State Champ Radio SXSW
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On June 29, 2012, Nick Miller regained consciousness in a Boulder, Colo., hospital room. The day before, he’d overdosed on heroin, the final act of a 10-day drug binge. Coming to, he saw his mother and the sadness in her eyes. He was 21 years old and had been sober for 15 months after time in […]
The SXSW festival issued a statement on Tuesday morning (March 12) about a deadly incident that took place earlier in the day in downtown Austin on the first night of this year’s annual gathering of bands and music industry folks. “We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of an individual in downtown Austin […]
It’s the tattoos that really make Christian Nodal stick out like a sore thumb. With his inked-up body — and face — he looks more like a rapper or rock star than the exploding regional Mexican artist he is.
“I didn’t want to be anyone’s shadow,” Nodal declares. “I felt that the genre was stigmatized under all these stereotypes, and I wanted to break all of that because I was unsatisfied to see that our genre wasn’t going far enough.”
Since launching his career in 2017, Nodal, now 25, has made a name for himself (sometimes with sharp elbows) as a maverick in a genre long bound by tradition. From the time he started at age 18, he has revolutionized regional Mexican music by pioneering mariacheño, a subgenre fusing mariachi’s strings and horns with the norteño accordion.
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“I didn’t want to disrespect anyone, much less the mentality of some of these [regional Mexican] legends who think the genre should sound and look a very specific way,” he explains. “But that wasn’t me. I didn’t feel part of it. I wanted to make it my own.”
Christian Nodal plays Billboard Presents THE STAGE at SXSW on March 15. Get your tickets here.
When we meet in mid-December at Lienzo Zermeño — where charreadas, or Mexican rodeos, take place in the middle of Jalisco’s bustling city of Guadalajara — Nodal beams with pride as he recounts the arc he has followed to become one of Latin music’s biggest stars in a few short years. He may look like a malote (bad guy) — he jokes about the role he would probably get cast for in a movie because of his tattoos — but he’s far from it, offering friendly hellos to the ranch’s workers and flashing a shy smile to the bystanders who recognize him but are too timid to introduce themselves.
Nodal’s entry into the regional Mexican world was a bit less genteel. When he started his career, the music’s leaders were purists who leaned heavily on the traditional sound that had worked for them — and for the genre that has been around for more than a century. That left little room for experimentation, and some in the industry initially balked at Nodal’s unorthodox approach. “I think the first year they saw me as the new kid, but by my second year, I don’t think they liked that I was still around. I saw a face of the regional Mexican that was quite raw, real and ugly,” Nodal says. “I was disappointed and thought, ‘OK, we probably won’t be creating a bond, much less collaborating. Fine. I’m going this way and [making] regional music bigger.’ ”
To that end, Nodal has collaborated with artists well beyond regional Mexican, including Romeo Santos, Kany García, David Bisbal, Sebastián Yatra and Maná — but without sacrificing his mariacheño style. (His few collaborations with regional acts include Alejandro Fernández, Banda MS and Ángela Aguilar.) He has also sought out new songwriting voices, including the Grammy Award-nominated Edgar Barrera, who co-wrote some of Nodal’s biggest hits.
That willingness to challenge genre norms propelled the mariacheño singer — whose urban cowboy aesthetic incorporates leather vests, diamond necklaces, statement earrings and heavy rings on his fingers — to a remarkable year both professionally and personally in 2023. In December, he wrapped his Foraji2 Tour, a 31-date arena run produced by Cárdenas Marketing Network that kicked off in August and followed his 22-date 2022 Forajido tour. He won his sixth Latin Grammy Award (best ranchero/mariachi album) for Forajido EP2, and he scored his 15th No. 1 on the Regional Mexican Airplay chart — a record for a solo artist since the list launched in 1994 — with that set’s “Un Cumbión Dolido.” And he became a father when he and his partner, Argentine rapper-singer Cazzu, welcomed a baby girl in September.
“I remember those times when I would come down from the stage and feel alone,” says Nodal, who now lives in Argentina with Cazzu and their daughter. “Now I come down to a stroller with my baby in it, and it all seems perfect. She has already been on tour with us, and I thought it would be hard, but she’s a rock star,” he says, getting choked up. “When she was born, I was feeling exhausted. I don’t know how I managed to change diapers, but she gives me energy, motivation and strength.”
