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Play Cash Cobain was originally supposed to be an EP, Cash Cobain told me when we named him April’s Rookie of the Month. “Nah, that’s for my Play Cash Cobain EP that should be coming out soon,” he said. “‘Dunk Contest‘ is going to be on there too, along with some other songs like ‘Candle’ […]
This week in dance music: Chase & Status clocked their first U.K. No. 1 hit with their recently released Stormzy collab “Backbone,” The Tim Bergling Foundation announced an auction of clothes, musical equipment and other memorabilia belonging to late producer Avicii, the team behind Ibiza’s Hï and Ushuaïa pulled off a pretty out of this world PR stunt to reveal that their new club is coming next year, we chatted with Sofi Tukker about croissants upon the release of their new album, DJ Snake distanced himself from Lil Jon’s widely celebrated performance of “Turn Down For What” during the 2024 Democratic National Convention, the video for Swedish House Mafia’s “Don’t You Worry Child” hit a billion views on Spotify, Chris Lake and Vintage Culture were announced among the headliners for Costa Rica’s Ocasa Festival early next year, we did a deep dive into the business of touring travel logistics (and why DJs always want to stay in the quietest hotels) and Outkast sued electronic act ATLiens for giving themselves the same name as the hip-hop legends’ classic 1996 album.
And as always, it all comes back to the music. These are the best new dance tracks of the week.
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Mura Masa, Curve 1
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English producer Mura Masa is back with his fourth studio album Curve 1, which — with its club focus, no f–ks attitude and an orange-red version of Charli XCX’s season-defining chartreuse — can be considered a counterpart to Brat. Tracks about doing drugs (“I don’t do drugs, but with you I do,” Daniela Lalita says while guesting on previously released single “Drugs”), sex (with a female voice purring in French on the otherwise sharp-edged “SXC”) and good old making out (“We Are Making Out”) give the project a happily messy YA feel, although the production throughout is fully mature, frequently lush, occasionally soaring and simply just cool throughout. The project is the first release on Mura Masa’s own Pond Recordings.
“Feels very different to be releasing a record this time around, being independent affords so much more control and connection to the work,” the artist born Alexander Crossan wrote on Instagram. “I wanted to make something no frills, no cynical music industry narrative, no manipulative backstory. Just music that I think is really great and that people can gather around. Can’t wait for you to hear it. My love to everybody who worked with me on this, and most of all my love to anybody who listens and connects with it.”
Sofi Tukker, Bread
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Sophie Hawley Weld and Tucker Halpern recently told us that the concept of their new album, Bread, is both simple — the title is an acronym for “be really energetic and dance” — and deep, with the title representing ideas about satiating pleasure with abandon and experiencing nourishing abundance. The visual aesthetic the pair has created around this world reflects these themes, particularly in the video for “Woof,” which features the duo and special guest Kah-Lo (who very much eats on her guest verse) riding around New York City on a double-decker while partaking in many forms of pleasure, from massages to dancing to making out cradling a puppy. Out on Ultra Records, the entire 10-track album contains this same sort of exuberance and style, making Bread a must devour.
Yaeji, “booboo”
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Yaeji says she made her latest after a period of deep introspection, with the producer finding — as so many of us do — that after a lot of soul searching, it feels really good to just dance, hard. Debuted during her recent Boiler Room set in New York, “booboo” is spare, tough and funky, with the producer slowly turning up the dial on a buzzsaw bassline, adding punches of kickdrum and then turning it all off to sample her own 2017 breakout hit “raingurl” before just encouraging everyone “to shake your booty from the left to the right.” The track is out on XL Recordings.
Swedish House Mafia, “Lioness” (Francis Mercier Remix)
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Francis Mercier works his considerable magic on the most recent Swedish House Mafia release, with the Haitian producer stripping the flutes, relaxing the BPM and taking the percussion down by a few levels and altogether turning “Lioness” into a steamy, dreamy, hard-emoting afrobeats affair. “This one hits extra hard for me,” Mercier writes of the remix, “as I remember buying tickets to all of their NY shows. Nothing is impossible.” Mercier has been touring heavily this summer, with dates over the next few weeks including Burning Man, New York Fashion Week and shows across Ibiza.
