Music Review: Flo Rida "How I Feel"

Flo Rida

How I Feel

Album: The Perfect 10

Year: 2013

         Flo Rida enjoys the perks of fame in the  plastic  “How I Feel.”

           A classy saxphone from Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good” sample opens the single, setting a fradulent tone. The chorus starts the song. Life can’t get any better. Every day is perfect. People would be crazy not to want his life. (“ Birds flying high/You know how I feel/It’s a new day/You know how I feel/Sun in the sky/You know how I feel/It’s a new day/You know how I feel.”)

      Once he became a celebrity, he changed. He thinks he should be an example. He’s had hit singles and dance music fans love him.  He has staying power. His music fills the clubs. With the money he makes from touring, he can buy whatever he wants. (“Yeah, I’m a new man, baby/Your other men probably should follow my blueprint, baby/Strap on your seat, and get ready to go/You know I’ve been filling BeatPort/3 million feed up in the sky full diamonds/I’m only beginning and I get the feeling/I’m behind the beat for the nighters/I got a few Miami Viaces/I don’t ever look at the prices/My super boutique is a wiseless /You know who the king of the night is/Beautiful music for you to go lower/And when girl go work, this for life/Think I’m bipolar.”)

          The chorus is sung again.

        At exclusive parties, he’s the draw. His eyes hurt from the constant flashing of the cameras. He doesn’t mind it, though. As long as he looks good in the photographs. He’s a star and it’s his dream to be known. After the party is over, he and a couple friends take off in his private jet. His rap career is the love of his life. It’s given him expensive, fantastic things. He says his talent has let him get as far as he has. (“Where the feeling I get the throw up my pistols/From party, and bigger than life/50 bottles of Luminis/24 kick, pop my dollars, wake up for the night/Cameras flicking, I see me/You’re fixing, I’m fixing my color/My natural height/She can get it, my whole click with it/No question, we are on the champion flight/This I roll ride, my passenger fly/We take off in London and land in the Dubai/This is a marriage, the music my ride/My life is so lavish, you don’t recognize/So let’s toast to a new day in Rochan/80 million they still rollercoasting/What’s the recipe to this devotion?/I got the melody, sober like couches.”)

         In the bridge, rumors are going around on the Internet that he’s not selling records anymore. He blows it off, saying he’s still popular. Meanwhile, he plans on getting drunk. (“Who told y’all the party’s over?/Well, it ain’t over till I told y’all/I fill my cup on and over/Tonight I won’t might be sober /But oh, tonight, I’m like.”)

          The chorus is sung again to end the single.

 
       Flo Rida’s emotionless rap ticks off the requirements of a famous rapper while presenting the most boring advertisement for BeatPort. His attempts to make up his own lingo fail. It becomes gibberish. But somehow, only the BeatPort mention makes enough sense. However, without any juicy details or salacious scandal to the lyrics, it’s simply from one material object to the other.

         The tedious “How I Feel,” in all its put-on glamour, can barely figure out where the smoke is to cover the screen.