rookie of the month
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Coco Jones is aiming to kick down doors and usher in a whole new generation of fearless Black women right alongside her.
Walking the balance beam of music and acting, Jones has emerged as as a fast-rising double threat. The vivacious soul singer is grabbing ears and stealing hearts with her R&B hits, while also appearing on Peacock’s Bel-Air as the self-assured Gen-Z version of ’90s character Hilary Banks.
After signing to Def Jam in 2022, Jones released her major label debut project, What I Didn’t Tell You. Soaked in buttery vocals and gripping tales about heartbreak, WIDTU was the perfect entrance for the former child star who had breakout roles in Disney Channel shows and films including So Random!, Good Luck Charlie and Let It Shine.
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On her debut, only does she seamlessly flip SWV’s “Rain” into the addictive “Double Back,” but she flaunts her range on the Hot 100 hit “ICU.” Laden with emotion, “ICU” deals with the push and pull of a fallen relationship and proves why Jones has the potential to be one of the genre’s strongest vocalists.
“I was used to 12-hour work days, which didn’t faze me,” says Jones. “As a kid, I was on set during school. I was always working my little butt off. This is just what I do for my dreams.” Despite being a workhorse, Jones believes she’s still a work in progress in the music department, but is willing and eager to learn more to put the next generation on.
“Every time I sing ‘ICU,’ I find a new way to make it iconic because I don’t want the next girl to struggle how I struggled to get here,” she says. “We’re all talented. It should be easier. So that’s what I gotta do. I’m gonna kill it every time so that it will be easier one day.”
Billboard caught up with June’s R&B / Hip-Hop Rookie of the Month, Coco Jones, to speak about the success of “ICU,” the best advice SZA gave her and her mission to help Black women succeed.
Thinking about your Disney origins, does the pressure ever get to you knowing that only Zendaya has made the transition to music from a Black woman standpoint?
I think it’s very difficult and there were times where I was kind of in fear, but it was more of the uncertainty of when, if and how. Sometimes, it’s just like, “How the hell am I supposed to do this?” I think it’s hard enough to rebrand anything. If Coca Cola wanted to start selling cake, I would look at them so crazy because that’s not what you told us you do. So I think for me, I was like, “Somebody’s gotta help me.” That’s what I wanted the most; somebody else who knew how to figure this rebrand out. I’ll do my part. I’ll do the writing, I’ll do the creating, find myself and be vulnerable enough to tell ’em, but somebody gotta make somebody care. I feel like that was the part that really clicked for me and everything changed when I got the right team. Also, it took time to get to that. I had several promises and only one time did they pay out the way they were told to me, you know? That’s been my entire career, though.
Talk about the freedom you were able to have on this project as a Def Jam signee versus when you were first signed after the success of your 2012 film Let It Shine.
For me, you don’t know what you’re missing until you learn about it. For me, from Tennessee, just me and my mama doing this and trying to figure it out, having any label behind me, having any team was all so amazing. I had no creative control then. I just sang what they told me to sing. I would write songs and they wouldn’t like ’em and I was like, “OK. Cool.” I didn’t know. I think I was super delusional and I was so green.
Now, having the experience of looking back at the old songs, I’m now like, “Wait. That was fire.” Then, doing the math and seeing my other peers and creatives like SZA and H.E.R. and [thinking] “I would sing a song like that. Why didn’t I do that? Wait. You can dress like that on stage? That’s allowed?” I had epiphanies as I came to have a life and have experiences. I remember even the first time I said a curse word on a song. I wrote it for someone else and then I was even scared to have my voice on the demo saying that. I had to get out of the box, because I was so deeply in this cookie cutter box.
You’ve said in a past interview that your best guide is your intuition. Did your intuition tell you that “ICU” would be your biggest hit when you were recording it?
You know what? I think it didn’t [laughs]. I didn’t know it was going to be my biggest hit. There’s this thing I would do since when I was a kid where the actual soul would come out. I used to do it all the time when I would audition. I would sing “Chain of Fools” by Aretha Franklin and I would pretend I was Aretha, like I been through the storm and this is my song. “You’re going to feel this,” but I’m nine. I don’t know anything. So I do give a lot of credit to my mom for even introducing me to that type of soul, emotion and that raw vulnerability that I learned to imitate, but I knew when I heard the track, I just knew [it was special]. I just knew I was going to do some sh-t.
You’ve also deemed this your most confident era. When did you find that sweet spot and start living life confidently?
Hmm. This was probably around the time that TikTok really popped me off again. Like the resurgence of relevancy was baffling. So I was like, “Wait a minute. These people still care? Ok. I gotta do something with this.” Like I thought I did enough. I really thought out of sight, out of mind and I don’t have no new show. I don’t have no new song. But when I told my story on the internet on YouTube, when I saw the wave of support, that didn’t go away. It kind of charged me up. Like, it would be a shame for me to not give these people that support me a reason to keep supporting me. I gotta put stuff out with my chest.
How do you balance being Hilary [on TV] and then Coco?
I think there’s no option but to do what must be done. I realized that I signed my name to both of these entities. I signed to two companies. One was NBC, Peacock and then Def Jam my second. So they both require me to get my job done, so I just do my job [laughs]. There’s no balance, though. There’s what can be done to work around the other and not like, “Ok. I have to be here. What can we do when I’m done with that? Then, I can go there.” It’s really about just figuring it out. There’s really no balance. It just depends on the schedule.
Have there been times when you caught yourself pulling from the Hilary Banks character when you’re in artist-mode?
Hilary’s a boss. I feel like she has a certain way that she sees her image, her career and trajectory, and nothing can sway her from that being what it is. I wanna tap into that more. I feel like I’m very self-assured of where I want it all to go, but I think I get stuff from Hilary because I’m still a rookie. There’s some things that I have to be educated on by people that have been here longer than me. So in one sense, I’m very decisive like Hilary, but I’m also very much more collaborative with my team.
When you get cosigns from artists like SZA and Janet Jackson, do those mean more to you than any of the love you’ve gotten from the acting side?
[Laughs] Well, because I was singing first and singing is my home, it does hit a little differently that people acknowledge who I wanna be as really good. That does hit differently. I do appreciate the love for Hilary, but at the end of the day, I’m just reading these words. But with me, this came from my heart. So to know that people are supportive of what came from my heart and literal spirit, yes, it hits very different.
SZA once told you that you needed to live life with a bit more delusion. How have you incorporated that into your everyday life?
I think just making my goals galaxy-big instead of medium-sized like they used to be. [They used to be] very logical, percentages and statistics, like, “What are the chances of…” I would really look these things up before I decided it was something I wanted, just to be safe. But that’s not the life I’m trying to live. I’m trying to live in delusion. If that’s where you want to get to, to shoot for the galaxy and at least hit the moon, then that’s how I’m gonna shoot. I think making all of my goals insanely large and not fact-based, not percentage-based, not based on my skin color or the genre [is the way to go].
You said your goal is to make a new standard for Black women. What steps are you taking to rewrite those standards?
I think showing up as the best version of me in every category. Like you said, the balance game of playing all of these roles is not easy. There are times where I feel like I could half-ass it and it would still be good, but no. I know that for where I want these next generation of Black girls to be able to walk into, I have to break those doors down and you don’t get there by just being good. You have to be jawdropping.
Before Leo Brooks and Andrew Millsaps teamed up to form the new country duo Neon Union, their careers were on decidedly contrasting paths.
Millsaps focused on writing songs and performing around his native North Carolina, at one point winning the MerleFest Chris Austin Song Contest and performing his original music during the roots music festival MerleFest.
Meanwhile, the bilingual, Miami-based Brooks spent years honing his talents playing bass on tour with Pitbull and Lauryn Hill. He also co-wrote Pitbull’s “Echa Pa’lla (Manos Pa’ribba),” which earned a Latin Grammy for best urban performance, and contributed to songs, including “Que Lo Que” (recorded by Sensato featuring Pitbull, Papayo and El Chevo) from the Grammy-winning project Dale. Along the way, he also played bass for artists including Mary J. Blige, Nas and John Legend.
But country music was a strong influence when he visited family on the Honduran island of Roatan. “The main music on the island was classic country and reggae music. My dad gave me a guitar and taught me to play George Jones and Hank Williams,” Brooks tells Billboard via Zoom.
When Pitbull realized Brooks’ own music had a country vibe, he connected him with “Freedom Is a Highway” hitmaker, songwriter and exec Jimmie Allen, who felt it was a match for Millsaps’ burly voice and energetic stage presence.
Millsaps and Brooks formed Neon Union and Allen subsequently signed them to his management and production company JAB Entertainment, which Allen launched with John Marks and Aaron Benward. They also collaborated with Allen on “Livin’ Man,” from the latter’s 2021 album Bettie James Gold Edition. In June, they inked a label deal with Red Street Records (led by Rascal Flatts member Jay DeMarcus), and landed their first entry on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart when “Bout Damn Time,” written by HARDY, Tyler Hubbard, Jordan Schmidt and Hunter Phelps, reached No. 60 on the chart.
“We want to kick the doors down and make a little noise,” Millsaps says of the song, which pays homage to the “farm tan crew” and “the ball cap boys with a six-inch lift.”
Brooks says of the song, “It represents everybody. We want everyone to be at our party.”
Neon Union is also one of a handful of multi-racial acts who have tried their luck in Nashville over the years, including duo Malchak & Rucker, who notched five songs on Billboard’s Country Songs chart in the 1980s, followed by trio The Farm with their 2011 top 20 hit “Home Sweet Home,” and more recently, the duos Exit 216 and 2 Lane Summer.
Neon Union talked to Billboard about their career journey, working together, touring with Allen — and Brooks’ impromptu wedding performance with George Strait.
Jimmie Allen brought the two of you together. What was that like?
Millsaps: I started playing in the bars during college Later, I had a job interview in Nashville and was staying at a hotel downtown. I randomly met Jimmie on an elevator at that hotel and we connected on social media. I didn’t think anything of it, but about six months later, I was playing at [Nashville music event] Whiskey Jam and saw him again. He liked my music, we exchanged numbers — and maybe two weeks later, he called and asked if I had ever thought about being in a duo, and introduced me to Leo.
Brooks: I played with Pitbull for 12 years, and was his musical director on tour, but I was the only one in the back of the bus listening to George Jones. Pitbull told Jimmie about me because I wanted to do my own thing, musically.
Millsaps: We briefly met over FaceTime. Leo flew into Nashville and we met at Jimmie’s house. Jimmie was like, “You guys have to be sure you want to do this.” We got some beers and hung out that evening and just clicked right away.
Brooks: It’s like a movie — so randomly put together, but we just get along so well.
How long after you met did you start recording together?
Millsaps: The next morning we were recording together. There were some nerves — I hadn’t even been in a full-fledged Nashville session at the time.
Brooks: I was just hoping this guy could sing. He did, and I was like, “Wow, OK.”
Millsaps: We started recording scratch vocals and cold chills just went over everybody. It sounded so good.
How did your deal with Red Street Records come about?
Millsaps: We started that day with a writing session and wound up with a record deal. We wrote a song and Leo had a flight scheduled that night. Then Aaron [Benward] called me up. He said, “Jay DeMarcus wants you to come by Red Street Records, like right now.” Leo canceled his flight and we drove over there and met in the conference room. We played like two songs and Jay said, “I want y’all to know I’ll have your record deal on the table by tomorrow.”
Brooks: Everyone over there, it’s just a great team of people.
Not only did Jimmie bring you two together to form Neon Union, but you were on his Down Home Tour last year.
Millsaps: Jimmie has been so supportive to us and getting us on that tour early. We didn’t really have any music out at the time. We got to meet a lot of folks in radio while we were on the road with Jimmie, which was great to give them that initial connection on the road — and then later as we put out this song, they remembered us.
What has being on radio tour been like for you?
Brooks: It’s a lot of travelling but we’re used to it. When I was with Pitbull, I was gone for months and home for a couple of days and then right back out. Here, we’ll travel for six days and then we’re home for a day or so. But it’s great having each other through all of it. You’re not just sitting by yourself in an airport, ever. We goof off and have fun. It is a lot of early mornings though — people will say, “See you bright and early.” Instead, we say, “See you dark and early.”
Leo, your first gig out of high school was playing with Lauryn Hill’s band. How did that happen?
Brooks: I picked up bass in high school, and I got the gig through one of my friends in Miami. He was auditioning for drums and she asked him if he knew a bass player. That’s when I came in and she loved it. I used to have a big old afro with a green bass [guitar]. The work with Pitbull came through the same drummer. I was always in New York and wanted to be closer to family in Miami, so I auditioned and met Pit and we became like brothers. I was just learning from him because Pit works hard and it’s nonstop. I would send him music for like seven years before I landed a song.
You are also bilingual. Would the two of you ever release a bilingual or Spanish-language song?
Brooks: Pitbull told me the other night, he was like, “We gotta do a song in Spanish.”
Millsaps: We also have already done another song, that we haven’t released yet, with Jimmie [Allen] and Pitbull, too, so that was sweet. You hear this country guy from Mayberry going, “Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Worldwide.” I was like, “Did I just get to say that?”
Where are you at in the album-making process?
Millsaps: We are starting to release new music by the end of March and just cut some songs with [producer] Dann Huff. We’re looking at releasing an EP this summer and hopefully a full-length in the fall. We’ve been out on the road playing so much that people are like, “Where’s your music?” We’ve got it coming.
What was the first concert you ever went to?
Millsaps: Kenny Chesney when Keith Urban was opening for him.
Brooks: Mine was No Doubt.
What did your parents do growing up?
Millsaps: My mom was a teacher and my dad owns a flooring cover store. I was third-generation coming up through a floor-covering business, and that’s what I started doing in Nashville at first. It’s still in my blood — I still look down everywhere I go. [Laughs.]
Brooks: My dad was a car painter and did body work as well, he had his own body shop. My mom was a nursing assistant.
If you could see any artist perform, who would it be?
Brooks: Metallica, for me.
Millsaps: I’ll say George Strait because I haven’t seen him in concert yet.
Brooks: I did play with him one time. There was a wedding I was doing and they were like, “George Strait is going to come here.” I was like, “Yeah, right” — but then he walks into this little party house in West Palm Beach, Florida. I was playing bass guitar and he came up and sang “Troubadour.”
Millsaps: Dang, I’m so jealous. That’s, like, one of my favorite songs.
Singer-songwriter Jordyn Shellhart’s family moved to Nashville when she was 10, dedicated to assisting the precocious musical talent pursue her dreams. Within a few short years, Shellhart’s aspirations were shifting to reality; by age 16, she had inked her first publishing and record deals and played on the Grand Ole Opry stage.
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This was the mid-2000s, at a time when another talented teen named Taylor Swift was just beginning to turn the country music scene upside down.
“It was on the heels of that phenomenon, so people were more willing to sign younger artists and I was a benefactor of that,” Shellhart recalls. However, things quickly went sideways. “I lost my voice and my record deal and had to totally regroup. I started over as a songwriter, trying to figure out what my life looked like in music without being a singer. It was pretty jarring at the time, but looking back, it was the best thing that ever happened to me.”
While working with vocal coaches to reclaim her voice, Shellhart became laser-focused on songwriting, earning her first cut at age 19 when Don Williams recorded “I Won’t Give Up on You.” More cuts followed, including “Secondhand Smoke” and “I Guess They Call It Fallin’,” both recorded by Kelsea Ballerini, “How You Love Someone,” recorded by Mickey Guyton, and “I Always Wanted To,” first recorded by Cody Johnson and later Garrett Hedlund. Along the way, she’s worked in writing rooms alongside legendary songwriters like Lori McKenna, Tom Douglas and Allen Shamblin.
Her previous cuts, plus Little Big Town earning a 2021 Grammy nomination for best country duo/group performance for the quartet’s recording of her song “Sugar Coat,” positioned Shellhart as one of country music’s most formidable new songwriters.