Mau P & Diplo feat. Gunna, “Receipts”
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Mau P further further establishes himself as an absolute star of the new generation of producers with “Receipts” a hypnotic club-focused collab with Diplo and Gunna that was debuted during the two producers’ four hour b2b at Coachella this past April. “‘Receipts’ came to life as Wes and I were preparing for our b2b Coachella set which was also my debut performance at the festival,” Mau P says. “We had been talking for hours about music and our various influences, after which Wes asked me the obvious question – ‘Should we try to create a song together that we can play at Coachella?’ He had recently done a session with Gunna and gave me an acapella to mess around with. One night during Miami Music Week, I came home from a show feeling pretty hyped up, opened my laptop and landed on the first version of this track. From there, Wes and I went back and forth to nail it, and eventually premiered ‘Receipts’ at Coachella.”
Seven Lions & Subtronics feat. Skylar Grey, “I’ll Wait For You”
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Seven Lions and Subtronics join forces (as “Seventronics,” naturally), with a track as huge and hard as you’d expect from the pair. But while both producers specialize in bass, they’re also both masters of layering on shimmering flourishes that give their work a deep space feel, even as it hits you over the head. Vocals from Skyler Grey give “I’ll Wait For You” added softness and power. The single is out on Seven Lions’ own Ophelia Records.
“No No Girls,” the girls’ group audition project organized by CHANMINA and SKY-HI, leader of BMSG, will begin streaming on YouTube starting in October. In preparation for the launch, on Aug. 9, the audition project’s theme song, “NG,” was released as a digital single. With its dope music and grounded lyrics, it’s like a sister song to CHANMINA’s iconic song “Bijin.”
CHANMINA created quite a stir with her announcement that she had married Korean rapper ASH ISLAND and was an expectant mother, moving on to a new stage in her life. Billboard JAPAN recently had the opportunity to talk with her about what went into the creation of this new song and the audition project.
Congratulations on getting married! Is everything going well, health-wise?
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Thank you. I’m doing great. I appreciate everyone’s blessings. I’m doing just fine!
Around when the music video for “20” came out, a lot of people were suspecting that something was up, and your announcement right after that about getting married and being pregnant with your first child came as quite a surprise.
I thought about not mentioning anything about it, but I’ve never been a fan of hiding my private life, and I’ve always sung about my own life in my songs anyway.
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I’m interested to hear what you feel as you experience marriage, pregnancy, and childbirth. I’m sure there are insights that you can only reach through those experiences. I wouldn’t be surprised if your artistic output also changes.
I think that’ll probably happen. I can already feel it. For example, I’ve gotten back that thorniness I used to have. I lose my temper easily. I think that’s because the “womanly” part of me is taking a bit of a break, in a way. I’m not trying to be well-liked–I’m not hung up on other people’s feelings. I feel like I’m standing up and taking on the challenges I really need to as a person. That’s why this song came out the way it did. It’s been a while since I rapped.
Yes, I wanted to talk about that. So the changes in your personal life are also affecting your music?
I think so. I actually tend to rap a lot lately.
When did you start working on “NG”?
Actually, I started working on it back when I was making “Bijin.” I wrote about ten songs while I was perfecting “Bijin,” and “NG” was one of them. While I didn’t release it back then, I always liked it, so I kept it in my back pocket. It felt like a good match for this audition project, so I rewrote the lyrics, reworked the sound and the melody, and changed up the flow. Really, I finally finished the song by remaking it. It’s not like somebody asked me to make a theme song, but I thought it would be better if the project had one, and that this would be a good fit.
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Now that you mention it, it does feel very close in spirit to “Bijin.” Why didn’t you use this track originally for “Bijin”?
