Well, here’s another artist you won’t see any more of from this point. Quite a shame, to be honest. Ever since I heard Anderson .Paak’s Malibu in early 2016, I’ve been a follower of the work he’s done ever since. It’s been a good few years since his last solo projects of Oxnard and Ventura, both of which I thought were merely okay. They just didn’t match the brilliance of Malibu in my view. There would be a lot more songs to talk about on here had that album came out earlier. I have a run-through of those contenders in the other post I did for a song from the LP. As it is though, you get two tracks from there and two tracks only. But I’d implore you to listen to that record in any spare time you possess.

Unbeknownst to me, by the time I was listening to Malibu the first time, its tenth song ‘Room in Here’ had been out as a single and available to the public for a couple months or so. And just listening through it, you can probably tell why it was chosen to be a representative to get people excited for the album that was to come. The jazzy piano loop lures you in, the chorus begins it all with a call-and-response dynamic going between Paak and singer Sonyae Elise who provides the harmonising responses. Paak gets all soulful during the verses, singing the first halves of them before sort of sing-talking for the other. It’s an interesting method of delivery. Very engaging though as his words bounce off the charging kick drum patterns. And capping it off comes a strong verse from The Game to give his streetwise take on the subject matter. To sum things up, it’s got something for everyone in regards to the choice as a single.

Like a lot of other songs in any genre, this song’s about wanting to get close to a lady. Paak makes it clear that he intends to go the gentlemanly route, wants to know what’s on their mind rather than fantasizing about her body and to make things as comfortable for them as possible in the large amount of space available in the room they’re occupying. The Game follows suit, recognising that the lady in his respective situation is clearly in a higher class than those he’s usually used to being with. He states he has to put in the work if there’s any chance at anything more, starting with a simple walk to her Uber cab. Yeah, this song’s a jam. It’s those like this that were missing on the albums that followed. With Oxnard he went in a more hip-hop direction, with Ventura leaning to R&B. They never caught that good balance of Malibu. Plus, the songs didn’t hit me as hard. But whatever .Paak does I’ll be there for it. That magic will come back one day.