R&B/Hip-Hop
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Happy August! The Sunday of summer months is here, but the heat persists. This week, we have an array of sounds from soothing R&B songs by Alina Baraz, LOONY and No Guidnce to genre-fusing tracks by midwxst, Lucy Park and KayCyy. And if you’re a fan of booming 808s and hi-hats, Rob49, Skilla Baby and Tay B’s new single is the one for you.
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Per usual, don’t forget to check out these songs and stay tuned for the rest of our August picks in our Spotify playlist, linked below.
Freshest Find: Alina Baraz, “Keep Me In Love”
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This week’s Freshest Find is a swooning R&B gem, and Alina Baraz’s first single in a while — detailing a modern take on love that showcases her relatable songwriting. “We pour so much time, love, and energy into ourselves, effortlessly and indefinitely,” she shares in a press release. “The idea [for the song] came from wondering if someone could ever do that for you. It’s easy to fall in love but to keep me in love, I long for that.”
midwxst, “warning”
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On “warning,” midwxst effortlessly blends rock and rap. The 20-year-old shared the new single ahead of his debut album, E3 (out Sept. 1), which “illustrates his recent internal challenges, but also underscores profound growth and maturity.” “I just want people to understand that I went through a lot of the s–t I am expressing on this album,” he reveals in a press release. “It made me grow and become who I am today. And I wouldn’t trade any of that pain or any of that loss for anything.”
No Guidnce, “Let It Rain”
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According to No Guidnce, the boy group is “bringing singing-in-the-rain R&B back” with their new single, “Let It Rain.” The U.K newcomers are proving to be a major force in R&B having only released their first ever song back in March. “Let It Rain” arrives on the heels of their debut EP, Is It a Crime?, and is lined with their thrilling, signature style that’s rooted in rousing nostalgia — similar to that of their counterparts, FLO. The boys also recently headlined their first show in Los Angeles back in July.
LOONY, “Old Friends”
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Scarborough singer-songwriter LOONY sees the beauty in a relationship gone wrong. Created during a spontaneous and intimate jam session in Los Angeles, her new single, “Old Friends,” leans into this experience, displaying her soulful vocals and timeless songwriting for a mature but playful song that feels like a one-sided conversation or voicemail. “There’s something really sweet and singular to me about those moments, about those relationships,” LOONY says in statement. “When relationships can often go so ugly, it’s a privilege when it ends to gain an old friend.”
Rob49, Skilla Baby and Tay B, “Mama”
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Following his guest feature on “TOPIA TWINS” off Travis Scott’s UTOPIA, Rob49 teamed up with Skilla Baby and Tay B for blistering new single, “Mama.” The New Orleans newcomer’s thick accent and deep, aggressive flow pair well alongside his collaborators who match his energy. “I heard you got a man, but it’s alright mama/ Let’s go to the mall, I’m about to buy you what you like, mama,” Skilla Baby spits.
KayCyy, “My Jeans”
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With “My Jeans,” KayCyy is proving that he’s “not no background singer.” Earlier this week, a fan on X (fka Twitter) pointed out that the Kenya-born artist was left uncredited for his vocals on “THANK GOD” off Travis Scott’s UTOPIA. KayCyy responded to the post and proceeded to prove that he can hold his own with the new song. The Minnesota-based artist is also known for his work on Ye’s Donda, though he is gearing up to release his debut album, Who is KayCyy?.
Lucy Park, “All Roads”
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With alluring vocals and an infectious dance rhythm, Lucy Park has created the perfect summer track to help close out the season on a high note. Park wanted “All Roads” “to feel like a summer night out in London,” she shares. “The song is sort of a dance back and forth between them. It’s about building up a romance in your head while you are still strangers in real life. This is a really new sound for me and I’m so excited for people to hear it!”
50 Cent‘s crush on Dame Helen Mirren is still going strong — in fact, he says he’ll probably never get over her. Speaking to Men’s Health for his new cover story, the rapper opened up about his love for the 78-year-old Oscar winner, sharing that he thinks Mirren will be “sexy forever.” “She’s sexy,” he […]
This year marks the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, a milestone that is being celebrated with curated concerts, special programming and more.
To commemorate such a momentous birthday, influential hip-hop executives and artists honor the groundbreaking and culture-defining genre with personal love letters to the art form that continues to inspire them every day — and will for many more years to come.