The beat was too hard, and I felt like I couldn’t fully handle it back then. It’s very unique, but also very minimal, and it really felt kind of scary. Plus, there were a lot of other things I wanted to do at the time. For example, I wanted to put in a melodic section. Now, I’m able to take on all those challenges, so I changed up a lot of parts, and this is how it turned out. JIGG, who I worked on the song with, was surprised at how the song evolved.
You said that you’re able to take on those challenges now. Why is that? Does it have to do with the changes in your personal life?
I think so. I don’t worry about the little things anymore. I’m no longer focused on “if I do this, then people will think about me that way.” That’s why the process of making “NG” was a rather fast one. I still can’t really explain the changes that happened in me very well, but what I can say is that I’m in fact changing. It’s like…I’ve become more solid.
Maybe it’s part of getting ready for motherhood.
Maybe. Until recently, I was more a “girl,” but now I’ve become more of a “woman”—more of an adult. I don’t focus so much on the little details. I’ve got bigger things to deal with now. So maybe that’s enabled me to focus on what I really need to do. “Bijin” was a struggle to write, but “NG” wasn’t at all. I knew what I wanted to say, so the whole song-writing process went more smoothly compared to the past.
The lyrics in the first half are about your experience with having your beauty denied.
I left those lyrics as-is from when I originally wrote them. “Bijin” alone wasn’t enough to finish the fight.
One of the things that gives the song such a distinctive CHANMINA feel is that it’s opposed to prejudice based on looks, but it doesn’t deny femininity.
I think you should be able to enjoy femininity. I think that beauty is the state of achieving your aesthetic ideals. So, of course, beauty will be different from person to person. For someone striving for femininity, that will be beauty. For someone who isn’t, then there will be some other kind of beauty.
And then in the second half of the song, you’re singing about human nature and attitude.
I don’t think true beauty is skin deep, but instead is achieved when outer beauty is paired with inner beauty. One of the lyrics is “Your ‘No’s didn’t kill me.” That’s about the responsibility that comes with being a person who lived on, without dying because of beauty. It has a strong sense of doing what you can.
The pronouns in the songs are also interesting. “Bijin” ends with you using “we,” which made quite an impression, but “NG” ends with you using “I.”
That’s another expression of that sense of responsibility. It’s the responsibility shown in saying “I’ll take the lead.”
I see. While the song is sung in the first person, with the lyrics sung from the position of “I,” I feel like it will resonate with anyone who has been told “No.” It will feel like “our song.” So even though you don’t use the word “we,” it expresses that collective “we.” On a wordsmanship level, it may even surpass “Bijin.”
Thank you. I feel like my lyrical skills are improving, little by little. For example, while the content of this song is hard, I don’t use the f-word even once. That’s something I’ve been trying to focus on in general.
So, I hear that this is your first interview since you announced your marriage and pregnancy. Is there anything you’d like to say to our readers?
I never expected for people to celebrate the news so much. There are so many people who have told me that they’re so happy, that it’s like they’re the ones who are getting married and becoming a mother. I’m so grateful for all the wishes, and I feel a profound sense of responsibility.
That just shows how much people are placing their hopes on you. You have to take good care of yourself.
I am. This isn’t just my own body anymore. I didn’t just feel that because of the baby inside me, but because of everyone’s reactions. I’m happy to have sung about my own life.
Right, you’re a part of everyone’s lives, now. You’ve got to live a long, happy life.
Thank you. I’ll do my best!
—This interview by Sotaro Yamada first appeared on Billboard Japan
None of this was promised for Travis Scott — from couch surfing in Los Angeles with rap dreams, to becoming the king of his hip-hop generation, with brand deals from Audemars Piguet to McDonald’s.
While he can look back on his 2014 fondly, there were definitely pockets of creative frustration at the time, when label executives didn’t trust La Flame’s futuristic vision — even after co-signs from the likes of Ye and Jay-Z.
Before the arrival of his debut album, Scott heated up with his second — and likely final — mixtape Days Before Rodeo. With the project celebrating its 10th anniversary earlier this week, and hitting streaming services for the first time, Trav took fans back to 2014 for one night only on Thursday (Aug. 22) inside the tight confines of Atlanta’s The Masquerade.
