If you say you had a Mary J. Blige drill song on your 2022 Bingo card, you’d be lying through your teeth. While Mary has always been heavily intertwined with Hip Hop, standing at the forefront of the mixed Rap and R&B scene, she has taken another leap in the marriage of the two sounds on her new album Good Morning Gorgeous. In the past we’ve heard her rap, feature on lyrical tracks and club bangers alike, and provide hooks for anthems. Now, 2022 sees her tackling the hottest rising sound in the audioscape as well.
“On Top” is a drill track through and through. Some artists use attributes of drill music in their songs to add a flair, but the sonic structure and direction doesn’t fall into the subgenre entirely. They’ll take the sliding 808s and echoed snares, then opt to leave behind the pattern itself. Mary, on the other hand, jumped into it fully and delivered her verses over the current New York sound. Of course, having rising star Fivio Foreign as accompaniment doesn’t hurt.
Fivio Foreign, 30 year old New York native and Drill aficionado, comes through and shines (as he tends to do on such instrumentation). The song has monumentous, victorious energy, which is Fivio’s bread and butter. His approach is best demonstrated on tracks like “Off The Grid,” from Ye’s Donda album, and his most recent track “City Of Gods.” He and Mary executed what they came to do, and delivered a track with grandiose tones for listeners to get hype to.
Listen to “On Top” below: