Pryor Stroud: Sprinkled with jittery percussion, frothing-at-the-mouth verses, and Skrillex’s distinctive flavor of pulse-pounding EDM, “Drum Machine” is a manic electro-hop joy ride that tries to compact as much electric energy into one space as possible. The track moves so quickly that it seems to value movement itself — getting from point-A to point-B — over what it’s passing though or where it’s going, but the pace is fast enough that this observation only arises as an afterthought. At the very least, the production is rich and heterogenous enough to warrant multiple listens, but be careful as epilepsy could be induced. [6/10]
Emmanuel Elone: Sometimes, too much of a good thing is bad. This is the case with “Drum Machine”, where the beat is some tasteful dubstep by Skrillex and a catchy chorus that incorporates some slightly distorted female vocals. Big Grams do their job as well, and bring some fun, light-hearted verses. Where this song suffers, though, is its long runtime, which wears out the dubstep/hip-hop fusion by the third minute. If the song were shorter, it would be about as great as ASAP Rocky and Skrillex’s “Wild For The Night”. As it stands, though, “Drum Machine” is far too bloated and one dimensional to be a stellar single. [6/10]
Chris Ingalls: There’s an awful lot going on here, and I suppose if I were hopped up on MDMA I’d enjoy it a lot more. Perky dance beat, scandalous rhymes, cooing female singers advertising the presence of a drum machine — you get the idea. [5/10]
Chad Miller: Almost half of Big Boi and Barthel’s contributions seemed unnecessary. It was kind of disappointing to hear so much wasted time after a really good performance by Big Boi on the first verse. [6/10]
SCORE: 5.75