In collaboration with Cactus Jack and Spotify, the Days Before Rodeo concert served as a victory lap and blast from the past for La Flame, while some Gen-Z Ragers were introduced to the era. At the time, the music world didn’t understand the seismic shift that was about to take place between Scott’s mainstream explosion on the horizon, and Atlanta moving into the spotlight as America’s rap capital.
Fittingly, with Scott signed in part to T.I.’s Grand Hustle Records at the time (the deal has since expired, post-Astroworld), ATL heavily influenced the mixtape — with guest appearances by Migos, Young Thug, Peewee Longway, Rich Homie Quan and Tip (who doesn’t appear on the streaming services version).
The Houston native took The Masquerade stage around 11:30 pm ET following a brief set from Chase B where he was serenaded by the 1,000 lucky fans in attendance who formed plenty of sweaty mosh pits throughout the raucous show while rocking 10th anniversary DBR and Free Thugger merchandise in the intimate setting.
From the reckless “Mamacita” to the lucid “Drugs You Should Try It” and a Quavo appearance, Scott ran through just about the entire mixtape, before introducing tracks from the vault that didn’t make the original’s cut for the first time live.
If only the palpable energy could be bottled up forever — Trav didn’t want the show to stop there, as he continued to play the hits from his relentless discography to keep the rage going. Salute to La Flame for remembering all of his lyrics with ease too. Here are our eight favorite moments from the show.
Travis Gifts Fan Nikes Off His Feet
Jenny From the Block wants to go back to one. In a copy of her divorce filing from Ben Affleck filed on Tuesday (August 20) obtained by Billboard, Jennifer Lopez requested that her former name be restored. So, after two years as Jennifer Lynn Affleck, JLo asked the court to revert her name back to […]
She’s working late, ’cause she’s a singer — and if all goes well, a Broadway actress, too. On a new episode of Chicken Shop Date posted Friday (Aug. 23), Sabrina Carpenter addressed whether she’d ever return to the stage and talked all things espresso, Valentine’s Day and NSFW lyrics.
After conversing with the “Feather” singer about British people’s texting habits and the financial benefits of going on dates, host Amelia Dimoldenberg asked her guest a question that’s been on the minds of many fans since Carpenter’s run as Cady Heron in the Mean Girls stage production was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020: “Would you do Broadway again if the right opportunity came?”
“I would,” Carpenter replied with a shrug, smiling.
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Four years prior, Carpenter starred alongside Reneé Rapp’s Regina George in the Broadway adaptation of the 2004 movie, but she only got to do a couple performances before it closed down due to the global pandemic. She never did get to reprise her role in the production, as it didn’t reopen at the August Wilson Theatre, nor did she appear in the 2024 movie version of the musical, which Rapp led.
Throughout the interview with Dimoldenberg, Carpenter also shared what she did on Valentine’s Day this year — “I was given chocolate, and I ate it … that was my day” — although she didn’t specify whether she spent the holiday with boyfriend Barry Keoghan. She did, however, explain that she doesn’t fall in love as quickly anymore as she did when she was younger. “Now I fall in love a little more — I don’t want this to sound sad, but I just maybe fall in love with some more knowledge,” she said.
At the end of the video, Carpenter helped Dimoldenberg write an NSFW rhyme to the line, “Went to London ’cause I had a hot date,” in the style of her famous “Nonsense” outros. “I would’ve done something really crazy,” she said, “but I don’t think I can say it on camera.”
Covering her mouth, the Work It actress then whispered her idea: “Later I’m going to get my p—y ate.”
The cheeky interview arrives on the same day as Carpenter’s sixth studio album, Short n’ Sweet, which features hit single “Espresso” and Billboard Hot 100-topper “Please Please Please.” The star also unveiled a gory music video costarring Jenna Ortega, in which they channel the 1992 film Death Becomes Her and bond over killing a man they were previously fighting to the death over.
