The FADER's 2024 Songs of the Summer bracket is divided into four March Madness-style regionals, and the winner of Brat was "payme" by RADA. Below, Vivian Medithi dives into the breathy house-rap track.
Listen to the Brat episode of The FADER's Songs of the Summer Week Podcast below.
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Although I was too young to enter the club at the time, I always associate the late 2000s and early 2010s with maximalist EDM and tranced-out Eurohouse, the sort of beats that inspires young professionals to release their inhibitions and spend a little more money on drinks. "payme" leans more "Club Can't Handle Me" than Black Eyed Peas, but RADA and producer Endevour are interested in physical, rather than melodic catharsis. Throw your hands up high and that ass down low.
The backbone of this song is a deliciously tactile arpeggiated lead line layered over an insistent four-on-the-floor kick. This rock-solid foundation supports hauntingly wispy layers of melody and vocals that float in like fog. Breathy and effortless, RADA slips between an ASMR-ready stage whisper and a sugary falsetto with one of the simplest marketing pitches of all time: "if you want that new shit? Better pay me for it." That might read a little flat, but all the greatest salesmen know it's not what you say, but how you say it (RIP Billy Mays) — and RADA's voice is more magnetic than the average credit card reader. "payme" is hazy bliss, dance music intelligent enough to aim for instinctual, rather than intellectual response. In that sense, she reminds me less of electropop artists like Caroline Polachek and Charli XCX and more of electronic singers like Vika Jugulina ("Stereo Love" is one of the greatest tunes in human history) or Dev, never too moody to pop a bottle.
Choosing a song of the summer is about consensus, but that doesn't always mean "the most widely popular thing." Sometimes consensus means "everybody rocks with this song when they hear it," and whether I play it for my friends who love Key Glock or my sisters who love K-pop, this song's sticky synth groove has never failed to ring off. “Oh shit / I’m poppin’ / They play my music cuz I’m it,” RADA grins on the lone micro-verse. Maybe shutter shades were cool all along?