But Shellhart felt a yearning to be a performing artist again. Earlier this year, Shellhart, 28, released her debut Warner Music Nashville single, “Who Are You Mad At,” which she wrote with Marc Beeson and Shamblin. A full album is slated for later this year.
“It feels like returning to myself, like coming home,” Shellhart says.
Shellhart spoke with Billboard about her early career success, reclaiming her physical and artistic voice and crafting her upcoming album.
How did “Who Are You Mad At” come about?
Marc and Allen are two of my favorite songwriters, and we write quite a bit together. One day, Alan had this experience with someone that he was telling us about and I think most of us have been on the receiving end of someone’s rage, or disproportionate reaction to something that maybe we didn’t even do. I totally understood what he was going through and just started singing the chorus. It was just born out of that conversation.
This marks a homecoming of sorts for you, after going through a journey of losing — and regaining — your voice. What was that like?
It was a slow process. I was touring and performing a lot and it became difficult. I was never sure if my voice was gonna show up or not. So it was this mental anguish before I would have to sing. From there, it progressed to the point where I couldn’t talk anymore. Looking back, I feel like it was probably sort of a psychological spinout, basically just stressing myself out about it, and it made it worse. I think everyone carries stress differently — and for me, it got locked up right in my throat. It was pretty traumatic, looking back on it.
And you turned to songwriting.
It was by accident. My publisher at the time at Sea Gayle, Chris DuBois, was so supportive of me. He was like, “OK, you have nine months left in your deal, and let’s figure this out. Let’s keep trying to create.” So I started writing by myself for the first time. I learned how to write songs through co-writing at 14, while so many other people start out writing [solo] in their bedrooms. But my formative writing years were in rooms with older, superior writers. It took me losing my voice to go back to that innocence of, “What do I want to say, by myself, as a writer?”
Then you teamed with Lori McKenna and Josh Kerr to write “Sugar Coat.”
Lori was so gracious, and I don’t think Josh or I had written with her much before. I remember that first trip [to McKenna’s home near Boston], we just threw out all of these ideas and wrote two other songs, before she said, “I have this thing that I want to try to write,” and pretty much read what is the chorus of “Sugar Coat.” So we helped finish out the verses and the melody, and in the process, just got to absorb her brilliance that day.
You also wrote “I Always Wanted To” with Tom Douglas and Allen Shamblin.
That was one of the craziest co-writes for me. I got the idea for that song in the shower and just started writing the chorus, not really knowing what it was about, but knowing it was from the perspective of a guy who never did the things he wanted to do. It was my first time writing with Tom and Allen together. I shared that chorus, and Allen said he had verses he had written — and they are exactly what you hear in the song. Tom laughed and stared at us and said, “Guys, put that chorus with those verses and let’s go to lunch.” Allen didn’t have a melody with his verses, so I just sang the melody I had for the chorus around those verses and it was seamless. I’ve never had that experience before.
You have a new record deal with Warner and are returning to being a performing artist. Obviously, you are an adult now, but what else is different about being an artist this time around?
I think as a kid, I was so defined by being a singer — I had this death grip on it, because it was the only thing I felt like was worthy about me, and the only thing I had to offer anybody. So having that taken away from me, it made me reckon with my place in the world. So, for the last 13 years, I’ve been learning what it’s like to be human apart from the gifts I’ve been given. Eventually my voice came back, but it took awhile before I was brave enough to try recording again.
You started working with producer Cameron Jaymes, and you will have an album out later this year.
Cameron and I went into making this album with the lowest stakes. He was like, “Let’s just make something for you and maybe we get more co-writes out of it.” He was pulling favors with our friends who played instruments. Then Warner reached out, because they had cut a few of my songs on their artists. As soon as I started recording with Cameron, it felt like returning to myself, like returning home. I started engaging with Warner and co-chair/co-president Cris Lacy came by the studio and listened to the whole project. I felt like I was being seen and heard in such a real way. I just tried to cut songs that I knew I would feel annoyed if anyone recorded them except me.
As an artist, who would you most want to collaborate with in the future?
I would love to collaborate with SZA. I listen to her lyrics and I just feel a connection, like she speaks the same language as me a bit, and I find that inspiring. But also, just growing up listening to country music, I love storytellers in general. Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Kris Kristofferson, those are people who can just write a song and tell a story.
What was the first concert you remember seeing?
LeAnn Rimes. I saw her in California when I was like eight years old.
What is one song you wish you had written?
“Bridge Over Troubled Water.”
What are your must-haves when you are on the road?
The only thing I require before a show is hot tea or hot water and honey. That’s the only real diva thing I have at this point.
If Lola Brooke had the chance to meet one person, she’d probably pick the late legend DMX.
“DMX gives me chills,” says the Brooklyn dynamo. “I wish I had that [co-sign] so bad. One day, I hope somebody comes up to me and says, ‘You know I brought you up to X, right?’ I just pray that happens.”
Standing 5’0′ tall, the East Coast fireball has traces of her Yonkers role model embedded in her petite frame. Like X, her bark can hush any sizable threat, as previously proven on her 2021 Tri-State standout “Don’t Play With It.” The drill-centric track, featuring her Brooklyn cohort Billy B, showcases Brooke’s charisma and grit, which are essential ingredients needed to climb the hip-hop ranks in New York City. Then, the song received a boost on TikTok and attracted a whole new audience for Brooke.
