Music

It’s 11:45 p.m. on a Wednesday night, and Brooklyn’s Baby’s All Right is alive with energy. Despite the late hour, the youthful exuberance of the twenty-something couple standing next to me is contagious as they daringly risk their eight hours of slumber to party with rising R&B star Isaiah Falls. This shared energy is enough to galvanize anyone in attendance, regardless of age.

Explore

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

For the venerated venue that once hosted SZA and Billie Eilish during their early days, Falls’ fire and desire prove to be worth the late-night stay, as he and The Avengers — his Luxury Lane crew — charm the crowd, courtesy of his 24-minute masterwork, Drugs and Lullabies.

“Technically, it’s an EP because an EP is anything under 28 minutes,” says Falls earlier in the day, explaining why the project isn’t an album. “Don’t get me wrong, it feels like an album, but it’s not.”

Trending on Billboard

Falls’ rise in 2024 began when he crafted his single “Florida Baby,” an ode to all the bodacious women representing his home state. Sitting pretty at 17 million streams on Spotify, “Florida Baby” became a staple for The Sunshine State and the driving force behind the singer’s first-ever headlining tour.

“Drake had The 6, Kendrick had Compton in LA, these people that popped off always had the city behind them. I think that’s impact,” says Falls. “Cash Cobain has New York behind him right now. I understood that I needed to get the attention of where I was before I took over the world.”

Drugs & Lullabies is a 12-track groove oozing with syrupy melodies and sleek hooks. It thrives off Falls’ precocious songwriting and Luxury Lane’s glossy production. With traces of PARTYNEXTDOOR and Justin Timberlake seeping through the project, Falls’ R&B-tinged effort has signature wins, including “Honey” and “Candy.”

“My team and I call it my Section 80, but we wanted to keep it short and simple,” he says. “Straight to the point — because when it’s time for the album, as a businessman, they’re gonna have to auction that b–ch. I’m not gonna lie.”

Billboard spoke to Falls about his musical family, leaning into Justin Timberlake when making his new EP, the making of “Florida Baby” and more.

You come from a musical family where your parents were in a band. Talk about that. 

It was beautiful. I grew up with my parents being in a band. My dad’s a drummer, my mom’s a singer, my sister sings a little bit, but she doesn’t really do it too much. The whole household was very musical and their music taste was very different. Growing up in that, whatever they were listening to, I was trying to find something else. They were listening to gospel, Mike [Jackson], and mad people like Charlie Wilson, Prince, Earth, Wind and Fire, all those cats. Me, growing up, I started listening to Jay-Z, Twista, Luda and Chris Brown. My sister put me on to a lot of music too, because we were very close. It was a very diverse household for music tastes. 

Then, my parents got into trying to be A&Rs when I was younger. They picked up some artists, because they weren’t as involved in the church like they used to be, so they decided to guide artists. They got artists signed, too. I would travel with them. I went to Nashville when I was like 11, because they went to go meet with Warner or something like that to get a group signed. It was all Christian music, by the way. They ended up getting cut loose by the main artist they were focused on, and that was very impactful, so they kinda let go of A&R and life lifed and they went separate ways. I picked up music very early, very early. 

How did that conversation with your parents go when you had that self-discovery of wanting to become an artist?

I feel like I was in a very unique scenario because I didn’t necessarily need to have the conversation with both my parents — because I was raised by my mother, for real. My mother understood that it was a journey, and everything that had to go into being an artist — but her being experienced, she guided me in a way where it was like, “You can do it, if you really do it.”

So I had support. She bought me my first laptop from the pawn shop. She worked as hard as she possibly could to get me anything possible that I needed to make music. I had a keyboard, a laptop [and] a cracked FL studios. She supported me anyway possible. Honestly, it was the biggest blessing, because it felt like there was no ceiling. 

You mention “your brothers” making music too in a past interview. Was it ever a competitive vibe between you guys?

Not really. So when I say “my brothers,” one was an artist that my parents were managing and he was just there all the time. He wasn’t a blood brother, but it felt like my brother. He was a rapper and he put me on to just recording. Like I remember specifically — one time I was recording, he told me to say “f–k.” I was like, “You sure?” and he was like, “Say it.” I said it and he brought my parents in. He was like, “Look. He’s really good at this sh-t.” Since that day, I was like, “I’mma do this for real.”

You mentioned having a strong love for hip-hop. Was the goal to be a rapper first?

100%. I think I always gravitated towards rap and the feeling that rap gave me, personally. I think that’s why even though I make R&B music, my music still knocks and hits in the car, because I still love that essence of rap. I still love Kodak. I still love Trick Daddy. I still love these people that still have that Florida essence to them, like Rick Ross. Their music still hits in the car. I love making smooth music for the women, but I also love the low-end of rap music. 

Because you come from Orlando, that’s not necessarily a stomping ground for R&B artists. Where did you seek inspiration from?

Man, there really wasn’t much. Early on in my life, my parents — since they were heavily in the church, there were gospel singers that they had their eye on and I loved their music growing up. Their music was so good. This guy named Alex Teamer, incredible singer — still connected with him to this day — his music was so soulful, and I feel like I grew up trying to learn the songs he was singing because my mom used to play it. So I grew up just singing that. Since he was from the city, it was dope to see him and how he produced too. He did it all. That’s definitely majority of where I got that inspiration from. And my mom used to always play Mike in the house. I learned how to sing falsetto by singing “Rock Your Body” [by Justin Timberlake, originally written for Michael Jackson].

