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We’re back with a certified-fresh round of picks from the best acts in emerging R&B and hip-hop. Victoria Monet is spicing up the summer with her latest single, “On My Mama,” while Amindi and Ambré are digging into our deeper side with their introspective and smooth new offerings. On the hip-hop side of things, alternative duo Paris Texas are keeping us on our toes, while SoFaygo leans into his inner rock star.
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Freshest Find: Forest Claudette, “Pool Boy”
On his soulful new EP, Everything Was Green, Forest Claudette shines across genre spaces. On “Pool Boy,” the 23-year-old singer dips their toes into funk and hip-hop, delivering a timeless cut with a worthy message. “If I apologize with heart in hand/ With heavy eyes/ Will that absolve me?” he contemplates within the groovy track’s opening lines.
Victoria Monét, “On My Mama”
Victoria Monet is on a roll. The R&B rising star dips into her vicious rap flow on the Chalie Boy-inspired “On My Mama.” Interpolating the Texas rapper’s breakout single, Monet adds a feminine edge, breathing new life into the confident 2009 cut.
Amindi, “green house”
Boasting one of those timeless tones and cadences, Amindi can’t go wrong. “Green house” is no exception, as the Inglewood native paints a pretty picture of romantic wonder, singing, “Thinkin’ ’bout that green house you said that we’d buy when/ We get at all these millions that we get from ridin’.”
Paris Texas, “Everybody’s Safe Until…”
You can always be sure that Paris Texas will do things their way. On “Everybody’s Safe Until,” the pair dig into the intrusive thoughts about their own insignificance atop bouncy live drums, as they run away from themselves in an artfully simplistic visual. The single comes ahead of their debut album, MID AIR.
Foggieraw, “Psalm 62”
Foggieraw used the power of social media to secure Alicia Keys’s blessing for the use of her 2003 hit “You Don’t Know My Name” for his new track “Psalm 62.” In March, the DMV artist teased the song on Twitter, asking his followers, “okay guys I’ve tried everything in my power to get this out… maybe y’all could kindly ask miss alicia on my behalf lol.” Three months and nearly 60,000 likes later, Foggieraw met Keys, she cleared the sample (her first time doing so for this song) — and “Psalm 62” got its official release, via Republic Records.
Ambré, “Muse Freestyle”
The intro to her new EP, who’s loving you?, “Muse Freestyle” sees Ambré posing the title question of the five-song project. “who’s loving you? is a question I’m asking myself and asking the audience,” the New Orleans artist said in a press release. “What does it feel like? What does it sound like to be loved? I wanted to create something that felt like b-sides or deep cuts, almost like a mixtape. Still very intentional but it was very easy to make.”
SoFaygo, “BEAUTIFUL ROCKSTAR”
“I am a beautiful rockstar/ I got some folks in my life I love, so I do this s–t with my heart in it,” sings the beautiful rockstar himself, SoFaygo. The Atlanta artist delivers this high-energy song as a bonus track on his latest EP, GO+, though he first teased it on Instagram Live in December 2021. “Beautiful Rockstar” also samples Jhené Aiko and H.E.R.’s 2020 hit “B.S.”
JAHKOY, “Man On Fire”
JAHKOY is a walking flame. On “Man On Fire,” the Toronto singer exaggerates his emotions and likens them to a fire. “[The song] is about when a guy feels a spark with a woman, but not only is there a spark, it slowly turns into what becomes a full-fledged fire,” he told Billboard. “The feelings become so ignited that he is now a walking flame.”
Arlo Parks knows her art can’t please everyone — a notion she leaned into on her second album, My Soft Machine, which arrived May 26 on Transgressive Records. Following her critically acclaimed 2021 debut, Collapsed in Sunbeams, which earned the London-based 22-year-old a best new artist Grammy nomination, her poetically complex and genre-agnostic follow-up doesn’t fit neatly into any boxes designed to cluster Black, women or queer artists — as intended.
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Inspired by a wide breadth of musical artists (Deftones, Tyler, The Creator) and writers (Zadie Smith, Ocean Vuong), Parks says, “I think my music is pretty cool. I know where it is coming from contextually, and people who enjoy my music understand that, too, and that’s all that’s important to me.” She has since found her people within the indie and queer music scene, and now comfortably takes her place among the canon of artists confidently creating outside the norm. “I definitely have that desire for community-building and just being a student of other people’s processes,” she says.
As you were making this album, did a cohesive ethos emerge?
