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New Music Latin is a compilation of the best new Latin songs and albums recommended by Billboard Latin and Billboard Español editors. Check out this week’s picks below.
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Ángela Aguilar, Nadie Se Va Como Llegó (Machin Records)
It’s a momentous album for Ángela Aguilar, and not only because it’s the first time she’s produced her own music, but also because it captures the 21-year old’s transformational spirit. Aptly titled Nadie Se Va Como Llegó, a nod to being in a constant state of evolution, Aguilar shows how much she’s grown as a singer-songwriter since launching her recording career at just eight years old.
Showcasing maturity in the lyrics — sharing songwriting credits with the likes of Fabiola Guajardo and Amanda Coronel, to name a few — the música Mexicana star captures the peaks and valleys of womanhood via songs of empowerment, heartbreak and love. Sonically, Aguilar stays true to her mariachi roots while also incorporating norteño, pop and cumbia elements for a variety of styles. “I’m getting out of my comfort zone but still honoring my roots and traditions,” Aguilar previously told Billboard. “I just turned 21, so it’s kind of like exploring where I want my career to take me.” — GRISELDA FLORES
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Aitana, Cuarto Azul (Universal Music Spain)
Aitana has opened the doors to her Cuarto Azul (blue room) — a 19-track set that has best shaped her identity as an artist. Lyrically, the Spanish singer-songwriter opens up about evolution, self-discovery, love, heartbreaks, and healing. Musically, it fuses pop, synth, electronica, and alternative rock. The album’s title “represents the room she returns to in order to reconnect with herself, free from judgment and external influence. It’s a space of healing, where darkness rooted in sadness, anger, and frustration gradually gives way to light—a restorative process that culminates in the return of joy,” according to a press statement.
Notable tracks on the set include the riveting punk tune “Segundo Intento,” the flirty pop track “Sentimiento Natural” in collaboration with Myke Towers, and the heartfelt ballad “Hoy Es Tu Cumpleaños” with Danny Ocean. Aitana also welcomed Ela Taubert, Kenia Os, Jay Wheeler, and Barry B, and Fangoria in her Cuarto Azul. — JESSICA ROIZ
Pipe Bueno, Vives con Mariachi (Warner Music Mexico)
Known as one of the pioneer of Colombia’s música popular genre, Pipe Bueno released his latest EP, Vives con Mariachi — a heartfelt tribute to Carlos Vives, featuring the vibrant Mariachi Sol de México de José Hernández. The six-track set seamlessly blends the lively Caribbean essence of vallenatos with the rich, emotive sound of mariachi, best capturing a unique aesthetic that celebrates the harmonies of strings, the brilliance of trumpets, and the depth of time-honored traditions.
Vives kicks off with “Bailar Contigo” in collaboration with Majo Aguilar, drawing listeners in with its melodic charm. “La Gota Fría” showcases Pipe’s dynamic vocal performance, where he creates a stunning counterpoint to the bold brass sections of the mariachi. In “Déjame Entrar,” collaborator Adriel Favela delivers a delicate and measured interpretation that adds layers of tension and subtlety to the track. The album moves forward with “Volví a Nacer” and “La Tierra del Olvido,” tracks that elevate Vives’ original repertoire to new emotional landscapes. — INGRID FAJARDO
Reik & Yami Safdie, “Es Tan Corta La Vida” (Sony Music México)
The Mexican band Reik teams up with the emerging Argentine artist Yami Safdie for the single “Es Tan Corta La Vida,” the only collaboration from their recent EP TQ that celebrates 20 years of their career. Together they deliver a sweet contemporary pop ballad that speaks of love in the midst of the fleeting nature of life. The sound, marked by the strumming of acoustic guitars in the style of the band’s beginnings, enhances the sincerity of phrases like “God forgives, but time doesn’t” and “life is so short for you not to be with me.” — LUISA CALLE
Yailin La Más Viral, “Todos Mienten” (Roc Nation Distribution)
With her latest single “Todos Mienten,” Yailin La Más Viral dives headfirst into the hypnotic rhythms of baile funk, once again molding Brazilian beats with her unapologetic Dominican edge. The track breathes fire, delivering biting lyrics that portray her fearless confidence: “Maldita perra tú lo va’ perder,” she sneers, capturing the raw, unfiltered energy that defines her brand.
Anchored by Consobeatz’s sultry production, the song thrives on its sly pulse and effortless swagger, setting the stage for Yailin’s continued ascent. The music video too pushes boundaries, spiking interest with provocative visuals reminiscent of Shakira’s “La Tortura” and Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball.” Drenched in oil, Yailin radiates seductive power while seated atop a motor engine in an audacious nod to rebellious allure. — ISABELA RAYGOZA
3BallMTY feat. Conjunto Nuevo Amanecer, “El Nene” (Top Music)
After an eight-year hiatus, 3BallMTY returns to the music scene with “El Nene,” a song in which their iconic tribal and techno sound feels even more powerful with the joyful cumbia touches of Conjunto Nuevo Amanecer. This fusion of Latin rhythms and trumpets, with a contagious, repetitive chorus (“Let the boy dance, let the boy dance) — sung by José Francisco Mendoza of Conjunto Nuevo Amanecer — is perfect for the dance floor, with “El Nene” as the central character, the life of the party.
The new track is part of an upcoming album that the DJ collective made up of Sergio Zavala (DJ Sheeqo Beat), Alberto Presenda (DJ Otto) and Erick Rincón plans to release soon, under the production of renowned Californian DJ Deorro — with whom they have recently shared the stage at festivals such as EDC in Las Vegas and Sueños in Chicago. — TERE AGUILAR
Alex Cuba & Bacilos, “No es de verdad” (Caracol Records)
Award-winning singer-songwriter Alex Cuba and tropipop band Bacilos join forces on “Nada Es De Verdad,” an upbeat song with a fresh sound that invites us to “let go of the drama, question excessive seriousness, and stop getting caught up in pointless arguments,” according to a press release. “Nothing is real, in every color there’s something imperfect/ Maybe seeing it this way tells us we’re awake,” says part of the infectious chorus.