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Today, she touts a fistful of co-signs from Snoop Dogg, Missy Elliott, Meek Mill, and more. Last December, Future brought out Brooke during his New Year’s Eve show at Brooklyn’s Barclay Center. Her homecoming performance went viral, and was punctuated by her electric stage presence, causing Missy Elliott to even sing her praises on Twitter. The following week, Brooke announced her deal with Arista Records in collaboration with Team Eighty Productions.
“Lola is the rare talent whose presence matches her message,” Arista Records CEO David Massey told Billboard last month. “Her music is larger-than-life, but her vision is just as powerful. We’re excited to welcome her to the Arista Records family.”
With “Don’t Play With It” now gaining chart success two years after its release (it entered the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart last month), Brooke looks to carve up her next big play and become more than New York’s latest rising star. We caught with our February Rookie of the Month to speak about her scorching rise, appreciating her co-signs and what it’ll take to crack the next level.
How did your love for poetry pivot over to you rapping?
I don’t want people to think that I was deeply into poetry. I learned that academically in school. I always had journals and diaries. When I went to school, they taught us about poetry. So I went back home and tried to fix up my journals in that format. It didn’t last too long. I went straight into [makes machine gun noises]. I went straight into that mode. [Laughs.]
You had some influences on the rap side, especially Meek, right?
Meek is the top one. Meek Mill is the one that I said to myself, “If Meek can do it, then I could do it.” The first song I heard from Meek was “Goons Gone Wild.” I remember listening to it, and I was catching the bars — because I used to listen to Lil Wayne and run his songs back, just to make sure I understood what he was saying. So when Meek had his vibe, I knew straight on from jump [what to expect]. I was a fan from there.
He used to vlog his journey and I remember when the public used to say funny stuff. When you’re a fan, you see everything. “He could rap, but can he make songs? Is he gonna last? He just a battle rapper?” And then he proved them wrong. I knew if could do it, I could do it for real.
Do you remember the first song you wrote?
Yeah, it was like a little love verse. I wrote it for a boy. It was a verse for someone.
Did they hear it?
Yeah, they heard it. I don’t remember telling them if was for them though. I just sent it.
Though people know you for your more aggressive material, I think you’re pretty versatile. Why has that been an important trait for you to have?
It’s important because it’s me. A lot of people be afraid to show their vulnerable side a lot of times, and it’s OK to show that. It’s also OK to hold your guard up too, as well. That’s just the Brooklyn in me. It’s my stomping grounds. I’m always going to hold it up — but at the same time, I do love love. I’m in a space that if you cross me, that love can turn into hate. Without love, there’s no hate. Without hate, there’s no love.
What does being a female rapper from Brooklyn with your kind of momentum mean for you right now?
It means everything. It means power and control. I’m in control of my own destiny. It’s a lot of girls like me that’s scared to come out, because they feel they’re not feminine enough — but you are enough. When I was younger, I used to feel like I wasn’t enough, but now I know that I’m enough.
That power doesn’t scare you?
It used to, but my voice is so powerful. I feel like I have no choice. This is what I’m here to do, so even if I am scared, it means that I’m normal and I’m human. It happens. Sometimes, I do get scared, but I have no choice to keep going. I have people looking up to me.
Another one of your influences, Missy Elliott, showed love on social media for your performance in Brooklyn at the Future concert. What did that mean for you?
I wanted to ask for her number, but I kept it cool though! It meant everything, because when I look at Missy, it’s not just an artist — I look at her as a creator, as a director. Everything that she did was off the grid, but it was her, and it still made sense, because she’s showcasing who she is. That right there meant a lot to me, because she’s an OG telling me that I did a great job with my stage presence. I can only imagine how many other people I touched that understand that craft of music. That meant a lot to me.
Command the audience👏🏾— Missy Elliott (@MissyElliott) January 1, 2023
Are there any other co-signs that you’re most proud of?
Snoop and Jadakiss.
That kind of validation must hit differently for you, versus praise from your peers?
It’s like a trophy. It’s like I got the Grammy before the Grammy type of thing, because they’re not just going to say they f–k with something if they really don’t. If they feel something, and they say it out loud, you’re gonna feel them. That’s just my chance to make sure the people don’t look at them crazy [for making those co-signs]. Now it’s my job to make sure what they’re saying is not a lie.
You’ve been in the studio with Conway The Machine and Juelz Santana. Do you feel the need to step your pen game up when you’re locked in working with those caliber of MCs?
My pen game is gonna be stepped up wherever, with whoever, whenever — because it’s not just about having one of the greats in the room and go crazy … whoever is in the room, [I’m gonna] go crazy. Even if I’m doing a record by myself, I do the first verse and the second verse, you better go crazy on Lola. You better be [my alter-ego Big Gator] on the second verse. That’s how I look at it. I don’t even compete with people, I compete with myself.
But at the end of the day, as a young artist, I do look for that kind of validation from the OGs — and if they’re in the room, of course I gotta make sure they know this is real. I’m already prepared, so I don’t gotta worry about that. The pen game is there now. Where the vibes at? Where the energy at?
You’ve accomplished a lot of buzz in the Tri-State. What’s the plan in becoming a mainstream superstar?
Consistency. That’s the main key. That’s the blueprint. Even if s–t wack, put it out so you know what not to do again. Put stuff out so you know what your fans like. That’s the only way you’re going to win. It’s to know the feedback from your fans.