Initially, it was very much a collection of songs made with different people as little isolated moments of magic in the studio. Then when I sat down at Electric Lady [Studios in New York] to listen to the demos, I was like, “There’s a thread here.” I am saying a lot more. I am pushing away from the more minimal, soul-based sound of Collapsed in Sunbeams. I want to dig into my tastes. I want to wear my influences on my sleeve. I want to create something that feels a lot more sculpted rather than more instinctive — that was very much my energy for Collapsed in Sunbeams. But I really want to chip at marble over time with this. The thread or the ethos is something I realized after the fact rather than going into it with a mission statement. I was like, “This is about my life rather than observing other people.” That was at the core of everything.
Album single “Pegasus” features Phoebe Bridgers. How did that come about?
We’ve sung before, but never on [a] record. We’ve done some covers and played together at Coachella. I’ve always looked up to her as a vocalist and as a storyteller, and also as a shape-shifter. She can go on a SZA track or a Kid Cudi track, she can go wherever and blend into the world while still being completely herself. I love features that feel organic. I did feel that sense of kinship between our voices. It felt natural to ask her, and she said yes. The rest is history.
Do you strive to be a shape-shifter like Phoebe?
It’s definitely something that I want to do because my tastes stretch so far. I would be just as happy on a song with Aphex Twin or Actress as I would be with Dean Blunt or Tyler, The Creator. I love music as a whole. Whether I’d be any good fitting into their worlds, I don’t know. My favorite thing about being in the studio or meeting other artists and sending each other poetry or fragments of writing [is] being like, “I would have never thought to put it that way.”
Are there any other artists you have that exchange with?
One of my favorite people to get recommendations [from] on music, poetry, novels is definitely Lorde. I have never met anyone with her breadth of knowledge and her taste. She recommended a [short story] collection by Lucia Berlin called Evening in Paradise and this book called Animal Joy [by Nuar Alsadir] that happened to already be on my reading list. It’s kind of magical. Not everybody is connected, but especially in the indie space, we are friends and support each other. You never feel like you’re alone in anything, which is really nice.
What other artists inspire you?
If you take Björk, Poly Styrene [of X-Ray Spex] or Arthur Russell, there is an outsider quality to a lot of the music that I love. I love the things that people found strange at the time, with these little idiosyncrasies and the things that made them slightly offbeat or slightly outside of the normal. It taught me that was OK and that you can just be, and that you’ll find your people.
In October, you’re playing the festival All Things Go, which boasts a lineup heavy on queer representation. How are you feeling about that gig?
It’s actually all my people. I feel so excited to have lineups that have moments like that where queer people and nonbinary people and talented human beings are given that space to come together. It’s like one massive family, especially on the second day with me and Ethel Cain and MUNA and boygenius and beabadoobee. I love the idea of creating more of those kinds of queer-positive spaces at festivals. There’s a lot of freedom and power in that.
This story will appear in the June 10, 2023, issue of Billboard.
05/15/2023
Billboard’s annual celebration of the most innovative and influential young artists in the music industry includes Olivia Rodrigo, The Kid LAROI, d4vd, Ayra Starr and more.
By 
Rania Aniftos, Katie Atkinson, Katie Bain, Stephen Daw, Griselda Flores, Josh Glicksman, Lyndsey Havens, Carl Lamarre, Cydney Lee, Jason Lipshutz, Jessica Nicholson, Jessica Roiz, Neena Rouhani
05/15/2023
Taylor Swift teamed up with The National on their new song “The Alcott” on Friday (April 28), and the collab immediately had Swifties buzzing over its lovelorn lyrics.
The downtempo cut off the band’s new album First Two Pages of Frankenstein finds the pop star’s voice melding perfectly with frontman Bryce Dessner’s as they wistfully intone, “And the last thing you wanted is the first thing I do/ I tell you my problems, you tell me the truth/ It’s the last thing you wanted, it’s the first thing I do/ I tell you that I think I’m falling back in love with you” on the chorus.
Swift’s ardent fandom flooded the Instagram comments of her official fan club’s posts announcing the track with reactions to the song, with one writing, “Taylor remember he’s dreamy, but you’re the sun in your universe!!! Thank you for allowing us to look directly in the sun when we see our lives reflected in your poetic music!”
Others were quick to compare the track to Folklore‘s “Exile” featuring Bon Iver and earlier The National collab “Coney Island” from Evermore. “It’s so exile im crying,” one commented; another opined, “This is literally Coney Island and exile’s love child and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT.”
Recently, Swift brought out The National’s Aaron Dessner out during her Eras Tour stop in Tampa, Fla. to perform Midnights bonus track “The Great War” as one of the tour’s many surprise songs.
