Released: 2017 • Features: Rihanna, Bryson Tiller
“Wild Thoughts” by DJ Khaled featuring Rihanna and Bryson Tiller is a seductive summer anthem that straddles a melange of genres – from hip hop to R&B, and even some Latin vibes. It’s a passionate song brimming with sexual tension and indulgent desires.
The track opens with DJ Khaled’s iconic anthems, ‘Another One’ and ‘We The Best Music’. Rihanna follows with confident lines, detailing a steamy encounter. When she says, “Know you wanna see me nakey, nakey, naked / I wanna be your baby, baby, baby,” she is harnessing raw sexual tension, teasing her lover. The use of “spinning and it’s wet just like it came from Maytag” is her way of comparing the passionate situation to a Maytag washing machine – a symbol that spirals the listeners back to earthy, everyday life while still maintaining the intoxicating allure.
Rihanna continues with, “White girl wasted on that brown liquor” referencing a common phrase used to describe someone, regardless of their race, who has consumed too much alcohol – with the ‘brown liquor’ probably referring to whiskey or rum. Her verse further bites into the layers of wild thoughts and sexual tension.
The chorus, “Wild, wild, wild / Wild, wild, wild thoughts / Wild, wild, wild / When I’m with you, all I get is wild thoughts” demonstrates how the affection for her lover triggers a whirlwind of raw, unfiltered desires and thoughts in her mind.
Bryson Tiller chimes in with his own verse, affirming the seductive narrative. The line, “Fuck you ’til you’re burned out, cremation / Make it cream, yeah, Wu-Tang” smartly combines explicit sexual remarks with a nod to Wu-Tang Clan’s iconic track “C.R.E.A.M.” (‘Cash Rules Everything Around Me’). Tiller’s verse, full of similar innuendos and slick wordplay, adds to the risqué undertones and deepens the song’s intense mood.
The song constantly flips between Rihanna and Bryson, uniting their perspectives on this heated relationship that leads to these ‘wild thoughts’. It’s provocative, bold, and unapologetically sensual, proving why DJ Khaled, Rihanna, and Bryson Tiller are considered among the boundary-pushers in the realm of contemporary hip hop and R&B.