Tuma BasaDirector of Black music and culture, YouTube
Tuma Basa
Courtesy of YouTube
I grew up in Zimbabwe listening to hip-hop from here and could feel the realness from all the way over there. And in true hip-hop fashion, when I got to the States, I was able to flip my love for hip-hop into a whole career. To me, it’s not just a culture, it’s a vibration. … It’s not just music, it’s the actual news! That artful reflection of reality is unmatched and is going to keep me loving it till infinity.
Jermaine DupriArtist/producer/songwriter/DJ; author; CEO, So So Def
Jermaine Dupri
Steven Eloiseau
I believe hip-hop has created opportunities and opened doors for people — artists, producers, designers, etc. — that no other music genre has. It’s a lifestyle that has evolved over 50 years and its legacy is deeply rooted in Black culture and our experiences. A lot of the choices I make are because hip-hop makes me do it.
Stephen HillTV producer; former BET and MTV executive
Stephen Hill
Marteen DeBoer
Socially conscious music existed before hip-hop; artists observed social challenges, oppressions and disparities and incorporated their views into their work. Often brilliantly, hip-hop is and has been the platform on which those who actually live their daily lives fully in those challenges, oppressions and disparities can stand and be seen and heard … authentically. Hip-hop is also one of the entities responsible for the largest growth in Black millionaires (and a few billionaires) in this country. Increased Black wealth leads to increased Black ownership. Black ownership leads to a cleaner and better lit, though not unfettered, path to freedom. This is America.
MC LyteRapper/DJ/entrepreneur
MC Lyte
Michael Buckner for Variety
Hip-hop means everything to me. It has been an integral part of my life since I was a kid and is woven into every significant fabric of my life. It put me on a pathway and journey that I couldn’t have imagined in the beginning. It has changed my life, my family’s lives and so many others over the past 50 years. Hip-hop is beyond music. It is style, fashion, dance and even taught as part of the curriculum in universities nationwide. Hip-hop has allowed me to use my voice to inspire, ignite and give back. It is also the embodiment of Black culture and the ultimate voice of the people. I’m so proud to be part of its legacy, which is constantly growing and evolving — as it should. Hip-hop is forever.
Mona Scott-YoungCEO, Monami Entertainment
Mona Scott-Young
Jaxon Photography
To me, hip-hop has always represented freedom. More than just freedom of expression, it’s freedom from the limitations of stereotype, freedom from socioeconomic boundaries and freedom to live and speak our truth. Hip-hop is community — a common expression of experiences that allows us to connect to one another and better understand each other, even when the experiences expressed are not our own. Hip-hop is a global platform that allows us to be heard, seen, recognized and acknowledged in spaces and places where we would not otherwise have a voice. Hip-hop is a testament to our resiliency and ingenuity and its legacy is one of hope, empowerment and freedom.
Mopreme ShakurRapper/producer; member of Thug Life with stepbrother Tupac Shakur
Mopreme Shakur
Talia Rodríguez-Shakur
For those who grew up in our generation, hip-hop was our hope, our dream, our creation, our baby. It is something that brings us pride and affirmation of the power of our voices to connect with the world. Our creation came from the ground up and it has fed our communities. Hip-hop is our culture, our love, and most of us don’t give a damn who likes it or not. We’re the rebels whose art became a force and went on to inspire the world. Hip-hop and its legacy mean power to me. Long live hip-hop!
Roxanne ShantéRap legend; host, SiriusXM
Roxanne Shanté
Prince Williams/WireImage
Back in the day, they always said that hip-hop was not going to last. So now, to be here 50 years in and to have the celebration we’re having right now worldwide, for me, it’s an honor and a blessing. When you think about how they always thought that hip-hop was only going to be the music for the urban area or how they thought it was always the news for the urban children going through situations and circumstances, it now seems to be the word for everyone, everywhere. Nothing can be sold without it, no story can be told without it. It’s a beautiful thing.
This story will appear in the Aug. 5, 2023, issue of Billboard.