“This collaboration was already written in the universe, but even I didn’t know it was meant to be,” Alex Cuba tells Billboard Español. “It’s been truly beautiful collaborating with Bacilos. They’re great people—everything has been so easy, so full of voices, so full of light, so full of good vibes.” Cuba adds that he met Bacilos’ leader Jorge Villamizar years ago at the Latin Grammys, and that when he wrote this song, he thought it would be perfect to record together. “Nada Es De Verdad” is a vibrant single perfect for a joyful start to the summer. — SIGAL RATNER-ARIAS
Silvana Estrada, “Como un Pájaro” (Glassnote Records/Altafonte)
Silvana Estrada releases her first song since 2023’s “Qué Problema,” and the first preview of the new album she plans to release this year, the follow-up to her 2022 Marchita. “Como un Pájaro” (Like a Bird) was written during the coronavirus pandemic, during a period of insomnia and loneliness following a breakup, the artist has said. Driven by guitars and produced by herself, it features a string arrangement by Roberto Verástegui performed by FAME’s Skopje Studio Orchestra in Macedonia that, accompanied by her poetic lyrics, creates an intimate and melancholic atmosphere while highlighting her seductive, virtuosic voice.
This new single is a beautiful introspective piece, “an ode to silence” and loneliness, and the result of the blend of immense talent, profound sensitivity and creative freedom that the Veracruz-born songwriter faithfully exercises in her music, which has made her one of the most moving and celebrated voices on the contemporary Latin scene. — NATALIA CANO
Check out more Latin recommendations this week below:
What is Industry Rule #4080?
I’ll answer that for you.
Record companies are shady, or at least that’s what A Tribe Called Quest tried to warn us about on “Check the Rhime” way back in 1991 off their classic album The Low End Theory.
That’s the concept of Brooklyn rapper Rome Streetz and Kansas City producer Conductor Williams‘ lead single from their collab album they dropped today. I visited the set during the second shoot day on crisp spring afternoon in Brooklyn, where Rome and Conductor were shooting a scene in which they stood in front of a white cyc background and had images depicting slavery projected on to them. The video for “Rule #4080” shows them dealing with shady record execs and visiting a plantation. One scene that sticks out, however, was when they were both in the middle of a green field which harkens back to the album’s title.
In Danny Boyle’s 1996 film Trainspotting, starring a young Ewan McGregor, the four friends take a train to the middle of nowhere in Scotland to try to enjoy the great outdoors as they try to wane themselves off heroin. “I relate to that movie, because they’re just trying to come up, it’s just a bunch of friends,” Rome told me between takes as he sat on a couch in a backroom of the creative venue House of Brooklyn. “They doing some wild s–t, but ultimately they trying to elevate all of their situations.”
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And for the most part, Rome and Conductor have become close friends on and off the court, branching off on their own from under the Griselda umbrella to put this album out on their own. “This is the spin-off. It’s like if Tommy and Cole had their own show,” Rome joked as he references the ’90s sitcom Martin, after I brought Westside Gunn and Griselda up.
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Trainspotting features 14 tracks of pure, unadulterated rap music with West Coast mainstay Jay Worthy and the Wu-Tang‘s very own Method Man serving as the only two guest appearances.
Check out our conversation below.
When did you guys first start talking about doing a full length together?
Rome Streetz: After the first couple sessions when we were in Arizona, honestly. Once I did Kiss the Ring, I just realized that I had so many records from Conductor. I just kept listening and wanted to see how I can make them doper. The first time I linked with Conductor and heard the beats that he was making, I’m like, ‘Yo, these sh—s are insane.” I was like, ‘Yo, I’ll do a whole album with Conductor,’ and when we talked about it we said, ‘Let’s do it.’
When it comes to working with Conductor, it’s a certain zone that I stay in. I can’t even describe it. I think it’s because people love what we do. That’s probably some of my best work, the fans hold it in such a high regard. I know what I gotta do. I gotta jump out the gym on this s–t. The chemistry was there the first time we linked.
What is it about Rome that you f—k with?
Conductor Williams: Rome on the rap side is just elite. He never surprises me in the fact that he’s elite, like that’s always going to be — but it’s an attention to detail. It’s like listening thoroughly to the sample, understanding where the pockets are that he can navigate. And then sometimes he chooses other pockets that he could do his thing, but he chooses the other ones. So it’s almost like Sudoku, as at a certain stage with Rome. I send a beat with intentions, and then it’s like, “Yo, which way is he gonna play this thing?” And that’s the joy that I get out of working with him. It’s a master class of street rap, but also just like pen to paper, if you just read the lyrics, it’s just as impressive. I’m just a fan of high level art, and that’s what he is with the rap s–t.
And even as a person, as we continue to like build and be in situations, in the same studios for weekends at a time, it’s just like high level detail to everything. It’s clothes, food, flavors, colors, you know, all the things. And that’s the type of stuff that I that I feel, you know? So, finally I felt like, “Man, he’s like me.” I found my group. This is like a musical cousin. I found him. Out of all the people in the world, I found a guy that understands what I’m doing. We don’t even got talk. It’s not like a chatty catty poker night, strip club relationship. It’s just like one that God set up, man. I can’t explain it.
So, when y’all first linked it, did you let him listen to a pack or did you construct stuff around him?
C.W.: I was playing beats out of a pack I had made when we were all in Arizona and we went through them, and he selected the ones he wanted. We exchanged numbers, and I was texting him beat after beat that he hadn’t heard while we were in the same room. Even when I got back home to Kansas City, I kept sending him beats.
R.S.: I probably sent some songs right back. [Laughs.]
C.W.: It was pretty organic in like, finding somebody that not only matched my output, but could match it creatively. He was just out of that mastery level where he said, “Yo, the faster you can make them, the faster I can connect.”
R.S.: He sent me a pack, I’d listen and be like, “Oh s–t, let me hop on this right now.”
Are these songs old or new?
R.S.: It’s a mix. Honestly, we have a whole batch of songs. Some new, some old.
C.W.: Some are really old. There’s songs on here that we made in Arizona that didn’t make Kiss the Ring. Just extra songs.
Why is the album called Trainspotting?
R.S.: That’s just a crazy movie… Sometimes the crazy sh— can just inspire a lot of things. Trainspotting is one of my favorite movies. It’s really left-field and weird. It’s visually striking movie, and this is a sonically striking album. Also keeping the train theme going, with Conductor.
C.W.: After the fact, they put me on. They had me watching that s–t. I was like, “What?” N—as told me to watch it. I was at the crib and I had dropped the boys off to school, and I cooked up. So, it’s like 10:30-11 and I had leftover Bar-B-Q from Gates thinking I’m gonna sit down and watch me a little show. [Laughs.]
That’s a crazy flick to watch first thing in the morning. Gotta watch that late night when you’re zooted.
C.W.: Man, he was in the toilet. There was s–t everywhere.
