviously), the song itself is a mess. I don’t think K.R.I.T. had a hand in the production of this, or at the very least, I hope he didn’t. It’s John Carpenter’s Halloween theme reinterpreted for the 987,069th time in hip-hop, along with some Big Pimpin’ jungle-safari effects in the chorus. It feels very cheap, and not in the lo-fi indie rap sense.

Wiz sounds comfortable here, as it doesn’t stray very far from the material he was working with on Cabin Fever, but his verse still leaves a lot to be desired. This has come to be expected of young Khalifa, a rapper who never truly reached his creative peak, only living up to his potential sporadically between 2006 and 2009. Berner doesn’t fair as well. Sounding like a third-rate Bubba Sparxxx (that’s pretty bad when Haystacks is a second-rate Bubba), he completely flounders on the beat, which is rather embarrassing considering the simplicity of it. He never manages to find any sort of pace, and his verse transitions into the equally awkward K.R.I.T. verse that follows.

I am not the detractor of K.R.I.T.’s lyrics that some of my colleagues are. Although he can be a bore at times to listen to, his insightful lyrics and first-person perspective are endearing more often than not. A big reason as to why they work is K.R.I.T.’s earnest personality – unfortunately, K.R.I.T. has a tendency to abandon his humble characteristics every now and then and wander into “slick talk.” If there’s one rapper who should probably never try to mack on women, at least on record, it’s K.R.I.T. This guy is pussy repellent, and when K.R.I.T. tries to use his jamming music to pick up a girl who, and I quote, “likes rap,” his entire verse falls flat before it even leaves the ground.

you can download Berner’s White Album here for free, if you dare