Dolce & Gabbana shirt, Chrome Hearts vest, belt and jewelry, and Braggao and John Varvatos jewelry.
Lisette Poole
A lot has changed — not just in his personal life, but in the broader Latin music landscape — since Nodal released his first single, the achingly beautiful “Adiós Amor,” in 2017. Powered by wailing trumpets, a stirring accordion and Nodal’s strikingly mature and evocative baritone, the song quickly established him as one of the great vocalists in the genre. It earned him his first Regional Mexican Airplay No. 1 and spent seven weeks atop the chart. “When working with Christian, these two things are always present: He’s like an artist from another planet when making music, and [he sings] it in a spectacular way,” says Afo Verde, chairman/CEO of Sony Music Latin-Iberia, which signed Nodal in early 2022.
Now, thanks to the doors Nodal has opened in just a few short years and the sound he pioneered, regional Mexican is dominating the Latin charts, and a new crop of artists — who sing corridos tumbados, tumbados románticos, sad sierreño, or whatever the latest iteration of the genre is, and are keen to collaborate — has taken the lead, helping globalize the music that, while a backbone of Latin, was long considered meant for a niche audience. But none of those performers have dominated quite like Nodal — and he has done it on his own terms.
“Everything can coexist,” he says. “I enjoy fusing sounds, but I don’t run toward something just because it’s working [for others]. I’m very careful not to deviate from my purpose. I still need to feel proud of what I do.”
Born in Sonora, a northern Mexican state that borders Arizona, and later raised in Guadalajara and Ensenada, Baja California, Nodal grew up in a musical household, listening to pop, rock, rap, bachata and more. But he also developed a great respect for regional Mexican — it “practically fed us,” he says — from an early age. He loved to watch his grandfather play the trumpet: “I think before I wanted to be a singer, my goal was to be a trumpeter like Arturo Sandoval.” His father and manager, Jaime González, who has also played the instrument since childhood, is an industry veteran who managed late sierreño singer Ariel Camacho, a major inspiration to Nodal. Today, González’s record label/management company JG Music includes Nodal, Los Plebes del Rancho de Ariel Camacho and Los Elementos de Culiacán. González met Nodal’s mother, Cristy Nodal, while they were in the same musical group, in which she sang lead.
“We’ve been musicians all our lives,” González says. “From a very young age we instilled music in all our children, but more as a hobby or tool to help them with their emotions. Not so much as a business, because we have been doing this for a long time and it is not easy.” But Nodal wanted to sing, so his mother, a longtime mariachi singer, taught him. “They were committed,” González remembers. “At first, I didn’t want to get on board because I didn’t have the time and I didn’t want this complicated career for him because he’s very sensitive. But when I would come back from tours with Ariel, Christian and his mom had several songs already written, and I said, ‘OK, fine. I’ll produce an album for you.’ ”
AMIRI shirt, Alessandro Vasini jeans, Chrome Hearts, and Braggao and John Varvatos jewelry.
Lisette Poole
That first unofficial album included a cover of “Adiós Amor,” a song previously recorded by Los Dareyes de la Sierra. His mother wanted him to record it in mariachi style, but “I really thought of mariachi as music for older men,” Nodal says. He honored her wish, but at Nodal’s request, his father added the norteño accordion — to represent his “esencia sonorense” (Sonora essence) — along with banda-style trumpets and subtle violins.
“People responded really well to it on social media,” González remembers. “It’s as if the world had been waiting for Nodal.”
When “Adiós Amor” went viral, Nodal’s team comprised Cristy, then his de facto manager, and González, who was his producer. “I remember I would see cars pass by [in Ensenada] blasting the cover I had uploaded to Facebook,” he says, laughing. But then he noticed a problem: No one knew he was the one singing the song. “I think people expected it to be an older man, and it was funny when I would be at clubs in Guadalajara and they’d play my song and I would be like, ‘Hey, that’s me,’ ” he says. “They could identify the song but not the face, and I wanted that to change. It was something that kept me up at night.”