What’s the roadmap for you knowing you’re getting these early looks, like Artists to Watch wins?
It’s self-care, and making sure that I’m healthy, so that I can keep applying pressure — because without me having a stable mentality, none of this can get done. As well as my team. They need to be mentally ready, as well as me, so that we can feed off each other and always come with strategies on how we can win.
Alana Springsteen has an old classical guitar she found in her grandfather’s garage at the age of seven to thank for her first foray into music.
“He didn’t even play guitar, but from the first second I saw it, I was drawn to it,” the Virginia native tells Billboard, calling just before heading out to perform as part of Luke Bryan’s annual Crash My Playa festival in Cancun, Mexico.
Her grandfather gifted her the guitar, on one condition. “He said I could have it if I promised to learn how to play it,” Springsteen recalls. “I begged my uncle to come over on weekends and start teaching me chords.”
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By nine she started writing songs and a year later was making trips to Nashville. By age 14, she had signed her first publishing deal. Last year, she released the two-part EP project, History of Breaking Up, via Sony Music Nashville/Columbia. Now 22, the member of CMT’s Next Women of Country Class of 2023 is gearing up to release her three-part, full-length debut album.
On March 24, she will put out the project’s first installment, the six-song Twenty Something: Messing It Up, spearheaded by fiery single, “You Don’t Deserve a Country Song.”
When she walked into the writing session with Mitchell Tenpenny, Geoff Warburton, Michael Whitworth and Will Weatherly in early 2021, Springsteen was healing from a tough romantic breakup and was intent on writing about moving on.
“You can’t really say that title without smiling,” she says. “I wasn’t in a really good place after my last relationship ended, and this guy was the same one I wrote a lot of History of Breaking Up (Part Two) about. He broke my heart and it was not a good situation, which is why It made sense to me to kick off Messing It Up with this song. It doesn’t come from a place of anger or pain, but from a place of deciding to put myself first. I realized I was giving my ex a lot of power by sitting in regret and heartbreak, so I walked into that writing session very intentionally.”
Chatting with Billboard, Springsteen discussed her upcoming project, her new song and her time in Nashville.
When you first came to Nashville, what were your first co-writing sessions like?
I first came when I was 10 and started co-writing with Sherrié Austin and Will Rambeaux. It’s so funny looking back because I’m like, “What must they have been thinking when they saw this 10-year-old walk into a room like, ‘Here’s this idea I have. Let’s write a song’?” But I never questioned it, and just knew it’s what I was born to do.
We wrote a breakup song, believe it or not. I remember they were like, ‘Have you been through a breakup?’ I drew from stories, and movies and books. Then I met people like Bart Herbison at NSAI and Tim Fink at SESAC, just early believers. That’s one thing that is so special about Nashville. People, for the most part, genuinely want to help you get connected.
What does songwriting mean to you?
That was really a big deal for me. I mean, when I found songwriting, my whole world changed. Songwriting is how I make sense of the world. It has been my therapy. All I wanted to do was be a country artist like those I grew up on, like Shania Twain, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban. I love the way country music can craft a hook and take you on this journey through song.
Mitchell Tenpenny was a co-writer on “You Don’t Deserve a Country Song.” You’ve also toured with him.
We met while writing this song and that led to a cool friendship. He’s got a few other moments on this upcoming album, which is exciting.
As a co-writer, a vocalist, or both?
I don’t want to give away too many details, but he’s definitely all over this record.
Do you already have all of the songs written for all three portions of Twenty Something?
I always leave room to change things. I write in real time, so I’m keeping room if something really special comes along, but I have pretty much the record planned out.
Last year, you released the two-part project, History of Breaking Up. Your upcoming album, Twenty Something, has three parts. What appeals to you about making these multi-part albums?
I think there’s just something really cool about creating this body of work and letting fans digest a lot of songs. Twenty Something is, as a whole, about kind of the messiness of your 20s. I’m only two years into my 20s, but I’ve already learned so much about myself and experienced so much change. I know I’m not alone in that.
When I wrote the song “Twenty Something,” I started to see that a lot of the music that I had written over the past few years fit into three separate categories. I wanted to compile them and take it step by step and take my fans along with me on this journey.
What can fans expect from the music on the upcoming portions of Twenty Something?
There are songs on here that call out my struggles, areas that I’ve messed it up, which a lot for me has been in the areas of love and relationships. It’s pretty vulnerable. But then there are moments where, if you’re lucky, you start living your purpose and start figuring things out. I think your 20s are a mixture of all of that. I hope that people can just find a little bit of themselves in this record one way or another.
What is the first concert you remember seeing?
The first concert I went to was Taylor Swift’s Speak Now Tour in Charlotte, North Carolina. I’m a huge Taylor fan. Growing up, it was like she was telling my stories. She was writing from such a young age, that encouraged me that I could do the same thing. I’ll never forget what it felt like watching her on that tour, the way she shared that moment with her fans. It was beautiful to watch and I’d never seen fans react to an artist that way.
Do you have a favorite music book or podcast?
I love the [podcast] And the Writer Is…, that one’s always really fun to listen to, to get into the mind of writers and learn tips from people that I look up to in the field. I’ve also been reading a book called 101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think. I’m making my way through it. I feel like I’ll read a paragraph and be like, “Oh, wow, I need to spend a week just sitting with that and figuring out what it means to me.” So it’s one that I pick up, whether I’m on a plane or in the van on the road. But it just gives me something to think about.
