Rap
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As one of the most influential and outspoken voices in Latin music, Residente has consistently pushed the boundaries of Spanish-language rap. Whether exploring the depths of human emotion and societal issues through his art, or pissing off mainstream reggaetoneros via hard-hitting tiraderas, there’s no denying that one can’t turn a deaf ear to the artist born René Pérez Joglar.
With his second full-length solo album, Las Letras Ya No Importan (or Words No Longer Matter) — released via 5020 Records, following his 2017 eponymous debut — Residente‘s evolution from a genre-bending rapper to a multifaceted artist and cultural commentator is unmistakable. This latest work, released Friday (Feb. 23), embarks on an exploratory journey through sound, emotion and critical opinions, featuring a diverse roster of collaborations that span genres and geographies, from SFDK in Spain to Christian Nodal in Mexico and Amal Murkus in Gaza.
Among the standout tracks, “313” emerges as a deeply personal ode to the passage of time and the preciousness of life, inspired by a friend’s passing and Residente’s own reflections on growing older. “Time is becoming more and more relevant in my life,” he tells Billboard Español.
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“Bajo Los Escombros” offers a poignant look at the Palestinian struggle, crafted amidst the backdrop of conflict with contributions from musicians in Gaza and the voice of Murkus. “Jerga Platanera” dives into the linguistic intricacies of Puerto Rican and Dominican slang, while “El malestar en la cultura” and “Artificial Inteligente,” contemplate the evolution of rap and the intersection of humanity with technology, respectively. This album not only underscores Residente’s commitment to musical and thematic experimentation but also highlights his role as a visionary in the ever-evolving landscape of the música urbana genre and beyond.
During our interview at his home in Lower Manhattan, Residente’s living space mirrors the diversity and depth of his music. Surrounded by an eclectic collection of books — ranging from Apocalypse Now to José Parla’s Segmented Realities, and The Wes Anderson Collection — and art adorning the walls, his environment is a testament to his wide-ranging influences. The skylight and balcony overlooking the Hudson River offer a glimpse into the serene backdrop of his creative process, while his dozens of Grammy and Latin Grammys on display serve as a testament to his enduring impact on the music industry.
Dressed casually in baby blue corduroys, a matching t-shirt, and a baseball cap, accented with a chain and silver whistle, Residente’s demeanor is as relaxed and approachable as it was thoughtful, as he reflects to Billboard the depth and diversity of his latest album. By the way, today (Feb. 23) is his birthday.
You have a lot to celebrate: your new album, your new music video, your debut as a lead film actor, your birthday. How are you going to spend it?
I think I’m going to go to a bar with family and friends, quietly. I am happy with the result of the video and the theme of “313.” It is an example of what I want to do more of. I’m going to celebrate that, the video, the album and what’s coming in the future as well.
Your video for “313” is visually stunning. It also features Penelope Cruz.
I always think about the visuals when I write songs, regardless of whether I make videos for them or not. Some people make videos for the song; I think I make music for the video. All the time I’m thinking visually and that’s where I compose the music. In this case I started to make the music and I was writing the ideas, adjusting to the weather conditions. It was quite difficult to shoot in November in Madrid, there is not much light. It snowed, it rained, everything happened during the shoot. That slows you down and the delay costs money. When you’re directing you have to think as a producer, writer, editor, and actor. I’m thinking about everything at the same time.
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I have Penelope Cruz also in the video, and Silvia Cruz singing. We connected super well when I met [Penelope]. I also met her husband Javier [Bardem], and I’m a fan of both of them. I love what they do, they’re tremendous actors and they have a super nice family. I originally said, “I’d like Penelope to be in it.” I talked to her and she said yes. Little by little she connected with the song.
The inclusion of violins in that track and the guitar strings you use in others are beautiful and show a musical diversity along with some boom-bap beats. How do you decide which instruments or sounds to use in your compositions?
The album has songs that are older, and I had other songs that didn’t [end up on] the album because I didn’t feel they are connected to this moment now. When “René” came out four years ago, I was going to release an album at that time and, well, now I’m releasing them. Now I do have songs that feel like they are more relevant today, like “313,” “Artificial inteligente,” “Quiero Ser Baladista” or “Bajo Los Escombros.” All these have cello, double bass, all this musical stuff. It seems to me that it is an album that marks a transition, as it happened with Calle 13’s second album, Residente or Visitante, which marked a moment. After that, everything was different.
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With your second studio album following your acclaimed 2017 debut, how do you feel your music and message has evolved in this latest work?
In this album I feel that the message comes more from my own experience. It is a very personal album, like “313” which is about enjoying this moment. I had a lot of losses last year and the year before. People I love died and everything I’m talking about enjoying all this comes from that experience in the past. And the last record was world music meets rap. This record is the more vulnerable part, like “Rene,” “313” or “Ron on the Floor.” It’s much more open in soul and spirit than before. I’ve always been open, but this time I’m more with the openness.
Upon entering your home, it is impressive to see the amount of Grammys and Latin Grammys you have won. How do you maintain your passion for music after so much success?
I maintain my passion with therapy, trying to do different, creative things that fulfill me. I feel a little tired as an artist, I’ve been doing this for a long time. I want to dedicate myself more to filmmaking, screen writing, experimenting, acting. Now we have a film out at Sundance, which won the Grand Jury prize. It’s called In the Summers. I’m the lead actor, I’m surrounded by spectacular actors and actresses who taught me a lot. I loved it. And the directing part I always love. I think that’s what keeps me motivated and inspired to keep working. It’s moving, doing other things within music as well.
How do you see the current state of Spanish-language rap and its culture, and how does your album contribute to this conversation?
One is a tool, and the other a genre that has rules and a culture that is respected. The discussion that was unleashed based on the list [of essential rappers in Spanish published by Billboard] seemed immature on the part of some of my colleagues. I think rap deserves to evolve as much as possible. I separate rap from hip-hop a lot. For me, [hip-hop] I see it as a genre where the tool of rap is used. That’s what I do.
I’ve never pretended to be of any specific musical genre, nor do I care. Never, since Calle 13, and right now, I’ve never wanted to be pigeonholed. I’m not a singer because I don’t sing, I rap, so I use the tool of rap. My album is for all the little kids who want to be rappers, who can’t sing but want to say things, and through rhyme is an alternative. And I’m doing well; I’m proof that you can do well doing different things, rapping, making music, making it evolve.
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The future of rap, if it continues to be overprotected — is like protecting a child so much that it won’t know what to do when it grows up. So it’s the same with the music genre. You have to feed it new things, get it out there, let it evolve and move. It will continue to evolve, if not, it will stay there and other genres will come along and pass over it. It’s important, so that it doesn’t overtake it, and so that the kids who want to write rap can experience their creativity to the maximum, and take it to the maximum, as high as they can.
Listen to Las Letras Ya No Importan here:
The Super Bowl halftime show is arguably the biggest convergence of music and sports in a given year, but that’s not the only forum in which the two industries are colliding. Following in the footsteps of major artist-athletes like Shaquille O’Neal aka DJ Diesel and Damian Lillard aka Dame D.O.L.L.A., Chad Thomas aka Major Nine is looking to continue leveling up his athletic and musical careers while prioritizing independence at every turn.
After playing as a defensive end for the Hurricanes at the University of Miami, the Cleveland Browns selected Thomas in the third round of the 2018 NFL Draft. He was the sixth defensive end drafted that year, and the 67th overall pick. A year before he became a national football star, however, Thomas was already making major waves in the music industry under the name Major Nine.
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In 2017, he scored a placement on Rick Ross’s top five Billboard 200-charting Rather You Than Me album (alongside Grammy-winning R&B singer-songwriter Raphael Saadiq) on the grand album opener “Apple of My Eye.” Ross’ By 2020 – the same year the Browns waived his multi-million-dollar contract – Major Nine snagged yet another high-profile placement, this time on Chris Brown & Young Thug’s Slime & B, which peaked at No. 24 on the Billboard 200 and earned nominations at the Billboard Music Awards and Soul Train Music Awards. With “Trap Back,” his joint on the album, Major Nine did what comes naturally: He leveled up, and contributed not just production assistance, but a credited guest verse as well.
As much as Major Nine has made waves through collaboration, he’s remained steadfast in pumping out projects of his own. Since 2018, he has released nine such sets – including 2019’s star-making Soulties – culminating in his two most recent: 2023’s Nothin Major and this year’s Kardiology. The former is Major Nine’s most radio-ready body of work to date; featuring emotionally vulnerable heaters (“Love Don’t Live Here,” “A Hustler’s Prayer”) and a splashy Kodak Black guest verse, Nothin Major boils down the best of contemporary Florida rap into something for the whole country to enjoy. The latter, Kardiology, is arguably Major Nine’s biggest artistic swing yet, an emotional 13-track Miami bass-laced journey through the throes of love.
In a new interview with Billboard, Major Nine discusses his new Kardiology project, moving through multiple industries as an artist-athlete and the ever-deepening union between the worlds of music and sports.
Obviously, you began your time as a public figure by way of football. Was music always on your mind? Or were you more focused on the athletic side of things?
I actually started music first. I’ve been doing music since I was a baby, so that was No. 1. And then football became No. 1 in high school. I was playing before that, but it got serious in high school.
What are some of your earliest musical memories?
My pops, he bought me a drum set, like the little kid drum set. That was probably my first drum set. Growing up, at my grandma’s house, she had a little piano in her house. It was a baby grand, something like that. [Those were] my first instruments: drums and piano. I made it into all of the magnet schools in South Florida. I ended up going to one of the biggest ones down there: New World School of the Arts. That was a big accomplishment, being where I’m from. A lot of people don’t make it into that school.
Music adds up different ways, I done did too much stuff with music. [Laughs.] My last time being in New York, we performed at Jazz @ Lincoln Center.
What do you remember listening to growing up? Who and what were the defining artists and songs of your childhood?
Anything ‘80s R&B. S—t, I’m from Miami, so Trick Daddy, Rick Ross, all the Miami moguls, the South Florida moguls. A little bit of West Coast. My music goes everywhere. I got Metallica in my library! I done listen to all types of music growing up, gospel music, Kirk Franklin. It go left and right.
As football took you across the country, did you pick up any new musical influences from different teammates or cities? Especially during your time with the Browns?
It was kind of backwards for me, to tell the truth. When I first touched down in Cleveland, my first apartment, the man at valet, he actually knew who I was. He was a producer and we tapped in. When I got to Cleveland, I tapped in with my teammates, and a lot of my teammates supported and are fans of my music. Actually, they was waiting on my new music, they weren’t really putting me onto people.
Sometimes, it’s like that. They’ll put me on to a person that’s back home. I done got put onto a bunch of artists that’s actually superstars now, and it was before their time. Football connects you with different cities.
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You scored a production placement on Rick Ross’ Rather You Than Me (2017). Walk me through how you put that track together and secured that placement?
That relationship been going on since I was in high school, definitely locked in with the whole MMG family, Rick Ross and everybody. I can’t really tell how the songs come about, they just call me and say “We need a verse” or “We need a beat.” You know I’m on go because that’s family. It wasn’t really no big thing about it. I went in and did my verse, sent it back to him, he loved it. When I did the beat for “Apple of My Eye,” he loved it. We got a bunch of work together. When that popped out, I was just ecstatic.
Are there any skills you find yourself bringing from the sports world to the music world or vice versa?
Always. Music and football taught me a lot about life. With football, doing certain drills and just having that pattern of skill. You gotta know numbers. It definitely goes hand-in-hand because ballers is gonna be ballers. The ballers that’s in the field gonna be the ballers that’s in the studio. Jarvis Landry is probably one of the best rappers I’ve ever heard.
If I was to bring music to football, I would just be tapping in with people. Football players got feelings too, they listen to music and get in their vibe. Who better to relate to than your teammate? They’re actually doing it.
Why is your independence as an artist important to you?
[Because] I’ve done music my whole life, part of that was learning how to do so much stuff and be that team for myself. Now that I actually have a team and label that I created, it’s easier for me to stay independent and learn how to build my company, so I could be one of the big companies or be on the level where they is. [Independence] is perfect. It’s big. It’s big to me, it’s big to the people around me because they understand how much more money you can make and how much business you can control or how much leverage you can have once you’re independent.
How do you compare your experiences on the business side of music versus the business side of sports?
As a kid growing up in South Florida, business is not taught to us with sports. Yes, it’s monetized, you grow up and you gangsta and they gon’ look out for you. But business is not taught to us.
When it came to football and I made it to the league, yes, I understood the business, but I kind of lost love for football because the business that goes into it – your whole life is a game, but once you get to a certain age or just before then, your fate is in another man’s hands. With music, I can’t control it, but I can express myself and God gave me a gift to be able to be at a level where people support me for my gift.
You put out Nothin’ Major late last year, and that featured the focus track “Shawty” (with Kodak Black). How did that collaboration come together and why was it chosen as the focus track?
I recorded my part in LA [probably two years ago] and I sent it to Kodak and he sent it right back. The next time we seen each other face-to-face was at another studio in Miami. It was supposed to have been his song, but I don’t how it went and came back to me and brodie was ready to drop it. Me and Kodak, we always doing business. That’s just that Broward-Dade County connection. It was a blessing man.
A lot of people mess with Kodak — besides all the other stuff, that’s a good person, I know him for real. Him getting on that song… we connecting different parts of Florida. When T-Pain and Plies did it, that was more Fort Myers and Tallahassee. We giving that Dade County/Broward vibe, that’s a Florida classic.
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Why is it important for you to rep your hometown?
I praise Florida, I praise Dade County. I’m from Liberty City, I’m from Miami. It ain’t no really big rappers out of Liberty City for real. The biggest we could go is Uncle Luke, and Uncle Luke opened doors for so many people, so many generations after him. To be from Miami and be from a birthplace of many styles and a lot of music that’s been sampled over the years, it’s big to let people know I’m from the 305. Florida, baby! We gon’ rep Florida wherever we go. And we got a different vibe too.
Miami, South Florida, all that music has been ringing for years, but we getting a different type of buzz now. Just being one of the people that created some of this buzz, it’s big to me and it’s big to everybody. So, I’m definitely gonna rep all my people. I’m gonna rep the whole Florida not just South Florida.
Who’s on your Mount Rushmore of Florida rappers?
I’m gonna go Trick Daddy, Rick Ross, JT Money — I’m gonna leave myself out cause I have a mountain by myself – Ice [Billion] Berg.
You recently dropped Kardiology (Feb. 16). What was your vision for the project and what are your goals for it post-release?
These songs, I already had down. Some songs I added on there because we always recording. The focus on the whole project was just… these not your typical songs about love. It won’t come out that way.
Every time you listen to a different track, it would give different directions of love or how love could have messed a person up or messed a situation up. These songs speak to the people, it’s a song on there for everybody. There’s a lot of Miami-style songs — I’m from Miami, so you know I gotta put that dance in some of the songs, the bass, the DJ checks, different stuff like that.
I was supposed to start the whole Kardiology rollout probably around 2022, but this is a great start.
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Why the delay?
It was the directions of the songs. I record songs, but I’m not the type of person to just throw stuff on the tape and just put it out. I want to make sure you can actually have a no-skip tape. It was a whole wait. And then the direction of the videos, the treatments, the whole marketing plan behind what we’re gonna do with Kardiology – it’s more stuff we gotta do. We got scrubs, I’m gonna play a doctor in one of my videos. We having fun with it.
We’re seeing the sports and music worlds continue to bleed more and more into each other every year, especially since Roc Nation and the NFL partnered for the Super Bowl halftime show. What do you make of that dynamic and how do you think it can best help artist-athletes like yourself?
Exposure, that’s the biggest thing about anything we do. People want exposure, they want the world to see what they can do. These artists been out here, but the world goes so fast. That exposure collides the worlds and makes it easier for the right people to be in the same room. What they’re doing right now is big. I hope it grows until more independent artists are brought to these stages.
Do you have any advice for other athletes looking to get into music or artists trying to get into sports or people who are just trying to balance both?
Don’t plan on having a life. That was kind of my biggest thing since I’ve been doing music since high school. Once I started making music seriously in tenth or eleventh grade, that was my way of not going outside, because I was a kid [who] was always outside. You gotta understand that what’s important gotta stay important. And if it’s gonna be important, you can’t worry about the people around you and say they’re not supporting you or you’re not getting that push that you need. You got to be that push. You got to be everything for yourself. That’s what I mean, you ain’t really going to have no life. I’m just starting to live!
People know me for “Okay, we’re gonna go make a tackle, get a couple of sacks, then come home and drop a hit.” If you’re gonna do it, do it. You’re gonna see the world change and you gonna realize that it’s easier to get that money if you really took it seriously.
Against all odds — and a brief disappearance from digital streaming platforms — Vultures I is finally here. The new joint LP from Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign launched atop the Billboard 200 on Sunday (Feb. 18), while its breakout single, “Carnival,” starts at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 (chart dated Feb. 24).
Although that new set, which features appearances from North West and Playboi Carti, dominated much of the conversation in the hip-hop and R&B worlds, it was far from the only thing of note to occur over the past week. On Valentine’s Day (Feb. 14) — or “Worst Day” if you’re a part of the Future Hive — Maze frontman Frankie Beverly announced his farewell tour. Beverly, of course, lent his voice to the seminal “Before I Let Go,” covered by Beyoncé for her 2019 Homecoming live album. Her version peaked at No. 65 on the Hot 100.
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In other R&B performance news, Usher added yet another new slate of dates to his ever-growing Past Present Future tour (Feb. 20) and the Roots Picnic announced their 2024 headliners, which include Jill Scott, Nas, Lil Wayne & The Roots and André 3000. On the hip-hop side of things, there’s no getting around the eye-popping new music video for Drake, SZA and Sexyy Red‘s “Rich Baby Daddy.” The clip — which has already amassed over 7.5 million YouTube views — finds Drizzy and Solána partying in a hospital while the “Pound Town” rap princess (who recently gave birth to her second child in real life) goes into labor.