Nodal needed support — and it came by way of Universal Music Latino/Fonovisa, which signed him in 2017 after “Adiós Amor” caught the labels’ attention. By that August, he had released his official debut album, Me Dejé Llevar, which peaked at No. 2 on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums list, his highest ranking on that chart. But after releasing two more studio albums between 2019 and 2021 under Universal, a feud with the label turned public when Nodal took to Instagram Live to reveal he would not be renewing his contract; shortly after, in early 2022, Nodal signed with Sony Music Latin in a partnership with Sony Music Mexico. “When you’re young and you don’t know about these things, you do what you have to do to achieve your dreams,” says Nodal, who won’t share much more about the conflict. “If nothing goes wrong in your life, then you don’t learn.”
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When Nodal met for the first time with Verde and his Sony colleagues Alex Gallardo (president of Sony Music U.S. Latin) and Roberto López (president of Sony Music Mexico), he made his expectations clear. “I told them that I want to have the freedom to work with any artist from any label, that I want freedom to decide when I’m going to release my albums and that I want to own my albums after a certain amount of time,” he recalls. “Afo, Alex and Roberto are people that I love very much, and they have shown me the good side of the industry. They are putting their life, their faith, their effort into the growth of an artist.”
“What helped us to build trust with Christian and a great team was that from the beginning we had great chemistry,” Gallardo says. “We knew how to listen to his needs and concerns, and we worked to provide him with as much support as possible and put at his disposal a team that would work for him and help him achieve his goals.”
For Sony, Nodal was a valuable roster addition — an “ambassador of Mexican music to the world … responsible for spreading the love for Mexican music to new generations in many countries,” as López puts it. He was also already an established star. His 2022 Forajido tour grossed $14.5 million and sold 147,000 tickets from 22 shows, according to Billboard Boxscore, and in 2023, he grossed $21.6 million and sold 259,000 tickets. Under Sony’s supervision, his star has only continued to rise. Nodal’s albums have earned a combined 2.2 million equivalent album units, according to Luminate, and he has 3.2 billion on-demand official streams in the United States. He has also placed 20 entries on Hot Latin Songs; five of them hit the top 10, including the No. 3 debut and peak of “Botella Tras Botella,” with Mexican rapper Gera MX in 2021. The pair’s norteño-tinged, hip-hop-infused track became the first regional Mexican song to enter the Billboard Hot 100 in the chart’s then 63-year history. (Today, more than 30 songs have reached the chart.)
“Christian was more ready for this moment than I was,” Gera MX says. “When we saw the song was blowing up, we called each other constantly. I asked him if this was normal, and he told me, ‘Guey, esto es único. [Dude, this is unique.]’ It had never happened before, much less with a mix of urban and regional. It was like riding the highest roller coaster of my life with one of my best friends.” They recorded the song at one of their carne asadas (cookouts) during the pandemic, when both were living in the same residential community in Guadalajara; Nodal would bike over to Gera MX’s house. “When we first met, I was surprised at how much he knew about rap,” Gera MX says. “He is an artist in constant evolution.”
Lisette Poole
González had been more skeptical of the collaboration. “He was like, ‘No, how are you going to do that? People are going to get angry,’ ” Nodal recalls. “And I told him, ‘Listen to me: This is what we’re going to start seeing in the genre.’ ”
Nodal followed his hunch — after all, it wasn’t the first time he and his father had disagreed. “If I’ve been doing this for six or seven years, it probably took us five to create a healthy relationship between us,” Nodal says. “I would go one way, and he would go another way. I didn’t want to do what he wanted me to do. I wanted to be me. It took many years to fully understand and respect each other, and it had nothing to do with our father-son relationship. Now we are completely aligned when it comes to the business of my career.”
In October, Nodal asked friends back in Guadalajara to get him three string instruments: a tololoche, a docerola and a requinto. “It got in my head that I wanted to do a corrido tumbado,” Nodal says in early February. “I fell in love with the genre. The good thing is that my neighbors in Guadalajara didn’t complain, because the tololoche is a very noisy instrument and my apartment is not very big.” After hearing the demo, Nodal thought Peso Pluma would be a great addition. So, over FaceTime, he asked the corridos singer to meet up — which they did at one of Peso’s Anaheim, Calif., concerts in December, where they agreed to collaborate. “Hassan [Peso’s real name] has a respect for me and my career, and we had great conversations.” Nodal says. “The chemistry was there.”