Your Mount Rushmore is Aaliyah, PARTYNEXTDOOR, Sampha and Miguel. Was there anything you took from them creatively that inspired your Drugs & Lullabies EP? 

I think there’s so many layers. Naturally, I listened to Aaliyah and a lot of ’90s music in general. If I can put one more, I’d put SWV on the Mount Rushmore. I grew up listening to that music when I found myself. I do melodies unconsciously. On “Diva,” they’re like, “Oh. That sounds like an Aaliyah sample” and I was like, “Nah. I was just singing.” It’s just in [my] subconscious.

Sampha, specifically — a lot of this project was made without drums first. I get that from Sampha, when he was collaborating with Drake on “4422” and “Too Much.” There’s songs that I hear from Sampha that I absolutely love, and they feel like interludes. I make a lot of music that feel like interludes first, and my team would be like, “Nah. This is a hit. Let’s put some drums [on it].”

Which records on the project did you add the drums to? I love “Candy” and the bounce it has to it.

That’s actually one of them, which is crazy. “Candy” specifically, we made in New York. Keep in mind, I don’t record the drums and we made a bunch of records that had no drums. Shout-out to my team Luxury Lane. They hit me and they were like, “Nah. This album is good, but it’s not there yet. It don’t got no bops or no hits yet. We gotta put some hits on it.” 

So we came to New York, and they were like, “Let’s go in with the intention of writing a hit.” When we were writing that song, we were like, “We’re in New York. Let’s take an old ’90s record that just feels right. So that guitar that Bliz did in the beginning is so reminiscent of the ’90s, because that was intentionally our goal. 

There’s a pocket beginning with “Florida Baby” where I think you go on a three, four-track run of straight bops, going into “Honey” and “Candy.” Was that intentional as well?

Absolutely. I started the production on “Honey.” When I started that beat, I was like, “Let’s make a little vibe.” You know, you look good, you smell good. Let’s get that energy for the women. That’s honestly one of my favorite songs because the crowd just starts to move. So that was kind of intentional. [Luxary Lane’s] Icee Red is heavily influenced by Justin Timberlake, so he was like, “Let’s go there on the bridge.” I was like, “OK. Say less. Let’s go there.”

So I had a melody initially that reminded me of Mike or JT and instantly I was like, “We can go there for the bridge.” What’s beautiful about my team is that everyone has their influences and they all kind of sprinkle that into my music. So essentially across the board, that’s kind of mix of all of us. 

I’m glad you said Justin Timberlake-inspired because there was a song on the project that I said gave Justified energy. 

Yeah, it gotta be “Honey.” 100%. The 20/20 Experience and Justified, them two projects for our team in general, we love those projects.

“Florida Baby” was the song that rang off for you and is your most popular record to date. How did that come about?

Two years ago, maybe three years ago now, I decided to leave my 9-5 job because I was doing music part-time instead of full-time and I was working at a water company. With all that being said, I was getting by doing graphic design and ubering. One night I was ubering and sometimes in Orlando, nothing pops up on your app and you’re just sitting there. So I was sitting there and I was like, “Man. F–k that. I’m going home.” I was like, “I can’t do this.” I was on a website called Waves.com and I was just listening to samples while I went home to find something I could record to that night. Keep in mind, this is New Year’s Day, which is crazy because New Years is popping, but the certain part I was in, there’s no ubers, ever. I’m driving home and I find the sample for “Florida Baby” on Waves. 

I go home and I said, “I don’t remember the last time I heard an anthem for the state of Florida.” I always kept in mind Drake had The 6, Kendrick had Compton in LA, these people that popped off always had the city behind them. I think that’s impact. Cash Cobain has New York behind him right now. I understood that I needed to get the attention of where I’m at before I take over the world. When I went into recording, I said, let’s make a song for the women specifically, but let’s make a song for the women where I’m from. 

I recorded the song, it was fire and all of that. That night I posted on Instagram. I do a thing where I snippet music. That’s kind of my cheat code. I was like let me put it out and see if people really f–k with this. So I put it out and went to sleep. I woke up the next day, keep in mind, my views on Instagram always been 2,000-3,000 views and at most 7,000 views. I woke up and saw 500,000 views. That’s when I was like, “Oh. We got something.”

I texted The Avengers — Luxury Lane — and said, “Yo. We gotta finish this right now.” So we got everyone’s scheduled aligned. It was like a week later and we got into the studio. We flushed it out together and rushed the rollout. I did the cover art myself. We got the ball rolling. Here comes my amazing manager Tia that came in swinging and said, “This is fire.” Shipped it to Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon, and that’s really how the ball started rolling to me. 

How instrumental were the Instagram teasers when it came to piecing together the project?

It was super important. I think I might have teased every record on the project. Just 30 seconds at max. I teased everything and kind of just tested the water. There’s some that went with the wind and some things that stuck. How we gonna miss on an album when the fans already picked the album? So that’s why it feels like a no-skip album because they took it and made it their own. We just had to take it to the finish line.