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Can one of Sabrina Carpenter’s hits take the No. 1 spot from Shaboozey? Tetris Kelly:This is the Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 for the week dated Sept. 21. Locked at 10 is “Not Like Us,” as is Teddy Swims at nine, “Please Please Please” falls to No. 8, as Chappell Roan moves up to seven. […]
Lil Tecca is entering his Plan A era on Sept. 20, and to help launch it, he dropped “Taste” and “Bad Time.” The rapper talks to Billboard‘s Mike Saponara about how he gathered inspiration for his album, how he handled reaching success at a young age, linking with Don Toliver and Juice WRLD, and listening to his fans when they speak about his music. Keep watching to see all the gems Lil Tecca drops and to see him play a game!
What’s going on, guys? This is Beat by Beat. I’m Mike Saponara here with Billboard. We have the great Lil Tecca. Tecc, talk to the people — how are we feeling?
Feeling good. I’m about to drop Plan A with my guy, Mike.
Hey, yeah, we’re looking forward to that. Take us back. When did that world start to take form for you?
I honestly got the name Plan A when I was about to finish Tec, my last album.
OK.
I didn’t really know what I wanted to call the next one. So when it was kind of time to decide the name for this album, I had a couple mines, couple names in my head, but I just remembered, like I was thinking about Plan A.
Plan A. There’s no Plan B.
Going Plan A.
Word. Where do you do most of your recording, I guess. How was the creative process for that?
For this album, we recorded most of it in Miami. I was just in the studio everyday with, like, money and ties and all of them. There was a couple songs that I did in New York and also in my crib, too.
Did you produce a lot of this album?
I didn’t produce a lot of it, but definitely my beat selection is what drives a lot of the production,
Right, right.
Keep watching for more!
With the announcement of Charli XCX’s Brat remix album, Troye Sivan leads the way with his remix with her on “Talk Talk.” Watch what he had to say about making the remixed single, out now!
Stay tuned for the full Troye Sivan interview, coming soon!
Troye Sivan: We’ve come out with something that I really, really love, like, it slaps I think.
Why was “Talk Talk” the song that you guys felt like was right for your remix?
She did the whole remix album, so there’s, like, a remix for every song, and she chose me for “Talk talk.” When she was first working on Brat, she sent me “Talk Talk” and I loved it, obviously. And it was really cool, though, because what she’s done with this remix album is, like, it can be … Some of the remixes are kind of a more maybe traditional feature, where the person has come on and just, you know, is on the second verse, kind of like doing the same melody, but maybe changing some lyrics, but, you know, kind of like that vibe.
What she said as well, though, was that she wanted some of the songs to … She’s just like, “I don’t care if you use one word from the original, it can be a completely new song. But use, use ‘Talk Talk’ as, like, you know, a seed for a song.” Essentially, we sampled “Talk Talk” and created an entirely new pop song out of it. Because I said to her, “If it’s a remix, is this like a, like a six-minute long, like, club song? Or is this like a pop song?” And she was like, “No, it’s a pop song.” I’m like, “OK, cool.”
I had so much fun, kind of, like, taking the scissors to the song that I really, really love, and getting to, kind of, like, chop it and change it and whatever. And we brought in kind of, like, the rush team, and worked on it, and then sent it back to Charli, and Charli did her thing, sent it back to me. It was just kind of like this really fun collaborative process, and we’ve come out with something that I really, really love, it, like, slaps I think, yeah.
Billboard’s Friday Music Guide serves as a handy guide to this Friday’s most essential releases — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond.
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This week, The Weeknd brings us back to the dance floor, Playboi Carti is still seeing red, and Charli xcx extends Brat Summer. Check out all of this week’s picks below:
The Weeknd, “Dancing in the Flames”
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The Weeknd triumphantly returns with “Dancing in the Flames,” the first single from forthcoming album Hurry Up Tomorrow, that continues the synth-pop fantasia of Dawn FM but offers an even meatier chorus and more vocal fragility; it’s a big swing that would work well in an ‘80s radio block or any collection of modern streaming hits.