The resulting team-up, “La Intención,” is both a sign of the times — younger regional Mexican artists now understand that working together only strengthens the genre — and of what has given Nodal’s own career longevity. His adaptability has not only allowed him to move among styles (like pop, cumbia and urban) with ease, but also to transcend generations and remain a constant in an ever-expanding genre that in the years since his career began has become a global movement. “When I started this career I felt a big responsibility, and I still feel it today,” he says. “Not everyone agreed with everything I did early on, but now I feel that my career is projected onto the musical criteria of young artists who dare to do things differently without being afraid.”
At 25 years old, he may be the relative elder statesman of the new (and very young) generation of regional Mexican artists, but Nodal is just as fired up as when he started. “A lot of the dreams I had, I already accomplished, but I’m enjoying whatever comes. I don’t worry about the person I have to be in the genre; the most beautiful thing is to flow with what is happening because the genre will always be there. I’ll just keep releasing music from my heart [and] enjoy the process and what my fans have given me.”
Lisette Poole
Nodal is on a monthslong break through May, which, for him, feels like uncharted territory: He hasn’t taken any real time off since his career started seven years ago. “COVID didn’t count as a vacation, right?” he jokes. “I don’t know myself in vacation mode,” he adds with a nervous chuckle, as if coming to the realization as he says it out loud.
Today, “vacation mode” Nodal sounds blissful yet invigorated. Later this year, he says he’ll release Pa’l Cora, the album of his dreams, which will include a recording session in France with his mariacheño band in tow. The making of it, along with planning and embarking on a tour with stops in countries like the United Kingdom and Switzerland — a major milestone for an artist in a genre that typically doesn’t book European shows outside of Spain — will be captured in a behind-the-scenes documentary.
These shows, and this album, were for a long time simply dreams for Nodal. “I was constantly pressured to keep moving,” he says. Now, from his home base in Argentina, he’s able to lead a more balanced life, one in which peace and moments of inspiration aren’t mutually exclusive. “I don’t think my life has changed because of where I live but because of how I am living my life,” he reflects, sounding wise beyond his 25 years. “I think this time away from being up and down, connecting with what I love has made me realize how lucky I am. I am at my best stage in every way, in all aspects. There is a light in my life that no one can take away.”
This story originally appeared in the March 9, 2024, issue of Billboard.
It’s the tattoos that really make Christian Nodal stick out like a sore thumb. With his inked-up body — and face — he looks more like a rapper or rock star than the exploding regional Mexican artist he is. “I didn’t want to be anyone’s shadow,” Nodal declares. “I felt that the genre was stigmatized […]
Good! Lovin’! Feel so! Numb!”
It had been seven years since PartyNextDoor had performed in The 6. But one Thursday night last May, approximately 2,500 fans at History — the Toronto venue Drake, Party’s OVO label boss, opened in partnership with Live Nation in 2021 — welcomed him home to the city, feverishly chanting the lyrics to his beloved hits like “Wus Good/Curious.”
SiriusXM Canada had tapped the singer, songwriter and producer to headline the free, sold-out PartyNextDoor & Friends concert to celebrate its new 24/7 hip-hop and R&B channel, Mixtape: North, which highlights homegrown Canadian talent. And what better way to fete the country’s brightest stars than by transforming History into a full-fledged OVO Fest? Nearly all of the influential label’s roster took the stage, and even Drake himself made a surprise appearance to perform his and Party’s mid-2010s collaborations “Recognize” and “Come and See Me.”
“I don’t mean to put you on the spot or anything. I know you hate this the most,” Drake said, chuckling, his arm wrapped around his introverted labelmate. “I’m so grateful for you. I would not be the artist I am if it wasn’t for you.” Then, turning to the audience: “This is really my favorite artist in the world.”
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PartyNextDoor plays Billboard Presents THE STAGE at SXSW on March 14. Get your tickets here.
Over the last decade, Party, 30, established himself as an alternative R&B auteur who seduced listeners — and shaped his genre — with hazy, hypnotic Auto-Tuned vocal melodies, nocturnal trap production and carnal yet cognitive lyricism about what pleasures (and problems) the wee hours sometimes bring. And while that often added up to a late-night, hedonistic vibe, his authentic, limber patois and dancehall-infused rhythms also gave his music an irresistible Caribbean flavor.
