This week we take a detailed look at Kelly Rowland’s “Ice” featuring Lil Wayne. We know Kelly as being an ex-member of Destiny’s Child, which suffered the same fate as ‘N Sync. She, like JC Chasez, has failed to make a significant impact in the mainstream media. Her latest release Year of the Woman features this track as a lead single. Apparently this is her fourth album. I was only aware of one other single in her solo career, but I suppose I do not listen to a lot of B-list R&B anymore. If this is the best song on the record, it is no wonder I have not heard it until now.
Destiny's Child feat. Kelly Rowland seen right
Compositionally, this is a slow and relaxed song. Driving beat with a very soft melody. It is a prototypical “sex jam”. That is really the only good thing about this song. I imagine a very sultry video and the potential to be used on a “booty music” mix CD. The same beat and melody is used throughout. Simple hip hop drums over a soft synth. Various digital chopping and stutter effects are used to keep things modern. Pepper in some finger snaps and claps to keep it personal. The vocal is pretty uninspiring. No real voice acrobatics going on, but I guess smooth and simple is what they were going for. Trouble is, this has been done hundred times before and been done much better. The Lil Wayne cameo comes after the second verse, as he tends to. He chose to skip the autotune on this track and use the higher end of his voice. Not his most pleasant work by a long shot.
Lil Wayne aka Weezy
So the beat, composition and arrangement are a little boring, you might say, what about the lyrics? Well those are a supreme disappointment as well. We open with a chorus of “You’re like ice/I-C-E/Feels so nice/Scorchin’ me/You’re so hot/Baby, your love is so hot”. We are off to a fantastic start, using the simple symbol of an ice cube and comparing it to how hot her partner and their act is.The ice cube jokes do not stop there. We go into the typical “I’ve been waiting”, “this act is long overdue”, and detailed sex diatribe. The ice cube is used as a sex toy and the act gives her chills. It is difficult to call these puns or a play on words. We go on discuss positions, her submissive behavior; this man is some sort of heaven sent sex god. She fails to say anything profound, make a point, or let us in on any sort of personal feeling, other than giving us a keyhole glance into her sex life. Lil Wayne proceeds to play along with cute sex jokes, more talk of positions and generally saying things that are impossible for the sake of trying to be funny. Normally, I am entertained by Wayne’s not-so-serious and even laughably bad rapping, but here he fails to even amuse me.
So four and three-quarter minutes of lackluster beat and poor lyrics, and I am bored out of my mind. It seems to cater to those who either blindly like the typical sex jam (because we apparently need new ones every few years; I personally thought Boys2Men had this covered well over a decade ago), hardcore Kelly fans (of which there are approximately 50) and those who were fans of their last collaboration, 2011’s “Motivation” which unbeknownst to me went Platinum. It seems as though trying to replicate that chemistry was an utter failure as this song was released in August and is just now scraping the bottom of the chart. Maybe I am out of touch, maybe I am too old school, maybe I am just a hater, but this track did absolutely nothing for me despite generally being a fan of the Weezy cameo.
it seems ice cubes WERE harmed in the making of this song
/p