Speaking of “Espresso,” Carpenter addressed on Chicken Shop Date whether she actually enjoys sipping on the concentrated caffeinated beverage in real life. “I do — I just have to brave through them when I drink them,” she told Dimoldenberg. “It’s not like I like them because of how they taste — I like them because of how they make me feel.”
Watch Carpenter on Chicken Shop Date above.
With the first quarter of the 21st century coming to an end, Billboard has been looking back on the 25 Greatest Pop Stars of the Past 25 Years. Below, we take a deeper look into the peak of our No. 24 pop star, Ed Sheeran, and how his writing style — while often critically derided — actually displays the efficiency, creativity and originality of a true songwriting savant.
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Despite being one of this century’s most successful musicians by pretty much any statistic you could conjure, Ed Sheeran’s music has inspired well over a decade’s worth of eye rolls and turned-up noses – not necessarily because it’s bad, in the eyes of critics, but because it’s boring.
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That’s not an oversimplification. In 2011, The Guardian’s Peter Robinson literally made the English singer-songwriter the face of “The New Boring,” calling his debut album + “a 12-bore s–tgun” and likening him to “a combination of every friend-of-a-friend’s band whose pub gig you have ever witnessed.” Six years later, Pitchfork’s Laura Snapes described Sheeran as “trite,” “bland” and “unimaginative,” all within the sub-headline of a review about his third album ÷ (it scored a 2.8). For the duration of his career, the musician has been especially critiqued for his approach to genre, cherry-picking features of hip-hop, R&B and rock and distilling them into compressed, radio-friendly pop earworms which inevitably become lodged for years at a time on the charts and on grocery store speakers — writer Rachel Aroesti recently described the end result as a “sludgy, vague, inoffensive post-genre sound that has served to homogenise music in general.”
It’s understandable why people might be so tempted to explain away Sheeran’s success. Homely, scruffy and pointedly underdressed, he soared into the general public’s consciousness as the total antithesis to the polished male pop stars who were big before him — Justins Timberlake and Bieber, One Direction, Bruno Mars – prompting confusion as to how exactly he was able to infiltrate their sleek ranks. But as the essays have piled up over the last 15 years dismissing his scrappy image and mass-appeal music as calculated ploys to maximize profit by appearing as relatable to consumers as possible, one salient quality of Sheeran’s superstardom seems to have fallen out of focus. His seamlessly packaging together the shiniest parts of different genres and presenting them in a way that’s almost universally palatable is a skill in and of itself, and one with which Sheeran is singularly gifted.
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It takes an intriguing musical vocabulary, for instance, to infuse a romantic folk ballad such as “Lego House,” one of Sheeran’s earliest hits, with mile-a-minute rap bars — “And it’s dark in a cold December/ But I’ve got you to keep me warm…” in the pre-chorus, without interrupting its cozy pacing. The same can be said of his 2014 smash “Sing,” which somehow has all the body and elasticity of a FutureSex/LoveSounds banger – producer Pharell Williams once told Billboard the Timberlake album was a key inspiration — while staying simultaneously grounded in acoustic instruments and Sheeran’s rapid-fire rhyming. Other hits like 2014’s R&B-rap-pop-dance number “Don’t” and 2017’s tropical 12-week Billboard Hot 100-topper “Shape of You” show off his proclivity for complementing catchy sung melodic hooks with percussive rap-based verses, which he can confidently weave in and out of without ever disrupting the overall feel of a song.