R.S.: That’s when I seen it the first time. Mad late, I think it was on Cinemax or something. It was a long time ago. I remember thinking, “What the f—k is this? This movie is f—king crazy.”
C.W.: Yeah, n—as f—ked my lunch up. I think I got in the groupchat that day too and was like, “What y’all got me watching?” The most cringeful part is after he smashed shorty and found out that she was getting ready for school the next day. They were just in the club, how the f—k she get in here? You smash and then the next morning, you wake up and she’s got her school clothes on. I remember just like freaking out for him. It made my stomach hurt.
The album is like the movie: It’s exciting, it’s rapid. It’s rap record after rap record after rap record after rap record and then it’s done.
Conductor Williams
Photo Rob
Did you guys talk about concepts for some of the songs? You have a song about the record industry. Then you have a couple songs about shorties on there too.
R.S.: It was more like how the beat spoke to me. I heard the beat. I’m like, what else am I gonna rap about? “Before I be a slave, I’ll be buried in my grave.” How can I relate that to my life? And it’s like, you know what? That’s the record industry, right there. You could be trying to live out your dream, but you so hasty, you might sign a f—ked up deal. You might get a f—king 20-page contract, motherf—kers will just be like, “Where’s the money? How much I’ma get? It’s a lot of clauses to how much you might get. You might get a free week of UberEats and a Supreme jacket. Sometimes what glitters ain’t always gold.
It felt like you were showing off your versatility a little bit with the subject matter.
R.S.: Even that song “Heartbreak.” It’s a conceptual joint, but it’s more so just like the beat speaks to me. Sometimes the beat will just take you in a direction, and I went with it instead of going the opposite way. Sometimes you need those joints especially if you’re making a complete album. I gotta give you that type of s–t. Everybody loves Kiss the Ring, and I feel like I went and I gave you a little bit of everything on there. I went to a lot of different places with that. I see the formula that I gotta follow when it comes to me making my own records to get the type of response from the fans that make them go, “This is insane.”
You mentioned in a previous interview that we did with you and Daringer that you prefer pulling up to a studio to work with a producer. How collaborative is the process when you guys are together?
R.S.: It’s literally 1-2-3. We play a beat, I just go in If I don’t have something already, I’ma figure it out. Also it’s like, who knows? We might do something tonight from the ground up.
That’s what I’m saying — so you’ll build a beat during a session?
C.W.: Yeah, I’ll come prepared with some ideas and stuff like that. But it really is like the most honest, rawest form of collaboration. This is the beat I made out of it, then he hears it and responds, then we link together to see what happens, and after that, it’s a game of what if? What if we add this, what if we put this hook on it? What if we that? That’s the most fun part — and we talked about a little bit earlier — that collaborative thing. I felt this, and I put the gospel sample on there. He heard the gospel sample and was inspired to make a record about the record industry.
Even if you were going in with a different idea, he hears it, it sparks something, and it’s like, “Let’s go in this direction.”
C.W.: Yeah, I can’t tell him how to feel. My entire ethos, in that way, is just like, kill the ego. I can’t tell him that he didn’t feel the record industry off of that. I can only tell him if something is mathematically bad, too many words in a bar that’s f—king the groove up. Stuff like that.
R.S.: Even with that song, I did have that beat for a while before I actually wrote to it because it was just one of those things where I felt like I had to say something. I couldn’t just rap. I wanted to make something conceptual like let me use the sample and bring out a message. Sometimes music is just to entertain, sometimes music is informative, sometimes music is emotional.
So, at that particular time, I wanted to make sure I said something that would stick. A lot of people that are in the music industry, and they don’t even know how the s–t works, they just want to be a pure artist, and sometimes labels take advantage of that s–t. Or, you know, sometimes people just want the money. Sometimes people are happy with living out their dream that they just want to get to it. Being in the music industry is a constant learning experience.
And you guys are with a label in Griselda that essentially figured out the indie game in the Internet era.How has that been, working with Gunn?
R.S.: It’s literally, you eat what you kill. If you ain’t out there killing s–t, you ain’t gonna eat s–t. You can’t wait for West to sit you down and be like, “This is what we gonna do?” And I feel like he don’t really f—k with people that’s waiting for him. He gonna f—k with you if you a killer on your own. He does so much, it’s like, “Listen, bro, I’m gonna throw the ball up and just dunk that s–t. And after that, keep scoring. That’s all it is. This was some s–t that we just did. We met through West, but we just spun off.
Let’s talk about the concept of the video a little bit.
R.S.: It’s basically just playing off of what I said in the song. Relating ancient slaves to modern-day slaves, because you could really just be a slave in the music industry if you sign a f—ked up deal.
And you guys shot some of it at an old plantation upstate.
C.W.: I wanted to be involved for this particular video. My folks are from the Blue Hills of Missouri. My grandfather was a sharecropper. So, some of the things in this video touched my heart so much so to where I was stuck, and Coach understood that, and kind of moved me around some scenes and made me feel comfortable. But I’m very much a part of the video.
Did you make these beasts in the crib? Do you have a studio now?
C.W.: I had a studio in Kansas City that I was renting a room out of but they sold the building, so I didn’t move everything into my basement. So, wifey and I are building a crib and we’re going to put a studio in there.
Yeah, you coming up — because you watch your old vlogs, you’re like in a basemen or an attic with a makeshift one.
C.W.: That’s the grass roots of it. I’m just making beats, and I’ve worked very hard to get very good and that shit don’t mean a studio. It means you sitting with the machine. I just need time alone to build.
R.S.: I record a lot of s–t myself in the crib, and then send it to Conductor. Because I could go off in the studio, but once I started recording at home, it’s a different level of comfortability with your creativity. If I write it right then and there, I can record it right then and there. Sometimes I’ll go to sleep and I’ll dream of rhymes. I wake up and write it, or I’ll wake up in the morning and have so much creative energy that I have to write or record right away. Sometimes I might write a rhyme, leave it for days, and be like, “Damn, I forgot how I even said this.” I like being able to knock out right then and there.
C.W.: I don’t think everybody can do that. You got to be at such a level where emotionally you can connect to what you’re thinking and you can rap anywhere, in any condition. You got to be really good to be able to one-take these records.
R.S.: It’s literally like training because I used to give myself challenges even before I had any type of notoriety. I felt like I had to be able to cook up rhymes at any given moment because when I do get to where I want to go with my career, there might be situations where I’m in the studio and it’s like, “Yeah, let’s work now. It’s not like I’ll write this when I get the idea, when I get the feeling. It’s like, nah, bro, how dope are you?”