Stream Swift and The National’s “The Alcott” and check out Swifties’ reactions to the song on social media below.
Capital One City Parks Foundation announced the 2023 roster for its SummerStage concert series on Tuesday (April 25) including Grandmaster Flash, Tanya Tucker, Noel Gallagher and more.
The season will kick off June 10 with a free performance by St. Paul and the Broken Bones in Central Park, and continue through the summer with 80 free shows and benefit concerts across all five boroughs of New York City.
Highlights this year will include a celebration of the 50th anniversary of hip-hop throughout the summer, starting with Mike bringing his Young World Festival to Brooklyn’s Von King Park on July 15 followed by Grandmaster Flash returning to the Bronx for a special hometown show on Aug. 2 in Crotona Park. A few days later, a Hip-Hop 50 Special Edition Showcase will head to Coney Island on Aug. 6.
“We are thrilled to present another vibrant season filled with captivating artists from around the world and introduce music fans to their diverse sounds,” said SummerStage executive artistic director Erika Elliott in a statement. “As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of hip-hop this year, we are excited to highlight the global impact that the genre has had on music and culture with an outstanding lineup of international artists and hometown heroes. SummerStage has been featuring hip-hop in our performances since the ’90s and is dedicated to giving a platform to showcase this important culture, shining a light on the genre every season.”
SummerStage won’t just be hip-hop, though. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and Garbage will join forces on July 10; Juanes will bring his Latin flair on July 12 as part of the Latin Alternative Music Conference; rising electronic Afro-Cuban/French duo Ibeyi will join The Comet Is Coming for a night of electronica-jazz stylings on August 2 and Tucker will close out the season-long series with her own headlining show in Central Park on Sept. 14.
Check out the SummerStage 2023 announcement below and get a look at the entire schedule of concerts here.
It may be the last day of March, but we’re going out with a bang when it comes to new music thanks to releases by Jisoo, Boygenius, Chlöe and more.
The BLACKPINK singer became the final member of the the girl group to go solo with her single album ME, featuring songs “Flower” and “All Eyes on Me,” while Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus and Phoebe Bridgers reunited for their full-length album The Record a full half-decade after forming their alt-rock supergroup for their self-titled 2018 EP.
Chlöe Bailey also unveiled her debut solo album, In Pieces, on the heels of previously released singles “Pray It Away,” Chris Brown collab “How Does It Feel” and the piano-driven title track. Plus, Tyler, the Creator re-upped on his 2021 opus Call Me If You Get Lost by dropping Call Me If You Get Lost: The Estate Sale — a deluxe edition with eight new tracks not on the original album, including single “Dogwood” and collaborations with Vince Staples (“Stuntman”), A$AP Rocky (“Wharf Talk”) and YG (the 2020 demo version of “Boyfriend, Girlfriend”).
Meanwhile, on the new song front, Taylor Swift stripped down her bombastic Midnights opener “Lavender Haze” for a ghostly acoustic version that could sound easily at home on her 2020 album Evermore.
Becky G and Peso Pluma delivered a horn-blasted Spanish-language duet with “Chanel,” and Charlie Puth teamed up with Dan + Shay for their boundary-setting ballad “That’s Not How This Works.” (A promised remix with Sabrina Carpenter is still a couple of weeks away.) Plus, rising U.K. pop star Maisie Peters offered yet another irresistible sneak peek of her upcoming sophomore album The Good Witch with the triumphant “Lost the Breakup.”
Vote for your favorite release in Billboard‘s latest new music Friday poll below.
Prepare to take a trip with Lil Yachty on Let’s Start Here, his fifth studio album that dropped on Friday (Jan. 27) via Concrete Records, Motown Records and Quality Control Music.
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In an interview with Ice Box last year, the rapper revealed he was going in a different direction with the sound of his upcoming studio effort. “My new album is a non-rap album,” he declared. “It’s alternative, it’s sick… It’s like a psychedelic alternative project. It’s different. It’s all live instrumentation.”
This wouldn’t be Yachty’s first dip into the genre, as he collaborated with Tame Impala on a 2021 remix of “Breathe Deeper” from The Slow Rush B-Sides & Remixes, which peaked at No. 47 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs.
In the week leading up to the album’s release, he unveiled a nearly two-minute skit titled “Department of Mental Tranquility,” which shows Yachty walking into the video’s namesake and responding to a receptionist’s pestering, miscellaneous questions in a sweltering waiting room replete with erratic people before the performer carefully enters into the white light.