Meanwhile, he established himself as one of pop music’s most sought-out hit-makers, working in various roles behind the scenes with artists including Kanye West, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Post Malone and Rihanna, the lattermost of whom he has made two Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hits with: the nine-week No. 1 “Work,” featuring Drake (which he co-wrote and sang backup on), and DJ Khaled’s seven-week No. 2 “Wild Thoughts” (which he co-wrote and produced), featuring Bryson Tiller. Some fans and critics have argued that his leaked reference tracks for those songs — where Party himself sings them — sound better than their final star-powered versions.
“He has written some of the biggest songs of our time,” says his longtime manager and Range Media managing partner, Tyler Henry. “He has contributed to [work by] some of the greatest artists. He’s an artist himself. He’s truly one of one.” Henry first met Party in 2013 when he was the assistant road and tour manager for Drake, who had picked his latest OVO signee to support his Would You Like a Tour? trek. Henry started managing him the following year, and Party remains a key part of the manager’s roster, along with WondaGurl, HARV, Loshendrix and more.
Gucci shirt and Jacque Marie Mage eyewear.
Erica Hernández
Yet even with his impressive résumé, Party hasn’t achieved the level of stardom many R&B fans expected him to when he helped record some of the defining pop hits of the 2010s, excelling behind the scenes but failing to fully step out from Drake’s shadow. When asked about the pressure of being signed by such a colossal artist and ensuring his body of work can stand on its own, Party trails off. Despite previously expressing superstar ambitions, it seems like he has had to recalibrate his career goals.
“I’m just keeping the main ting the main ting,” Party says. “The only thing that’s important, that has changed my life, is dropping music. I’m not worried about the fame.” Speaking today in Los Angeles, wearing a simple, textured black hoodie, matching sweats and white Nike Air Force 1s, he certainly doesn’t seem like an attention-seeker. But he does sport one flashy accessory: a silver pendant chain with a cartoon rendering of a girl sticking her tongue out — a gift from Drake celebrating their “Members Only” collaboration from his latest Billboard 200-topping album, For All the Dogs. “Drake has the same one,” Party says proudly.
The rap titan’s co-sign increased awareness (and with that, scrutiny) of Party. But his frequent absences from the public eye — he has only put out three solo albums, in 2014, 2016 and 2020 — have also made it hard for fans to stay engaged with his releases or know what he’s up to. If he’s put in front of a laptop, Party says, “I’ll make a full album.” If it’s that easy, then why does he disappear for years in between each one? “I get into relationships and then music becomes second,” he admits matter-of-factly. “I think I’m going to take a break from relationships, a long break, and just get back to making music.” Of course, those same relationships often ensure Party has plenty of songwriting material to work with when he makes his way back to the studio.
“After you and a girl break up, does she know she’ll eventually become the subject of a PartyNextDoor song?” I ask.
“I think everyone knows that,” he responds smugly.
Erica Hernández
Relationships, frivolous or serious, are the common thread throughout Party’s music. He says he approaches his songs from a “me and her” perspective, creating the intimacy that’s also required for the prime PartyNextDoor listening experience. His solitary music resonated especially during the pandemic, and in October 2020, Party and his team appealed to lonely fans finding comfort in catalog music by dropping PartyPack, a set of seven fan-favorite deep cuts that hadn’t previously been available on digital service providers. Sometimes fans have unearthed his old songs themselves: Thanks to a dance challenge, the sped-up version of “Her Way” from his 2014 debut album, PartyNextDoor Two, blew up on TikTok in 2023, becoming the year’s most popular TikTok song in Canada and third-most popular in the United States.
And while he has continued to find new fans with the success of his older music — Party’s song catalog increased from 645.8 million on-demand U.S. streams (including user-generated content) in 2022 to 1.1 billion streams in 2023, according to Luminate — most successful artists can’t sit back, relax and rely on their fans to run up their catalog. Outside of the PartyNextDoor & Friends Toronto show, Party has only performed at a handful of festivals (like Las Vegas’ Lovers & Friends) and college shows since the pandemic’s live-music pause ended. But, as Henry explains it, those were just the prelude to Party’s next act. “We like to do a few each year to make sure we’re fresh and in front of people’s minds,” he says. “It keeps us sharp for when a moment like this album comes.”