That’s what Kiss the Ring was. All those days I was preparing to be able to go to the studio and lay something down on the spot. The beat is on right now. We’re trying to see if you really are what you sound like. Like, can you do this in front of my face? Can you hibachi this s–t? I train myself for that. You don’t just get this good overnight.
Do you mix and master your beasts yourself?
C.W.: Good side note, and I’m glad you asked that. So, the mastering tech that we used is Dave Cooley — and Dave Cooley mastered Madvillainy, Donuts, a bunch of indie rock stuff.
So you sought him out.
C.W.: I’ve been wanted to work with Dave, but unfortunately, my status wasn’t at that level yet. But when I reached out to him when I was working with Rome, I got to thinking about some of the records that to me sonically never die like Madvillainy and Donuts, I thought of Dave. And he was just ecstatic, and told me that he heard Rome on a DJ Premier track he did with West. Then he listened to what I went him, he listened to Kiss the Ring, and he listened to Noise Kandy 5. So, it was like a discovery moment for him, which gassed me more to make this record.
Do you guys have a favorite record on the album?
R.S.: It varies for me the more I listen to it.
C.W.: My favorite is “Lightworks.” And it’s my favorite because I love Dilla so much, and so I had to try to figure out how he cut the original sample of “Lightworks” to make it say what it sounds like it’s saying. I found a lot of joy in trying to be like, “Yo, how did he make it say light up the spliff?” And it’s not “light up the spliff,” it’s “light up the sky,” but you got to cut it a certain way. Dilla chopped the vowels out to make it say, “Is death real?” on “Stop.” It’s just like science and technical stuff.
My favorite track from you guys is “Chrome Magnum.”
C.W.: I think “Chrome Magnum” represents the type of music we love to make together. It don’t sound super boom-bap-ish — it’s just like industrial, ugly.
R.S.: I just like the unorthodox way that Conductor’s beats sound.
I mean, your flow is kind of like that, too, so it makes sense now that you say that.
C.W.: Another one that’s really dope that came from a fun moment. is “Ugly Balenciaga’s.” I sent it to him to try to make him laugh. I didn’t even want you to rap over it. I sent it because I just thought it was funny, and he didn’t say nothing back until he sent a song back.
R.S.: That’s one of my favorites that I’ve made.
C.W.: I was like, “N—a, you rapped on this?”
R.S.: Hell yeah.
C.W.: And he went crazy. [Laughs.]
R.S.: That’s the thing. Some s–t like that is a challenge to me. A beat like that will make me go, “Okay, how am I gonna approach this s–t? How am I even gonna attack it?” Because you gotta attack it in a certain type of way to make it entertaining. I like to have no floor and somehow figure out how I’m gonna make it across the s–t.
C.W.: That’s wild.
It’s like a balance act. Are you guys planning on doing another tape together?
C.W.: I don’t know, man. My schedule is crazy, his schedule crazy. But ultimately, this is my brother, so yeah. I just don’t know when. I think the fans kind of know that too.
People been asking for a collab tape from you guys for a while.
R.S.: We’ve been making music for so long together, we have more songs than what we gave y’all.
Does it even feel like summer if Darkoo doesn’t drop? After last year’s “Favourite Girl” and “Focus On Me (All the Sexy Girls In The Club)” earlier this year, she’s giving the girls another reason to whine their waists with “Like Dat.” And three years after their sweet “2 Sugar” collab from his More Love, Less Ego album, Ayra Starr and Wizkid join forces again on island-infused Afrobeats banger “Gimme Dat” (which has no relationship to the aforementioned P-Square hit).
Speaking of Wizkid collabs, he teams up with Nigerian hip-hop icon Olamide for a new track, “Kai!,” while Seyi Vibez celebrates his new partnership with EMPIRE with a sonic departure in the form of new track “Pressure.” Meanwhile, Fido follows up his breakthrough smash “Joy Is Coming” with a new cut called “Money Moves,” while Kizz Daniel returns with a surprise seven-song EP called Uncle K: Lemon Chase that leads with the breezy song “Black Girl Magic.”
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We’ve highlighted 10 of our favorite new songs by African acts that have come out roughly within the last month. Check out our latest Fresh Picks, and pregame the summer season with our Spotify playlist below.
Ayra Starr & Wizkid, “Gimme Dat”
Ayra Starr and Wizkid are ready to fill up the “freakin’ dancefloor” this summer with “Gimme Dat.” The slow-burning acoustic guitar melody from Wyclef Jean and Mary J. Blige’s 2000 Grammy-nominated hit “911” and tropical drums, courtesy of producers VybeO and Mikabeatz adds to the song’s sensuality and serenity. But Wiz steals the spotlight in the middle of the song with his audacious “Goddamn” declaration that kickstarts his verse about sticking to one shorty who has all his attention.
June Freedom, “Oh My Lady”
The Cape Verdean American crooner creates a vibrant ode to intimacy with his latest single “Oh My Lady.” Producer Abolaji Collins Kuye’s glimmering Afro-fusion groove complement Freedom’s blend of English and Cape Verdean Kriolu sweet nothings that roll off his tongue as he reminds us that home isn’t always a place, it’s your person. “Two souls locked in, fully understanding each other on every level: mind, body and soul. I wanted to capture that rare kind of love that holds you down but still lets you fly. It’s like wake up to peace and falling asleep in passion,” he said in a press release.
Darkoo, “Like Dat”
The British-Nigerian star heats things up again with “Like Dat.” The pulsating Afroswing beat will immediately send any “naughty naughty” girl’s hips swinging, but her suave voice drives the track’s flirtatious energy. And Darkoo plays into her affinity for Y2K sonics and aesthetics by paying homage to the music video for Sean Paul’s 2003 smash “I’m Still in Love With You” with the same bold pop of orange and yellow in the Sam Fallover-directed “Like Dat” visual.
Ayox & Qing Madi, “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE”
The self-proclaimed “loner of Afrobeats” Ayox and Billboard’s repeat 21 Under 21 honoree Qing Madi are a melodic match made in heaven on “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE” from his sophomore EP WHEN NOBODY IS WATCHING. They swap sweet-sounding confessions about taking accountability and wanting to do better by their lovers over pulsating rhythms and thrilling saxophone riffs.
Twitch 4EVA, Yung D3mz & Uche B, “Temperature”
Ghanaian artists Twitch 4EVA and Yung D3mz and producer Uche B team up on the scorching single “Temperature.” The spurts of the log drums feel like trickling beads of sweat down the body, but the whistling ad-libs interspersed throughout the song add more ventilation.
Olamide & Wizkid, “Kai!”
Two titans of the last two decades of African music, Olamide and Wizkid, teamed up for this slick cut, which layers a horn section over some traditional Afrobeats drum patterns and features both icons crooning, using their voices as additional instrumentation to augment the track. The video sees the two of them dressed to the nines in a nightclub setting, too, enhancing the overall vibe of the track.
Seyi Vibez, “Pressure”
Fresh off his new partnership with EMPIRE, Nigerian street prince Seyi Vibez immediately diverted from his usual grittier sound to drop this love song, with warmer and more inviting themes than his usual gruffer fare. It’s “a complete shift from my usual sound,” he said in a press release about the track. “It leans into melody, intimacy and raw emotion. It’s smoother, softer and more intentional. I wanted to show my range, to prove that I can give you fire and tenderness in the same breath. This track is about the quiet power of love and attention. Sometimes the loudest statement is how you move when no one’s watching. That’s real pressure.”
Fido, “Money Moves”
Fresh off his breakout smash single “Joy Is Coming,” Fido returns with “Money Moves,” an engaging cut with an earworm hook — quickly becoming a hallmark of his — that brings in amapiano elements to underpin his melodic vocals. If joy was coming on his last single, it’s arrived in the form of stacks of cash in this one.
Bhadboi OML feat. L.A.X., “River”
Bhadboi OML has been steadily building a name for himself with a string of single releases over the past year or so, and this one lands with a breezy vibe just on the cusp of summertime with a hook that implores the listener to “cry me a river.” Teaming up with fellow Nigerian and veteran artist L.A.X. adds another dimension to this one, but Bhadboi takes the bulk of it and delivers a hit for the season.
Kizz Daniel, “Black Girl Magic”
Returning out of nowhere with a new EP, the seven-song Uncle K: Lemon Chase — featuring collaborations with ODUMODUBLVCK, Angélique Kidjo, Bella Shmurda, Zlatan and more — Kizz Daniel bolsters his discography with “Black Girl Magic,” a free-spirited, lighthearted ode to treating your girl right no matter the cost. The full project is worth checking out, but this one sets the tone.
Thom Yorke is speaking out for the first time about a confrontation with an audience member at one of his gigs in Australia last year that the Radiohead singer said left him emotionally distraught. In a lengthy Instagram post on Friday morning (May 30), Yorke described his feelings about “some guy shouting at me from the dark last year” as he was preparing to sing the final song at his solo show in Melbourne.
After a man in the audience shouted comments about “Israeli genocide in Gaza” during the gig at the Sidney Meyer Music Bowl in October, Yorke stopped the show and challenged the person to come on stage and say it to his face before walking off in seeming disgust. In his Instagram post, Yorke said that moment didn’t really seem like the best one to “discuss the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.”
Afterwards, however, Yorke wrote that he “remained in shock that my supposed silence was somehow taken as complicity,” adding that he “struggled to find an adequate way to respond to this and to carry on with the rest of the shows on the tour. That silence, my attempt to show respect for all those who are suffering and those who have died, and to not trivialize it in a few words, has allowed other opportunistic groups to use intimidation and defamation to fill in the blanks, and I regret giving them this chance.”
While Yorke didn’t specify which comments he was referring to, he said not formally responding to the vitriol has “had a heavy toll on my mental health.”
The remainder of the eight-page post is a pointed broadside against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom Yorke called out the last time Radiohead played in Israel, in July 2017. At that time, he wrote, “We’ve played in Israel for over 20 years through a succession of governments, some more liberal than others. As we have in America. We don’t endorse [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu any more than Trump, but we still play in America.”
The singer wrote on Instagram that he hoped that anyone who has ever listened to his or his band’s music, read the lyrics or seen their artwork would clearly understand that he could not “possibly support any form of extremism or dehumanization of others. All I see in a lifetime’s worth of work with my fellow musicians and artists is a pushing against such things, trying to create work that goes beyond what it means to be controlled, coerced, threatened, to suffer, to be intimidated .. and instead to encourage critical thinking beyond borders.”
If his message was not clear, Yorke made his feelings about Israel’s longest-serving PM even more so in the statement. “I think Netanyahu and his crew of extremists are totally out of control and need to be stopped,” he wrote. “And that the international community should put all the pressure it can on them to cease. Their excuse of self-defence has long since worn thin and has been replaced by a transparent desire to take control of Gaza and the West Band permanently.”
Netanyahu has overseen a nearly two-year war on Hamas in the wake of the extremist group’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, during which raiders killed nearly 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals and took 250 hostages. In the ensuing battles, Israeli forces have mercilessly pounded Gaza with bombs that have destroyed much of the region’s infrastructure, killing more than 53,000, according to Palestinian health officials. The daily attacks have also led to a humanitarian crisis and what experts warn is a potentially devastating famine due to the Netanyahu administration’s refusal to let sufficient food aid into the decimated region.
Yorke lambasted what he called Netanyahu’s “ultra-nationalist” administration, claiming that Harvard-educated Netanyahu and his hard-right peers have hidden behind a “terrified & grieving people and used them to deflect any criticism, using that fear and grief to further their ultra-nationalist agenda with terrible consequences, as we see now with the horrific blockage of aid to Gaza.”
Israel has begun allowing more food aid into Gaza in recent days, though the new distribution mechanism backed by the U.S. and Netanyahu has resulted in chaotic scenes in which tens of thousands of Palestinians reportedly on the verge of famine swarmed the sites to grab bags of food and flour. As talks for another temporary cease fire are under way, Israel has continued its daily bombing of Gaza, even as it has ordered serially displaced Palestinians to move to an area near the coast as the military attempts to empty out large areas where it says Hamas fighters remain.
“While our lives tick along as normal these endless thousands of innocent human souls are still being expelled from the earth… for what?” Yorke asked, pivoting to the issue of why the “unquestioning Free Palestine refrain” has not resulted in the return of what are believe to be the 58 remaining hostages. He also asked why Hamas undertook the “horrific” acts of Oct. 7, speculating that the militant group is choosing to “hide behind the suffering of its people, in an equally cynical fashion for their own purposes.”
Yorke ended by lashing out at “social media witch hunts” aimed at pressuring artists to make statements, efforts he said do little except exacerbate tensions, cause fear and over-simplify the situation. “This kind of deliberate polarization does not serve our fellow human beings and perpetuates a constant ‘us and them’ mentality,” Yorke wrote. “It destroys hope and maintains a sense of isolation, the very things that extremists use to maintain their position.”