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Playboi Carti, “All Red”
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The hip-hop world has been eagerly awaiting Playboi Carti’s next album, and the release of “All Red” not only suggests that the follow-up to Whole Lotta Red is right around the corner (and a thematic continuation, natch), but that the MC is as locked-in as ever, as he tosses out catchphrases and ad-libs over a combustible beat.
Charli xcx feat. Troye Sivan, “Talk Talk” remix
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We may be past Labor Day and beyond the glories of Brat Summer, but Charli xcx is not done gifting us compelling remixes to her lauded full-length — this time, her pal and tour partner Troye Sivan offers perfect balance on a new version of “Talk Talk,” with his soulful tone complementing Charli’s elastic bounce amidst the song’s constant motion.
Tate McRae, “It’s ok I’m ok”
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Continuing a breakthrough year in which she’s been able to show off pinpoint choreography and smashing hooks, Tate McRae positions new single “It’s ok I’m ok” as a collection of breathless melodies that work well for dance routines; we’re hearing a pop singer find her sound and style in real time.
Miranda Lambert, Postcards From Texas
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For her first album with new label partners Republic and Big Loud — and since entering her forties — Miranda Lambert returns to her roots on Postcards From Texas, with one of country music’s smartest storytellers utilizing her home state as inspiration for stories of singular characters, post-betrayal revenge and women who are underestimated while being experts in their craft.
Katy Perry feat. Doechii, “I’m His, He’s Mine”
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One week before unveiling new album 143 and a few days after her Video Vanguard showcase at the MTV VMAs, Katy Perry is lending some of her pop prowess to rising star Doechii on “I’m His, He’s Mine,” who in turn injects the track with ample amounts of confidence, as they play a pair of queens who can beguile any stray man.
Shawn Mendes, “Nobody Knows”
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In his rustic return, Shawn Mendes has shrugged off pop bombast in favor of guitar strums and unguarded vocals — and “Nobody Knows,” a swaying new anthem that allows Mendes’ upper register to hoot, holler and fully bloom, sounds like the most naturally rendered track released so far from his upcoming album.
Editor’s Pick: FKA Twigs, “Eusexua”
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Like most of FKA Twigs’ hypnotic tunes, “Eusexua,” the title track from her next album, juxtaposes the gentle contours of Twigs’ voice with jarring production elements — this time, skittering beats that grow and threaten to burst before congealing into a dance-floor throb, then unexpectedly evaporating. Breathtaking and accessible, “Eusexua” is a dazzling return from a one-of-a-kind creator.
Billboard cover star Luis R Conriquez rapidly rose to fame with his corrido “El Buho.” The talented singer opened up a new style of corridos by creating “corridos bélicos.” He shares how he rapidly rose to stardom, working with many of his friends/artists on ‘Corridos Bélicos, Vol. IV,’ including Peso Pluma, Gerardo Ortiz, Ryan Castro […]
Back in October 2019, Bad Bunny, already a huge star, posted a video of himself on Instagram, drinking tequila and singing along to a song in Spanish set to strumming guitars. It was “Soy el Diablo” by Natanael Cano, the then-18-year-old making waves in regional Mexican music with his corridos tumbados, a subgenre blending hip-hop swagger with traditional música mexicana instrumentation.
That Bad Bunny would gravitate toward the sound at first seemed counterintuitive: Reggaetón, built on beats, tracks and loops, ostensibly has little to do with regional Mexican music, which is created mostly with live instruments.
But upon further consideration, it made complete sense. Corridos tumbados, like Bad Bunny’s blend of trap and reggaetón, are as much about attitude and lifestyle as they are about music. Within weeks, a remix of “Soy el Diablo,” featuring Bad Bunny, hit No. 16 on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart.
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The unlikely pairing at the time was revolutionary, and it set off a wave of collaborations between reggaetón and Mexican music acts that’s still going. Since “Soy el Diablo,” at least 14 songs that blend both genres have entered Hot Latin Songs — including Karol G and Peso Pluma’s “Qlona,” which shot to No. 1 in September 2023. And now, this year’s Rumbazo festival — taking place Sept. 13-14 in Las Vegas in partnership with Billboard — will reflect the kinship between the two genres; headliners Nicky Jam and Luis R Conriquez released a single together, “Como el Viento,” in 2023.
