Florida rapper, singer, producer, and hitmaking CEO Jordan Hollywood returns with “The Ugly Song,” the speaker-rattling, Timbaland-featuring lead single from his upcoming album, Only the Paranoid Survive. Out today via Quality Control Music/Motown Records, the song is accompanied by a captivating, cinematic, and often hilarious music video that finds the artist progressing from the country to the country club.
“It’s crazy how 20 years ago how I enjoyed this song as kid and now it’s part of my legacy. It’s one thing to get a Timbaland beat or to get him to clear a sample but it’s special when the legend himself steps in the booth with you and adds his touches to your vison,” says Jordan Hollywood. “I never in a million years thought I’d get to work with the hitmaker. With the video I told the director ‘I want this shit to feel like an open world video game where I have freedom to randomly do things my way.’ “The Ugly Song” is just the start.”
An homage to Bubba Sparxxx’s Timbaland-produced single “Ugly,” “The Ugly Song” is a banging reinterpretation that flips the early 2000s classic for a new generation. The instrumental deftly chops Timbaland’s Bollywood-influenced melodies and pairs them with quaking drums and trap percussion. Offering both his blessing and his vocals, Timbaland delivers his signature ad-libs (“ficky ficky”), while Hollywood effortlessly glides over the beat. As ever, Hollywood stuffs his melodic and athletic bars full of witty metaphors: “Snitches they get stitches, they gon’ pick ‘em up and sew ‘em / Snakes all in my grass, I gotta go outside and mow ‘em.” This is Hollywood flexing on his enemies, making it rain in the club to celebrate wins past and present. “The Ugly Song” follows Timbaland’s galvanic VERZUZ battle with Swizz Beatz filled with throwbacks.
