R&B/Hip-Hop
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Temperatures are dropping but the R&B/hip-hop heat still persists. This week we’ve got a collection of songs by genre-benders (Omar Apollo and Tai Verdes), emerging rap stars (Luh Tyler, Audrey Nuna and Big Bratt) and an R&B staple (Kyle Dion) to help you power through this last week of August.
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Don’t forget to share the wealth and check out our August picks in the Spotify playlist, linked below. Stay tuned for September!
Freshest Find: Omar Apollo, “Ice Slippin”
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This week’s freshest find goes to Omar Apollo for “Ice Slippin,” his emotional ballad about the time he came out to his family. “‘Ice Slippin’ is about reliving the thoughts I had passing through my mind the winter I came out to my family,” Apollo shared in a press statement. “Receiving cold judgment as opposed to the acceptance I felt I deserved. This song is a reflection and reaction of all the emotions I had to face before and after I decided to leave the icy streets of Indiana.” “Ice Slippin” will appear on Apollo’s upcoming EP Live for Me (out October 6).
Luh Tyler, “Rapper of the Year”
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“I ain’t never wrote a song, no, I don’t need no pad or pen,” is the boastful intro line to Luh Tyler’s new track “Rapper of the Year.” The Florida teen rapper has been making a name for himself in rap with his witty bars and quivering flow. “Rapper of the Year” is the intro track on his new three-song EP ROTY.
Tai Verdes, “All White”
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Tai Verdes’ “All White” is a bass-forward track inspired in part by what he describes as the “second-generation Black mindset of putting culture on your shoulders and moving forward.” The California artist has mastered making light and airy pop songs, though “All White” arguably slightly crosses into R&B territory with its groovy bass line.
Kyle Dion, “Boyfriend Jeans”
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Leaning fully into R&B is Kyle Dion, whose new single “Boyfriend Jeans” seamlessly infuses his creamy falsetto with funky 2000s R&B elements. After taking a full year off following the release of his 2022 deluxe album SASSY, the L.A.-based crooner is back with a song “about a fling with a girl and getting caught in an ever-endless cycle of toxicity between her and her boyfriend,” he shares in a press release. “Every time they fight and break up, she’d come running back to me.”
AUDREY NUNA, “locket”
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Audrey Nuna samples the late rapper Huey’s 2006 hit “Pop, Lock and Drop It” for her new single “locket.” The New Jersey rapper also pays homage to late French filmmaker Valentin Petit, who passed earlier this year and directed the song’s video. “When it came time to build out the visual universe for my new project, I came across Valentin’s name through my friend and reached out online. After two months of preparing over the phone, we shot ‘locket’ in Paris in April of 2023… it was a surreal week,” she shares in a statement. “Even though I only knew Valentin for a sum of three months, I found in this short time that everything that drew me to his videos clearly stemmed from the blueprint of his soul and who he was at his core.”
Fridayy, “Stand by Me”
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On his self-titled new album Fridayy, the baritone Philly singer is telling his story as well as the story of those around him. “It’s a project for us, by me,” he says. “I want people to connect to their experiences as they hear mine. I’m talking about hope and inspiration as much as I’m talking about trials and tribulations. You can’t talk about the dream without talking about the pain. Those life aspects are universal, so I’m hoping it touches as many people as possible as they see themselves in me.” Standout track “Stand By Me” hears him backed by a choir, crooning about righting his wrongs and wishing for his people to sticky by him through thick and thin.
Big Bratt, “Real Stand Up Bxtch”
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Big Bratt had to “cut them hatin’ b–ches off ’cause they had different visions” — rightfully so. The Chattanooga, Tennessee rapper proved that she’s a “Real Stand Up Bxtch” on her new single which was released under Slaughter Gang Entertainment (21 Savage) and Boominati Worldwide (Metro Boomin).
Cardi B graces the new issue of Vogue México y Latinoamérica and shared an update on her long-awaited sophomore album in the cover story. “I’m not going to release any more collaborations. I’m going to put out my next solo single. Right now, I’m working on the cover art and ideas for the next record […]
Things are looking up for your Labor Day weekend. After months of teasing, on Monday morning (Aug. 28) Timbaland finally revealed the title of his upcoming single with longtime collaborators Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado. The song, “Keep Going Up!,” is due out on Friday (Sept. 1), just in time to get fans hyped for […]
All that Jorja Smith likes to do is write and sing — which makes separating herself from her career “a bit tricky” sometimes. “I’ll have days where I’m like, ‘Oh, my God, I wish I gave myself a different name because I need to switch Jorja Smith off,’ ” she says. “I don’t want to be Jorja Smith all of the time.”
Struggling to find balance not only speaks to her Gemini zodiac sign, says the 26-year-old artist, but is also at the core of her highly anticipated second album, Falling or Flying, out Sept. 29 on her longtime independent label, FAMM. “I don’t really have an in between. I’m either happy or sad, obsessed or completely unfocused, up or down,” she says. “I feel like I’m flying in my career, and then other times, I feel like I’m falling because the pressure can feel [like] too much.”