When Shane Profitt received the potentially career-elevating opportunity to have his first co-writing session with “Done” hitmaker Chris Janson last year, there was one person standing in Profitt’s way — his boss.
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Profitt’s day job at the time was bush hogging grass in the road medians for the City of Columbia, an hour outside of Nashville.
“All your buddies would be driving by, honking at you. It’s like, ‘Man, this sucks,’” Profitt tells Billboard. “But it did give me time to come up with song ideas.”
Profitt had met Janson and his family by chance a few weeks earlier at a Nashville sushi restaurant. Janson and Profitt ended up talking about music for over an hour that evening, and exchanged numbers. Janson later called Profitt early on a Wednesday morning to see if they could write together later that day.
Profitt recalls, “He said, “I know you’re a real outdoorsman, like I am. I have this song idea called ‘The Reel Bass Pro,’ and I want you to be a writer on it. Can you get off work today?’ I called my boss, and he said, ‘No way’.”
So Profitt devised a plan.
“I didn’t want to have to call one of my musical heroes back and tell him I couldn’t write a song with him, so I asked if we could write over FaceTime, and we wrote it over FaceTime on my lunch break,” Profitt says. That song, “The Reel Bass Pro,” ended up on Janson’s 2022 album All In, as did a subsequent co-write, “My American World.”
Profitt quit his day job last November and has since inked a co-label deal with BMLG Records and Janson’s Harpeth 60 Records, signed a co-publishing deal with Anthem Entertainment and Janson’s Old Tom Music Publishing, played the Grand Ole Opry, and opened tour dates for Janson. But Profitt’s blue-collar roots remain clearly evident on his debut EP Maury County Line, including his current top 30 Billboard Country Airplay song “How It Oughta Be.”
Billboard caught up with Profitt to discuss his rapid journey from cutting grass to cutting hit songs.
In a year, you’ve gone from working a day job to signing publishing and label deals, touring with Chris Janson and having a song rising on country radio.
It’s been crazy. When I quit my old job, at the time I had only ever been to four states. Now, a year later with the Chris tour and radio tours and everything, I’m up to 44 states.
You are just getting your big break, but you’ve played music since you were a kid.
I played banjo a bit when I was about eight years old, and later dobro. My parents were part of a bluegrass band. I picked up guitar when I was 18; my granddad taught me some basic chords and from there, I started watching YouTube videos to learn how to play different songs. Maybe a year or so later, I started trying to write songs.
You wrote “The Reel Bass Pro” with Chris Janson, who is also signed with Big Machine. How did that lead to your publishing and label deals?
About a week after we wrote “The Reel Bass Pro,” I went deer hunting with Chris and his son and when we got back, we wrote another “My American World,” in person, this time. He’s got a guitar in just about every room in his house and we wrote that song in about 30 minutes. After that, he offered the publishing deal and asked me to open shows on his Halfway to Crazy tour. When I opened for Chris at the Ryman Auditorium, [Big Machine Label Group founder/president/CEO] Scott Borchetta came backstage and offered me a label deal.
“How It Oughta Be” is a rising hit. From the lyrics, it seems family is super important to you.
My parents have been so supportive of anything I’ve wanted to do. My mom would cook supper every night when I was growing up and my parents thought it was important that we sit at the table every night and spend that time together. I feel like if everybody in today’s world had more of that family life going on, the world wouldn’t be quite so crazy. I have an older sister and she’s about to have a baby. It’s my parents’ first grandchild, so they are excited. We’re all excited. It’s a boy, Luke, and my present to him will be a lifetime hunting and fishing license here in Tennessee.
You wrote every song on your EP. Who else would you love to write songs with?
My dream co-writer would be Hank Williams, Jr., and I wish I could have written a song with Waylon Jennings, Keith Whitley or Merle Haggard.
If you could see anybody, living or dead, in concert, who would it be?
Merle Haggard, hands down. “Misery and Gin” is probably my favorite song in the whole world.
What TV show or movie could you watch repeatedly and still enjoy?
O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Walk the Line. Absolutely love both of those.
Favorite music-related book or podcast?
I don’t really listen to many podcasts or anything, but I was on the [Bobby Bones’] BobbyCast, and I’ve listened to it. I love that it is longer and it gives him more time to delve deeper into things.
What else is on your bucket list?
Just to grow as an artist and to grow my fanbase. “How It Oughta Be” is getting heard in so many places. I was in the Baltimore airport the other day, and someone came up to me and asked for my picture. That just made my day.
What is your favorite story of meeting a fan?
I got to go to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital a few months ago and I met some of the patients. Just seeing the smiles on their faces. They are real survivors and a few of them were talking about how they loved “How It Oughta Be.” That in itself — there were some tears shed, for sure. Just getting to talk with them and their families, and help take their minds off what they are going through for a little bit. I’d say that has been the highlight of my career, because the ultimate goal as an artist and songwriter is for people to use music as therapy.
Thanks to her viral hit “Tennessee Orange,” Megan Moroney’s career is red-hot.
The Douglasville, Georgia, native recently inked a hybrid label deal with Sony Music Nashville and New York-based Columbia Records as SMN sends “Tennessee Orange” to country radio where it debuted at No. 60 for Billboard’s Country Airplay chart dated Dec. 3.