For Jimmy Humilde, the founder and CEO of powerhouse indie label Rancho Humilde (home to Cano and Fuerza Regida, among other Mexican music artists), Mexican and urban music are like brothers from another mother, and the new wave of Mexican music, much of it spawned on the West Coast, is inextricably linked to hip-hop and, by extension, to reggaetón.
“Hip-hop was my heart,” Humilde told Billboard last year of his upbringing, like that of many of his artists, in Los Angeles. “I was a huge fan of old-school hip-hop.” But Humilde was also a huge fan of bad boy Mexican corridos sung by the likes of Chalino Sánchez. Early in his career, when he started working with corridos singer Jessie Morales (also raised in L.A.), he had a simple yet brilliant idea: Instead of donning the traditional garb of boots and cowboy hat, “I told him, ‘Bro, why don’t you dress hip-hop, how you really dress? You don’t have to come out with a hat or a suit.’ ”
The notion of inserting hip-hop style into Mexican music slowly but surely became the norm for a new generation of artists that now includes Cano, Fuerza Regida, Junior H, Peso Pluma, Eslabon Armado and Yahritza y Su Esencia, who all dress more like rappers than singers of traditional Mexican music.
Actual cross-genre collaborations, however, only began in earnest after the Bad Bunny-Cano remix. In 2020, they went even further when Snoop Dogg (another Angeleno and a longtime fan of banda music) recorded “Que Maldición” with Banda MS (which went to No. 4 on Hot Latin Songs) and later joined the group onstage in L.A.
Then, in 2021, Colombian superstar Karol G released “200 Copas,” a veritable ranchera ballad. Colombians in general (and Medellín natives like Karol, in particular) have long been die-hard fans of ranchera and mariachi music — and later that year, Karol’s fellow paisa and reggaetón star Maluma also recorded a ranchera: “Cada Quien,” with Grupo Firme, which became his first No. 1 on the Regional Mexican Airplay chart.
“Being on a Mexican chart in the U.S., well, that’s a big deal,” Maluma told Billboard at the time. “I always dreamt of that. When I travel to Mexico, it’s like being at home. I feel part of it, and I am very grateful to Grupo Firme for making this possible.”
The growing list of urban/Mexican collaborations also includes the cover stars of this issue of Billboard. And while Nicky Jam and Conriquez’s “Como el Viento” didn’t chart, for Conriquez, it’s a sign of the future.
“If we’re intelligent about it, there will be more songs like this, because it’s an opportunity to bring the two genres together and for one to get into the other’s world,” says Conriquez, who has also already recorded with reggaetonero Ryan Castro. “I always thought reggaetón was global. But now, regional Mexican is global too.”
Billboard Latin Music Week is returning to Miami Beach on Oct. 14-18, with confirmed superstars including Gloria Estefan, Alejandro Sanz and Peso Pluma, among many others. For tickets and more details, visit Billboardlatinmusicweek.com.
Billboard’s Latin Music Awards are coming soon, and we have the list of finalists. This year they include: Peso Pluma, Bad Bunny, Karol G, Grupo Frontera and more! Keep watching to see if your favorite Latin artists made the list! To see the full list of finalists, click here. Narrator: Bad Bunny, Karol G, and […]
Grupo Frontera gives Billboard an exclusive look backstage of their ‘Jugando a Que No Pasa Nada’ tour in Brooklyn, New York. The group shares what their favorite moments of touring are, how they prepare to take the stage, meeting fans and more! Grupo Frontera: Hey guys, it’s Grupo Frontera. I forgot what to say. Somos […]
Tastemakers and scene shakers were celebrated at Billboard‘s 2024 R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players event. While the celebrations took place inside, the neighboring Time Square intersection was also flooded with congratulatory feels, courtesy of INFINITI. On a massive jumbotron outside of the venue, a victorious message showed love to all the recipients of this year’s R&B/Hip-Hop Power […]
Chappell Roan told a photographer off at the 2024 MTV VMAs red carpet, and spoke about why she did it. Keep watching to see her reasoning. Narrator:Chappell Roan had a big night at the MTV VMAs and made a bold statement on the red carpet with a fiery exchange with a photographer. Chappell made her […]