The latest trend in New York drill has been the liberal use of ’90s and early 2000s R&B samples, as heard in regional hits like B-Lovee’s “My Everything,” which flips Mary J. Blige’s “Everything.” Kay Flock is the latest rapper to hop on board with his new single “Shake It,” bringing fellow Bronx native Cardi B along for the ride. Produced by Elias Beatz, the track samples Akon’s 2005 hit “Bananza (Belly Dancer).” A snippet of the song had already gone viral on TikTok, but anticipation for “Shake It” reached a fever pitch after clips from the video shoot surfaced of Cardi performing her verse while draped out in red — her wig even looks like a red bandana. That unbridled energy is the perfect fit for the sample drill production: “I gotta step up, bitch, I’m a stomper/ All of my opps ge...
The TikTok-to-charts pipeline yields another success story as JNR Choi and Sam Tompkins‘ “To the Moon!” breaks into the top 10 of Billboard‘s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The collaboration rises from No. 12 to No. 10 on the list dated April 16 as the song reaches new highs in radio airplay. “Moon” surfaced on TikTok beginning last August. The drill single’s origins are double-layered: It samples Sam Tompkins’ cover of Bruno Mars‘ 2010 release “Talking to the Moon” – a situation that temporarily led to its removal from streaming services, as JNR Choi detailed in his Billboard Chartbreaker profile earlier this month. JNR Choi and Tompkins each earn their first top 10 with their first entry on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. Notably, Mars, credited as a songwriter on “Moon,” collects his 10th ...
Blissed out. Yung Lean and FKA twigs have released their new collaboration, “Bliss,” as well as its accompanying music video. Stream the track below. In the quirky, nostalgic clip, the rapper picks the avant garde pop singer up for a chauffeured joy ride through a suburban town, complete with a white horse, bicycle gang, and a nod to Kelly Rowland’s famous texting via Excel spreadsheet in the music video for “Dilemma,” her 2002 smash hit with Nelly. “Oh, yeah, but I pray to God you’re good for me/ I want your bliss on bliss, a little company,” FKA twigs sings on the chorus before ceding the floor to Yung Lean, who raps, “You don’t know me or the shit I’m in/ Like The Exorcist, I’m making heads spin again/ Flash, flash, flash, flash, flash, flash/ Leandoer in the club, yeah, you find him in...
Every Friday, our new music column Rap Song of the Week breaks down all the new hip-hop tracks you need to hear. Check out the full playlist here. This week, ScHoolboy Q made his grand return with “Soccer Dad.” Since dropping his first two albums in back-to-back years, ScHoolboy Q has slowed down his release pace. The TDE rapper’s last LP, 2019’s CrasH Talk, dropped after a three-year hiatus, and prior to Tuesday night, he hadn’t released any solo material since then. With the arrival of the triumphant “Soccer Dad,” however, it looks like a new project could be on the way. Fans of ScHoolboy Q are well-acquainted with his life as a soccer dad, having seen videos on the LA rapper’s Instagram Stories of him cheering from the sidelines while also bragging about his daughter’s accomplishments. ...
Action Bronson’s latest LP is only a few weeks away. The Queens rapper has announced that a new album, dubbed Cocodrillo Turbo, will drop April 29th. As a preview, he’s shared first single, “SubZero.” Listen to the track below. Bronson’s been an MC for over a decade, but he’s coming in swinging with Cocodrillo Turbo. “I don’t feel like I’m given the fucking respect that I deserve,” he said in a statement. Here, he pulls in the big guns, co-producing the 10-track album with our 2021 Producer of The Year, The Alchemist, as well as Daringer and Roc Marciano. The project also features Conway The Machine, Roc Marciano, Hologram, and Meyhem Lauren in guest spots. The record’s name combines this baller mentality with Bronson’s love of the water. “I first came up with this album while in the water...