With Fresh Picks, Billboard aims to highlight some of the best and most interesting new sounds across R&B and hip-hop — from Bryson Tiller‘s new heater to Rae Khalil’s tender meditation on existentialism. Be sure to check out this week’s Fresh Picks in our Spotify playlist below.
Freshest Find: Pratt & Moody & Cold Diamond & Mink, “Creeping Around“
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Finnish soul duo Pratt & Moody are dishing up heavy old school vibes on their new Cold Diamond & Mink-produced single “Creeping Around.” Their take on contemporary soul is infused with an especially haunting approach to melody. The grandiosity of the song’s production — built almost exclusively around Moody’s sultry guitar — evokes the most stirring of James Bond themes, while the duo’s expansive combine vocal ranges trade off fluttery falsettos with robust full-voice crooning. “We gotta stop creeping around” is a simple, but incredibly effective hook; the song’s lyrical sparseness allows the meticulous arrangement ample room to breathe, making it a flawless backdrop for the slight twang that contours each repetition of “creeping around.”
Bryson Tiller, “Whatever She Wants”
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After initially appearing on his Slum Tiller, Volume 2 mixtape last November, Bryson Tiller has finally unleashed fan-favorite track “Whatever She Wants” on all digital streaming platforms. Crafted with the intent to appear on a stripper’s pre-show playlist, “Whatever She Wants” finds Bryson far-removed from his heart-bearing hip-hop-inflected R&B. Instead, the Grammy nominee skates across TylianMTB-produced Detroit-inspired beat with all of the effortless swagger and braggadocio of a guy who could quite literally buy the whole club. “CC, Gucci, hit Bottega, whatever she want/ She piss me off, somehow she still get whatever she want,” he spits, somehow striking a fine balance of gruffness and seduction in his delivery.
Tierra Whack, “27 Club”
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Mental health has long been a lyrical touchstone in hip-hop, just as the “27 Club” — an infamous collection of celebrities who passed at age 27 — has been a figment of pop culture’s obsession for decades. Thus, the convergence of these two concepts is fairly natural, and Tierra Whack expertly tackles them both on her new track, “27 Club.” Produced by J Melodic and ProdbyBRIANNA, “27 Club” finds Tierra contemplating suicide. “When your life gets hard but it’s simple/ When everybody ’round you suspenseful/ It ain’t really hard to convince you/ Lookin’ for somethin’ to commit to?” she spits. The dark beauty of this song is that Tierra wholly rejects the notion of a happy ending or a narrative of triumph; she simply sits in the aching self-loathing, guilt and depression that comes with suicidal ideation.
Lola Brooke & 41, “Becky”
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Last year, both Lola Brooke and 41 dropped off full-length projects — Dennis Daughter and 41 World: Not the Album, respectively — and now the two fast-rising New York rap breakout stars are kicking off 2024 with a new collaboration. Predicated on a definition of “Becky” that refers to fellatio, the fiery drill joint marks the union of some of the most exciting voices in the contemporary hip-hop scene. Lola’s characteristically menacing delivery is a smart complement to TaTa’s boisterous ad-libs and Kyle Ricch’s high-octane flow. Of course, the “Don’t Play With It” rapper also pairs well with 41’s Jenn Carter, whose slick wordplay makes her closing verse the strongest.
Chantae Cann & Kenyon Dixon, “B-Side”
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Kenyon Dixon has been on something of a hot streak lately between his 2024 Grammy nomination and a recent string of gorgeous duets. On “B-Side,” his new joint alongside Billboard-charting jazz and soul signer Chantae Cann, he keeps that streak alive. Produced and co-written by Masego, there’s a throughline of sultry, “come-hither” energy that encapsulates the innate, tasteful allure of the slinkiest jazz-inflected R&B melodies. Cann delivers the hook in a breathy tone that pairs well with Dixon’s whimsical descending riffs. Who said grown and sexy R&B was dead?!
Rae Khalil, “Is It Worth It”
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In celebration of the announcement of her signing with Billboard chart-topping rapper-singer Anderson .Paak‘s APESHIT label, Rae Khalil has unleashed a new .Paak-produced single titled “Is It Worth It.” Built around an understated drum-laden and bass-anchored soundscape, Khalil asks “Is it worth it?/ If I show up when I want/ In the sea of the same face/ Is it worth my time, time?” The lyrical battle between her own pride and her desire for connection and yearning to be wanted and desired come to a head in the lush instrumental break that simultaneously serves as the song’s bridge and outro — talk about a stunner.
ScHoolboy Q, “Yeern 101”
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Q’s new LP, Blue Lips, arrives in just under two weeks, and the Grammy-winning rapper is amping up his rollout. Built around a skittering, bass-blaring beat crafted by Cardo, J.LBS, Johnny Juliano & Yung Exclusive, “Yeern 101” finds the TDE star effortlessly skating over the track with a borderline breathless flows. There are no easy hooks or choruses here, these are two heady voices chock-full of smart wordplay, high-speed flow switches and sly changes in inflection and intonation — both of which are elevated by the ever-intensifying instrumental. “I’m a n—a out here, everything come free/ I ain’t never met God, but I bet he know me/ Put the money in a set, a n—a die in them streets/ Threw the boy alley oop, now he ridin’ on fleek,” he spits.
Last night (Feb. 11), not only did Megan Thee Stallion and Nicki Minaj‘s beef seemingly come to an end — the H-Town Hottie’s “Hiss” debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100 — the duo’s war of words took a backseat to a much more daunting showdown: the San Francisco 49ers v. the Kansas City Chiefs.
Ultimately, the Chiefs — led by star quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Taylor Swift‘s loverman Travis Kelce — pulled out a last-minute win over the 49ers. As thrilling of a game as the Super Bowl was, all eyes in the hip-hop and R&B worlds were squarely fixed on Usher‘s dazzling halftime performance. A flashy, maximalist ode to Black performance history and Las Vegas iconography, the King of R&B sprinted through his hit-packed catalog, including anthems such as “Superstar,” “U Got It Bad,” “OMG,” “Nice & Slow” and “Yeah!”
Of course, the top-level entertainer was in prime form, showing off intricate footwork and boundless sex appeal as he trotted out surprise guests such as Alicia Keys, H.E.R., Lil Jon, Jermaine Dupri and Ludacris. Between a major Grammy night for Victoria Monét and SZA — both ladies took home three trophies — and Usher’s three-pronged blitz of a killer halftime show, a star-studded new LP and a massive forthcoming headlining arena tour, R&B and hip-hop are starting off Black History Month with a bang.
With Fresh Picks, Billboard aims to highlight some of the best and most interesting new sounds across R&B and hip-hop — from Honey Bxby’s blunt Other Woman™ anthem to Nardo Wick and Sexyy Red’s meme-interpolating “Somethin’.” Be sure to check out this week’s Fresh Picks in our Spotify playlist below.
Freshest Find: Honey Bxby, “Fkn Him Too”
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While some of her contemporaries would rather cry over a toxic situationship, Honey Bxby is relishing the innate messiness of being the Other Woman™ on her new single. “I’m f—kin’ him too!/ I don’t know what you’re gonna do/ It’s time you heard the truth/ That he don’t belong to you,” she proclaims in the chorus. Reverb-drenched backing harmonies and a booming 808-laden trap&B beat provide the song’s foundation, and Honey paints across the soundscape with a tongue-in-cheek tone that highlights the jauntiness of the track’s “F—k You Tonight”-evoking melody.
Jermaine Dupri feat. Nelly, Ashanti & Juicy J, “This Lil’ Game We Play”
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Reuniting Nelly and Ashanti for their first song together since 2008’s “Body on Me,” Jermaine Dupri delivers a joint that perfect captures the essence of the two stars’ era of R&B/hip-hop crossover collaborations. Assisted by Juicy J, Nelly and Ashanti contour Dupri’s Miami bass-inflected beat with heated lust as they wax poetic about the cat-and-mouse courtship game. To his credit, Juicy adds some of his trademark sexual brazenness to balance out the couple’s reliance on innuendo. “Don Julio, ass so fat, I might lose composure/ Take you back to my penthouse, see if you can squirt like a Super Soaker/ Gon’ head, touch your toes, baby, maybe we can do a little roleplayin’/ Maybe we can have us a night cap, maybe you can be my throat baby,” he rhymes.
Nardo Wick feat. Sexyy Red, “Somethin’”
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If you’re a late Millennial or early Gen Z, you know the glory days of IceJJFish’s social media reign. On their new track, Nardo Wick and Sexyy Red team up for a hood love song that hinges on a sample of one of IceJJFish’s viral tracks. “It’s somethin’ ’bout my b—h I love, I can’t put my finger on it,” Nardo chants in the chorus, riffing on decade-old “On the Floor.” Over an ominous, piano-anchored beat, the two rappers trade vulgar, no-holds-barred verses about the things they love about their significant other. Sexyy maintains her hot streak of enjoyable guest verses, finessing some hilarious onomatopoeia-centric rhymes in the process. “Have a hood n—a singin’, “Fah-la-la”/ Let him hit the c—chie like grrah, grrah, grrah/ Swervin’ all in traffic, gettin’ freaky in the car/ If he try to leave me, then it’s bah-bah-bah,” she spits.
GloRilla, “Yeah Glo!”
