Fire Verse or Hot Feature?. A song is better with a Fire Verse or…
By: Jordan Smith
Tags: Music, Songs, Rap, Hip Hop, Features

What’s the difference between having a fire verse and having a hot feature on a hip hop/pop song?

To me there’s a discernible difference, but at the same time one type of those features isn’t necessarily better than the other. You can have a hot feature without spitting a fire verse and at the same time you can have a fire verse, but not necessarily be a hot feature. A hot feature also doesn’t refer to someone coming in and solely singing the hook either. There’s more to it. Confused? Allow me to explain.

When I say an artist has a fire verse, what I mean by that is that they’re featured in a song and they’re essentially a scene-stealer making the final product way better than if it stood on it’s own. They’re the Viola Davis of the track. By that I mean they’re clearly a lead actor in their own right, but in this case they’re winning their Oscar for a supporting role.

What’s a hot feature, though? Oh, I’ll tell you. A hot feature makes the song a lot better as well, but at the same time they’re verse could be whack or complete nonsense. You don’t notice it’s nonsense, though, because a hot feature is fun, rhythmic, fills the song with signature ad-libs, and are often heard in more than one part of the song. By comparison, they’re like a utility running back. Not always great at doing one thing, but are good at doing multiple things and being effective.

Let’s look at some examples, but first I had to make a few points:

I only looked at songs that are in the collective conscious of even the most casual of hip-hop/pop listeners. I.e. I didn’t do a deep dive into underground rap albums. I didn’t include EDM songs that label artists like Justin Beiber or Bebe Rexha as features even though they sing the whole time. The examples may be completely biased and I need you to understand that. I love certain artists more than others and don’t always understand some others. Don’t agree with the examples? Great! Let me know in the comments. I also avoided group projects where you’re not entirely sure who did all the work and who slid by just to get an A. Basically, anything by DJ Khaled, David Guetta and songs like Sucker for Pain by Imagine Dragons. And finally, the songs sampled here are largely going to be from the past 12–18 month range or if they still get radio play.

Got it? Good, let’s go to work.

Fire Verses

Chance the Rapper

Looking at fire verses was the most fun, but also the easiest. It’s easy because Chance the Rapper is Chance the Rapper and I’m confident he’s never spit a whack line in his life. Lil Chano from 79th’s verse on Kanye’s Ultralight Beam was transcendent for all who aspire to lay down a fire verse. People aren’t getting baptized with water anymore cause they just play Chance’s Ultralight Beam verse and they’re automatically cleansed of all their sins.

When Chance said:

Foot on the Devil’s neck ’til it drifted Pangaea

I’m moving all my family from Chatham to Zambia

I shed a single tear for how the flow was taking over.

Chance loves Kanye as well. Almost as much as Kanye loves Kanye. Both Chicago natives, Chance gets a lot of influence from ‘Ye for being your own artist and not being an ‘establishment rapper.’ So the tribute Chance paid to Kanye in Kanye’s own song by saying:

I made Sunday Candy, I’m never going to hell

I met Kanye West, I’m never going to fail

Were bars that were an homage to Kanye’s lines in Otis* (a very dope song), detailed the young Grammy winner’s respect for the veteran MC, and also reminded us that Sunday Candy is an awesome work of art that should be listened to twice a day and 3 times on Sundays.

Chance the Rapper has God-level flow, but there are also other artists that can bring the heat for a fire verse. Nicki Minaj and rival Remy Ma have also brought it hard (Remy Ma more recently) in popular tracks.

Remy went hard when she jumped back in the mainstream for a guest verse on Fat Joe’s All The Way Up. There are plenty of elements here of old school guest verses. It was raunchy, talked about currency, and the ending flowed right back into the hook.

Nicki Minaj

Nicki is notorious for taking a song and making it her own. Not just in the music videos either. She’s dropped bars on numerous Drake songs and pop songs. Every basic girl in the world knows all the lyrics to her verse on Trey Songz’s Bottoms Up. She stole Dance (A$$) and My Chick Bad. I know this breaks the 4th point I made above, but she even hijacked Monster not to be out-shined by heavyweights West, Jay-Z and Rick Ross. I’m listing Minaj as an example of a fire verse because of her body of work. The songs she features on are still getting radio or club play and that’s largely because of how she comes in and breathes fire.

Nicki’s a relief pitcher that can come in and strike out 9 batters in 3 innings on 27 pitches.

*The music video for Otis features a cameo by Aziz Ansari as one of the greatest music video cameos of all-time.

Hot Features

Fetty Wap

The best artists at coming in with a hot feature are generally the unconventional sounding. They have ad-libs that everyone likes to imitate as they sing-a-long, provide a catchy hook, or generally hype up the track. The easiest example I can think of is Fetty Wap.

Now, no offense to anyone and I haven’t listened to enough Fetty Wap songs to be certain, but his lyrics aren’t exactly the work of a Kendrick Lamar or a Common. He headlines this new wave of rappers that are coming in, singing out of tune and are largely hard to understand. Think Future, Migos, or Desiigner. This doesn’t make it bad, though. People are eating these artists up because they are unique and different. Pop Fetty Wap is also my favorite version of Fetty Wap. There’s nothing better than him having a hot feature on All In My Head by Fifth Harmony or Promise by Kid Ink. You’re also the worst liar if you tell me you haven’t sat in your car and let out a “SQWAAAAH” or a “BABAAAAYYY” in the most Fetty Wap-voice possible.

Collegrove

Before Fetty, Future, or any individual Migo (individual Migos? I don’t know) there were The Godfather’s of the hot feature: 2 Chainz and Lil Wayne aka ColleGrove. These two are always featuring on songs with ad-libs and one-liners. And ColleGrove isn’t a rap-duo name, it’s an album name because these two literally love featuring on songs so much they made an entire album of themselves sharing songs. Their bars aren’t always the most creative and sometimes flat out don’t even rhyme, but they’re said with such bravado and flare you can’t help but yell out with 2 Chainz when he says loving bad bitches is a fuckin’ problem and reciting any of Wayne’s 32 nicknames.