Though he’s never been the most prosaic writer, the words he does choose instead serve to fit snugly in rhyme pockets or push the momentum of a section forward. While certainly cheesy and not particularly clever, the lyrical and melodic simplicity of “I’m in love with the shape of you/ We push and pull like a magnet do/ Every day discovering something brand new” enables it to wedge instantly into listeners’ memories. On the verses, he creates pleasing, percussive toplines that aren’t weighed down by needless syllables, but still manage to propel the narrative forward by quickly summarizing storylines (“One week in, we let the story begin/ We’re goin’ out on our first date”) or tapping into multiple layers of meaning (“We talk for hours and hours about the sweet and the sour…”)
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There have been some clunkers in his catalog, for sure: references to Shrek and a—hole bleaching have provided certain songs with needless blemishes, yes. But through all his genre-hopping and unorthodox wordplay, at the very least he can say he’s forged a style that’s entirely his own. His mass appeal may make him “generic” by definition, but his sound is his: Even the successors to his guy-with-a-guitar pop-rock mantle – Shawn Mendes, Lewis Capaldi, Noah Kahan — haven’t once gone near the playful experimentation Sheeran cut his teeth on, instead favoring safer, more traditional songwriting structures.
It’s also notable that Sheeran has never been dishonest about where his scattered musical influences came from, nor has he ever lazily copied anyone else. He’s always stated his love for figures like Damien Rice, Eminem and Eric Clapton, and he worked exclusively with grime artists on the self-released 2011 EP No. 5 Collaborations Project. And at a time where any male artist with his tastes would’ve earned far more cool points by positioning himself as an aloof rock star in the vein of Oasis or Arctic Monkeys, he instead fully, authentically embraced the world of pop and its leaders, teaming up with Taylor Swift on “Everything Has Changed” in 2013 and penning hits for Biebs and 1D (2012’s “Little Things” and 2015’s “Love Yourself,” respectively.)
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All of this to say, maybe Sheeran’s songs aren’t just soulless composites of popular genres designed to be as widely played as possible, but the natural blended output of a guy with a genuine love and appreciation for all the styles he employs. He also happens to be very strategic when assembling those puzzle pieces in a song, preternaturally sensitive to which elements are most likely to make for a successful hit – a personal goal he’s long been transparent about chasing. (“I have a data sheet emailed to me every week,” he told GQ with a wink in 2017. “My benchmark for the second album was Coldplay. This album it’s Springsteen.”)
The spectrum of his sound runs parallel to how much he does or doesn’t tailor songs for commercial success. On one end there’s the smoke-blowing songs like 2011’s “You Need Me, I Don’t Need You” and 2017’s “New Man” where he fully indulges his love for loose, slightly silly rapping. Though they might become fan classics, they’re the least programmed to become global hits — he’s just having some fun. On the other end are his sweeping romantic ballads like “Thinking Out Loud,” “Photograph” and “Perfect,” which are maniacally constructed for decades of play at weddings and high school dances. But of these, ask yourself: if not Sheeran, who else is up to the task of pumping out this generation’s deck of timeless sappy slow-dance songs?
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In the middle is everything else, the so-called homogenized, post-genre songs that have a little something for everybody. There are several different outcomes songwriters pursue when writing music, and consequently, there are just as many measures of that music’s quality. None are necessarily right or wrong. Swift’s goal is to tell personal stories through her songs. Pitbull wants people to dance. Adele aims to pack an emotional punch. And each of these objectives requires a great deal of craftsmanship when putting pen to paper. Even if Sheeran’s desire has been to write songs surgically stitched together for easy listening, does he really forfeit any recognition for being one of his generation’s most innovative songwriters just because his music is created with algorithmic precision?
When one of his songs ultimately gets stuck in your head for weeks, you might curse his formula as being that of an evil genius. But the key word here is still “genius.”
They say you should never meet your heroes. Well, they never told Jelly Roll that, because in a new behind-the-scenes video posted on Thursday (August 22) the “Save Me” country star details the out-of-body experienced he had in June when he flew to Detroit to meet his hip-hop top dog: Eminem.
The five-and-a-half minute clip opens with Jelly on the phone telling someone that he’s on his way to meet Slim Shady as he speeds down the highway with a police escort. In the clip, Jelly explains that his early morning road trip came after he played two shows at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry the night before, a whiplash of back-to-back career pinnacles that are truly hard to comprehend.