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It’s been some time since her dominant run of “F.N.F.,” “Blessed” and “Tomorrow 2” (with Cardi B), but GloRilla is back in top form with her latest single, “Yeah Glo!” A return to focusing on straightforward, unvarnished Memphis rap over too-obvious ploys for pop crossover success, “Yeah Glo” finds the Grammy nominee getting real busy over a rattling beat crafted by B100, Go Grizzly & Squat Beats. “Yeah, Glo! Stomp a lil’ p—y ho with some shell toes/ Slappin’ rap b—hes and makin’ bail, ho/ Two-tone Cartier match the nails, ho/ No competition, these b—hes stale, ho,” she chants in the chorus. Although she never specifies who exactly she slapped, her gruff Gangsta Boo-esque tone provides the perfect vehicle for her rambunctious rhymes.
Latto, “Sunday Service”
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Not even a week after “Hiss” vs. “Big Foot,” the rap ladies are now treating us to… “Think U the S—t (Fart)” vs. “Sunday Service?” Although Latto has skirted around plainly labeling “Sunday Service” as a diss record, there are enough likely shots at fellow ascendant rap star Ice Spice to warrant that label. Across a trap-rooted beat courtesy of Go Grizzly, Pooh Beatz & Bankroll Got It, Latto spends her first verse rapping about her wealth and looks, but by the second verse, she’s focused on addressing those that would rather tweet than rap. “Do you rap or do you tweet? ‘Cause I can’t tell, get in the booth, b—h/ Stop all that motherf—n’ yellin’, ho/ ‘Cause I ain’t buyin’ what you’re sellin’, ho/ Think I’m the s–t? B—h, I know it, ho / Jesus walked on water, I got ice boilin’ though,” she spits.
Kith, Cam’Ron & Swizz Beatz, “Last Stop”
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For the first-ever track under Kith Records, New York rap icons Cam’Ron and Swizz Beatz team up for a rousing new single titled “Last Stop.” Anchored by hearty drums and funky guitars, the Dipset frontman delivers several cocky couplets about his legacy, his sexual prowess, his rap skills and his unshakeable position as an elder statesman in the rap game. Even when he gets especially dirty — “Brought her friend with her, watch em eat each other out/ The way I f—ked her face, man, she gon’ need another mouth” — he makes sure to balance that out with more tasteful bars of good old fashioned New York braggadocio. “Different leader, same habits/ I know I’m what you want but you can’t have it/ You got bad habits, me I’m a bank magnet/ And the coupe roof missing like Frank Mathis,” he raps.
Usher, “I Am the Party”
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A new cut from the R&B maestro’s Coming Home album — released the Friday before his Super Bowl halftime show (Feb. 9) — “I Am the Party” finds Usher in a familiar gear: dirty macking as the top player in the game. Through lyrics that run the gamut from corny to cheeky (“Club in my house, I call it G-spot”), Usher paints, alongside longtime collaborators Jermaine Dupri and Bryan Michael-Cox, gently toes the line between dated slogs and enjoyable throwback pastiche. As per usual, Usher’s voice is the main attraction; he delivers a vocal performance so committed to the song’s eternal bachelor bit that you can’t help but be overwhelmed by his melismatic charisma. Oh, and who can resist, a nice warning shot to the competition: “N—as talmbout Verzuz with me, please stop/ Know you think he is, but baby, he’s not,” he croons.
It’s 30 minutes before the NBA’s Lakers and Clippers tip-off for a late January showdown at their shared home of Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, and rapper BigXthaPlug is sitting in a purchased box suite with his entire crew. Had he wanted, he could’ve showcased his 6’3”, 400-pound frame in personal courtside seats, but for the Dallas native, it’s a small token of appreciation for those who were with him before he could afford such luxuries. “I’m not finna see nothing for the first time without people that was there when I had nothing,” he says.
Lately, BigXthaPlug has had a lot to showcase: the rapper turned in a banner year in 2023, first with the RIAA-certified gold hit “Texas” that reps his home state, and more recently, with the braggadocious “Mmhmm.” The bass-bumping, sonically nostalgic track, which showcases his bellowing voice adlibbing the song’s title throughout the chorus, broke through on a mainstream level and debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 in December. “You gotta say it with a little more ‘Mmmhmmm,’” BigXthaPlug instructs with a deep southern drawl that sounds naturally chopped-and-screwed.
Born Xavier Landum, the 25-year-old was raised by his mother — also a Texas native — who put him onto southern rap dignitaries ranging from UGK to Lil Wayne, while his father leaned more into the R&B acts like the Isley Brothers. BigXthaPlug grew up with NFL dreams and only began rapping a few years ago, with his self-released Bacc From the Dead project in 2020. The EP drew the attention of UnitedMasters’ A&R Aaron Hunter, who then peppered the rapper with DMs before ultimately flying to Texas for an in-person introduction at a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party for the latter’s cousin.
BigXthaPlug signed a deal with the distributor in 2021, and shortly after, he added a manager in Public Figures Management Group founder Kyle Wilson, who first discovered BigXthaPlug on Instagram through his raw track “Safehouse.” (Co-manager Brandon Farmer, a partner at Solid Foundation Management, joined the team in 2023 after watching the rapper’s SXSW set.) “His stage presence, you just don’t really see that,” Farmer says. “You can tell when somebody is a star. X is a star.”
BigXthaPlug photographed on January 22, 2024 in Los Angeles.
Daniel Dorsa
BigXthaPlug photographed on January 22, 2024 in Los Angeles.
Daniel Dorsa
But just as the pieces of his team were coming into place, BigXthaPlug was arrested on unlawful carrying of weapons and marijuana possession charges and served a 2022 jail stint in solitary confinement. The experience was a wake-up call: instead of spending the hours in monotony, he wrote rhymes on medically issued med-line paper and read the dictionary. “I tried to read the Bible but I couldn’t do it,” he says.
He was released later that year, and by 2023, BigXthaPlug translated inspiration into action: he launched his own independent record label, 600 Entertainment, and subsequently added artists Ro$ama and Yung Hood to the roster. He joined rapper Key Glock on tour that April, where he met hip-hop producer Bandplay and immediately established a rapport. In June, the two went on a creative retreat in Arizona, and one of the first songs that came about during the two-week Airbnb stay was “Mmhmm.” Bandplay first cooked up the funky beat in 2020 after hearing The Whispers’ “And The Beat Goes On” while watching a movie. But upon initially hearing the beat in Arizona — which samples the 1979 track also prominently used in Will Smith’s 1998 single “Miami” — it didn’t register with BigXthaPlug.
“I’m a groovy-ass person,” BigXthaPlug recalls. “Bandplay was playing it and me and [songwriter Ro$ama] got to dancing. Bandplay stopped it and was like, ‘Y’all know what sample this is?’ We was like, ‘Hell nah.’” Still, within 30 minutes, the hit took form.
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BigXthaPlug saw the track as an opportunity to put his friend in a position to win: in a genre where many are shy about their collaborative writing process, he asked Ro$ama to pen the song’s heavy-flexing opening verse. “I had already wrote a verse — the second is my verse,” BigXthaPlug says. “I [told him], ‘Write a verse, and if it’s good, you could get points and get paid.’ A lot of these rappers are using writers. Even if you don’t end up the biggest artist in the world, you might be the biggest writer. It made me bring the energy.”
After finishing the track, BigXthaPlug headed to nightclubs across the country to crystallize his instincts that he had a mainstream hit on his hands. “I’ll go to the club every day of the week to make sure my songs are getting played,” he says. As an unreleased version of “Mmhmm” began to dominate club venues, UnitedMasters had him pump the brakes for the rest of the summer to make sure the licensing rights were in order. But as BigXthaPlug says, he “doesn’t mind paying that bag to get sh-t cleared,” and upon getting the green light, he officially released “Mmhmm” to streaming services through UnitedMasters last October.
Two months later, he released EP The Biggest, which included a remix of the song featuring fellow Texan Finesse2Tymes. By mid-December, amid the influx of holiday songs on the all-genre chart, “Mmhmm” debuted on the Hot 100 where it has since reached a No. 65 high and compiled 75.5 million total on-demand official U.S. streams through Jan. 25, according to Luminate — and importantly, served as a means of validation for the rapper. “I always like to have reassurance,” BigXthaPlug admits. “Sometimes I catch myself like, ‘Why are you still rapping? You know you not a rapper.’ Then you get a Billboard [Hot 100 entry].”
From left: Kyle Wilson, BigXthaPlug, and Brandon Farmer photographed on January 22, 2024 in Los Angeles.
Daniel Dorsa
BigXthaPlug photographed on January 22, 2024 in Los Angeles.
Daniel Dorsa
The song’s success propelled “Texas” and featured turn on NLE Choppa’s “Pistol Paccin” onto Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, and as the rapper turns the page to 2024, he isn’t resting on his laurels. He will release a collaborative EP with 600 Entertainment artists and follow it with a solo album. He also says he has a collaboration with Rod Wave, and that Megan Thee Stallion recently reached out, too.
