College Times

Issue date: 3/27/08 Section: Music

Media Credit: Andrew Zaeh

Unlike most of hip-hop's recent hitmakers, Flo Rida doesn't really have a hook. There's no island lilt like Akon, no vocoder sound like T-Pain, no cartoonish behavior like so much of the Dirty South.

Instead, Flo Rida (pronounced like "flow rider" not like the state, even though that's where he's from) simply relies on irresistibly catchy songs on Mail on Sunday.

By now, we've all had enough of Flo's first single "Low," which has already been No. 1 for 10 weeks, and continues to rack up tons of radio airplay for its streamlined Dirty South groove about falling in lust.

But "Elevator," a collaboration with Timbaland, seems destined for more of the same dominance by offering Tim's near-patented spacey-dance backdrop, his beat-boxing flourishes and, as an added guarantee, a hook that features an "ella, ella" call. We know how that turned out the last time.

But Mail on Sunday doesn't stop there. Flo Rida has hits and collaborators that will likely last him through next year. Birdman toughens up the hip-hop march of "Priceless," Lil Wayne does the same for "American Superstar" and Rick Ross does it for "Money Right." The poppy groove of "In the Ayer," with its early '90s booty-bass drive and Will.i.am is sure to be a summertime smash, while "Ms. Hangover," a cavalcade of alcoholic product placement, should hold down the fall.

With Mail on Sunday, Flo Rida taps into something ordinary, something for regular folks and turns it into the rarest of commodities in today's music industry: a surefire hit.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools