Rod Wave, Street Runner | Track Review 🎵

Floridian rapper/singer Rod Wave drops another hot single with “Street Runner,” fueled by a Ruth B. sample.

Rapper/singer 🎙 Rod Wave had a pretty sweet year in 2020, period. 💿 Pray 4 Love was quite successful, dominating the Billboard 200.  Likely, hiss forthcoming album, 💿 SoulFly, will also be a big success.  Right now, he’s hot.  Arriving ahead of Soulfly is single 🎵 “Street Runner”, which has plenty of pros.

“Street Runner” runs north of four minutes in duration. That’s not extremely long, but in an age where shorter songs get more bang, it actually feels a bit too long.  It’s not Rod Wave who prolongs things, but the prominent sample by 🎙 Ruth B (🎵 “Mixed Signals”).  “Mixed Signals” dominates the intro, which is extended as opposed to short. It takes nearly a minute for “Street Runner” to settle in, beginning with the hard beat and piano driven backdrop (🎛 TnTXD, 🎛 London Blue, and 🎛 Karltin Bankz) following the sample.  As for Wave, he doesn’t join the mix until after the one-minute mark.

While it takes a while to get Rod Wave into the mix, as well as get into “Street Runner,” it’s well worth the wait.  As always, Wave sings well, landing somewhere between R&B and melodic rap.  Interestingly, there’s only one verse, amazing given the length of the track.  Even so, Wave makes it worth it, referencing love – missing that special somebody.  Her feelings are all over the place, but according to Rod, totally understandable: “She tell me fuck you, I hate you, then I love you, can’t blame you.” Of course, the centerpiece, the chorus focuses on fulfilling his ambitions.

“Street runner, gotta stop running sometimes
I’m in your city tonight
And these lights, make me feel so inspired
Going higher and higher and higher
Taking me higher
Higher and higher and higher.”

Following the chorus, we get an outro that once more, relies heavily on Ruth B.

Final Thoughts 💭

All in all, Rod Wave delivers another hot track with “Street Runner.” His performance and the overall theme of the record is successful.  Furthermore, the production works out nicely as well, including the integration of the Ruth B. sample.  That said, “Street Runner” runs a wee bit longer than it should, and of course, there’s a lot of sample.  Other than that nitpick, it’s all good baby!

🎙 Rod Wave • 💿 SoulFly • 🏷 Alamo • 🗓 3.26.21

[📷: Alamo]