“I am fixin’ to meet Eminem. To some degree one could say we’re going from the Grand Ole Opry to meet Eminem,” he says while riding in the backseat of an SUV and stating the obvious, but also possibly talking himself off a ledge of disbelief at his good fortune. He explains that the trip was sparked by Marshall tapping him to sing in a Bob Seger tribute as part of the NBC Live From Detroit: The Concert at Michigan Central special that aired in June featuring Diana Ross, Jack White, Big Sean, Eminem and others celebrating the re-opening of the city’s restored train station.
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In the prime-time show, Jelly took the stage with event co-producer Eminem for a duet on Em’s 2002 song “Sing For the Moment.”
“Forty-year-old Jason DeFord is losing his mind,” Jelly says using his birth name. “Because I know for sure that 15-year-old Jason DeFord would faint! This is unreal, it’s really cool” he adds, staring out the window and contemplating this surreal moment. He then breaks down the mechanics of rappers expanding their local or regional fame to larger areas while recalling his attempt to break into the game more than a decade ago.
“Guys like Eminem were proud to be from Detroit, Michigan because superstars don’t come out of Detroit, Michigan,” he says, rehearsing an a cappella run of Aerosmith’s “Dream On,” which is interpolated in the Eminem song the duo performed. “We’re in the middle of some insanely historical s–t.”
Walking into the station and taking the stage for rehearsals, the big moment when the two men finally meet comes about half-way through the video. After a friendly greeting, Jelly admits to Marshall that he’s been “a little nervous” all day about their meet-up, wondering if the rap god even knows who he is. “Nah, I’ve been knowing you for a minute,” says a low-key Slim Shady.
Later, Jelly says that moment — standing next to Eminem and taking some promo shots — was on his Mount Rushmore of personal high points, along with meeting Garth Brooks and Dolly Parton. “Where I literally stood next to somebody and was like ‘this is f–king wild!,’” he says before picking out his wardrobe for the performance and having a chill hang with fellow performer Melissa Etheridge backstage.
The video ends with footage of the epic, orchestra-assisted performance and Jelly on his way out of town marveling at what just happened while re-watching the whole thing on his phone as he speeds to his next gig.
Watch Jelly Roll’s Eminem meet cute video below.
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New Music Latin is a compilation of the best new Latin songs and albums recommended by Billboard’s Latin and Billboard Español editors. Check out this week’s picks below.
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Carin León, Carlos Vives & Chimbala, “La Chancleta” (Socios Music/Virgin Music/Island Records)
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The unexpected fusion of Mexican, Colombian, and Dominican musical elements in “La Chancleta” is a delightful surprise, where Carín León collaborates with Carlos Vives and Chimbala. The upbeat song laces Vives’ tropical vallenato rhythms from the Colombian coast with Chimbala’s rapid and infectious Dembow melodies, all while León’s husky vocals bid farewell to a bad love. “No guardaste el pan para Mayo,” says part of the playful lyrics, which translates to “you did not save the bread for May” — a popular Spanish phrase that stresses the importance of saving for the future to avoid problems. — INGRID FAJARDO
Jesse & Joy and Banda MS, “Te Perdí” (Warner Music Latina)
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Finding the middle ground between their characteristic pop sound and banda sinaloense, Jesse & Joy venture to experiment with regional Mexican music with Banda MS on the song “Te Perdí.” The sweet female vocals that have conquered different generations merges perfectly with that of Alan Ramírez, one of the singers of the group that is characterized by its success with romantic songs. “And although it sounds silly, I know deep down I lost you/ If your heart is gone, then what is left for me to fight,” goes part of the lyrics to this pleasant-to-the-ear and easy-to-remember song. — TERE AGUILERA
Feid & Maisak, “Se Me Olvida” (Universal Music Latino)
