With the recent release of Marteen’s “Sriracha” single, all the fears people hold for the new rap age suddenly feel absolutely warranted. The 16-year old pop-rap artist sings about an unnamed female with “a body like Sriracha,” denoting that his significant other looks appealing to the eye. This hook, the basis of the song, grows old entirely too fast. The incredible amount of times the high school singer raps about how attractive his “Lil ‘Racha” looks makes all but middle school girls want to crawl into a hole and scream continuously.

Marteen enjoys making comparisons to food when rapping about women, and he makes that apparent to listeners before the first verse even hits. He makes mention to hot sauce, cinnamon caramel, and how his unnamed female companion comes from a predetermined recipe. The listener can also imagine Marteen’s romantic lady friend as “shining like a rhinestone,” a well known imitation diamond made from a type of plastic that ultimately misses its point when trying to say his love interest looks enticing.

The lyrics, as horrendous as they appear, do not entirely make the song awful. Marteen does. His vocal delivery, typical of an artistically unripe 16 year old, hurts the ears with awkward transitions between flowing raps and melodic singing. Nothing feels natural in his attempt to make his way across the track, and listeners can easily tell the producer needed to stay a couple weekends at the studio to fix the horrendous vocals. The nonexistent substance in the song fails to engage the audience, but they can appreciate Marteen’s seemingly sincere attempt at making art.

But of course, the pain does not stop there. A music video released on YouTube seals any doubts that Marteen in fact sounds and looks like an awkward child. The uncoordinated and robotic dancing Marteen does on top of a car, or with one foot on a stool aimlessly playing a piano, fills the bare minimum for what constitutes a rap music video. The out of place sexual imagery leaves viewers confused, as one can only imagine what Marteen’s parents thought about their child rapping about his “Lil ‘Racha” and all her captivating glory at only sixteen years old.

The one saving grace of “Sriracha” comes from what Marteen could not touch — the production. The beat sits well on the ears, but does contain off-sounding 808 drums in the back. The producer, JR Rotem, the same from songs like “Centuries” by Fall Out Boy or the 2009 radio sensation “Replay” by Iyaz, carries the song. Overall, Rotem makes the song bearable enough for a comfortable head bob, but upon any closer inspection, the song falls apart.

In an interview, Marteen said, “The song started kinda as a joke one day when I was eating some fried rice with Sriracha on it in the studio and told my producer JR [Rotem] that we should make a song called Sriracha,” which perfectly sums up the song.

The Chant’s grade: F