page_title: Black Beatles
section_title: Critical reception
hierarchical_section_title: Black Beatles / Critical reception
caption_attribution_description: Gucci Mane at the Williamsburg Waterfront, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, August 29, 2010
context_page_description: "Black Beatles" is a song by American hip hop duo Rae Sremmurd. It was released on September 13, 2016 by EarDrummers and Interscope Records as the third single from their second studio album SremmLife 2. The song features guest vocals from American rapper Gucci Mane and is produced by Mike Will Made It.
  Following viral exposure, due in large part to its role in the Mannequin Challenge trend, it became both Rae Sremmurd's and Gucci Mane's first number-one single on both the US Billboard Hot 100 and the New Zealand Official New Zealand Music Chart as well as their first top ten appearances in countries such as Australia, Canada, and the UK.
context_section_description: Andrew Unterberger of Billboard stated that "Black Beatles" is "a vital, quintessentially youthful song, which is extremely welcome in this oncoming era of social conservatism. Though both brothers Khalif 'Swae Lee' Brown and Aaquil 'Slim Jxmmi' Brown are now of legal voting age, as an entity Rae Sremmurd remains decidedly new-wave, part of Atlanta's bumper crop of young MCs who are less concerned with paying fealty to hip-hop history than they are with blowing out the genre's formalistic constraints to their own thrilling, individualistic ends. Which isn't to say that the Chainsmokers and Halsey were stodgy and back-to-basics, either -- 'Closer' was, in some ways, a blockbusting song in its own right—but after 12 weeks, any song becomes Establishment. Change was needed, and change was delivered." He also stated that while "'Black Beatles' is certainly not an explicitly political song, and the duo might understandably roll their eyes at any reading of their now-signature hit that suggests that it is," he praised the duo for the group's tribute to the Beatles and their ability to subvert expectations of the status quo.
  Rolling Stone's editor Rob Sheffield ranked "Black Beatles" at number ten in his year-end list:
  "No wonder Macca himself is a fan. The rap duo come together and rock their John Lennon lenses with a party-and-bullshit anthem so undeniable it hit Number One. Everybody's welcome at their club: young bloods, old geezers, weirdo girls with green hair, dealers, haters, Gucci Mane. A blunted time is guaranteed for all."
  Pitchfork would later list "Black Beatles" on their ranking of the 100 best songs of 2016 at number 10. Meanwhile, Billboard named "Black Beatles" the best pop song of 2016. In the annual Village Voice's Pazz & Jop mass critics poll of the year's best in music in 2016, "Black Beatles" was ranked at number 4.
caption: "Black Beatles" features guest vocals from Atlanta-based rapper Gucci Mane
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