The singer said he understands the push to “do something” when confronted with such suffering and loss, but cautioned against thinking that reposting “one or two line messages,” especially ones condemning others, is the answer. “It is shouting from the darkness,” he said. “It is not looking people in the eye when you speak. It is making dangerous assumptions. It is not debate and it is not critical thinking.”
Admittedly short on answers and aware that his note is unlikely to satisfy those looking to “target myself or those i work with,” Yorke ended by offering hope that his letter will allow him to join the many millions of others “praying for this suffering, isolation and death to stop.”
See Yorke’s full statement below.
Taylor Swift fans are very, very used to the pop star surprising them — but she might have just outdone herself with the announcement that she’s purchased back the masters to her first six albums, following an arduous six-year fight to do so.
The news comes after a bitter public feud with her old label boss Scott Borchetta, who in 2019 sold his Big Machine Label Group — along with Swift’s catalog — for upwards of $300 million to Scooter Braun, a situation the 14-time Grammy winner said at the time was her “worst-case scenario.” Also in a message posted to her Tumblr after the sale, she wrote that she’d learned about the deal “as it was announced to the world” and added, “All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years.”
Braun would later sell his ownership of Swift’s music to Shamrock Capital, and the musician would busy herself on a mission to re-record the albums she made with Big Machine. Fearless (Taylor’s Version), Red (Taylor’s Version), Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) all sprung from this venture, topping the Billboard 200 each time and fueling the success behind Swift’s blockbuster Eras Tour.
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So when the “Fortnight” singer revealed in a letter on her website Friday (May 30) that she had finally won control over her masters, purchasing them from Shamrock for an amount that sources tell Billboard was about $360 million, fans were shocked — not just because of how long the journey has been up until this point, but also because of what it means for the long-awaited Taylor Swift and Reputation re-records. (In her letter, Swift shared that she’s already finished re-doing the former, but hasn’t even completed “a quarter” of the latter. “To be perfectly honest, it’s the one album in those first six that I thought couldn’t be improved upon by redoing it,” she wrote, adding that “there will be a time … for the unreleased Vault tracks from that album to hatch.”)
The day has been full of mixed emotions for Swifties, as many are sad to hear that Reputation may not get the full Taylor’s Version treatment after all. But more than anything, the overwhelming feeling in the fanbase’s online community has been elation since Swift shared her news. “THIS IS BETTER THAN REP TV,” one fan wrote on X. “THIS IS REPUTATION!!!!!!! THE WHOLE THING!!! RECLAIMING HERSELF!!!!! ALL. OF. IT.”
“the moral of the story is taylor ALWAYS wins in the end,” another person posted, while a third Swiftie wrote, “oh taylor you are so loved. the whole world was rooting for you.”
Many fans have also been rejoicing in the fact that they can now stream the original versions of Swift’s first six albums without having to worry anymore about supporting her competitors. “I’m so happy for Taylor Swift!” wrote one happy camper on X. “She owns all of it!!!!!! I can now go back and listen to all of her original albums and not feel guilty 😭 TODAY IS A GOOD DAY!!!!!”
See how Swifties are reacting to the singer’s big purchase below.
I’m so happy for Taylor Swift! She owns all of it!!!!!! I can now go back and listen to all of her original albums and not feel guilty 😭 TODAY IS A GOOD DAY!!!!! pic.twitter.com/vPiw5HCTzi— 💫 (@heyjaeee) May 30, 2025
THIS IS BETTER THAN REP TV THIS IS REPUTATION!!!!!!! THE WHOLE THING!!! RECLAIMING HERSELF!!!!! ALL. OF. IT.— LYDIA ⋆⭒˚.⋆🪩 (@mirrorballydia) May 30, 2025
I can’t even find the words to comprehend how happy I am— Taylor Swift Updates (@SwiftNYC) May 30, 2025
she’s so right reputation was an album that you really just had to be there for— mason (@larkieswiftie) May 30, 2025
not just the music but the music videos, concert films, album art & photography, unreleased songs from every single era now fully belong to taylor im so so so happy for her 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/mGOw2W1uuo— kaia! (@kaiamal13) May 30, 2025
btw pls don’t be too mad that we *may* not get rep tv. her owning the masters > > > > > > > > rep tv like this was the whole point— tushar (@reputushion) May 30, 2025
Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet is back at No. 1 on the U.K.’s Official Albums Chart for a fifth non-consecutive week on Friday (May 30). The “Espresso” star first hit the top spot upon release back in August 2024, and the LP has returned to the summit intermittently ever since; Short n’ Sweet was last […]
Justine Skye is beginning her next musical era with a fresh sound and a new label home: on Friday (May 30), the singer-songwriter released “Oh Lala,” a thumping dance collaboration with Kaytranada that re-imagines her R&B aesthetic and kicks off her stint at Warner Records.
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“I’m so excited to be part of the Warner family,” says Skye, who previously spent time signed to Atlantic Records and Republic Records, in a statement to Billboard. “From the beginning, they’ve truly seen the vision for this new era of my music and have been incredible partners in bringing it to life. ‘Oh Lala’ is a reflection of that creative freedom and support. The track builds a world where tempo and dance are the leading force.”
The Brooklyn native released her debut album, Ultraviolet, in 2018, and the Timbaland-produced Space & Time followed in 2021. As “Collide,” her 2014 collaboration with Tyga, was going viral on TikTok in 2022, Skye was already considering her next sonic pathway, with a desire to incorporate faster tempos in her studio output.
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“After going through so much emotionally, I hit a point where I just wanted to feel good again,” she explains in a press release for “Oh Lala.” “For me, that happened on the dance floor, being carefree with like-minded people — whether in Brooklyn, L.A., or Ibiza. I wanted to make music that matched that energy. Something sexy, something free, something that lets you forget everything but the moment you’re in.”
The “Oh Lala” music video was filmed at the famed (and now shuttered) Brooklyn nightclub, Paragon, with Kaytranada appearing alongside Skye. The new single was first teased in Nike’s new Air Max campaign featuring the singer.
Skye is being supported by both Warner and the label’s flagship dance imprint, Major Recordings. Her in-the-works label debut is being A&Red by Ericka Coulter (svp, A&R, Warner Records and GM, Free Lunch Records) and Chris Morris (svp, A&R, Warner Records).
