R&B/Hip-Hop
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We’re well into May, and the summer heat just keeps coming. From electronic and house-tinged cuts by Overmono and Emotional Oranges to irresistible rap songs by way of Monaleo and Jermtown, we’ve got everything you need to start off the warmer months right with indie and emerging artists from across the globe.
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Check out our Spotify playlist that includes all our fresh picks from this month, and don’t forget to share the wealth.
Freshest Find: Victoria Monét feat. Buju Banton, “Party Girls”
Victoria Monét is on a roll. The cult-favorite singer joined forces with dancehall mainstay Buju Banton on a single that packs more than enough heat for a summer filled with nights out. The multi-hyphenate flaunts her plethora of talents, unfurling routines of hypnotic moves from scene to scene in the visual dedicated to the “party girls lightin’ up the world.”
Overmono, “Cold Blooded”
If electronic music isn’t really your speed, Overmono is here to ease you in. On “Cold Blooded,” the UK duo builds on an Afrobeats-esque drum pattern and R&B melodies, combined with gritty synths and a classically electronic instrumental bridge with chopped and filtered vocals.
Jermtown feat. FELIX!, “2002”
Michigan’s Jermtown comes together with Massachusetts rapper FELIX! on the carefree “2002.” The Sara Kawai and Ayeitsnate-produced beat carries Detroit sensibilities while the two rappers do their part by staying true to the city’s laidback cadence. In a black and white video reminiscent of Pusha T and Kanye West’s “Diet Coke” the up-and-coming pair stroll around a white-washed studio firing off punch-line filled verses.
Emotional Oranges feat. Nonso Amadi, “Not Worthy”
“I’m the reason we fell through,” declares “A.” of Emotional Oranges on the opening line of “Not Worthy.” The beautifully self-depricating cut is a series of admissions set to a smooth house-infused instrumental as “V.” delivers a string of harmonies throughout the three-minute cut.
Obongjayar, “Just Cool”
Wanna feel cool? Obongjayar has the perfect thing. This groovy cut is perfect for that iconic movie scene where the awkward teen protagonist embraces their true self, as the London-based artist declares, “Do what you want/Just leave me be/Do what you want/Just give me peace.”
Aaron May, “Stay Humble”
It’s May season, both literally and figuratively as Houston artist Aaron May has returned with his new single “Stay Humble.” The boom-bap rap song finds the rapper spitting about hustling and grinding his way to success. “Stay Humble” is the first glimpse into May’s upcoming project which is slated to release later this year.
Josh Levi, “Birthday Dance”
Josh Levi will bust a move at any given time. On his new single “Birthday Dance,” the singer slows it down, urging his lover to dance for him. The song is an addition to his 2022 EP Disc Two.
DD Osama, “Better Days”
Channeling Y2K romantic rap by way of warm guitar chords, NYC drill rapper DD Osama delivers a tender moment on his debut project, Here To Stay. The 16-year-old artist taps into his poetic side, showing a knack for introspection far beyond his age.
Monaleo, “A– Kickin’”
Despite announcing her pregnancy last month, Monaleo is showing no signs of slowing down. “Monaleo, big bully/taking names, a– kickin’,” she raps. The track will appear on her upcoming album Where the Flowers Don’t Die.
Bandmanrill, “Mr. D.C.T.”
Bandmanrill adds a Jersey Club spin to Crystal Waters’s 1991 track “Gypsy Woman.” The Newark native has been a rising voice and is helping bring the genre into the mainstream with his youthful energy and uptempo tracks.