It’s all humbling for BigXthaPlug, who’s still getting accustomed to the buzz — but teases everything will get bigger, and better, this year. He’s a Texan, after all. “I didn’t even want to make [‘Texas’],” he reflects. “If I can do this when I didn’t wanna do it, what the f–k could I do when I want to do it?”
A version of this story will appear in the Feb. 10, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Looks like January is the month of beef — and we’re not just talking about Katt Williams unloading the clip on Club Shay Shay, the lively dancehall clash between Jada Kingdom and Stefflon Don, or the comparatively brief showdown between Teejay and Valiant. From Friday onwards (Jan. 26), no two artists dominated the conversation more than rap titans Megan Thee Stallion and Nicki Minaj.
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With release of “Hiss” — her first solo single of the year — Thee Stallion ripped into a slew of high-profile opps, some of which fans think include Minaj, Drake, Pardison Fontaine, and Tory Lanez. In response, following a near-48-hour spiral across several social media platforms, Minaj unleashed “Big Foot” — one part diss track and one part unhinged spoken word monologue. Naturally, this all sent social media into a tizzy, with both artists’ respective fan bases rallying around their faves while more casual listeners picked their sides.
As the beef continues to simmer, the worlds of hip-hop and R&B kept turning. Mary J. Blige pulled the ultimate finesse and got a higher billing on the jam-packed Lovers & Friends lineup (May 4), Ice Spice put her foot on the gas with “Think U the Shit (Fart),” and Snoop Dogg revealed that he’s been prepping a new LP with contributions from Dr. Dre.
With Fresh Picks, Billboard aims to highlight some of the best and most interesting new sounds across R&B and hip-hop — from Megan Thee Stallion’s blistering “Hiss” to SiR’s moody return to R&B’s mainstage. Be sure to check out this week’s Fresh Picks in our Spotify playlist below.
Freshest Find: Megan Thee Stallion, “HISS”
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Tina Snow is not to be played with. On this blistering address to the scores of slick talk and rumors that have hounded her since the turn of the decade, Megan Thee Stallion delivers a masterclass in Dirty South s–t-talking realness. Over an ominous beat crafted by Bankroll Got It, LilJuMadeDaBeat and Shawn Jarrett, the H-Town Hottie relishes in her courtroom victories (“I’m the Teflon Don in the courtroom/ They be throwin’ that dirt, don’t s–t stick”) and calls out the hypocrisy some men operate it when it comes to cosmetic surgery (“These n—as hate on BBLs and be walkin’ ’round with the same scars”). With flows switching at the drop of a dime and a cadence that effortlessly shifts from threatening to unbothered, Meg pulls off the difficult hat trick of delivering a hard-hitting diss track that is genuinely an enjoyable song, irrespective of its intended purpose.
SiR, “No Evil”
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For his first official single since 2022, SiR dives head first in to a grittier, more jagged approach to R&B Soundscapes. The Inglewood crooner finds solace in his lover, despite the unsettling things he finds when he looks inwards. “Pardon my superstition/ But with my supervision/ I see so much of myself/ My past, my pain, my pride and my ego,” he sings in the first verse. Taylor Hill’s brooding, dynamic production blends stuttering hi-hats with sultry guitars, making for an instrumental every bit as immersive as Sir’s lead vocal.
Breez Kennedy, “Who’s Been On Your Mind”
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Breez Kennedy — a 17-year-old rising R&B star by way of New Jersey and Florida — just might be next up if “Who’s Been on Your Mind” is anything to go by. Out via Standard Records/Def Jam Recordings, the guitar-anchored single finds Breez living almost exclusively in his falsetto as he questions his lover about who is truly on their mind. “Would be so hard if you replace me/ Only concerned ’cause you been changin’ on me/ Girl, did I not do enough?/ Do people change when they say they’re in love?” he posits. Conveying a level of ache and forlornness far beyond his years, Breez is laying a sturdy foundation for his burgeoning career.
Kimani Jackson, “Good Man”
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Having already experienced viral success thanks to his show-stopping MTA performances in New York City, Kimani Jackson is ready for his next act. On “Good Man,” a booming, standout track from his Icebreaker EP, Jackson dips into a soulful blend of bluesy R&B with hints of gospel and jazz to soundtrack his quest to be, well, a good man. In the same bombastic sonic vein as towering classics like “Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child” and “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World,” “Good Man” is a big swing — one that Jackson pulls off, thanks in no small part to his soaring vocals and pristine vocal control.
YoungBoy Never Broke Again, “Act a Donkey”
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“You invited, ayy, tell Charlamange he invited to Grave Digger Mountain/ All he gotta do is pull up on me, n—a, and talk to me face to face.” That’s certainly one way to open a track!
Although the Megan v. Nicki battle has taken up most of the last week’s conversation, a certain Baton Rogue rapper had a bone to pick with one Breakfast Club host Charlamagne tha God. Over a bouncy Hitmann-helmed beat, NBA YoungBoy unloads the clip on Charlamagne, who recently crowned him “Donkey of the Day” for his less-than-sunny outlook on fatherhood. “Look, I love them graves, we tote them Ks, got Glocks with switch, they tear you up/ I’m 4KTrey, I bang for Dave, enforcement can’t do s—t with us/ Came inside this game and b—h, I f—d it up, I’m a donkey/ And I keep it on me, plenty money, b—h, don’t speak up on me,” he spits.
Lyrical Lemonade feat. Teezo Touchdown, Juicy J, Cochise, Denzel Curry & Lil B, “First Night”
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Already one of the year’s best posse cuts, this cross-regional link-up thrives on juxtaposition. The song — taken from Lyrical Lemonade’s star-studded All Is Yellow project — opens with a somber piano-backed ballad courtesy of Teezo Touchdown. “Somebody help me sing / Somebody help me sing about me,” he coos in a pitch-perfect tongue-in-cheek tone. The track then morphs into a “Black and Yellow”-evoking beat over which Juicy J employs his Memphis-bred cadence to chant, “Let a n—a hit it on the first night/ I just wanna f—k, I’m not tryna fall in love/ Gon’ let a n—a hit it on the first night/ I’m a real n—a, you know I would never judge.” Indeed, Juicy. Indeed.
Maxo Kream, “Bang the Bus”
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Maxo Kream in general is always a treat. Maxo Kream dirty macking over an EvilgIAne beat? Now we’re cooking with gas. A hilariously horny track, “Bang the Bus” fits nicely in betwen the “Slut Me Outs” and “Pound Towns” of the past year: “Redbone, slim, petite, drop it pop it Megan knees/ I need a pound town brown ratchet ghetto bitch for me/ The police kick my door down, you gotta take these pounds from me,” he spits. Evilgaine’s beat never quite settles into a steady groove thanks to that smartly warped sample, but those idiosyncracies offer a nice balance to the general contemplative vibe of the track.
As debate continues over contemporary hip-hop’s ability to top the charts, producer Sean Momberger reached into the past to help the genre regain its pop dominance — and score his first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1. “Lovin on Me,” which borrows from a 1990s Detroit hit, became Jack Harlow’s third Hot 100 leader, continuing the Louisville, Ky., rapper’s success […]
As we get closer to Usher‘s highly anticipated Super Bowl Halftime Show performance, the worlds of hip-hop and R&B are back in full swing with major albums, singles and pop culture moments driving tons of discourse across social media.
From Kendrick Lamar‘s tease of new music to Megan Thee Stallion‘s surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live alongside Reneé Rapp in support of their Mean Girls collaboration, some of hip-hop’s biggest heavyweights used stealth to their advantage. In contrast, Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign‘s elusive Vultures joint album received yet another release date; this time, the record is slated to arrive on Feb. 9. — just two days before Usher is set to take the stage at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, NV. There was also a hilarious meme acknowledgment from Drake by way of the rapper’s recreation of TikTok creator Drew Wall’s viral day-in-the-life Target run videos — soundtracked by the Grammy-winner’s “Virginia Beach,” naturally.
Of course, the R&B OGs also had an eventful week — chief among them funk legend George Clinton, who received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Friday (Jan. 19).
With Fresh Picks, Billboard aims to highlight some of the best and most interesting new sounds across R&B and hip-hop — from Anycia and Latto’s new outside anthem to Naomi Sharon’s gorgeous, acoustic paean for love. Be sure to check out this week’s Fresh Picks in our Spotify playlist below.
Freshest Find: Anycia feat. Latto, “Back Outside”
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For their first official collaboration, Anycia and Latto skate over a horn-laden JetsonMade production that perfectly complements the laid-back-yet-urgent feel of each of their respective verses. When Anycia begins her pre-chorus with the deliciously cavalier, “Huh? I’m back outside/ Yeah, huh? N—a done made me mad,” her delivery immediately sets the foundation for a woman on a mission: she’s back outside and ready to get her lick back, but you’ll never see her sweat. As a fellow Atlanta rapper, Latto sounds right at home on the track, delivering yet another strong verse complete with funny punchlines (“And they sayin’ that I rap my ass off/ Turn around like, ‘I can’t tell’) and a healthy dose of shade (“Walked in, young b–ch, I’m turnt/ Got auntie hatin’, she burnt”).