That album is his upcoming fourth full-length, PartyNextDoor 4 — P4 for short. And while there’s no release date set, Party promises it’s his most focused project yet. “This is the hardest I’ve ever worked on an album. This is the proudest I’ve felt,” he says. “I’m excited to grind even more for the next [one]. I’m in love with how hard you should work for it.”
Growing up in the “moody” Toronto suburb of Mississauga, the artist born Jahron Anthony Brathwaite imagined himself as Ahmal, the student who sings “Oh Happy Day” in 1993’s Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit. Following in the footsteps of his Jamaican mother, Party joined his church’s choir and eventually moved up to a more advanced singing group within the church. “I had a solo coming up, and I was so nervous. I was going to get my sh-t off just like that Sister Act movie. I was going to get my moment. But they just cut it,” he says with a shrug.
Instead of dwelling on the defeat, he dove deeper into his newfound passion. He soon became fascinated with boy bands like Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC. But “once I understood who I am in the world as a Black man, I started really getting into Black music,” he says, citing Jodeci and 112 as inspirations. “I think Slim from 112 is part of the reason why I pitched up my music, because he sounded so young when he was getting older.”
Party questioned if being a “dread-headed” Jamaican guy from the Toronto suburbs meant he could be a “real” R&B singer. “Real R&B is pretty. It’s six-pack, it’s shaven head, low fade,” he says. But at 16 he tried his luck, dropping out of school and moving to Los Angeles, after posting his first songs to MySpace under the name “Jahron B.” They included cheeky, upbeat tracks like “Monica Follow Me Back” — which he made to persuade a girl named Monica to follow him back on Twitter (he succeeded) — as well as somber, piano-driven ballads like “Daughters,” describing how a drug-fueled hookup led to an accidental pregnancy.
Around that time, veteran A&R executive Shalik Berry showed “Daughters” to Warner Chappell Music’s Ryan Press, then-senior director of A&R (and now president of North America), who was immediately blown away by the intense storytelling. “After I heard that one song, I was like, ‘I have to sign this kid,’ ” says Press, who did so in 2012.
Louis Vuitton hat and shirt and Jason of Beverly Hills ring.
Erica Hernández
In 2016, Press helped Party establish his own joint venture with Warner Chappell called JA Publishing Group, which still operates and currently houses G. Ry, Prep Bijan, Phwesh and Alex Lustig (the lattermost also has a partnership with OVO president Mr. Morgan’s publishing company, M3 Ent). “ ‘Hey, man, if you’re stepping into this side of the business, you’re dealing with people’s livelihoods,’ ” Press recalls telling the young musician. “ ‘We got to handle business properly. You got to have the same passion for them that I have for you.’ ” Party took the advice to heart. “He wanted to create an ecosystem that other great talent could thrive and be successful under,” Henry adds, noting that Party even made sure one of his signees worked on a big record before assisting him in securing “a pretty large six-figure” publishing deal. But as much as Party loved helping other creatives get their shine, he was still waiting for his turn.
Getting his singing career off the ground had been a struggle. As a preteen, he tried out for the Canadian music competition series The Next Star but was cut. He remembers gushing during one of the taped interviews for the show about how he wanted “to sing like Aubrey Graham.” The person recording him “was an actor on Degrassi. And he laughed at me. He’s like, ‘Drake, the one who makes music in my dressing room?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I think he’s the best ever.’ ”
Years later, Party would take his stage name from the FL Studio software audio filter titled “partynextdoor” — which reminded him of OVO co-founder Noah “40” Shebib’s dark, brooding production. When he first heard the effect, Party recalls, “I was just like, ‘This is me. I’m going to make all my music sound like this.’ ”
Once Party started taking meetings with labels, fellow Jamaican Canadian producer and frequent Drake collaborator Boi-1da caught wind of it and ran the artist’s name up the OVO flagpole. When Drake and 40 eventually invited Party to the studio, “we just meshed,” he says. Party became the first recording artist signed to OVO in 2013, and the label opted for a low-key yet fitting announcement: His track “Make a Mil” was posted on the OVO blog, the digital hotbed for new talent that ultimately transformed into the boutique label it is today.