Slowthai appeared in court Tuesday (May 16) on two charges of rape and took to Instagram after the court appearance to deny the allegations. “Regarding the allegations being reported about me. I categorically deny the charges,” the 28-year-old British rapper wrote in a statement posted to Instagram. “I am innocent and I am confident my […]
In the midst of kicking off her Renaissance World Tour, Beyoncé surprised fans by teasing a new project that’s all about hair on Tuesday (May 16). “How many of y’all knew my first job was sweeping hair in my mama’s salon?” the superstar asked in a sweet Instagram post featuring a vintage photo of her […]
Daniel Caesar’s 2023 album cut “Vince Van Gogh” works its way to No. 1 on Billboard’s May 20-dated Hot Trending Songs chart after BTS member V played the song in a recent Instagram Story update. Billboard’s Hot Trending charts, powered by Twitter, track global music-related trends and conversations in real-time across Twitter, viewable over either […]
After doling out his triumphant anthem “All My Life” with J. Cole last week, Lil Durk is not only marching toward the release date for his upcoming album Almost Healed, but now, a 27-city tour. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Titled Sorry for the Drought Tour, Lil Durk […]
Nick Cannon had a lot to celebrate this year for Mother’s Day — so much so that he got a few important cards mixed up in the mail.
“I tried my best, I really did,” the media personality said on the Monday (May 15) episode of his new radio show The Daily Cannon, adding that, instead of buying fancy gifts, he decided to send the six mothers of his 12 children thoughtful, handwritten cards.
“To show people how you really feel, write it down. And I was doing handwritten messages from the heart,” he continued. “So then as I’m writing the handwritten message, I get the cards mixed up. And then so when one baby mama reads the card about how I feel about the other baby mama…”
Cannon didn’t clarify which of the mothers — including ex-wife Mariah Carey as well as DJ Abby De La Rosa, Brittany Bell, Selling Sunset star Bre Tiesi, Alyssa Scott and LaNisha Cole — got the wrong card, he did posit, in retrospect, a simple solution: “See if I would just got some generic s–t that everybody else got, that wouldn’t have happened.”
To make matters even more awkward, De La Rosa serves as one of the co-hosts on The Daily Cannon. She didn’t seem all that bothered during the conversation about Cannon’s Mother’s Day gaffe, but one follower wrote in the comments section, “The absolute crazy thing is he’s talking to a baby mama about it…and she’s sitting there smiling like she’s not hurt” and another commented, “Whyyyyy Abby acting like she not 1 of them who got a mixed up card.”
Other followers weren’t shy about sharing their opinions on the mix-up, either. One wrote, “I [used] to like nick but this is so cringy” while a second added, “I have so many negative thoughts about Nick after hearing this. I’m going to keep them to myself and just move on. Smdh.”
Earlier this month, Cannon utilized a profile in the Los Angeles Times to combat the idea that he’s a “deadbeat dad” to his brood of a dozen, even going as far as to publicly reveal his salary.
Watch Cannon explain how his Mother’s Day plan went awry below.
Doechii makes her Billboard Hot 100 debut as her new collaboration with Kodak Black, “What It Is (Block Boy),” enters at No. 98 on the latest, May 20-dated chart.
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The song, released March 17 via Top Dawg Entertainment/Capitol Records, debuts with 12.3 million radio airplay audience impressions (up 11%), 3.5 million official streams (up 14%) and 1,000 downloads sold in the United States in the May 5-11 tracking week, according to Luminate. It also holds at its No. 11 high on Hot R&B Songs and rises 31-29 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.
Radio-wise, the track rises 12-10 on Rhythmic Airplay — becoming Doechii’s first top 10 on a Billboard airplay chart — as well as 25-22 on Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay and 26-25 on R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay.
The song is available via six versions: original, sped-up and slowed-down versions with Kodak Black, and original-speed, sped-up and slowed-down ones without the rapper.
Notably, the track samples TLC’s classic “No Scrubs,” which crowned the Hot 100 for four weeks in 1999.
TikTok has been instrumental in the song’s growing profile, as a portion of Doechii’s solo version has been used in over 138,000 clips on the platform to-date. (TikTok itself does not contribute directly to Billboard’s charts.)