Fivio Foreign & Meek Mill, “Same 24”
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Reuniting for the first time since 2020’s “Demons & Goblins,” Fivio Foreign and Meek Mill get introspective over a drum-heavy beat courtesy of Saint Cardona and Lala the DJ. Worlds away from the Brooklyn drill that dominated his debut studio album, 2022’s B.I.B.L.E., Fivi opens “Same 24” with a stream-of-consciousness verse in which he exalts his tenacity and his maturation journey. “We got the same twenty-four hours, n—a / Why what’s mine gotta be ours, n—a? / Talkin’ ’bout n—as need help, n—as, I was “n—as” / But I rose out of the dirt, give me my flowers, n—a,” he spits. Meek adds a characteristically loud guest verse that celebrates his own come-up by way of slick double entendres; “My granny house a mil’, she ain’t even know I could rap my ass off/ You s–ttin’ me? I was super broke, I took that cast off,” he raps.
Rob49 & Lil Wayne, “Wassam Baby”
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NOLA, stand up! In a week of stellar rap collaborations, Rob49 and Lil Wayne climb into the ring with thei rown “Wassam Baby.” Built around a gritty piano-anchored Mac Fly beat, the two New Orleans rappers wax poetic about their wealth and sexual prowess while spitting game at women from across the city, as Rob emphasizes in the chorus. If that hook sounds familiar, that’s because “Wassam Baby” leaked months ago and made the rounds as a viral sound on TikTok. With the addition of a strong Wayne verse — his balance of alliteration, punch lines and rhyme scheme variations are top-notch — Rob didn’t just give “Wassam Baby” a second wind, he gave it a completely new life.
Andra Day, “Where Do We Go”
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It’s been nearly a decade since Andra Day’s Grammy-nominated “Rise Up” first entered the world, and in the time since, the multihyphenate has earned a slew of major industry awards and honors, including an Academy Award nomination for best actress in a leading role for her starring turn as Billie Holiday in The United States vs. Billie Holiday. Now, she’s back with the lead single for her second non-soundtrack studio album. “Where Do We Go” is a rousing exercise in the pacing of show-stopping vocal performance. Day’s sense of dynamics is on full display as she parses through the complicated process of seeking closure from a relationship she’s not ready to leave. “I see love inside your brown eyes/ Listening to ‘New Sky’/ Is everything an absolute, babe?/ Like, do we absolutely have to say goodbye?” she croons.
1K Phew & Zaytoven, “Let Go Let God”
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For the latest chapter in the ever-evolving relationship between gospel and hip-hop, 1K Phew has finally unleashed his collaborative project with iconic rap producer Zaytoven. Titled Pray for Atlanta, the genre-blending set — which features collaborations with Hunxho and Jekalyn Carr — is a heartfelt address to the city from a rapper who clearly adores his hometown, and a producer who has helped shape the city’s modern sound. Focus track “Let Go Let God,” blends familiar Atlanta rap cadences with a hearty gospel message, finding the common ground between the secular notion of “trusting the process” and the sanctified notion of leaving things in God’s hands. “I been down if that’s okay, had to learn from yesterday/ Took a lot of L’s in my life, baby, and I ain’t goin’ back there, no way/ I got an iced out cross on my neck right now, tryna show him that he already paid,” he spits over Zaytoven’s trap production.
Destin Conrad, “WAR!”
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Last Friday (Jan. 19), Destin Conrad dropped off Submissive2, the sequel to last year’s Submissive. “War,” the fourth track on the set, is a perfect blend of the rising star’s penchant for idiosyncratic Gen Z humor and lustful-yet-subtle R&B melodies. Obviously, the song is about the lengths one will go to for the person they want — rather the person they want to bag — but the trick of “War” is the way Destin plays into the innate melodrama of the concept. “I would smash the windows out your ex’s car without a second thought, baby/ I would gladly take the f–kin’ charge and that’s a criminal offense,” he opens the song.
It’s the chorus, however, that really drives home Destin’s shtick. He plays with his pitch and intonation to embody different characters across a melody that plays on the bounce-rooted “I’ll do [insert outlandish thing] for the d–k” punchline set-up. “I’ll sing Adele for that d–k / Rolling in the deep for that d–k,” the voices joke. It’s all fun and games until one voice proclaims that they’ll “pay for the d–k,” to which Destin comes back down to earth and ends the song, quipping, “Alright, you’re buggin’ (Yeah, b–ch, you dragged it) / You did too much, b–ch, too much.”
Naomi Sharon, “Nothing Sweeter”
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Just a few months removed from the launch of her acclaimed debut album, Obsidian, Naomi Sharon has unveiled another new addition to her growing discography. “Nothing Sweeter” arrives as the latest evolution of the most Sade-influenced edges of Sharon’s sonic profile. The First Lady of OVO lays her elegant vocals over a sparse, delicate guitar-forward instrumental that allows her ample space to showcase her sense of vocal control. Lyrically, she extols the healing power of love while calling back to iconic R&B ballads of yesteryear, singing, “Uncover my skin, undo this pain/ Unbreak my heart/Until I remember the way.”
As the music industry continues to wake from its holiday season slumber and awards season barrels on, there’s much to catch up on in the worlds of hip-hop and R&B.
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Earlier this month (Jan. 6), Jay-Z picked up his second Primetime Emmy — outstanding directing for a variety special for The Apple Music Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show Starring Rihanna. He won his first last year as an executive producer of the 2022 Super Bowl Halftime Show starring Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar and 50 Cent. In more somber awards news, last Friday (Jan. 12), The Hollywood Reporter exclusively revealed that Diddy — nominated in best progressive R&B album for The Love Album: Off the Grid — would not be attending the upcoming 66th Annual Grammy Awards amid his recent sexual assault allegations.
In non-awards news, Lil Nas X made a characteristically controversial comeback with “J Christ,” Kali Uchis dropped off a new album alongside a pregnancy announcement, Janet Jackson announced new North American dates for her acclaimed Together Again tour and 21 Savage released his first solo LP in five years.
With Fresh Picks, Billboard aims to highlight some of the best and most interesting new sounds across R&B and hip-hop — from Destin Conrad and Alex Isley’s devastating duet to 21 Savage’s Shining-inspired street anthem. Be sure to check out this week’s Fresh Picks in our Spotify playlist below.
Freshest Find: Destin Conrad & Alex Isley, “Same Mistake”
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We’re only a few months removed from Submissive, but Destin Conrad already has his focus on Submissive 2. “Same Mistake” arrives as a forlorn ballad chiefly concerned with documenting the final moments of a disintegrating romance. “Why you always wanna play games?/ Night time you’re mine, and daylight you act like you don’t even know my name,” Destin croons over Louie Lastic’s ethereal production. Isley first delivers her trademark honeyed vocals as background accompaniment on Destin’s verse before commanding her own verse with equal parts ache and devastation. “Only wanted the best and I’m stickin’ to my story/ This was a moment for me, and this was all it could be,” she sings.
K CAMP & NoCap, “My Flowers”
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Few expressions have been run into the ground in the past half-decade as much as “giving somebody their flowers.” Miraculously, K CAMP and NoCap manage to deliver a spin on the phrase that feels fresh. Featuring production contributions from Trappin N London, Theevoni, MilanoTheProducer & J-RoD, “My Flowers” finds K Camp nimbly flowing over a solemn guitar-inflected trap beat. “N—as playin’ with my worth, you better have a check for me/ Or you better not check for me, angels standin’ next to me,” he spits. NoCap perfectly matches K Camp’s energy with a slightly more melodic flow that picks up on the same lyrical throughlines of loyalty and genuine love.
Kevin Gates, “Birds Calling”
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Kevin Gates is always good for a ratchet bop, and he’s dropped off yet another one in “Birds Calling.” A play on the trope of birds singing at sunrise, Gates waxes poetic about women hitting his line at all hours of the day. With Starrah and 302 on production duties, Gates hides some pretty sobering bars in between the sing-song hook. “Cleansing my sins started healing, I’m righteous/ Free everybody who thuggin’ in Rikers/ Know that I’m free, I’m authentically me,” he raps. “Birds Calling” is a headier complement to “Yonce Freestyle,” the club banger that served as the other pre-release single from Gates’ forthcoming The Ceremony LP.
Jhené Aiko, “Sun/Son”
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It’s been a little over three years since Jhené Aiko last gifted us a studio album, but she’s still remained musically active. Her latest release, “Sun/Son” serves as a loving tribute to her son for his first birthday. Lyrically, Aiko plays on the homophonous quality of the words in the song’s title, painting with broad strokes that contour the “solar power” her son’s love “charges her up” with. Vocally, she opts for a lush flurry of subdued harmonies that reside almost exclusively in her falsetto. It’s a relatively coy vocal performance, but one whose delicateness is the key ingredient to crafting a song with such a self-assured sense of intimacy.
Samaria, “Beating Myself Up”
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This glitchy slice of electronic R&B is the perfect backdrop to a session of serious self-loathing. “Want to think I’m one of a kind/ But it gets way too, too loud/ Used to get professional help/ Too scared of what they found,” Samaria says in a cadence somewhere between rapping, singing and stream-of-consciousness rambling. The flashes of drum’n’bass production drive home the song’s most sinister undertones, but it’s Samaria’s tone — hurt masked by a veneer or apathy — that embodies the destruction of innocence that anchors the track’s sentiments.
