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The latest dance taking over New York City is the “Reemski,” and its Brooklyn creator and the Bronx rapper whose song its associated with are ecstatic over its popularity.
If you’re tapped into the latest dance trends in New York City, you’ve undoubtedly heard of the “Reemski.” Gaining viral popularity thanks to posts with over 1 million views and counting on TikTok and on X, formerly Twitter, the dance has gained new forms including as a joke on the performance of the MTA for example, and being banned in the Russian republic of Chechnya as part of activities that are at too fast of a tempo. Even Kai Cenat has picked up on it. The dance’s creator, Kareem Gadson, is happy with all of it.
“I just got tired of doing the dances that I was seeing out here,” Gadson said of creating the hit dance, which he says he did in 2016. “So I just decided to do my own.”
The aspiring rapper from Brooklyn calls his dance the “Reemski” because the leg movements are similar to those of downhill skiers. “As you getting low you have to move sideways like you’re skiing,” Gadson says. The dance is normally done to the Cash Cobain track “Fisherrr,” a collaboration song with Bay Swag, and requires the dancer to get lower to the ground by bending their knees as the bass drop of the song comes in while moving their chest and shoulders in unison. “If you ever watch someone skiing and then you watch my dance, then you will go ‘OK, I see what story you’re talking about.’”
For Elijah Hicks, the man who utilized the “Reemski” in a joke about Jesus walking out of the tomb, he suggests not being too caught up in the technical parts of the dance. “You just roll your shoulders, but it’s about the drop,” he said. “The drop is what makes it fun. It’s all in like one motion. Everybody can do it, because it’s so easy to do,” before adding, “Your grandmother and your grandfather could do it. All they gotta do is roll their shoulders.”
Gadson is particularly pleased that the dance hasn’t gotten any infamous attachments. “I like that it doesn’t have anything to do with violence,” he said in an interview. “It’s got a lot to do with just having fun and enjoying yourself.” As for Cash Cobain, he’s enjoying the dance because of the associated fame for his single, calling the timing of the “Reemski” going viral “perfect.”
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Music investment enterprise Firebird acquired a stake in JET Management, the Los Angeles-based company that boasts a roster including Justice, Madeon, LP Giobbi and Suki Waterhouse.
Launched in 2023 by founders Nathan Hubbard and Nat Zilkha, Firebird is a multi-sector music company that includes labels and publishing, with an emphasis on management and label services.
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In 2023, Zilkha told Billboard that he and his partners are building Firebird to respond to a changing industry in which artists are moving away from label structures to partner with companies that can provide label services and artist development, as well as help them tap into additional income streams, such as publishing, merchandising, branding and live events.
“Firebird partners with artists and their teams to build longer lasting, higher impact, and more profitable careers,” Hubbard said in a statement on the new partnership. “JET is on the cutting edge of building the brands of the most respected artists that influence culture. Tyler, John and their team have an impressive track record of partnering with artists of all types to ignite both their fan bases and businesses in harmony.”
“The music industry is evolving rapidly, and power is continuing to shift towards artists and their teams. Firebird’s artist-first ethos and ambitions around empowering the core team is what drew us in at the start, but the people are what kept us around,” added JET Management co-founder John Scholz. “This is a great group of sharp industry veterans walking the same path as us that we couldn’t be happier to lock arms with.”
“Firebird’s strengths complement JET’s vision seamlessly,” adds JET co-founder Tyler Goldberg. “This partnership allows us to streamline operations, broaden our reach, and ultimately deliver greater value to our clients.”
JET clients including Waterhouse, Justice, Neil Frances and Blond:ish are all slated play both weekends of Coachella later this month.
Thus far, Firebird has acquired stakes in companies including Coran Capshaw’s Red Light Management, which represents roughly 400 artists including Dave Matthews Band, Phish, Brandi Carlile and Chris Stapleton; Mick Management, which specializes in independent singer-songwriters such as Maggie Rogers and Hamilton Leithauser; Transgressive Records; and U.K.-based electronic label Defected Records.
“We are maintaining separate brands of the companies that we invest in,” Zilkha told Billboard last year. “We allow their creative process to remain very independent from us; but we’re giving those companies an ecosystem that helps them create opportunities for themselves and the artists that they work with.”
Firebird says it generates $2 billion in gross revenue annually across its businesses and with its collective of artistists reaching a global audience of more than a billion fans.