After conquering the seven seas as Princess Ariel in the live-action remake of Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Halle Bailey is ready to make her formal solo debut. “Angel,” the official debut solo single from Halle, has arrived. “Black girl with the Black girl hair,” she croons over a plaintive piano-backed arrangement. Halle posted a teaser […]
After kickstarting her new era with “Attention,” Doja Cat has unleashed her latest single: “Paint The Town Red.” The new single from the “Need to Know” rapper is available on all streaming and digital download platforms. “B—h, I said what I said / I’d rather be famous instead / I let all that get to […]
Last month, Lil Tjay returned to the limelight when he released his new album, 222. The Bronx rapper’s latest output features Summer Walker, YoungBoy NBA, The Kid Laroi, Polo G, and more. He recently caught up with Billboard to discuss his newest effort, performing alongside his “Gangsta Boo” collaborator Ice Spice and more.
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For Tjay, 222 comes after the Bronx rapper was shot seven times last year during a botched robbery attempt. The near-fatal shooting left TJay with wounds to his lungs, neck and chest. In his song “Beat The Odds,” he rapped about the ordeal saying, “Grateful for the s–t I got ’cause I come from a hard life/ Demons on my mental, saw some s–t I wanna archive/ Feds lookin’ out tryna bring a n—a down/ Just thinkin’ ’bout the possibility, I frown.”
“I feel like the best I could feel,” he shares with Billboard a year after the incident. “My body works fine, my mind is in an alright place and my music is doing well. The trajectory for the next five years is only up.” Tjay also notes his appreciation for life now, after taking the little things for granted.
“I take life a little bit more seriously now. I take my career a lot more seriously now. I feel more appreciative. When I was in the hospital, I remember I woke up and couldn’t get out the bed or nothing. I had a tube in my throat and couldn’t brush my teeth. It was for days, and the amount of money I would have paid if they allowed me to brush my teeth is crazy.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Tjay shares his jubilation for his Bronx teammate and “Gangsta Boo” collaborator Ice Spice, with whom he shared the stage with at Hot 97’s Summerjam concert in June.
“It’s crazy because I was supposed to perform but missed my set,” remembers TJay. “I was late. I was like, ‘Ice. Yo bring me out.’ We had spoke about it before that. I wasn’t sure, but I wound up just doing it. It was turnt. I ain’t gon lie. It was lit.”
He adds: “It was one of those full circle moments, being that I met Ice before who she is today. To see the crowd go crazy for her for the first time in person, it was lit.”
Watch Tjay’s full interview with Billboard News.
On May 1, Ice Spice attended her first-ever Met Gala. By the end of that month, she had appeared on an even bigger public stage: as the featured artist on the remix of Taylor Swift’s “Karma,” which she live-debuted with Swift in a surprise appearance at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., the same day the track dropped. A week later, “Karma” vaulted to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, earning Ice her third top 10 on the chart and her highest-reaching hit to date.
Then, in June, Ice reconnected with her idol Nicki Minaj (they had already released the Hot 100 No. 4 hit “Princess Diana” in January) for the Aqua-sampling “Barbie World” from the Barbie movie soundtrack; the song debuted at No. 7 on the Hot 100, notching Ice her fourth top 10. Two days later, Ice honored the Bronx — the New York borough that both raised her and birthed hip-hop itself 50 years ago — at the BET Awards during her first-ever awards show performance. And in July, she played four international music festivals — Dublin’s Longitude Festival; Norway’s Stavern Festival; Les Ardentes in Liège, France; and London’s Wireless Festival, where she performed her No. 3 collaboration “Boy’s a Liar, Pt. 2” with PinkPantheress for the first time — in a single week.
“The People’s Princess,” as her legion of fans has dubbed her, is on fire. And this month, she’ll add another accolade to her fast-growing résumé, when, on Aug. 8, Billboard honors the artist born Isis Gaston as its 2023 R&B/hip-hop Rookie of the Year. “I have put in so much hard work, and it means a lot to be recognized for it and have more than just plaques to show for it,” she says.
Her litany of accomplishments may resemble the trajectory of an established superstar, but in fact Ice will receive her award just two days before the one-year anniversary of “Munch (Feelin’ U),” the breakout single that catapulted the up-and-coming MC to the upper echelons of hip-hop — and pop — royalty.
“I would always be on Google as a kid, looking up ‘how to be rich’ and ‘careers that pay the most.’ I was like, ‘OK, should I be a doctor? Or should I be a lawyer?’ I just wanted to make all the money,” she said in April, when she sat down with Billboard for a cover story. “But I did always love music. I guess it just fell into place.”
