“Tints” [ft. Kendrick Lamar]

Ever since Anderson .Paak got the spotlight in 2015 on Dr. Dre’s Compton, he has been dropping ”Grand Theft Auto“-level cruising jams like “Tints” into the world. “Tints” is the latest single from Paak’s next solo venture Oxnard, and it feels like a corporate version of a song that’s supposed to make me want to ride top down through an unaffordable California neighborhood like a Clueless character. Little is left to the imagination, as Paak drops in a Target back-to-school commercial hook that tells everyone exactly how the song should make them feel: “I need tints (windows tinted)/I need tints (I need my windows tinted).”

It’s a shame that Anderson uses the great production here—the funky guitar, the deeply pocketed drums, and a handful of intoxicating melodies—to pull in Kendrick Lamar for another one of his placeholder pop features. When Kendrick is asked to operate at any level besides 100, he stumbles awkwardly through his verses like he does here. That laid-back, breezy California energy radiating from both is forced, starchy, and actually not any of the chill fun it’s supposed to be. I feel more like I’m in an IKEA food court stabbing at a Swedish meatball wondering why I can’t escape another mid-tempo hit from Anderson .Paak.