Coachella 2024 is coming in hot next week, and the list of parties happening around the festival continues growing. Today (April 1), marks the return of Desert Nights by Tao Hospitality Group, a festival adjacent fête hosted by Tao Group Hospitality and creative agency Corso Marketing Group in partnership with Patrón. Explore See latest videos, […]
This week in dance music: Charli XCX announced dates for the tour behind her forthcoming album, BRAT, we shared exclusive sets from the spring edition of CRSSD and ran down the best moments of Ultra Music Festival 2024. Meanwhile, Ultra headliner Calvin Harris had some sharp words for critics of his festival set, and IMS Ibiza announced the speaker lineup for its conference next month.
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And, here are the best new dance tracks of the week.
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HoneyLuv, “Right Spot”
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Cleveland-born, London-based house producer HoneyLuv makes her debut of Damian Lazarus’ Crosstown Rebels label with “Right Spot.” Built from pulsing synth and scintillating percussion, the track is HoneyLuv’s first solo release of the year and comes in tandem with remixes from Dennis Ferrer and Byron The Aquarius. “I was inspired to make this track after listening to some old school deep Chicago tracks and wanted to make something of my own,” she says. “I wanted to experiment with this track to create something different and simple. The lyrics flowed to me, and the rest is history.”
Purple Disco Machine feat. Roosevelt, “Higher Ground”
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After repeatedly running into each other at festivals around the world, German favs Purple Disco Machine and Roosevelt decided to make something together, with the resulting “Higher Ground” fusing PDM’s signature ’80s synth aesthetic and Roosevelt’s indie electronic style. Out via Sony Music Germany/RCA Records, the song oscillates between dark and light, thumping along on a heavy bassline and building to moments of brightness rendered from Roosevelt’s melodies. “I loved the process of sending Tino a vocal and him tailoring the whole track around it,” Roosevelt says of the process. “I was able to take a step back from production duties and focus on my vocal performance, which was challenging but a lot of fun.”
Walker & Royce, No Big Deal
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The New York City duo release the second album of their 13 year history with No Big Deal, out via Dirtybird Records. The 10-track project is sophisticated yet unpretentious house music, pure party starting fare that finds the pair — Sam Walker and Gavin Royce — letting their club-focused heaters prevail over TikToks and marketing plans. “Good music isn’t enough anymore; today it seems like you need to release music with something attached to it in order for it to make any kind of forward motion,” the pair tell Billboard in a joint statement. “No Big Deal is poised to be the opposite of that. With limited announce to release timelines, the goal for this rollout was music first, gimmick last. Make something memorable that sticks, and you won’t have anything to worry about.”
Gesaffelstein, GAMMA
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Clocking in at a tight 27 minutes, Gesaffelstein’s 11-track album GAMMA finds the French producer in a characteristically dark and heavy state of play, with these songs taking that aesthetic and pushing it further into post-punk, distorted experimental electronic, industrial and even, in more than one moment, doo wop. Consider our interest piqued in regard to how the producer will present this music next month at Coachella, which are currently the only shows on his tour schedule.
Jauz, “Teardrops”
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Bay Area-born, Los Angeles-based mainstay Jauz returns with “Teardrops,” a slinky, sophisticated house track centered around stuttering synth. (Early cosigns have come from fellow artists including Illenium, who simply commented “Fire” on an Instagram post previewing the song.) Out via the producer’s own Bite This! label, “Teardrops” comes ahead of Jauz’s Wise vs. Wicked 2024 tour behind his 2023 albums Rise of the Wise and Wrath of the Wicked. Launching next month, each tour stop will feature a pair of shows, with fans able to buy tickets for a progressive house-focused “Wise” set, a bass-heavy “Wicked” show, or both.
Despite reports that Tomorrowland will be launching a Thai edition of the festival in 2026, organizers say this event is not yet a reality.
Last week, the English language Thai news site The Nation published a story quoting Thai government spokesperson Chai Wacharonke, who said the festival was coming to Thailand and could be hosted there for 10 consecutive years.
But in a statement provided Friday (March 29) to Billboard, festival representative Debby Wilmsen says that while “Tomorrowland has a real interest in Thailand and is seriously exploring the possibility of a festival in Thailand … at this stage, there is no confirmation yet on an actual festival taking place.”
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But that’s not to say this event won’t happen, with the statement noting that currently, “Tomorrowland is investigating the feasibility of the project, and has signed an exclusive MOU agreement with a Thai private sector partner to conduct this study together.”
