Two Sides of a Bad Proposition

The original Er will Sex is an SXTN track—Juju and Nura, Berlin’s most enjoyably caustic rap duo—about the particular taxonomy of men who mistake persistence for charm. The guy on the moped. The unsolicited Nokia dick pic. The Netflix-and-chill propositioner who also, pointedly, cooks dinner and holds doors, as if good behavior is an installment plan toward getting laid. It’s funny and precise and kind of devastating in the way the best writing about desire usually is.

The WDR unplugged remix pairs them with Henning May from AnnenMayKantereit, a Cologne band that makes indie-folk sounding like it was recorded in a stairwell on purpose. May’s voice is a strange instrument—raw in a way that doesn’t feel performed—and hearing him trade verses with Juju’s laconic delivery creates a friction neither act could produce alone. He takes the other side of the argument: you want me, but I forbid it, I’m closed off to you. The reversal is blunt and it works.

What makes the collaboration interesting isn’t the concept but the chemistry. The acoustic arrangement strips both acts to their essentials, and what’s left holds up. Juju sounds like she’s not trying at all, which is the hardest thing to fake. May sounds like he is trying, desperately, which is exactly right for his side of the song. Two different registers of wanting, neither one getting what it came for.