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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, Drake wakes up in the Scary Hours, André 3000 upends every expectation, and Tate McRae’s stock continues to rise. Check out all of this week’s picks below:
Drake, For All The Dogs Scary Hours Edition
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After releasing his 23-track album For All The Dogs last month, Drake suggested a forthcoming pause in studio output — and apparently, that break is already over. The six new songs on For All The Dogs Scary Hours Edition were recorded over the past week, and feature some of Drake’s most vital, vociferous rhyming this side of Her Loss: “Red Button” name-checks Taylor Swift and Ye, “You Broke My Heart” goes ballistic on an ex over opulent soul production, and on “Stories About My Brother,” he begins with, “We’ll get to the vacation later.” Pure hip-hop fans will be glad that Drake delayed his break for these Scary Hours.
André 3000, New Blue Sun
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The song title “I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a ‘Rap’ Album but This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time” says it all: the long-awaited studio return of André 3000 is not anything close to his OutKast past, but instead an instrumental project defined by his rapturous flute-playing and mercurial nature. New Blue Sun is daunting — the majority of its songs stretch past the 10-minute mark — but in the way that great art should be; André is not bound to any preconceived notions of his musical identity, and because of that, New Blue Sun can leave the ground.
Tate McRae, “Exes”
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One of the primary reasons why “Greedy” has become a breakthrough hit for Tate McRae is the confidence exuded across the track: at a time when tons of pop hits are either confessional or self-deprecating, McRae wields her persona against her doubters like a sharpened sword, and “Greedy” crackles as a result. That self-belief translates to new single “Exes,” another instantly likable piece of rhythmic pop (Ryan Tedder once again lends a production hand) defined by McRae literally laughing after dropping, “Oh, I’m sorry — sorry that you love me.”
Ozuna, Cosmo
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“Vocation,” Ozuna’s new single with David Guetta, will naturally receive a ton of attention as new album Cosmo is unveiled — the club track comes across as massive in both sound and commercial prospects. Yet “Vocation” only scratches the surface of what sounds like a multi-hit crossover effort from the Puerto Rican star, with songs like “Baccarat,” “100 Squats” and the Jhayco team-up “Fenti” showcasing Ozuna’s melodic instincts and unending charisma over slick, fast-paced production.
Sabrina Carpenter, Fruitcake EP
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“A Nonsense Christmas,” a festive spin on Sabrina Carpenter’s viral hit “Nonsense,” sets the tone for this giddy holiday collection from the ascendant pop star, who spends six tracks showcasing her vibrant sense of humor and having a blast with the format. Not many other Christmas collections will have lyrics like “F–k the jet, send the sleigh,” but winking pop full of hummable hooks and quotable lines is Carpenter’s specialty, and the Fruitcake EP makes for a sumptuous treat as the holiday season comes into view.
Editor’s Pick: 2 Chainz & Lil Wayne, Welcome 2 ColleGrove
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One week after Rick Ross and Meek Mill released a joint project, two more hip-hop elder statesmen have linked up to share the ball, toss off some braggadocio and generally have some fun before 2023 wraps up. 2 Chainz and Lil Wayne’s 2016 project ColleGrove came at a time when Weezy was embroiled in label disputes, so he was only credited on a handful of tracks; its sequel, Welcome 2 ColleGrove, is both relieved of that behind-the-scenes drama and notably looser, with two masters of the sex-metaphor punchline in their element as guests like Usher, 21 Savage and Fabolous drop by to hang.
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, Nicki Minaj releases a contemplative banger, Doja Cat exorcises her “Demons,” and Timbaland gets the dream team back together. Check out all of this week’s picks below:
Nicki Minaj, “Last Time I Saw You”
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One of the reasons why Nicki Minaj has endured as one of the most successful rappers of the past decade following her 2010 arrival is her range — throughout her entire career, the superstar has refused to be pigeonholed into one sound or style. That skill set is on full display on “Last Time I Saw You,” a new single from the upcoming Pink Friday 2 that recalls the original Pink Friday’s “Moment 4 Life,” with a gentle pop production providing the foundation for an impassioned sing-rap performance in which Minaj reflects on drifting apart from someone special. “Last Time I Saw You” requires Minaj to sing gently, belt effectively, rap hurriedly and provoke an emotional response in three-and-a-half minutes, and she makes it all look easy.
Doja Cat, “Demons”
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“Living well is the best revenge” is sure to be a recurring theme on Doja Cat’s upcoming album Scarlett, based on the advanced singles that the superstar has unveiled: after “Paint the Town Red” said what it said and blasted into the top 10 of the Hot 100, “Demons” continues the clapback, as Doja dismisses her haters with some expert wordplay and a wall-rattling hook. “I’m a puppet, I’m a sheep, I’m a cash cow / I’m the fastest-growing bitch on all your apps now,” she declares, both quickly nodding to her viral beginnings with “Mooo!” and reminding the world that nobody’s trajectory to the top resembles her own.