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This memorandum of understanding is a legal agreement indicating an intended common action, with the feasibility study intending to make clear whether or not Tomorrowland Thailand can occur. The statement concludes, “Tomorrowland is very honored that the authorities are eager to welcome us.”
If launched, the event would mark the fourth edition of Tomorrowland to happen outside of its home in Belgium, with the company hosting TomorrowWorld in Georgia from 2013 to 2015, Tomorrowland Brazil in 2015-2016 and again in 2023, and Tomorrowland Winter in the French Alps annually since 2019.
Meanwhile, the mothership edition will happen in Boom, Belgium, July 19-21 and 26-28, with a genre-spanning lineup of dance artists including Swedish House Mafia, Tale of Us, Alesso, Amelie Lens, Bonobo, Dom Dolla, The Blessed Madonna, Rezz and Deadmau5 performing as REZZMAU5, David Guetta, Solomun b2b Four Tet, Eliza Rose and hundreds of others.
Tomorrowland co-founder Michiel Beers will also deliver a keynote speech at IMS Ibiza 2024, happening next month on the conference’s namesake island.
IMS Ibiza has announced the lineup for its 15th annual conference next month. The 2024 event happens April 24-26 and takes place at a new location, the Mondrian Ibiza and Hyde Ibiza hotels. The program features more than 60 discussions and 125 speakers over three days.
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Program highlights include a keynote speech from Tomorrowland co-founder Michiel Beers, Defected Records founder Simon Dunmore and new CEO Wez Saunders in conversation with IMS co-founder Pete Tong and Aloki Batra, the new CEO of Pacha Group. Additionally, the conference will include its annual presentation of the IMS Business Report, which includes a breakdown of the dance industry’s performance over the last 12 months.
Artist appearances include a conversation with Fatboy Slim on the 30 year anniversary of his Southern Fried Records label, Amapiano star Sarz, Brazilian phenom Mochakk, rising producer Chloe Caillet and many more. Meanwhile, an event titled “Celebrating the Godfather of House: 10 Years of the Frankie Knuckles Foundation” will honor the pioneering producer’s life and achievements.
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There will also be live recordings of Resident Advisor‘s RA Exchange podcast featuring Smokin’Jo, DJ Pierre and Juan Atkins. A live recording of Jaguar’s Utopia Talks, hosted by BBC Radio 1 presenter and IMS co-host Jaguar, will feature TSHA, DJ Paulette and Smokin’ Jo discussing the experiences of Black women in dance music. There will also be a new space hosted by U.K. party collective HE.SHE.THEY. and many more.
See the complete 2024 program on IMS’s website.
The theme of this year’s conference is “rebuilding our community,” with a featured conversation called “How To Bring Back Peace, Love, Unity & Respect” looking at how the dance scene can restore its values amid a fractured community, particularly with respect to recent global events.
“These are strained and complicated times in electronic music – not a landscape this industry has had to navigate before,” IMS co-founder Ben Turner said in a statement. “Now in our 15th edition, the key theme of trying to understand how to Rebuild Our Community is designed to be constructive, positive and impactful. Special thanks to the team of IMS advisors and experts for their input to this year’s program. We hope those in attendance will find something insightful and inspirational to take home with them along with new connections, new music and positive thoughts and actions for the future.”
After headlining the Main Stage at Ultra Music Festival in Miami on the final night of the festival this past Sunday (March 24), Calvin Harris defended the performance to a gaggle of internet haters.
In the comments section of a post about the set on the Instagram account for dance music publication Dancing Astronaut, two commenters called the performance “underwhelming.”
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In response, Harris joined the conversation yesterday (March 27) to defend the massive success of his catalog, writing “You expect me to play none of my songs? … how deep is your love – billion streams, this is what u came for – billion streams, my way – billion streams, slide – billion streams, feels – billion streams, one kiss – billion streams, and the other 5 half a bil, and before 2014 another 20, and not cheesy s—, proper f—ing songs with real artists, and you’d rather I play “Fein” trap edits today,” referring to the 2023 Travis Scott and Playboi Carti song.
Harris’ set featured many of his aforementioned classics, including the 2016 Rihanna collab “This Is What You Came For,” his 2012 Ellie Goulding collab “I Need Your Love” and his era-defining 2011 anthem “Feel So Close.” Harris continued by noting that he “spent months making new versions of everything for this,” pointing to the new and unreleased edits of his music featured in the Ultra set.
