The wait is finally over. Yesterday we saw the full length song for the much hyped Badshah & Major Lazer collaboration. This was the first of its kind collaboration between these artists of two countries. Did it live up to the hype? Let’s find out.

Badshah with Major Lazer

Badshah is a great artist. He has snatched the top tier, elite status after Honey Singh’s long absence, and moulded it into his own persona. He has been trying to find the gap between commercial and underground one step at a time. Much respect for that. Not many artists get to do that or even want to do the same. Here’s where Badshah begs to differ.

With a layout of tracks like “Driving Slow”, “Inception”, “Baatcheet”, “Bandook” etc. We clearly see him as someone who can basically do whatever he wants to, in control of his musicality. That part is undeniable from the Badshah. “I Wanna Be Free” is a song that is a level just below Badshah’s best. The track is not his best single yet and is far from his worst. It isn’t even in between the two. It stands close to his good songs. Maybe it’s just our expectations from him. Maybe it’s the song itself.

Major Lazer do what they do best. The production, sound quality and everything else is on point. But at some point the song itself feels crammed with too many sounds at once, taking back from the feel of the entire song. This song is a party anthem regardless. It is subtle and yet at the same time it gets noisy.

Badshah does do justice to the beat itself but the verses we expected were inching towards his more flamboyant, finnesse side (e.g. driving slow) rather than his ‘chilling by the poolside verse reciting’ side. The song is sure to make people dance and vibe to it, which achieves the purpose of the song. In this way Badshah has stepped out of his usual comfort zone and reached out to a different mass of people.

In totality, the song is certainly share worthy and it deserves to be played more which were sure it will. But something always seems missing on each listen, even though the song is vibrant and colorful. Comment your views and issues regarding the song after listening to it below –