We regret to inform you that musical supervillain Mr. Worldwide has now extended his domain to the very bottom of our planet’s oceans, as Warner Bros. unleashed the soundtrack for next week’s soaked superhero flick Aquaman onto the internet last night. Despite competition from crooner Skylar Grey and the film’s composer, Rupert Gregson-Williams, one track has quickly risen (possibly stomach-side up) to the top of the pile: Pitbull’s “Ocean To Ocean.” Or, as it will now always be known, “The one where Pitbull raps over ‘Africa’ by Toto.”
At two entries, “Least essential ‘Africa’ cover of 2018” turned out to be a staggeringly packed field this year, but we’ll be damned if the Miami unpleasant sound machine doesn’t just kind of go for it, rapping generically about his role as a modern Great Gatsby, a sentiment that has an impressively equal amount of nothing to do with Aquaman and “Africa.” Truly, we are all boats beating on against the current, borne back ceaselessly into a past where we had not yet heard Pitbull scream “Ayooooo!” over the hook of the best Toto song that doesn’t happen to be “Rosanna.” (Don’t at us.)
Here’s the most annoying thing, though: It’s still fucking catchy, because “Africa” is an extremely catchy song. (Also, Rhea does a perfectly fine job of singing the chorus.) And unlike, say, Weezer’s bafflingly popular cover of the song, which was inspired by a tweet, and sounded like it, Pitbull does at least make the song his own, in much the same way that a tidal wave might whilst approaching a small, undefended coastal town.