“And you wonder why I never play edm festivals,” he wrote. “At least people I saw irl had a great time and I can be happy with that, but f— at this point whatever I do is gonna piss you off.”
Harris’ comment garnered a furry of support, with one commenter responding that “no need to cater to these trolls sir, you will always be one of the greatest producers of all time for many of us.”
This Ultra performance marked Harris’ first appearance at the Miami festival in 11 years. The Scottish producer’s summer tour schedule includes a handful of European festivals, dates at LIV Nightclub in Las Vegas and his residency at Ushuaïa in Ibiza.
03/26/2024
Despite (and maybe also because of) a Friday night rainstorm, dance music’s first festival of the 2024 season felt like one for the record books.
03/26/2024
CRSSD began its nine-year anniversary celebrations earlier this month (March 2-3) when the festival returned to San Diego’s Waterfront Park for its spring iteration.
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Produced by FNGRS CRSSD and Goldenvoice, the event has been a mainstay on the Southern California dance festival circuit since 2015, when it launched as a boutique destination for house and techno fans in SoCal, a market then dominated by dance megafestivals like EDC and HARD.
CRSSD’s 2024 spring festival (another follows annually each fall) welcomed roughly 15,000 fans per day, along with headliners including Tale of Us, Armand Van Helden, Jeff Milles and Lane 8. Additionally, the event hosted a flurry of crucial rising and veteran artists including Syreeta, Joris Voorn, Trym and X Club. Hear exclusive sets from these four acts below.
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Syreeta
Ending her debut U.S. tour with this CRSSD appearance, the London-based producer opened her set with a spacious, slow-build edit of Kendrick Lamar’s 2012 classic “Swimming Pools,” shifted into Latin rhythms, a subtle remix of Eminem’s “Superman” and then put her foot on the gas for an hour of fresh, sophisticated house music.
Joris Voorn
The Dutch mainstay played an evening set on the festival’s City Steps stage, opening with Infamous Zol’s lush 2019 production “Nocturnals” before ramping up into 90 minutes of progressive house and melodic techno that altogether helped segue the festival from day to night.
Trym
French DJ Trym wasted no time getting into it, starting his set with heavy-hitting techno and maintaining a very high BPM for the duration of his March 2 headlining set on the festival’s City Steps stage.
X Club.
On Saturday, the Australian duo played to a packed late afternoon crowd on CRSSD’s City Steps stage. There, they delivered an impeccable set made from ravey electronica, increasingly hard techno, one surprising and very welcome “Groove Is in the Heart” remix and a trance-oriented finale.
Charli XCX announced the international dates for her 2024 Brat tour on Monday (March 25), which will be a mix of live concerts and what she’s dubbed “partygirl” events. The run will kick off with a set at Primavera Sound Barcelona on June 1, followed by shows in London, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Mexico City before winding down on June 22 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
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Just hours after announcing the dates, the singer noted on Instagram that all the shows were already sold out.
At press time Charli had not yet announced the release date for BRAT, her sixth full-length album, though she did recently reveal that it is out this summer, contains 15 songs and is 41:23 long. The follow-up to her 2022 album Crash has been advanced by the uptempo first single, “Von Dutch.”
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Speaking to Billboard at this year’s 2024 Women in Music event, Charli said that BRAT is a club record meant to evoke the illegal London rave scene of the early 2000s where she started performing as a 14 and 15-year-old, produced from a tight collection of sounds to create “this unique minimalism that is very loud and bold.”
She also said that the album is “very direct” eschewing “metaphor and flowery lyricism” for language that is closer to the way she talks to her friends in text messages. “This record is all the things I would talk about with my friends, said exactly how I would say them. It’s in ways very aggressive and confrontational, but also very conversational and personal,” she said. “And not in that boring way where artists are like, ‘This is my most personal record.’ To me, it feels like listening to a conversation with a friend.
See the Brat tour announcement and dates below.
BRAT tour dates:
June 1 — Barcelona, Spain @ Primavera Sound Barcelona
June 7 — London, England @ Here at Outernet
June 11 — Queens, NY @ Knockdown Center
June 12 — Chicago, IL @ Radius
June 15 — Los Angeles, CA @ Shrine Expo Hall
June 19 — Mexico City, Mexico @ LooLoo Studio
June 22 — São Paulo, Brazil @ Zig Club