At 18, Smith left her hometown of Walsall, England, and traveled two-and-a-half hours south to London in order to pursue music full time. Her secondary school yearbook named her most likely to become famous — and she quickly ascended to become one of the United Kingdom’s brightest stars. In 2016, Smith uploaded her socially conscious debut single, “Blue Lights,” to SoundCloud, and it garnered nearly half a million plays in one month. The song eventually appeared on her 2018 critically acclaimed debut album, Lost & Found, which boasted slow-burning songs that blended R&B, reggae, hip-hop, jazz and neo-soul production with a songwriting approach inspired by Amy Winehouse. All the while, Smith earned co-signs from Drake, Kendrick Lamar and Stormzy, as well as acclaim in the form of a 2018 BRITs Critics’ Choice Award and a 2019 Grammy nod for best new artist.
But fulfilling her yearbook prophecy had a disorienting effect on Smith, who became famous in her early 20s. After tiding fans over with the 2021 EP Be Right Back, she moved home to Walsall at the beginning of 2023. “I went back when I finally decided I’ve had enough of London … It’s a bit overwhelming sometimes,” she says with a sigh. “I moved back and I feel a lot more balanced. I feel more myself now.”
On Falling or Flying, Smith soars over sprightly tracks that experiment with acoustic indie-rock production, syncopated basslines and retro synth chords. She enlisted U.K. jungle DJ-producer Nia Archives to remix the album’s second single, “Little Things,” which captured a flirty, feverish energy quintessential for clubbing in its original form. But some songs demand the coziness of a jazz club, where Smith’s lithe, velvety vocals can fill the space on their own — and quiet those around her. While Lost & Found comprised teenage love songs Smith had written when she was 16, Falling or Flying finds the singer stepping “into womanhood” and being more sure of herself than ever before. As she sings on “Backwards,” “I stand here and I look down on myself and I am so proud.” Meanwhile, on tracks like “Broken Is the Man” and “Try Me,” she challenges past lovers and harsh critics.
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Walsall production duo DameDame* — Smith has known one of its members since she was 15 — was responsible for most of Falling or Flying, another sign that returning to her roots better served her music. “We laughed, ate food, sang, cried, jammed some more,” she says. “It wasn’t like, ‘I need to make the album uptempo.’ It was just, ‘Let’s mess around, have fun and see what happens.’ ”
Smith teases that she’ll take Falling or Flying on the road for her first headlining run in five years. “That’s all I want to do,” she says, beaming. “That’s where I feel at home. In Walsall and onstage is where I feel like, ‘OK, I can just be me.’ ”
This story originally appeared in the Aug. 26, 2023, issue of Billboard.
YG’s disdain for former President Donald Trump has reached new levels. The rapper released T-shirts thrashing the controversial figure over the former president’s Aug. 24 arrest in Georgia on felony charges of plotting to overturn the state’s 2020 election results. The $35 merch, announced Friday (Aug. 25), uses Trump’s mug shot with the caption “F—-d” […]
Iggy Azalea had to cut short her headlining set in Saudi Arabia on Friday night at the Gamers8 e-sports event after suffering a wardrobe malfunction. According to People, in a since-deleted X post, the “Money Come” rapper said that local authorities told her she could not finish her show after her pants split mid-performance.
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“Saudi Arabia please know to everyone at the show tonight… I LOVE YOU,” the “Fancy” rapper wrote. “And I’m soooooo sorry I wasn’t allowed to finish my show. It’s not the promoter who put on the show’s fault so show them kindness because they are amazing people and we all wanted to continue but were not allowed by authorities because of my pants splitting.”
In a follow-up, Azalea responded to a fan’s question about why she wasn’t allowed to just change pants by explaining that she did change her bottoms, but then accompanied that with an onstage comment that allegedly “sent authorities over the edge.”
The statement in question, Azalea said, was her imploring, “‘Ladies, make some noise, it’s a woman’s world.’” The rapper assured her fans she was fine either way. “I’m cool I just didn’t want the fans to be sad or angry at the show organizers cause it wasn’t their control or mine it was the police at the side of stage,” she added. According to People, Azalea also briefly shared a clip of the pants splitting on Instagram and an image of the ripped pants.
A video posted by a fan appeared to show the incident, in which Azalea knelt down on the stage on her knees in black vinyl leggings, with the left leg appearing to split from mid-shin to her upper groin. Saudi Arabia’s immigration website states that the official dress code for women in the predominantly Muslim country calls for them to “cover as much flesh as possible to avoid drawing unwelcome attention.” The Visit Saudi Arabia site adds that tourists are not expected to wear the same attire as locals, or to cover up to the same extent, “but it’s highly recommended that you dress modestly.”
The performance came right after Iggy dropped her new single, “Money Come,” which was accompanied by a video in which Azalea and her female cohorts stage a hostile takeover of an office, blasting the male corporate structure and making the men in office mud wrestle for her entertainment.
See one of the tweets below.