Doechii (real name Jaylah Ji’mya Hickmon), 24, scored her first chart entry in March 2022, when “Trampoline” with David Guetta, AfroJack, Missy Elliott and BIA reached No. 26 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs. Her team-up with SZA, “Persuasive,” reached No. 33 on Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay in October. The latter is from her EP She / Her / Black Bitch, which hit No. 23 on the Heatseekers Albums chart last August.
The Tampa, Fla., native has released four EPs: Coven Music Session, Vol. 1, in 2019, Oh the Places You’ll Go (2020), Bra-Less (2021) and She / Her / Black Bitch. Along with Kodak Black and SZA, she has collaborated with Babyface, Ravyn Lenae, Isaiah Rashad and Smino, among others.
On March 1, Doechii was honored as Billboard’s 2023 Women in Music Rising Star, at the YouTube Theater in Los Angeles. Her mother, Celesia Moore, presented the award, and Doechii performed “Persuasive” as well as her track “Crazy” at the ceremony.
Doechii signed to Top Dawg in March 2022, becoming the label’s first female rapper. This February, she told Billboard that 2023 is going to be her biggest year yet. “I’m in year three of my five-year plan,” she mused. “By year five I want to be at my peak. I want to be in my Sasha Fierce era, the top of my game with still a long way to go — but I want to reach my prime and never leave it.”
Despite what appears to be the kind of supreme self-confidence that has taken him to the top of the charts, as well as the 2021 Super Bowl halftime show and, soon, his acting debut in the HBO series The Idol, The Weeknd (who now goes by his birth name, Abel Tesfaye), still assumes his next project could be a total failure.
“I thought ‘Blinding Lights’ was gonna be a flop,” he told Vanity Fair in a new profile that chronicles both the stratospheric highs — such as his the $69 million L.A. mansion he barely lived in — and his ever-present lows, like when he was sure the propulsive Max Martin/Oscar Holter single from his diamond-selling 2020 After Hours album would tank.
Instead, a combination of the song’s grabby hook and a silly TikTok dance challenge pushed the song into Billboard chart history after it spent four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and then logged the most weeks in the top five and top 10 on its way to being the charts No. 1 song of all-time.
At best, Abel figured the song would be a good way for younger fans to dive deeper into his turbulent earlier catalog. “It’s a new generation of angsty teens discovering all the dark music like when I was 14. Kurt Cobain, Wu-Tang, and all these songs that as a kid I probably shouldn’t be listening to, and 50 Cent,” he said. “This f–king dark and amazing escape.”
Even as The Weeknd’s songs have trafficked in endless tales of an easily bruised heart and what sounds like a sure-footedness on stage and in the studio, the singer told the magazine that when it comes to believing in his talents he learned a crucial lesson early on.
“I’ve always had to bet on myself. Even before I was The Weeknd, just in life,” he said. “As soon as I got out of my mother’s womb, it’s been, ‘Bet on yourself. It’s not gonna be easy, you know?’ And I’m fine with that.” That said, this new phase of his career, which he just announced will be conducted under his birth name, is definitely “nerve-racking.”
And, despite his many successes, his firm spot in the pop universe as an instantly recognizable one-named superstar and the Dawn FM album’s narrative arc that bloodily sent up the very notion of global superstardom, Tesfaye seems still not totally ready to fully embrace his spot in the pop firmament. “I don’t blame people,” he said when talk turned to comparisons to other icons. “Because if I was them, I’d be betting on Beyoncé too. I’m not gonna bet on me.”
Check out the VF cover below.
New York City-based drill rapper Lil Mabu is officially a Billboard Hot 100-charting artist, as the newcomer scores his first career entry with “Mathematical Disrespect.” Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The song, released May 4, debuts at No. 90 with 7.2 million official streams in the […]
Kali scores her first appearance on the Billboard Hot 100 (dated May 20) thanks to her single “Area Codes.” The song launches at No. 54, as the chart’s Hot Shot Debut — the week’s highest new entry. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The song, released March […]