Day 31: "Poke Her Face" feat. Jae Millz / "Gucci Gucci" – No Ceilings, 2009 / Sorry 4 The Wait, 2011Lady Gaga's new album Joanne comes out tonight at midnight (well, tomorrow, but you'll still be up, and we live in a minute-by-minute world), so naturally today is a day of reflection for the Monsters of the world. Or something like that. Anyway, I was trying to think if Wayne and Gaga have ever collaborated, something that Google reassures me did not happen. Which is kind of crazy to think about! Mother Monster and The Best Alien/Goblin Rapper Alive would seem a natural pairing, not least because radio circa 2009 was almost entirely owned by these two. Yet they've never actually worked together, as far as I can tell (it's possible there was something behind the scenes that never saw the light of day, I suppose).The closest thing we get is Wayne's freestyle over "Poker Face" from his 2009 mixtape No Ceilings, which, oof. I remember this tape as being mostly good because it was the last thing Wayne did before prison and, as I've mentioned, marked the end of his peak era run. But this song feels like a strong indicator of why the Gaga/Wayne chemistry was not meant to be, for the very simple reason that it sucks tremendously. Wayne and perpetual Young Money fourth-stringer Jae Millz rap a bunch of bad sex punchlines (i.e. Millz's "I love your miniskirt (why) / that's easy access"), which culminate in Wayne declaring "I poke her face off and now she faceless / I just gave Poker Face a facelift." So yeah, not the standout moment the Monsters of the world deserve—it's so bad that, especially by claiming it's a "facelift" of the original, it almost constitutes grounds for beef.Wayne's other notable Gaga moment isn't dramatically better, but maybe it absolves him a little. On 2011's Sorry 4 The Wait, his next mixtape after No Ceilings, he hopped on Kreayshawn's "Gucci Gucci" and rapped a hook about that white girl, "call it Lady Gaga." Then and now, this song is mostly notable for the fact that Wayne, who made a reputation for himself jacking the beats of semi-obscure regional rap hits, chose to rap over a tinny novelty internet hit (although I'll still stan for "Gucci Gucci"). There are few moments that capture Wayne's omnivorous approach to pop culture more than him talking about Lady Gaga as he raps over a Kreayshawn beat, and, in that respect, I think he and Gaga are very much peers. Gaga's career has been one of constant reinvention and toying with visions of what constitutes pop spectacle. Wayne isn't quite so varied in his transformations, but fundamentally he's asking a lot of the same questions. And who knows, maybe he has a pop country album up his sleeve, too.Follow Kyle Kramer on Twitter.
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