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Despite being one of the biggest names in the reggaetón space today, Feid never holds back from supporting the new generation of urbano acts. “Se Me Olvida” attests to that, where the Colombian superstar teams up with promising newcomer Maisak, hailing from Santa Marta, Colombia. Produced by Fenix the Producer and co-penned by the two artists, “Se Me Olvida” is a romantic reggaetón ballad, where the heartfelt lyrics shine on its own. “I keep forgetting that I’m your ex, that I lost you/ And now the love of my life is with the love of her life,” goes the catchy chorus, which first went viral on Maisak’s TikTok — and as a result, Feid jumped on the track. — JESSICA ROIZ
Joaquina, “no llames lo mío nuestro” (Universal Music Latino/Arthouse)
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In her latest single “No Llames Lo Mío Nuestro” (Don’t Call What’s Mine Ours), Joaquina captures the strength of a young woman reluctant to make the same mistakes of the past. In this emotional pop track, the Venezuelan singer-songwriter sings to an ex who is looking to get back with her that she has closed that chapter and overcome their toxic relationship. “I can no longer be here for you whenever you want, don’t try to cover the sun with a finger/ You can no longer take the parts of me that you want, don’t come back because I’m no longer waiting for you/ Don’t call what’s mine ours,” goes the chorus. Driven by a guitar sound that’s perhaps more poppy than her previous work, the single is a new evolutionary step in the brilliant career of the youngest Latin Grammy best new artist winner, both musically and lyrically. — SIGAL RATNER-ARIAS
Cimafunk, Pa’ Tu Cuerpa (Terapia Productions/Thirty Tigers)
Erik Alejandro Iglesias Rodríguez, known as Cimafunk and originally from Pinar del Río, Cuba, redefines funk with his new album Pa’ tu Cuerpa. The set is a sonic mosaic that fuses Afro-Cuban rhythms with the contagious groove of R&B and the harmonic sensuality of soul, evoking giants like Earth, Wind & Fire, but with a Latin flavor. The album stands out for its originality, creating an exciting, danceable bridge between African American and Latin music. In addition, the musical arrangements are complex and dynamic, while Cimafunk’s performance is pure energy, charisma and mischief in each song.
Among the gems of the album, the single “Cuchi Cuchi” stands out for its magnetism, while “Catalina”, together with Monsieur Periné, shines for its fusion of styles and contagious joy. “Pretty” adds a note of sensuality and flavor, and closer “A tu merced” — a collaboration with Camila Guevara, Pancho Céspedes and Gonzalo Rubalcaba — ends the set with a more introspective cadence. With Pa’ tu Cuerpa, Cimafunk not only delivers “what your body needs,” but solidifies his place as one of the most innovative and captivating artists in contemporary music. — LUISA CALLE
Listen to more editors’ Latin recommendations in the playlist below:
Tate McRae had two big surprises in store for the fans at her Madison Square Garden concert in New York City Thursday (Aug. 22): duetting with her boyfriend, fellow pop star The Kid Laroi, and premiering a new song.
When Laroi first joined his girlfriend on stage, he wrapped her in a big hug and prompted cheers from the audience by pulling her in for a kiss. The couple then sang an acoustic, stripped-back version of the Australian rapper-singer’s 2021 hit “Without You,” with McRae telling the crowd it was their “first time singing together,” according to People.
“You cut out a piece of me, and now I bleed internally/ Left here without you,” they sang, sitting next to each other on a set of steps. “And it hurts for me to think about what life could possibly be like/ Without you, without you.”
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At another point in the show — which comes midway through McRae’s Think Later World Tour — the Canadian singer-songwriter debuted a brand new track, a clip of which she posted on TikTok. “Premiered a new song at my headline sold out MSG show,” she wrote in text over the video, which finds her dancing along to the song’s outro as white confetti rains down on the stage floor.
She also shared a snippet of an unreleased song on TikTok, dancing along to its fierce lyrics with a group of friends. “It’s okay, I’m okay, I don’t really gotta say, it’s okay,” she sings on the dance tune. “You can have him anyway.”
“so good,” commented McRae’s pal Olivia Rodrigo.
The teaser comes nearly nine months after the “Greedy” artist dropped her album Think Later, which debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200. She has several months left to go on her global trek in support of the record, with shows scheduled through November.
Watch clips from McRae’s surprise-filled Madison Square Garden concert below.