Listen Up: Futuristic and Devvon Terrell Remix Justin Beiber’s “Love Yourself”

Justin Beiber’s “Love Yourself” is a little passive aggressive. 

The chorus — “You should go and love yourself” — is a radio-friendly, PG-rated euphemism, and we all know it. The entire song, is a soft-sung but snotty dismissal of an ex-girlfriend. It’s arrogant, too. Justin Beiber might be the only singer on the planet that could take a lovely, stripped down pop melody written by Ed Sheeran and twist it into a smirking middle finger to someone he used to love.

That’s why we like Futuristic & Devvon Terrell’s remix of the song. Where Beiber dances around the point, these two barge straight through it. Futuristic spits some verses that start out with how he falls in love with someone (“you know I’m busy but not too busy for you / when I set the table I always set it for two”) before describing how he’s had enough (“everytime you call me phone I ignore it / you don’t miss me you’re just bored with the world you chose to explore”). Terrell made a name for himself making impressive, in-the-studio live covers of famous pop songs. His voice is powerful and versatile, and his vocals power through the cover. Be sure to listen to what he does with the chorus of “Love Yourself” — he simply says what we all were thinking all along. 

Futuristic and Devvon Terrell’s album Coast 2 Coast came out on Christmas and is available on iTunes.