Reception
"Yeah!" was lauded by contemporary critics for its production. Jem Aswad of Entertainment Weekly called it "irresistibly crunked-out", adding, "ensuing track glides smoothly between club-friendly hip-hop soul and ballads." Laura Sinagra Rolling Stone commented that the song "creates sensual panic by combining Usher's jumpy attacks with Jon's sublime, frayed beats." Jon Caramanica of Blender noted that "Yeah!" is the first song to mix "mainstream R&B and menacing Southern crunk." Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine said that the song has brought Usher to a "whole new level of crunk." Andy Kellman of Allmusic described the song as a "crunk-meets-R&B foundation" which features an "instantly addictive eight-note keyboard vamp". He added that because it is "absorbing", Ludacris' voice cannot be noticed that much. Matt Cibula of Popmatters characterized the song as a "full-fledged club über-crunk salacious" but he added that it fails to be a "club banger". Steve Jones of USA Today referred to "Yeah!" as a "club-rattling" song from a combination of "Atlanta's vibrant music scene", Lil Jon's "insistent beats" and Ludacris' "racy rhymes". Robert Hilburn of Los Angeles Times described "Yeah!" as a "raucous tale of dance-floor seduction" which pop musician Michael Jackson would have produced in 2004, if he "still had the old Thriller magic".
Usher also garnered praise for the song, Aswad called it the "grittiest song" Usher had sung for revealing his "newfound maturity". Caramanica said that it is "probably the scariest record – in a good way – he's ever made" and Usher "smartly shares the spotlight." Cibula stated that Usher's "smoove-ass" singing and Ludacris' presence contributes to the success of the single. "Yeah!" was nominated at the 2005 Grammy Awards for Record of the Year, and won the Best Rap/Sung Collaboration award. At the 2005 Soul Train Music Awards, "Yeah!" was nominated for best R&B/Soul or Rap Dance Cut.
Read more about this topic: Yeah! (Usher Song)
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“I gave a speech in Omaha. After the speech I went to a reception elsewhere in town. A sweet old lady came up to me, put her gloved hand in mine, and said, “I hear you spoke here tonight.” “Oh, it was nothing,” I replied modestly. “Yes,” the little old lady nodded, “that’s what I heard.””
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)
“But in the reception of metaphysical formula, all depends, as regards their actual and ulterior result, on the pre-existent qualities of that soil of human nature into which they fall—the company they find already present there, on their admission into the house of thought.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)
“To the United States the Third World often takes the form of a black woman who has been made pregnant in a moment of passion and who shows up one day in the reception room on the forty-ninth floor threatening to make a scene. The lawyers pay the woman off; sometimes uniformed guards accompany her to the elevators.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)