It’s a Tuesday evening in May at Nightbird Studios, the recording complex nestled within L.A.’s Sunset Marquis. Within this infamous hotel rock and roller hotel, where Keith Richards once got behind the bar and poured drinks during the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, Anyma is tinkering away on a new album intended to end the current phase of his career.
A space packed with production equipment is certainly like a second home to the artist, but for him this place must also feel relatively mundane, given how much time he’s recently spent at Sphere. During a 12-date residency spanning this past December, January, February and March, the Italian American producer became the first electronic artist to headline the Las Vegas venue.
While already a longtime star of the global underground via his solo work and previously as part of the duo Tale of Us, this high-profile gig naturally pushed the producer to a new level of ubiquity, with his name suddenly alongside fellow Sphere residents including U2, the Eagles, Dead & Company and Phish. When asked how life is different now than it was on Dec. 26, the day before his residency started, he’s forthright.
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“Well,” he says in his thick Italian accent, “I’m less stressed.”
But those who’ve witnessed the not casual themes of heaven and hell, creation and destruction, humanity and transhumanism woven into his Sphere show and other previous visual output are right to assume the artist born Matteo Milleri is a deep thinker. Tonight, posted up on the couch in the studio’s dimly lit lounge, his webby tattoos peeking out from the sleeves of his hoodie, he elaborates on how the Sphere experience did, in fact, change him. And in fact, he’d hoped it might.
“I think if I would feel the same, it would not be a success for me,” he offers. “Because I put my ideas out there, so that they reflect back on me once they’ve been absorbed by the world. For me as an artist, it’s very important to feel like I’ve changed, evolved, improved my craft.”
Anyma is talkative, polite and emits a sense of gravitas while talking about his work, altogether seeming older than his 37 years. He began the Anyma (pronounced “ah-nee-ma”) project in 2021, fusing the work with both tech and lofty ideas about humanity, spirituality, technology, the past and the future. This Friday (May 30), Anyma releases The End of Genesys, the third and final LP in a trilogy, following 2023’s Genesys and 2024’s Genesys II.
This new music, Anyma says, “was scored to the Sphere opera movie, so it was really written with a very big inspiration.” The tens of thousands of people who saw the show witnessed this inspiration in wild and often surreal visuals that depicted scenes of space, verdant forests, deserts, burning cities and a pair of recurring characters — a human man and a chesty cyborg who who meet in various landscapes, with him eventually plugging a heart into her chest, a moment that drew cheers.
For Anyma, the project was a natural extension of his longtime goal of creating something different in the live electronic world. “The reason why I went into the production of the visual experience was because I don’t really feel much from live events,” he says. “Of course, the underground dance stuff is great, because that’s its own thing. I’m talking about the big concerts, the big festivals, the big productions. For me, even with the technology and the budgets available, I just went home with my ears hurting. It’s difficult to even grasp an artist’s perspective when the production is overwhelming.”
His goal was to make a more intentional visual presentation that “you can just basically augment your purpose and your art with it… That was the whole idea behind everything.” In this way, Sphere was simply the most powerful tool for him to express ideas he’d long been considering. (Having a pre-existing visual identity also helped the team save money on the Sphere show’s mighty production costs.)
“Of course I’m happy it ended in Sphere,” he continues, “but it was supposed to exist even on its own on a world tour. I want people to think and to like, feel, you know? Maybe go home the next day and reconnect with a loved one or something, because they were moved.”
His goal for for The End of Genesys is roughly the same. But while anyone who saw the Sphere show has effectively already heard the album, listening to these 15 tracks in your headphones — with no eye-pummeling visuals or seats shaking in time with the kick — is a different experience. Separated from its corresponding visual identity, the ears better grasp the music’s nuances.
The project includes several marquee collaborations, with the album’s banger of a lead single, “Hypnotized,” featuring vocals from dance icon Ellie Goulding. “Taratata” features previous collaborator and fellow tech enthusiast Grimes, “Human Now” has Empire of the Sun’s always-heady Luke Steele, and other songs recruit 070 Shake, Rezz, Sevdaliza and Yeat.
Anyma’s music has historically existed in the heavy and often cinematic realms of melodic techno, a genre that’s bubbled up in popularity in the broader dance scene over the last few years, a trend that’s partially a function of the success of Anyma and Tale of Us. (The topic of the duo is off limits, although Anyma’s agent, CAA’s Ferry Rais-Shaghaghi, told Billboard in February that “both guys are super-focused on their solo projects right now.”) But via the collabs and song structures, The End Of Genesys often adopts a more pop lean. This was kind of the point.
The previous two Genesys albums came at “a transitional part of my career, when I was still trying to understand how to crack the code with pop, electronic and dance,” says Anyma. And now? “I feel like I did it.”
“It’s the final evolution of the sound,” he says, “with the best artists I know, most of whom are my friends. It’s inspiring that I could connect all my knowledge and influences into a record and make it contemporary and potentially timeless. That’s not up to me, but I think some of this record is really timeless, and that’s what really exciting.”
Balancing all of these factors was tricky he says, “because these days people want very simple things on the dance floor, social media needs to be fast and that’s what’s really resonating with the younger generations.” He instead aspired to make music in the grand tradition of artists like The Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk and Massive Attack who made songs, he says, “that you could kind of vibe and dance to, but you could also sing. It was one cohesive artist statement with an edge of the rave culture behind it.”
Anyma
Courtesy of BT PR
The music will serve as material for Anyma’s many upcoming DJ sets, with his summer shows happening largely in Europe. The run includes an eight-week residency at Ibiza’s newest venue [UNVRS], a 15,000 capacity mega-club tricked out with a ton of technology.
He describes these upcoming performances as encompassing two worlds. The first is “DJ curation, longer sets, community and more forward thinking, exciting music… Then the big headline stuff and the bigger shows are more of a spin-off of the last act of Sphere, that aesthetic and those sonics.” He also says some of the new visuals will be AI-driven, with the use of AI currently a major focus of his work.
With all of these huge projects and big ideas, it’s hard to imagine Anyma in Netflix and chill mode, although he says it does happen. He’s based in Ibiza, where he enjoys the quiet of the farmland and the goats and the sea. Vacation for him is staying home, watching TV, listening to music and exercising for at least an hour a day, a habit that techno legend Sven Väth encouraged him to adopt. (“He saw me on tour and was like ‘You look a bit tired,’ and I was like, ‘You look great.’”)
But after the intense demands of Sphere, he says the most straightforward form of relaxation currently on his calendar is “going back to being a normal DJ.”