Erica Hernández
Throughout OVO’s history, some have questioned the way the label supports its artists not named Drake; Drake and the OVO team declined to even be interviewed for this story. In 2016, a Noisey headline asked, “Is OVO Sound A Hip-Hop Label Or Drake’s Personal Hit Factory?” And upon joining OVO, Party did support his label boss immediately: He provided background vocals for “Own It” and “Come Thru” on Drake’s 2013 album, Nothing Was the Same, and produced and co-wrote “Legend,” “Preach” and “Wednesday Night Interlude” on 2015’s If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, featuring on the latter two songs. Two months before Nothing Was the Same, Party dropped his self-titled debut EP, which earned rave reviews and yielded the Miguel-sampling classic “Break From Toronto.” The following year, PartyNextDoor Two cracked the top 20 of the Billboard 200. However, in the subsequent years, Party’s output grew less frequent and his allure dwindled.
In a 2015 PartyNextDoor Fader cover story — built around the musician’s first-ever interview — OVO co-founder and Drake manager Oliver El-Khatib said that part of OVO’s ethos was restricting access to its artists and letting the music speak for itself. But while that air of mystery maintains OVO’s cool reputation, banking on Drake’s star power to draw in new fans can keep the rest of his labelmates in his orbit at the expense of their own career growth.
While Party’s artist career hung in the balance, his songwriting vocation took off. Press says he was always in Party’s ear about possibly working with Rihanna because of their shared Caribbean heritage. When the star — who at the time was also signed to Warner Chappell — hosted a writing camp for what would become her 2016 album, ANTI, at her Malibu, Calif., home in 2015, Press called up Party to come through. Despite being in a house full of other competing songwriters and producers, Party insisted that he spend time alone with her so he could make songs that fit her vibe.
“I remember her telling us she was drinking vodka and water at that time. I had never seen Party drink vodka until that night. I think he even smoked a cigarette because she had smoked,” Henry says of the night the two made “Work.” The song became ANTI’s biggest hit, with 1.6 billion official on-demand U.S. streams. “Seeing the way he spoke to her and the questions he asked and the way he fully submersed himself into her identity was what made the song special. And he does it with all the artists he works with. He doesn’t write these generic songs that we try to find a home for. He writes them very purposefully for that artist.”
While “Work” reigned atop the Hot 100 in March 2016, Party finally got his own breakthrough as an artist with the Drake-assisted “Come and See Me.” The song earned Party his debut Hot 100 entry as a lead artist, peaking at No. 55, and yielded his first Grammy Award nod, for best R&B song. (He was also up for album of the year for contributing to Drake’s Views.) “Come and See Me” has become the biggest streaming song from his catalog, with 854.2 million official on-demand U.S. streams.
Finally, it seemed Party the artist was stepping firmly out of Drake’s shadow — even though the rapper was featured on the track, it was unquestionably a spotlight for his signee. “Come and See Me” earned Party the recognition he craved. But solo fame turned out to be less gratifying than he’d thought it would be.
In 2017, the year before Kanye West released his eighth studio album, Ye, he invited Party to his Yeezy Studio in Calabasas, Calif., and gave him the freedom and space to create whatever he pleased — offering no indication as to what he might eventually do with it.
So Party was surprised when, as he listened to Ye along with millions of others upon its June 2018 release, he heard one of his Calabasas freestyles. The song, “Ghost Town,” had additional vocals from Kid Cudi and 070 Shake, but only credited Party as a featured artist. “I didn’t know what he was going to do with it. It’s different when I have no creative control. It is raw. ‘Someday,’ ” he sings in a similar fashion to his recorded vocals. He initially felt caught off guard, but became appreciative of West’s trust in his talent. “It wasn’t about working with PartyNextDoor. It was just about liking what I did creatively,” he says. “Ghost Town” reached No. 16 on the Hot 100 — Party’s highest-charting hit on the all-genre list.
The way West used Party’s sketch to make “Ghost Town” startled him because, when it comes to his own music, Party pays attention to every painstaking detail. “He’s the most meticulous and thorough person I’ve ever met,” Henry says. “He’ll spend six months mixing a song or fly to Toronto four times just to work with 40 to get it right.”