Timbaland feat. Nelly Furtado & Justin Timberlake, “Keep Going Up”
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In the mid 2000s, no pop triumvirate was as mighty as Timbaland, Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake: as Tim helmed Furtado’s enormous album Loose and Timberlake’s FutureSex/LoveSounds, the veteran producer helped both artists rack up hit after hit while scoring some of his own (including the 2007 Hot 100 chart-topper “Give it To Me,” featuring both artists). Sixteen years later, the trio have joined forces once again for “Keep Going Up,” a rhythmic vocal showcase from consummate professionals out to prove that they’re aging like fine wine; fortunately, the process of hearing these three voices reflect off one another again is both a nostalgia rush and an absorbing new pop experience.
Lil Wayne, “Kat Food”
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Lil Wayne remains a magician: who else is dropping singles that are nearly five minutes long, rife with not-so-subtle cat double entendres, rhyming “subpoena” with “Purina,” and having the whole thing actually work? “Kat Food” finds Weezy busting out the thesaurus and breaking down a sample of Missy Elliott’s “Work It” with his trademark giddy energy, continuing a whirlwind year in which the rap veteran sounds as vital as ever and offering one last floor-filler before summer’s end.
Speedy Ortiz, Rabbit Rabbit
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Speedy Ortiz’s past records have always compelled thanks to the blistering guitar work, intricate song structures and mastermind Sadie Dupuis’ searingly smart songwriting, but with the band’s most fully formed songs to date and new level of lyrical vulnerability, Rabbit Rabbit is the quartet’s strongest album to date. As Dupuis prods at a complex past and present sensitivities, tracks like “Cry Cry Cry,” “Ghostwriter” and “Ballad of Y & S” boast immediate hooks amidst the ornate arrangements — these are songs that you can hum while they hit you in the gut.
Editor’s Pick: Jhayco & Peso Pluma, “Ex-Special”
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Jhayco is no stranger to smash collaborations — a pair of them with Bad Bunny have earned over 1 billion Spotify streams — but “Ex-Special,” a team-up with quick-rising star Peso Pluma, stands out as a highly successful summit of respective styles that wouldn’t necessarily fit together seamlessly. Yet Jhayco’s reggaeton mastery crackles against Pluma’s prolonged crooning here, as the artists weave around each other’s voices while waxing poetic about an ex that’s still haunting their thoughts; hopefully, “Ex-Special” expands each artist’s fan base by reaching across the aisle to another.
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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See latest videos, charts and news
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This week, Young Thug takes care of Business, Peso Pluma steps fully into the spotlight, and Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice reinvent a pop classic. Check out all of this week’s picks below:
Young Thug, Business is Business
More than just serving as Young Thug’s follow-up to 2021’s wide-ranging Punk, Business is Business represents a show of support from the hip-hop community — as the groundbreaking MC remains incarcerated after being arrested as part of a RICO sting last year, rap’s best and brightest stop by the full-length to pay homage, with Metro Boomin executive producing and Drake, Future, 21 Savage and Lil Uzi Vert contributing guest spots. Business is Business may be a symbolic gesture featuring reanimated material more than a bold new creative endeavor, but hearing Thugger’s elastic voice stretched across an impressive new collection of beats still satisfies as a stopgap until he’s home and back in business.
Peso Pluma, Génesis
At 24 years old, Hassan Emilio Kabande Laija, better known as Peso Pluma, has spent this year helping to bend the pillars of North American popular music toward his sound, as Mexican music and its decades-old hallmarks have been refurbished for a fresh generation and, from a charts perspective, have exploded well beyond the wildest expectations of the genre’s supporters. Pluma has become the de facto leader of this new school, thanks to smashes like “Ella Baila Sola,” “La Bebe” and “Por las Noches”… and the fact that none of those songs appear on the track list to his rollicking new album Génesis illustrates his confidence that his earthy instrumentation and high, prodding croon will keep spreading beyond a handful of hits.
Nicki Minaj & Ice Spice with Aqua, “Barbie World”
Nicki Minaj has scored some of the biggest hits of her career while sampling classic singles like Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” and Rick James’ “Super Freak,” so when the leader of the Barbz announced that she had reworked Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” (alongside new BFF Ice Spice) for the upcoming Barbie soundtrack, the pairing made all too much sense. Yet “Barbie World” surprises with its structure: instead of letting their verses dance around Aqua’s iconic hook, Minaj and Ice Spice trade lines relentlessly for under two minutes, a giddy rap assault in which the best lines (“I’m a 10, so I pull in a Ken,” Nicki sneers) need to be run back a few times.