“This has been years of my life, of thinking, of my philosophy in the show. But creatively I also need to take a break — no artist creates just because there’s a screen. I don’t think I can do anything meaningful that way.”
Under president/CEO Ben Vaughn, Warner Chappell Nashville consistently dominated country music publishing. In 2024 alone, WCN was crowned publisher of the year at the SESAC Nashville Music Awards and at the BMI Country Music Awards (for the fifth time).
But all those accolades aside, Vaughn, who died Jan. 30, stood out due to his respect for and belief in songwriters. With an unwavering confidence in those he worked with at WCN, Vaughn guided them to where they needed to go creatively and professionally.
To honor his memory and his love of songwriters, Billboard has created the Ben Vaughn Song Champion Award, presented to an artist who uplifts songwriters just as Vaughn did.
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The first recipient is Little Big Town, whose relationship with Vaughn, Billboard’s 2020 Country Power Players Executive of the Year, goes back more than 25 years to when it was just a nascent band and Vaughn a Belmont University student running Scott Hendricks’ Big Tractor publishing company. “We all were kids,” LBT’s Karen Fairchild recalls. But even then, Vaughn had a way of connecting with songwriters. “He just was always so vibrant, and his personality just always so encouraging.”
Years later, shortly after Vaughn moved to WCN in 2012 following a long stint at EMI, LBT’s publishing deal at WCN was set to expire — and the band was determined to leave. “Ben was like, ‘What would it take? Let me take you to dinner and let’s discuss,’ ” Fairchild remembers. “Ben and [then-Warner Chappell Music chairman/CEO] Jon Platt reworked our deal, but Ben was definitely the catalyst. He was our champion. He had our catalog there and he believed in all those songs. People can sign you and be vacant, and Ben was never that guy.”
“He listened to our hearts and to our music and said, ‘I’m going to give this band what they deserve,’ ” LBT’s Kimberly Schlapman recalls. “He made us feel so good because he gave us value at Warner Chappell, not only as an artist but as songwriters. We felt like he wholeheartedly had given us his endorsement, his adoration and respect. We never thought again about going anywhere else.”
Vaughn took a hands-on approach in helping the group find outside songs for its fifth album, 2012’s Tornado, which included “Pontoon,” LBT’s first platinum single. It marked the first time the quartet, which also includes Phillip Sweet and Jimi Westbrook, worked with noted songwriters Natalie Hemby, Luke Laird and Barry Dean. “He was always sending songs and [suggesting] collaborations and asking who we wanted to write with,” Fairchild says. “Just an encourager creatively, giving us renewed hope, and that’s very, very important when you’re diving back in and making a record.”
Vaughn frequently sent the band members songs from writers they hadn’t previously worked with, including “Next to You,” which opens LBT’s 2020 Grammy Award-nominated album, Nightfall. “ ‘Next to You’ was a total Ben moment,” Fairchild says. “Ben sent it to me first and said, ‘Listen to this song. You’re gonna die.’ It was some L.A. writers that we wouldn’t have known, but he just heard all the harmonies and he’s like, ‘This is going to be so epic.’ It was the cornerstone of Nightfall.”
Vaughn also suggested that Fairchild and Schlapman write with the Love Junkies (Hemby, Liz Rose and Lori McKenna), who penned some of the group’s biggest hits, including “Sober” and “Girl Crush.” “He always encouraged us to write with them because he loved what those three ladies and Karen and me were doing together,” Schlapman says. “He has a huge hand in that relationship.”
At Billboard’s Country Power Players cocktail event on June 4, the group will perform “Rich Man” in tribute to Vaughn. “Ben was rich in so many ways,” Schlapman says, “and he gave away his richness to others through his kindness and his encouragement and his love.”
Accepting the award is bittersweet for the band members, but they’re honored to pay their respects to Vaughn’s legacy. “I hope his family knows what an indelible mark he has left on all of us,” Fairchild says. “Just what a good publisher, friend and human he was.”
Vaughn “elevated the entire town,” Schlapman says. “He made the songwriters shine, and especially in this day when they don’t get nearly the credit and the money and the accolades that they deserve, he made them feel like superstars. He made everybody believe in themselves because he believed in them and the power of their music.”
This story appears in the May 31, 2025, issue of Billboard.
After six long years and four album re-records, Taylor Swift has finally won back control of her masters. But what does that mean for the long-awaited, highly anticipated Reputation (Taylor’s Version)?
In a letter on her website announcing that she’d finally been able to purchase back the rights to her first six albums from Shamrock Capital Friday (May 30), the pop star addressed just that. “I know, I know. What about Rep TV?” Swift began in her note.
“Full: transparency: I haven’t even re-recorded a quarter of it,” she continued. “The Reputation album was so specific to that time in my life, and I kept hitting a stopping point when I tried to remake it. All that defiance, that longing to be understood while feeling purposely misunderstood, that desperate hope, that shame-born snarl and mischief. To be perfectly honest, it’s the one album in those first six that I thought couldn’t be improved upon by redoing it.”
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For those reasons, Swift says she “kept putting it off” when it came time to re-record Reputation. Now that she owns the masters to the original album, she doesn’t technically need to remake it — but she did add, “There will be a time (if you’re into the idea) for the unreleased Vault tracks from that album to hatch.”
After releasing new versions of her Fearless, Speak Now, Red and 1989 albums over the past few years, Reputation was one of two albums left for her to re-record in the series of six LPs she’d made while still signed to Scott Borchetta’s Big Machine Label Group. One of the biggest feuds in music history erupted into the court of public opinion in 2019 when Borchetta sold the company — along with Swift’s catalog — to Scooter Braun, something the “Fortnight” singer at the time called her “worst case scenario” due to Braun’s “incessant, manipulative bullying” she accused him of directing her way over the years.
Her catalog later traded hands again when Braun sold it to Shamrock in late 2020, while Swift has kept fans on their toes with the unveilings of each Taylor’s Version album — each of which has featured a handful of “From the Vault” tracks written in years past that were never previously released. Besides Reputation, the only other album she still had left to re-record was her 2006 self-titled debut, about which she wrote in Friday’s letter, “I’ve already completely re-recorded my entire debut album, and I really love how it sounds now.”
“Those 2 albums can still have their moments to re-emerge when the time is right, if that would be something you guys would be excited about,” she wrote of Reputation and Taylor Swift. “But if it happens, it won’t be from a place of sadness and longing for what I wish I could have. It will just be a celebration now.”