The heartfelt ballad, about being so smitten with someone that you’re willing to temporarily trade her University of Georgia red and black hues for their beloved University of Tennessee orange, broke onto the Billboard Hot 100 in October. “Tennessee Orange” sits at No. 21 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, while Moroney is at No. 13 on Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart. According to Luminate, the song has earned 52.5 million on-demand official U.S. streams.
Of her Sony Music Nashville/Columbia Records deal, Moroney tells Billboard, “I felt like they most understood what I’ve been doing. They don’t want to change me at all. My goal is to stay country. We brought in Columbia because my lyrics feel cultural — I’m not necessarily singing about trucks and beer and stuff like that. I noticed in my messages and comments, so many people are like, ‘I don’t like country music, but I love your songs.’ I wanted a team that can get this music out to a bigger audience, so that’s why I felt we needed the Columbia team, too.”
Moroney grew up in a musical family, taking piano lessons and singing with her dad. However, she “never really thought of music as a career,” and initially studied accounting at the University of Georgia, before transitioning to marketing and music business. She was in college when she began writing music and quickly integrated herself into the Music City co-writing scene once she moved to Nashville in 2020.
Moroney spoke with Billboard about crafting “Tennessee Orange,” working with Sugarland’s Kristian Bush (who produced “Tennessee Orange”), and her dream collaborations.
What do you recall about writing your first song?
I had the opportunity to open a show for Chase Rice at the Georgia Theatre and he told me I needed an original song to do the show. So I wrote my first song at 19, called “Stay a Memory,” to be able to do that—it was my first real gig. I didn’t grow up dreaming of being a music artist. As a little girl, I did music for fun, but I never would’ve thought that songwriting and being an artist could be a career.
You graduated from UGA and moved to Nashville in mid-2020. What was that like trying to break into the industry during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic?
I moved here and was trying to meet people and network, but it was hard because everything was closed. At UGA, because I had been in the music business program, I was Kristian Bush’s intern in Atlanta, and we kept in touch after I graduated. I had been in Nashville about three months, and Kristian was asking how it was going and I was like, “Well, I’ve met friends, but not really any co-writers.” So he offered to help me record some demos of songs I had written.
When you were an intern, did Kristian know you were also an aspiring artist?
I didn’t really bring it up, that I was trying to do the whole music thing — because the first time I walked into their studio, there were a bunch of CMA awards and Grammys on the wall. I was like, “I’m keeping my mouth shut. I’ve written like three decent songs in my life, so I’m not gonna sit here and tell them that I’m an aspiring artist.”
You are managed by Juli Griffith at Punch Bowl Entertainment. How did you two get connected?
Kristian introduced me and Juli was a publisher in Nashville for a long time. She connected me with Ben Williams and that was my first co-writing session ever, on Zoom. He wrote like half my EP [Pistol Made of Roses, released in July].
Before you released the EP, you’d released a song called “Wonder.” How did that shape you as a songwriter?
I wrote that completely by myself, and it was one of the songs I demoed with Kristian. I was at the beach with my friend Natalie and she was arguing with this guy and was upset about it. I told her, “If he loved you and cared about you, you wouldn’t be wondering if he did.” I had a couple of drinks in me and just started rhyming s–t. We had a house full of people we went to the beach with and I played it for them and they were like, “How did you do that?” I think that was the first song that I wrote where I thought, “There is something here.”
You wrote “Tennessee Orange” with Ben, David Fanning and Paul Jenkins. What do you recall about the writing session?
Ben is my go-to writer, and I had not met David or Paul before. I woke up that morning and had the hook of “In Georgia they’d call it a sin/ I’m wearing Tennessee orange for him.” I felt like it was risky taking that idea for a song in, because I didn’t know two of the other writers, and I didn’t know if they even cared about football. But it was a great writing session, and I just became obsessed with getting the song right.
I went home and kept chipping away at it for a couple more hours and then I sent them the changed version — just changing things like [how] the line about “You raised me to know right from wrong” was in the second verse originally, but I felt like we needed that [in the first verse] to make the storyline — you have no idea what I am going to say until the hook, and the verse builds up that mystery.
What has the reaction been like when you play “Tennessee Orange” in Georgia?
I had two shows in Athens in November, and was so nervous to play it — but the crowds sing it really loud anyway. I played the Georgia Theatre this past week, and it was the loudest I’ve heard a room of people sing it. They are so supportive, which I am grateful for. I have a show in Knoxville this spring, and I’m sure it will go over really great there.
You are working on a full album. Where are you in the process?
We haven’t gotten into the studio yet, but it’s completely written. The songs are all very me. I don’t like cutting songs that I could just pitch to any female country artist. They all have to be very personal to me.
Who are some of the co-writers on the project?
Ben is on a lot of the songs, but also David Messy [Mescon]. And there’s a song I wrote called “Girl in the Mirror” with Jessie Jo Dillon and Matt Jenkins, and it’s so freakin’ good.
Who would some of your dream duet collaborators be?
Chris Stapleton and Miranda Lambert are at the top for me. I’ve been a fan of both of them for so long. I’m also obsessed with Justin Bieber, so that would be fun.
You moved to Nashville when artists were off the road. Now that you are able to get out and tour, what are some of your on-the-road essentials?
Advil and Red Bull [laughs]. I drink probably two Red Bulls a day when I’m on the road. I have to have my Airpods for sure, and all of my flashy boots.