Yachty released his last full-length album, Lil Boat 3, on May 29, 2020. The 19-track set, which included lead single “Oprah’s Bank Account” featuring DaBaby and Drake, launched at No. 14 on the Billboard 200.
Stream Let’s Start Here below.
We’re still two weeks away from Christmas but the gifts keep coming early for music fans with long-awaited albums and surprise singles arriving from their favorite stars. And as always, Billboard wants to know which new release you’re most grateful for this holiday season!
On Friday (Dec. 9), SZA‘s hotly anticipated sophomore album SOS finally arrived after a five-and-a-half year wait. Preceded by lead single “Shirt” and a tease of “Nobody Gets Me,” the studio set follows the recent Billboard cover star‘s smash 2017 debut album Ctrl, which spawned hits like “Drew Barrymore,” “Love Galore” and “The Weekend.”
Then there’s Lana Del Rey, who shocked her fans earlier this week with the surprise announcement of her upcoming ninth album, Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd. The pop songstress even sweetened the reveal by unveiling the title track — a reflective, choir-backed ballad in the form of her early releases — in all its sweeping, wistful glory.
Polo G and Paramore also released new singles on Friday, with the rapper previewing his forthcoming project set for 2023 with “My All” and the pop-punk stalwarts unfurling “The News” ahead of their comeback LP This Is Why dropping on Feb. 10.
A Boogie wit da Hoodie, meanwhile, shared his combatively titled fourth studio album, Me vs. Myself, which includes collabs with the likes of H.E.R. (“Playa”), Roddy Ricch (“B.R.O. (Better Ride Out)”), Kodak Black (“Water (Drowning Pt. 2)”) G Herbo (“Last Time”) and more.
Vote for the new music you’re loving the most in BIllboard‘s weekly poll below.
Joji’s Smithereens becomes his first No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Rock & Alternative Albums and Top Alternative Albums charts, opening atop the surveys dated Nov. 19.
Smithereens bows with 57,000 equivalent album units earned in the Nov. 4-10 tracking week, according to Luminate.
The set’s streaming equivalent unit count of 40,000 is the best for any album on the chart since the debut week of Zach Bryan’s American Heartbreak, which accumulated 65,000 units from streams (June 4).
Smithereens surpasses the No. 2 debut and peak of Joji’s Nectar on the Top Alternative Albums ranking dated Oct. 10, 2020.
Concurrently, Smithereens starts at No. 5 on the all-genre Billboard 200, marking Joji’s third top five entry, following the aforementioned Nectar and 2018’s Ballads 1 (both No. 3 peaks).
Six cuts from Smithereens dot Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, led by “Die for You” at No. 4. The song earned 12.1 million official U.S. streams and sold 1,000 downloads Nov. 4-10. The former count places the track at No. 2 on Alternative Streaming Songs (as well as No. 32 on the all-genre Streaming Songs list), while the latter generates a No. 18 showing on Alternative Digital Song Sales.
“Before the Day Is Over” follows on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs as the album’s other top 10, beginning at No. 10 with 5.1 million streams.
Halsey premiered her new Amp radio show Halsey: For the Record this week, and during the debut episode, they opened up about looking up to Gwen Stefani.
“Gwen is definitely one of those artists,” the “I Am Not a Woman, I Am a God” singer said. “When people ask me who inspires my music…Gwen has always been a huge inspiration for me from like wearing white tank tops onstage and low-rise pants to wearing my hair in space buns, to doing my own makeup, because Gwen used to and still does. I think she has a cosmetic company as well. Shout-out Gwen.
“Every night before I go onstage, I watch Tragic Kingdom Live at the Forum,” Halsey continued. “That’s another way that she inspired me – let’s be honest here. [No Doubt‘s] record is called Tragic Kingdom, mine was called Hopeless Fountain Kingdom … those little breadcrumb trails are kind of all over the place.”
No Doubt’s “Spiderwebs” (from Tragic Kingdom) was on the playlist for the first episode, as were PJ Harvey’s “Down by the Water,” BOA’s “Duvet” and Halsey’s own “You Asked for This.”
Stefani and her bandmates dropped their smash third album in October 1995, while Halsey’s sophomore LP was released in November 2017 — though both studio sets served as each artist’s very first (and so far only) No. 1 on the Billboard 200 of their respective careers. (Stefani would go on to score another chart-topper as a solo artist thanks to 2016’s This Is What the Truth Feels Like.)
Back in August, Halsey took part in the viral “Teenage Dirtbag” trend that swept through TikTok. Meanwhile, Stefani is currently battling it out on her sixth season as a coach on The Voice.
Listen to Halsey’s radio show on Amazon’s live radio app here.