I did but I also said “Ladies make some noise, it’s a woman’s world!” And apparently that sent the authorities over the edge. Lol I’m cool I just didn’t want the fans to be sad or angry at the show organizers cause it wasn’t their control or mine it was the police at the side…— IGGY AZALEA (@IGGYAZALEA) August 25, 2023
Sean “Diddy” Combs never forgot the advice his grandmother gave him, and over the weekend he put her words into action with a major donation to an HBCU (historically black college or university). “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for HBCUs,” Combs wrote on Instagram on Sunday (Aug. 27), along with a video of […]
Yes, hip-hop is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. But 2023 also marks the golden anniversary for one of R&B’s most seminal albums, Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On.
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Let’s Get It On, the pioneering erotic and emotional follow-up to Gaye’s game-changing 1971 album What’s Going On, is now the centerpiece of a digitally revised 50th anniversary package. Released this week (Aug. 25) by Motown/UMe, Let’s Get It On: Deluxe Edition boasts 33 bonus tracks, 18 of which are previously unreleased and include songs from a lost session by jazz icon Herbie Hancock. The new package replaces a deluxe edition of the album first issued in 2001.
Rush-released as the lead single even before the album was completed, title track “Let’s Get It On” became a No. 1 R&B and pop hit. The album’s subsequent classics included “Distant Lover” and “You Sure Love to Ball,” as well as “Come Get to This” and “Just to Keep You Satisfied.” The eight-track album spent 11 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s R&B albums chart, peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2004.
However, also captured sonically on Let’s Get It On: Deluxe Edition is Gaye’s fascinating, long-gestating journey that birthed the original August 1973 album. Beyond releasing that album, 1973 was an important year for Motown. Founder Berry Gordy’s storied label was also celebrating its first full year in Los Angeles after relocating from Detroit. And that celebration resulted in a host of other album releases. That 1973 bumper crop included The Temptations’ Masterpiece, Eddie Kendrick’s eponymous third album, Diana Ross’ Touch Me in the Morning, Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions and Smokey Robinson’s solo debut, Smokey.
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At that point in time, an experimental Gaye was busy following wherever his creative muse led him. During six months of recording sessions, he was working with collaborators such as artist/songwriter/producer Ed Townsend, arrangers Rene Hall and David Van DePitte and top-notch musicians such as guitarist Melvin “Wah Wah” Ragin and bassists Wilton Felder and James Jameson, in addition to Hancock. It’s the unused music from these sessions — unheard mixes, intriguing instrumental tracks, unreleased versions of ballad recordings — that richly enhance the deluxe edition. They also spotlight Gaye’s versatility both musically and vocally at a time when he was in the throes of a broken marriage and a new romance while grappling with the issue of spirituality versus the flesh.
“Two of the greatest things that happened at Motown was when Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye produced their own music,” said Smokey Robinson during a special Grammy Museum event earlier this week (Aug. 23) commemorating the 50th anniversary of Let’s. Moderated by UMe vp of A&R Harry Weinger, the panel of special guests included songwriter/producer Jimmy Jam and Gaye biographer David Ritz (Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye). Among those in the audience: Gaye’s children Marvin III and Nona.
In outlining Gaye’s mindset in 1973, Ritz referenced a line from the album’s title track: “We’re all sensitive people with so much to give.” As Ritz explained, “Marvin was a beautiful soul, extremely charming and funny, a complicated man, always deep. [With this album], he was thrilled because he was able to express another part of his personality. He took the chaos in his life and harmonized it, taking disparate elements and weaving them together. He knew it was a heavy and autobiographical work. But it was one that people loved.”
Weinger also premiered several tracks from the deluxe edition, including “The Shadow of Your Smile” (“Marvin wanted to be the Black Sinatra; he could sing anything,” said Robinson) and the instrumental “Perfection” with Hancock on piano and Gaye writing/producing. Drawing “ahhs” from the audience was remix guru John Morales’ stripped-down mix of “Just to Keep You Satisfied” that exquisitely showcases Gaye’s searing vocals.
“Listening to this sounds like music in heaven to me,” said Jam of Let’s Get It On. “It’s a brilliant and sublime album with very powerful messages. With Marvin, the deeper you dig the better it gets.”
According to Motown/UMe, the original Let’s Get It On will also be available in Dolby ATMOS in honor of its 50th anniversary. Also in the works: Motown/UMe will premiere new video content for select tracks and an e-commerce-only colored vinyl edition of the original album.
Earlier this year, J. Cole made his intentions loud and clear on Lil Durk’s “All My Life”: “Lately, I just wanna show up and body some sh-t.” To his credit, Cole has been living up to his word, treating the rap circuit like a demolition derby. A proven features savant, this is familiar territory for […]
SZA rounded up some of the hottest male stars for her new music video for “Snooze” released on Friday (Aug. 25). In the sultry Bradley J. Calder and SZA-directed clip, the superstar lays in the grass, rolls a joint in bed, plays video games and more with co-stars Justin Bieber, Benny Blanco, Beef actor Young Mazino and Power […]