Erica Hernández
Party, however, admits he didn’t have that laser focus when making his last two studio albums, PartyNextDoor 3 and PartyMobile. “I was still handling that sh-t like demos,” he says, adding that he wasn’t “using everything I learned as a producer, as a writer, as an engineer.” Even though rough freestyles like 2014’s “Persian Rugs” — one of the loosies later included on PartyPack — proved he didn’t need polished records to develop a robust fan base, he vows to never “cheat” on the quality of his art again.
On P4’s forthcoming single, “Real Woman,” Party resharpens those creative tools, layering his vocals with bright, twinkling synths, trap hi-hats and a backing choir. But considering his last single, “Resentment,” debuted in the top 10 of Hot R&B Songs last July and fell off the chart after three weeks, it’s unclear how much momentum “Real Woman” will build for this album cycle.
Fortunately, he has plenty of performances in the coming months where he can perform the new material, including Rolling Loud California and, at the end of March, Souled Out, Australia’s first modern R&B and soul festival, which will be held across five cities. “I have so much anxiety before a show, but I always tell my manager, ‘This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.’ I always forget that until I step on the stage,” he says.
Reconnecting with his fans live — and making sure the music he performs is of the highest possible quality — is, in the end, what fuels him, even if playing the part of a traditional megastar isn’t a natural fit.
“I know Drake and people always tell me, ‘Bro, you have to come out more!’ I’m an introvert, I’m shy,” he says. He’s not active on social media either because he doesn’t “have the narcissism” to believe people are personally invested in what he’s posting. And anyway, he doesn’t want to distract from what’s important: “I’m focused on making classic music.”
This story originally appeared in the March 9, 2024, issue of Billboard.
It had been seven years since PartyNextDoor had performed in The 6. But one Thursday night last May, approximately 2,500 fans at History — the Toronto venue Drake, Party’s OVO label boss, opened in partnership with Live Nation in 2021 — welcomed him home to the city, feverishly chanting the lyrics to his beloved hits like […]
Mexican star Christian Nodal is heading to South by Southwest to perform at Billboard Presents THE STAGE at SXSW on Friday, March 15. The Latin Grammy-winning artist has collected a robust catalogue of hits since launching his career with the mariacheño song “Adiós Amor” in 2017. Now, Nodal is the soloist with the most No. […]
South by Southwest is back to take over Austin, Texas, this year, with programming beginning March 8 and running through March 16.
This year, SXSW Music (March 11-16) features performances from The Black Keys, Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala aka DE FACTO, Swamp Dogg, Audrey Nuna, Kneecap, Flyana Boss and J Noa.
If you’re heading to the event and looking to get even more access to the SXSW Music Festival, the event is offering two special badges for purchase. With a standard music badge, for $945, attendees will receive “primary entry to our legendary Music Festival showcases, music programming, mentor sessions, and workshops at the SXSW Conference, Comedy Festival showcases, and online programming, plus secondary access to most Interactive and Film & TV programming,” per SXSW’s website. See here for the full list of details and purchase options. For Billboard readers, enter code reg-music-specialoffer_c439f88fe8 for a limited time to save more than 20% off the current price.
With an upgraded platinum badge, for $1,990, fans get primary access to all official SXSW Conference & Festivals events, plus up to five SXXpress Passes per day to enjoy your favorite programming. See here for the full list of details and purchase options. Enter code reg-plat-specialoffer_311a0ab5e3 for a limited time to save more than 25% off the current price.
Elsewhere at SXSW, Billboard is returning to the event with THE STAGE at SXSW, which will kick off with a night dedicated to R&B headlined by singer-songwriter and producer PARTYNEXTDOOR on March 14; on March 15, a night celebrating Latin music will feature TJ the DJ and singer-songwriter Christian Nodal; and on March 16, a dance-centric night presented by Carnival Cruise Line will kick off with DJ Sober before electronic giant ILLENIUM takes the stage. Billboard Presents THE STAGE at SXSW takes place at Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park in Austin. Tickets are available here.
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The Justice comeback is gaining momentum, with the French duo confirmed as keynote speakers at SXSW 2024. Happening at the Austin Convention Center on March 13 at 2:30 p.m., this rare public conversation from Justice’s Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay will focus on their forthcoming album, Hyperdrama (due out April 26), and the legacy and future of the renowned […]