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The seeds for Ice’s career were first planted when her father, an underground rapper, schooled her on hip-hop heavyweights like Jay-Z and Wu-Tang Clan. Then, in her teens, she witnessed the late Pop Smoke shed new light on New York’s drill scene. “I guess I always knew I’d be a rapper because I was looking to be friends with producers,” Ice says of meeting RIOTUSA, who would become her go-to producer, while attending State University of New York at Purchase. In less than two years, the two developed a winning formula — Ice’s low-pitched, sharp-tongued bars brimming with idiosyncratic-yet-catchy slang paired with RIOT’s menacing drill beats softened by bubblegum-pop melodies from EDM samples — and struck gold with “Munch.”
Since then, Ice has conquered hip-hop, EDM and pop stages alike — and proved she’s no one-hit wonder. “I believe she’s able to attract different genres and crowds because of her willingness to experiment with crossover sounds and not box herself in,” says her manager, James Rosemond Jr. “Ice will always be a rapper first — however, we do want to take what she represents and what she is doing on a global level.”
Before that happens, she has a few more goals for the year — like releasing the deluxe edition of her debut EP, Like..?, which dropped July 21 — before she gets to work on her first album. “We want to build a strong foundation for her and not fly over any necessary steps that a new artist should take, nor have her quickly change her music to sound a certain way due to the big crossover success,” Rosemond says.
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Come November, Ice will open Doja Cat’s North American arena tour alongside Doechii, a support opportunity Rosemond says was “a personal request from Doja” after Ice met her earlier this year and helped by his relationship with Doja’s manager, Gordan Dillard. “Every strategic festival moment you’ve been seeing Ice billed for and doing is her getting her live-show chops up for this upcoming tour moment,” he says, also citing her “Karma” stadium performance with Swift. “Ice’s confidence has shot up even more to take on an arena tour as a supporting act.”
And as she continues strategically plotting new career milestones, Ice knows her path aligns with the trajectory of hip-hop itself. “Fifty years of hip-hop is monumental,” Ice says. “I hope to push the genre forward in whatever ways I can, but I know I’ll have a huge impact on the youngins coming up now.”
This story will appear in the Aug. 5, 2023, issue of Billboard.
It’s official: Drake’s years-long quarrel with Meek Mill is history.
The two rap stars had beef going back eight years, starting with a simple tweet: “Stop comparing Drake to me too… He don’t write his own raps!”
And on it sizzled, with Mill dishing more punishment by pointing out that Drake is “way out of it” compared with Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole.
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Other hip-hop and R&B artists piled on, including Rick Ross, Lupe Fiasco, Chris Brown and OG Maco. Lines were drawn, sides were taken. Diss tracks were released.
All of that is in the past.
While playing Wells Fargo Center in Mill’s hometown, Philadelphia, earlier in the week, Drizzy took a moment to discuss the pair’s friendly bond.
“You see who I walked out here with right?” the Toronto artist told the crowd. “I’d always keep it 100 with you. The last time I was in this building, that man right here, he’s been representing this city since he started with this s—.”
He added, “That man, me and him weren’t getting along at the time, and he is a real n—– , so he definitely got us up out of Philly real quick. We did not get to stick around and chill.”
It’s the truth, he insisted. “It means the most to me that I could come back to this city and show the growth as two men that we can come here tonight and we can represent for mother—— Philadelphia together,” he remarked, throwing verbal bouquets to his one-time nemesis and the Philly audience.
The pair did bury the hatchet some years ago, proof of which came when Mill and Drake collaborated on the track “Going Bad” from 2019, from the Philly native’s Championships album.
Now, in 2023, it would appear those old enemies have become besties.
Drake’s It’s All A Blur tour continues Thursday, Aug. 4 at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, WI. Watch a clip from Drizzy’s performance in Philadelphia below.
Weezy was ranked No. 7 on Billboard and Vibe’s 50 Greatest Rappers of All Time list.
On the heels of achieving his highest-charting unaccompanied Billboard Hot 100 hit with “F—kumean” (No. 4), Gunna has released a new music video for “Rodeo Dr.” Taken from his chart-topping A Gift & A Curse album, “Rodeo Dr” debuted and peaked at No. 42 on the Hot 100 last month on the chart dated July […]