Jeymes Samuel, Doja Cat, Kodak Black & Adekunle Gold, “JEEZU”
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Jay-Z caused quite the stir on Spaces last week when he sang Doja Cat’s praises, but he wasn’t just running his mouth. After scoring a runaway hit with “Vegas” from the Elvis soundtrack in 2022, the “Agora Hills” rapper has lent her talents to another blockbuster movie OST. Alongside Adekunle Gold, Kodak Black and film director Jeyemes Samuel, Doja delivers a standout verse for the Book of Clarence soundtrack posse cut. “Y’all got an agenda, but we’ll see how that gon’ turn out/ Many false prophets leavin’ brothers with a firm doubt/ Father, please forgive me, for today, they finna learn now/ Put me in the dirt, and you gon’ see, I make it worthwhile,” she spits over Samuel’s laid-back jazz-inflected production. Adekunle’s impassioned hook is the song’s glue, while Kodak delivers one of his best verses in recent years on the Diaspora-traversing song.
21 Savage, “Redrum”
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A new 21 Savage album normally means the return of the rapper in both savage mode and R&B mode. While both personas made for enjoyable tracks on his newly released American Dream LP, “Redrum” is the unequivocal standout from his “savage mode” tracks. Featuring production from London on da Track, “Redrum” — “murder” spelled backwards, of course — finds the Grammy-winner rattling off his gun collection and delivering a slew of menacing metaphors and one-liners. The key part of the track, however, is the outro, which samples Jack Nicholson’s recitation of the “Three Little Pigs” nursery rhyme from The Shining (1980). Talk about thematic consistency!
“Do you have my black purse?” Sexyy Red asks one of her team members as she makes her way in front of the camera. As her brazen track “Sexyy Red for President” blasts in the background, the breakout St. Louis rapper pulls out two massive wads of cash, carefully placing one atop her trademark bright red wig as if it were a crown.
For all the boisterous energy of her high-octane hit singles, Sexyy Red is pretty quiet in person. The clock’s approaching midnight on the day of her Billboard photo shoot — and she’s quickly approaching the birth of her second child — so her relative calm is understandable. Nonetheless, as each new song from the deluxe version of her Hood Hottest Princess mixtape booms through the room’s speakers, Sexyy quickly shifts into boss mode, helping direct her shoot. She’s undoubtedly a star — and she was one long before “Pound Town,” her January collaboration with Tay Keith, changed her life.
As hip-hop celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2023, Sexyy Red became a dominant force in the cultural conversation around the genre and where it’s headed next. Go to a college party blasting her “Hellcats SRTs,” or watch a club explode when “Yonce Freestyle” drops, and the 25-year-old rapper’s influence is obvious. From the tongue-in-cheek “Looking for the Hoes” to the Chief Keef-evoking “Shake Yo Dreads,” her music resonates with anyone willing to engage with and embrace their ratchet side.
Unlike many of her female peers, Sexyy’s raps aren’t drenched in metaphors and punchlines; her lyrics sound as if she’s saying the very first thing that pops into her head — which is exactly the case. When she spits, “B-tch, if it’s some beef, let me know, sh-t, what’s up?/All that talkin’ on the net, that’s gon’ get your head bust,” in “I’m the Sh-t,” Sexyy isn’t weaving subliminal shots throughout intricate wordplay — she’s plainly addressing her opps with equal parts humor, apathy and stone-cold seriousness.
According to Luminate, Hood Hottest Princess has collected 447.6 million official on-demand U.S. streams, helping it reach No. 13 on the Top Rap Albums chart, as well as making appearances on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (No. 21) and the Billboard 200 (No. 62). Sexyy has charted a pair of top 10s on the Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay ranking: “SkeeYee” (No. 6) and “Rich Baby Daddy” (No. 2), with the former also becoming the inaugural No. 1 hit on the newly launched TikTok Billboard Top 50.
This digital cover story is part of Billboard’s Genre Now package, highlighting the artists pushing their musical genres forward — and even creating their own new ones.
Sexyy dominated 2023 amid a notable lull for her genre overall in the marketplace. Last year, no hip-hop artist topped the Billboard 200 until mid-July, when Lil Uzi Vert’s Pink Tape became the first No. 1 hip-hop album since Metro Boomin’s Heroes & Villains the previous December, marking the longest gap between No. 1 hip-hop albums since a 34-week drought in 1992-93. In September, Doja Cat’s “Paint the Town Red” became hip-hop’s first Billboard Hot 100-topping single since Nicki Minaj’s “Super Freaky Girl” in August 2022.
Both “Paint the Town Red” and Pink Tape were buoyed by the danceable, top 40-friendly sounds of pop-rap and Jersey club, respectively, signaling a shift from the 2010s, when dominant trap artists regularly launched new singles and albums to the tops of Billboard’s marquee all-genre charts. While Sexyy didn’t make quite the commercial impact of “Paint the Town Red” or Uzi’s “Just Wanna Rock,” her remarkable string of 2023 hits suggests hip-hop may evolve in a new direction: one in which less crossover-aimed rap can still captivate the culture, and in which a woman with Sexyy’s raw, raucous style can achieve mainstream dominance without a top 40-friendly hit.
Born Janae Wherry, Sexyy grew up in St. Louis listening to the likes of Webbie, Boosie BadAzz and Trina — artists that embody the unapologetically hood energy that now courses through every Sexyy Red song. As Sexyy points out, they were all revered for their fearlessness. But achieving that kind of bravery herself took some time.
“When I was little, I always knew [I was a star] because I was just different,” Sexyy says. “I was worried. I was quiet. But everybody used to want to be my friend. I was pretty, my hair was real long, my mama knew how to dress me. Everybody used to just be flocking to me, but I was shy. I didn’t want to talk to nobody. I’ve always been that person for real.”
Michael Tyrone Delaney
That kind of authenticity is now helping her fans access their own — one two-and-a-half-minute track at a time. From the start, Sexyy’s career has felt organic and, at first, low stakes. Growing up, she always had a creative spirit: “I used to think I was going to be a painter. I used to design my Barbie dolls’ clothes. I used to be doing hair. I just was multitalented, so I knew I could do it, but I just didn’t know how,” she says.
When a former boyfriend broke her heart in 2018, Sexyy reacted in the most hip-hop way possible: She recorded a dis track. The response among friends was so overwhelmingly positive that even the song’s subject encouraged her to seriously pursue music. (“He’d have me rap the song to his friends,” Sexyy recalls.)
From that very first song, listeners clamored to hear Sexyy’s specific voice, her cadence, her energy, her off-the-cuff rambunctiousness tempered with sincerity. Performances at local clubs and parties soon followed — “A free party? And I get $50 just to go up there and just do something? Why not?” — as did a debut mixtape, 2021’s Ghetto Superstar, and support on social media from R&B star Summer Walker. But it took a mixture of old-school grind and new-school social media prowess — and a little help from the music industry — for Sexyy to harness the zeitgeist.
In 2021, Rebel Music, an independent Miami-based label and management company, signed Sexyy after coming across some of her early tracks. “Once she got off the plane and I heard her voice, I knew she was a star,” recalls Vladimir “Sunny” Laurent, Sexyy’s A&R executive. “Like, her voice, it just tells you who she is.” By mid-2023, Miami-based distributor Open Shift and gamma — Larry Jackson’s media company that creates, distributes and markets content with a specific focus on Black culture — “reached out to [Rebel] and expressed interest not only in Sexyy, but their broad platform [too],” according to Dave Gross, who became Sexyy’s manager around the same time. (Sexyy remains signed to Rebel Music, while gamma and Open Shift handle distribution of her music.)
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In January 2023, Sexyy Red dropped the track that would change the course of her career. “Pound Town” is emblematic of Sexyy’s ethos: Say what you feel, and do that before anything else. From “too many b-tches, where the n—as at?” to “My c–chie pink, my bootyh–e brown,” her impulsive bars quickly drew listeners in, inspiring a litany of memes across TikTok and X (formerly Twitter).
The track also brought “p—y rap” — which music journalist Robyn Mowatt describes as “a subgenre of rap where women embrace their sexual prowess” in the face of “the patriarchy and misogyny” common in the male-dominated rap world — to the fore of hip-hop discourse. As female MCs have seized the mainstream, p—y rap has dominated, with Sexyy as one of its most prominent purveyors — even if she disputes the classification.
“I don’t agree with that [classification], because why is that the only thing you heard me talking about?” she says. “That’s the only thing that you got out of everything I just said? You just heard me say ‘c–chie’? I hate when they say that. I just rap about my daily life. Girls that live like me, I just rap about what we go through. I don’t sit and talk about c–chie all day.”
She’s right. What has made Sexyy such a contentious subject of hip-hop conversations is that she embodies an energy and perspective many are comfortable glamorizing without respecting. In lyrics like “When I don’t hear from my n—a, I write him/He a bad boy, I don’t care, that’s how I like ’em/Yeah, free my n—a ’til it’s backwards/F–k the police, f–k the pigs, they some bastards,” she’s not conjuring a scene to give the illusion of a hood aesthetic — she’s literally pulling from her real life.