Kim Petras, Feed the Beast
Kim Petras boasts two distinct fan groups as she releases her long-awaited debut album: the day-one diehards who have streamed every mixtape, guest spot and themed EP, and the “Unholy” crowd, who caught wind of the pop star when her chart-topping collaboration with Sam Smith yielded a mainstream breakthrough. Both audiences will love Feed the Beast, a dance-pop opus with plenty of potential hits — the turbo-charged “King of Hearts” is going to highlight plenty of club nights this summer — as well as the type of idiosyncratic fun that Petras has specialized in since 2019’s Clarity, particularly in the sexual liberation of the album’s second half.
Portugal. The Man, Chris Black Changed My Life
The story behind Chris Black Changed My Life is crucial to fully appreciating the return of Portugal. The Man, who scored the type of crossover smash single that most bands can only daydream about with “Feel It Still” in 2017, then proceeded to have their lives upended due to professional false starts and personal trauma. While Chris Black Changed My Life is the definition of a hard-fought album — the title honors a dear friend of band leader John Gourley and his untimely passing — the full-length also isn’t overly heavy, as songs like “Grim Generation,” “Ghost Town” and lead single “Dummy” invite the type of sing-alongs that helped Portugal. The Man break through six years ago.
Bizarrap & Rauw Alejandro, “BZRP Music Sessions, Vol. 56”
Bizarrap has been on a tear: just three weeks after linking up with Peso Pluma for Volume 55 of his viral YouTube collaboration series, the Argentine producer has recruited Puerto Rican superstar Rauw Alejandro and quickly turned around Volume 56. The magic of the series rests in the way that Bizarrap can contort his musical foundation toward the strengths of his collaborator while also not betraying his tone; “Vol. 56” plays out like a particularly crackling Alejandro summer jam, but Bizarrap’s fingerprints are all over its shape-shifting percussion and breathless sonic flourishes, a master bringing another A-lister into his craft.
Editor’s Pick: Militarie Gun, Life Under the Gun
A string of promising EPs over the past three years suggested that, like Turnstile before them, Los Angeles quintet Militarie Gun had a shot at bringing an accessible brand of hardcore to the masses, especially if their sound could coalesce on a full-length. Life Under the Gun is exactly that album — driving and jaggedly catchy, the collection of 12 songs pummels the listener with chunky riffs and brash hooks, and Ian Shelton knows exactly how to deliver a soaring melody while also sounding like he’s about to swallow the microphone whole.
Billboard’s First Stream 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, Taylor Swift unveils some secret songs, Kx5 points toward the dance floor and Hozier makes a long-awaited return. Check out all of this week’s First Stream picks below:
Taylor Swift, “All of the Girls You Loved Before”
To celebrate the kickoff of her Eras stadium tour on Friday (Mar. 17), Taylor Swift has cracked her vault open and given fans a few unexpected goodies: the “Taylor’s Version” takes on previously released tracks “If This Was a Movie,” “Safe and Sound” and “Eyes Open,” as well as “All of the Girls You Loved Before,” an unreleased gem from her Lover era. Like the best moments on that 2019 album, “Girls” crackles with rhythm and romance, as Swift sings about how past mistakes have created a better reality and concludes on the swaying chorus, “Every dead-end street, led you straight to me.”
Kx5, Kx5
“It was literally a product of us saying, ‘F–k it,’” deadmau5 told Billboard of the formation of Kx5, his superstar team-up with Kaskade. “I’m not saying we don’t love it, but we don’t need it, financially speaking. It’s just something we want.” That carefree desire is imprinted across new album Kx5, as the duo of dance music titans use these 10 tracks try things out in the context of their respective styles, and more often than not — from the breathless groove of the AR/CO collaboration “Bright Lights” to the strobing, dance-siren emotion of “Escape” with Hayla — that process of saying “f–k it” pays dividends.
Hozier, Eat Your Young EP
Hozier has been able to transcend the success of breakthrough smash “Take Me To Church” due to his songwriting panache — it’s the reason why he’s headlining Madison Square Garden later this year instead of being relegated to one-hit wonder status. Eat Your Young, a new three-song EP that precedes his upcoming third album Unreal Unearth, references Dante’s Inferno and the sins of gluttony and heresy, but does in a way that draws in the listener without preening like a college paper: the title track, for instance, charms with a strings-laden, bluesy chorus, letting its message seep in slowly and effectively.