“Authenticity is self-relative, and for Sexyy, it’s that she’s independent, fierce, strong, unafraid of the world’s opinions and unbowed by backlash,” Gross says. It’s not about whether she’s acting “hood” — it’s about expressing those qualities and aesthetics authentically in her music and performance. Sexyy is always being Sexyy, first and foremost.
“Pound Town” peaked at No. 66 on the Billboard Hot 100 following a remix with Nicki Minaj, marking Sexyy’s debut on the chart. “I specifically had the vision to make sure that we got that done and out by Memorial Day weekend so that we could just own the f–king summer,” says gamma CEO Larry Jackson, who was instrumental in orchestrating the remix. “That, to me, was like throwing a lit match in dry shrubbery.”
As scores of streaming-era artists know well, it is easy for a viral hit to overshadow the artist behind it. Sexyy Red and her team sought to avoid that, Jackson says, delivering a constant stream of singles and remixes to support Hood Hottest Princess. The project arrived alongside the official single release of “SkeeYee,” a raucous party anthem named after a cat-calling phrase frequently used in Sexyy’s hometown of St. Louis.
“SkeeYee” quickly became a staple on locker room playlists across the country, the go-to celebration song for athletes from college football’s Ole Miss Rebels to MLB’s Baltimore Orioles. Its success shifted Sexyy into a different tier from her peers like Kaliii and Flo Milli. Most mainstream female rappers are ignored by straight male audiences save for a verse or two, but Sexyy had that demographic captivated for an entire calendar year — from the countless videos of ecstatic male fans at her festival appearances to Travis Scott’s giddy embrace of “SkeeYee” during his 2023 Wireless Festival set.
“She’s the female Gucci [Mane]. She sounds like Trina. Everybody thinks she’s like a p—y rap artist, but she’s not really,” Laurent says. “She makes music for dudes who like fast cars. That’s why dudes connect with her so well. Everybody loves her, from the LGBT community to [straight] women — it’s all walks of life.”
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“Hellcats SRTs” (along with its Lil Durk remix) and “Shake Yo Dreads” added two more hits to Sexyy’s résumé, and smart features on NLE Choppa’s “Slut Me Out” and DaBaby’s “Shake Sumn” kept her momentum going. In 2023, ratchet party rap reemerged in popularity, and Sexyy led the charge with music and energy reminiscent of iconic voices like Waka Flocka Flame and Chief Keef. “I see Sexyy Red as a female me,” Waka says. “How people are like, ‘Man, Waka’s music just ratchet!’ It was records outselling me by millions of copies, but they can never get played inside the club.”
Neither “Pound Town” nor “SkeeYee” was a major Hot 100 hit, reaching Nos. 66 and 62, respectively, but they still captured and defined the year for large swaths of consumers; Sexyy landed six entries on the TikTok Billboard Top 50. And after her hit linkup with Minaj, she spent the rest of 2023 maximizing her commercial reach by collaborating with another Young Money icon.
According to Gross, Drake reached out to Sexyy via DM around the time the rest of the industry began to truly take notice of her. So, between supporting Moneybagg Yo on his Larger Than Life Tour and headlining her own Hood Hottest Princess tour, Sexyy opened for Drake and 21 Savage’s blockbuster It’s All a Blur Tour. That cross-country trek set the stage for Sexyy’s highest-peaking Hot 100 entry yet, “Rich Baby Daddy” (No. 11), a track from Drake’s For All the Dogs album that also features fellow St. Louis native SZA. “Rich Baby Daddy” also became her most beloved track yet (by critics and fans alike), on an album that also featured heavy hitters from Bad Bunny to J. Cole — an indicator of how quickly Sexyy had risen in the industry.
Her stint on Drake and 21 Savage’s tour also laid the groundwork for her own headlining tour, which her team estimates sold 75,000 tickets across 28 shows — a rare feat for a female rapper, especially one so new to the game, and a testament to the strength of the Sexyy Red brand in a year that had numerous cancellations of hip-hop tours and festivals.
“Touring was stressful at first, because nobody knew I was pregnant,” Sexyy explains. “I’d be in the bedroom trying to suck my stomach in or wear clothes to show I wasn’t. It hurt to just be onstage all day holding your stomach. It’s hard to hide it.” For an artist like Sexyy, deeply committed to presenting herself authentically, the decision to do that was deeply personal, and tactical: She shot more than 10 music videos, made several festival appearances, went on three tours and performed at awards shows — and did most of that while carrying her second child.
“Being pregnant is stressful; it wears your body down. I was tired, but I tried to hide it as much as you possibly could,” she says. “I like to have a personal life. I’m already famous or whatever, so everything be out there. I be trying to have something to myself that I could keep. Just go home and be with my son and my family. That’s the reason I was hiding.”
Michael Tyrone Delaney
Gross recalls one summer stint in which Sexyy “hopped off the stage with Drake, hopped on a jet to make it to a Moneybagg Yo show, did an afterparty after the Moneybagg show, then at six or seven in the morning took another jet to go the next city where the Drake tour was.” That kind of work ethic is what drew him to Sexyy in the first place.
It’s the same energy Sexyy started the year with after the father of her baby got locked up. “I don’t got no more distractions. I can work now,” she says. After every show, she went straight to her 2-year-old son, Chuckie — a testament to how she manages to balance work with her personal life. “This year was very unique and there was an extremely heightened sense of concern” around the impact of Sexyy’s promotional schedule on her mind and body, Gross says. “Our game plan is always going to be to take our cue from the artist.”
As quickly as she has become a pop cultural touchstone, Sexyy has stirred up plenty of controversy. In October on the podcast This Past Weekend With Theo Von, she said, “Trump, we miss you” — arguing that “they support him in the hood” because “he started getting Black people out of jail and giving people that free money.” One conspiracy theory accuses her of being a plant by the CIA to destroy the Black community, while some posts on X have called for Jackson’s condemnation to hell because of his involvement in promoting Sexyy.
For Sexyy, wanting to be in the rap game for the long haul has meant finding a way to exist amid all that noise. “It don’t really faze me, because I know what’s going on in real life,” she says. “I just do me. I be really nice.” And, in real life, Sexyy is connecting with audiences because she’s giving them the space to revel in their ratchetness. “In my opinion, she is the first one post-pandemic who brought us a hot summer,” Jackson says. “She dropped music that made us feel good for the first time in four years about being outside again.”
“I think she’s every woman’s spirit animal. That rambunctious girl that says anything she feels. She says things people are afraid to say,” adds Laurent. “She’s like a heroine in a way.”
In 2024, Sexyy Red has one goal: “I’m showing my ass. I’m going to just be getting richer, bigger, more trendier. I’m going to be everywhere,” she says. “I’m going to be in it for the long haul, [but] not even on purpose, though. Even if I try to stop rapping, they’re going to take some sh-t, turn it into something, put me on the blogs, make it something it doesn’t even have to be, so Imma be here for a minute.” Her manager is aiming for “three or four albums next year. That might be ambitious,” he acknowledges. “But I want 2024 to be the year of Sexyy Red like 2023 was.”
Michael Tyrone Delaney
In December, she dropped a deluxe edition of Hood Hottest Princess featuring collaborations with Chief Keef and Summer Walker, and she has also scored rising hits in “Bow Bow Bow (F My Baby Dad)” and “Free My N—a.” The negative response to the latter in particular — some critics contended that the song and music video contributed to the glorification of the incarceration of Black men — exemplified the vitriol that has moved some veteran female rappers to defend Sexyy.
“We don’t know what [Sexyy is] going to be talking about on the third or fourth album, but right now we’re talking about where we came from,” Trina tells Billboard. “We’re talking about the bottom. The gutter, the trenches, the dirt, the slime, the scum. All of that. Some people have just grown above it and they’re not in the hood no more, but everybody has not got to that place yet. You can’t expect them to be talking about the most lavish things in life and they haven’t addressed where they from and what they’ve seen and how they seen it. Give them a chance to grow. Give them a chance to elevate. Give them a chance to evolve. They’re still young women. They’re still under 30 years old. They still have time to do whatever they want to do, but this is just the beginning.”
Sexyy’s vision and hope for hip-hop’s future is centered in the same principle she has upheld since “Pound Town” blew up: authenticity. For her, that’s the only way to know “who really f–king with you when you’re just being yourself and not trying to pretend.”
And for her heroes — like Boosie BadAzz, the only artist she requested to hear during her Billboard photo shoot other than herself — it’s the reason her voice is so needed in rap right now. Sexyy is “a girl from the hood who finally got her chance to speak and it’s accepted,” Boosie says. “When I listen to her music, it’s like the girls from my project talking. You got to respect it or watch other people respect it. We got a voice, too. The hood has a voice, too. A lot of people don’t respect it because they don’t understand it.”
Perhaps that’s what the future of hip-hop looks like under a Sexyy Red dynasty: a scene where a young woman can captivate a nation with her own perspective and narrative while also giving a voice to the place some of the culture’s most overlooked movers and shakers come from — and where none of that is just a performance. As usual, Sexyy puts it best herself: “I’m just doing me in this rap sh-t.”