Melanie Martinez, “Death”
Melanie Martinez is the type of artist that does not drop by between album cycles for one-off singles and tossed-off collaborations: the avant-garde pop auteur instead creates bold, expansive worlds with each project, and when one is complete, she stows away for a few years to make another. “I’m back from the dead, back from the dead,” Martinez declares on the chorus of “Death,” the lead single to upcoming album Portals, and while the dramatic five-minute track can be connected to her artistic reawakening with every project, the kinetic drums and electronic elements will also make listeners feel reborn, too.
Avenged Sevenfold, “Nobody”
On their first new single since 2016, hard-rock veterans Avenged Sevenfold try to make up for lost time by seemingly deploying all of their finely crafted skills in six minutes — guitar chugs morph into searing solos, pummeling verses lead into sky-high hooks, and the groove conveys a nervousness before all of the tension is eventually released. “Nobody” evolves around M. Shadows’ philosophical prodding, his voice heavy with the weight of his life questions — but that man can howl like no other, and his vocals still take hold of the listener after a long layoff.
Billboard’s First Stream 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, Paramore unveils its first album in six years, Lizzo taps SZA for a “Special” rework, and Taylor Swift hits the dance floor. Check out all of this week’s First Stream picks below:
Paramore, This Is Why
There’s a difference between surviving and thriving, and while Paramore should be given credit for enduring through several lineups, rock generations and music industry iterations, they deserve even more for continuously evolving in smart, exciting ways. Hayley Williams, Taylor York and Zac Farro could have used long-awaited new album This Is Why to dive back into the synth-heavy new wave of 2017’s After Laughter, or returned to the pop-punk of their beginnings as the sound receives a revival; instead, the new project brims with hopped-up post-punk, as Williams further prods at the anxieties of the outside world and within herself. This Is Why is expertly conceived and stands apart from everything in the band’s catalog… just like every album from Paramore, a band that captures fascinating moments in time and then keeps moving forward.
Lizzo feat. SZA, “Special (Remix)”
Talk about a special week for both Lizzo and SZA: days after the former won the record of the year Grammy for her No. 1 smash “About Damn Time,” the latter has been named Billboard’s Woman of the Year as her blockbuster sophomore album, SOS, potentially returns to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. To celebrate their various successes, the two A-listers have teamed up on a remix of Lizzo’s Special title track, with SZA refusing to be pigeonholed by her peers: “Woke up this mornin’ to somebody judgin’ me,” she sings, “No surprise they judgin’ me, don’t know who I’m ‘posed to be / I’m just actin’ up, I’m crass as f–k, and never sayin’ sorry.”
Taylor Swift, “Lavender Haze (Felix Jaehn Remix)”
From the opening coo of “Meet me at midnight,” Taylor Swift’s “Lavender Haze” possesses a shimmying groove that’s perfect for a head knock or shoulder wiggle; this newly released official remix of the rising Midnights hit, courtesy of German producer Felix Jaehn (best known in the States for “Cheerleader,” his No. 1 smash with Omi from 2015), turns that subtle movement into a blown-out club force. The tempo ramps up, the synthesizers pile, the chorus goes double-time, and Jaehn remakes “Lavender Haze” with an inventive dance approach.
Dove Cameron & Khalid, “We Go Down Together”
As a duet, “We Go Down Together” exists in an intimate emotional space shared by Dove Cameron and Khalid — the instrumentation here is unobtrusive enough that, as they sing about their co-dependency and roller-coaster relationship, the two artists sound wholly alone with each other in the song’s shared universe. Cameron, fresh off of a breakthrough year, continues showcasing the fragile beauty of her voice, while Khalid demonstrates the soulfulness that made him an arena-headlining star (and, hopefully, will explore in more music this year).
Luke Combs, “Love You Anyway”
Everything clicks into place on Luke Combs’ “Love You Anyway,” the latest offering from the country star’s upcoming Gettin’ Old album: the sincerity in Combs’ devotion is captured by the sturdiness of the slide guitar, the chorus swells with a graceful touch, and while the song is rife with metaphors, they all land with invested feeling (“If your touch shattered me like glass / I’d be in pieces trying to make the breaking last,” Combs declares). “Love You Anyway” is not the flashiest Combs track, even by the standard of his love ballads — still, it immediately sounds like one of his strongest to date.
D4vd, “Placebo Effect”
With “Romantic Homicide” and “Here With Me,” D4vd has watched two lovelorn, genre-defying singles go viral and then sustain their momentum to become chart-conquering hits. New single “Placebo Effect” represents both an attempt for the teen singer-songwriter to go three-for-three, as well as a refinement of his sound and point of view: still heartsick after confusing a fizzling relationship for real love, D4vd operates over stray guitar licks and lets his voice crack through his clipped pleas, for maximum emotional devastation.
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