Pusha T and JAY-Z have teamed up for a new song called “Neck and Wrist,” produced by Pharrell Williams. Check out the single below. “Neck and Wrist” marks King Push and Hov’s first collaboration since 2016’s “Drug Dealers Anonymous.” Before that, they both appeared on Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Fridays posse cut “So Appalled,” which later landed on 2010’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. In anticipation of his follow-up to 2018’s Daytona, Pusha has had a packed year. Back in February, he dropped the Kanye-produced Rap Song of the Week “Diet Coke,” which he later performed on Colbert. He also teamed up with Nigo for the song “Hear Me Clearly” before dropping the “Spicy Fish Diss” for Arby’s. Advertisement Related Video As for Jay, the rapper last released a pair of songs off the sou...
ScHoolboy Q is back with a new song called “Soccer Dad.” It’s his first solo single since 2019. Take a listen below. Menacing horns fuel “Soccer Dad,” as stop-start percussion punctuates the song’s back-and-forth riff. “Now here we go again, before I had a fan/ Was mapping out everything I wanted/ Earned what I planned,” ScHoolboy Q spits. “Soccer Dad” follows “Blacks n Mexicans,” a collaborative track ScHoolboy Q, Ty Dolla $ign, and B-Real contributed to last year’s Gully soundtrack. Before that, the rapper teamed up with Freddie Gibbs for the song “Gang Signs.” His last album came in 2019 with CrasH Talk. Advertisement Related Video Share this: [flexi-common-toolbar] [flexi-form class=”flexi_form_style” title=”Submit to Flexi” name=”my_form” ajax=...
The late Maryland rapper Goonew quite literally received the Weekend at Bernie’s treatment this past Sunday. Goonew, 24, was shot in a parking lot in Prince George’s County, Maryland on March 18th, and died several hours later at an area hospital. His family believes he was the victim of an armed robbery, and the Prince George’s County Police Department is offering a $25,000 for any information leading to the assailant’s arrest. On Sunday (April 3rd), Goonew’s family and friends held a celebratory event at Washington, D.C.’s Bliss Nightclub, which was billed as the rapper’s “final show.” As Complex points out, Goonew’s apparent embalmed corpse was propped upright and on full display during the event, adorned with a crown and designer clothing. Advertisement Related Video A rapper named Bla...
City Girls return today with the new single “Top Notch,” a team-up with New York rapper Fivio Foreign. On the track, the duo of Yung Miami and JT blend their classic Southern hip-hop charm with the thundering grit of New York City drill rap. Like all good things City Girls, “Top Notch” is unapologetically braggadocious, as Yung Miami and JT flaunt their wealth and high status: “I’m the baddest bitch on your newsfeed,” JT spits over a track by British producer AXL Beats. “Y’all gossiping, but who the news feed?/ I’m in the sky box, you in the nose bleeds/ Fly bitches need privacy.” Meanwhile, Fivio doubles-down on his own rags-to-riches story: “When I was down, I was broke but I told ’em I knew I’d be rich by the top of the week,” he raps. Though Fivio claims “this is not a movie,” the...
Every Friday, our new music column Rap Song of the Week breaks down all the new hip-hop tracks you need to hear. Check out the full playlist here. Today, J.I.D and J. Cole open D-Day: A Gangsta Grillz Mixtape with “Stick.” Earlier this week, J. Cole surprised Dreamville fans with the news that he teamed up with DJ Drama for a new Gangsta Grillz mixtape. The project doesn’t come entirely out of left field, since the mixtape king is performing a special set at Dreamville Festival this weekend (April 2nd-3rd) featuring Lil Wayne, T.I., and Jeezy, but it was still exciting to see two blog era veterans come together. Once Cole dropped the artwork, it was also apparent how seriously they took the project. With the entire Dreamville roster draped in dark clothing and Photoshopped in front of a wa...
J. Cole’s Dreamville Records gets the latest DJ Drama look on the surprise release D-Day: A Gangsta Grillz Mixtape. Stream it below via Apple Music and Spotify. The project was first announced on Wednesday night via Cole’s Instagram with a grainy trailer that featured the Dreamville founder and his labelmates J.I.D, EARTHGANG, Bas, Ari Lennox, Cozz, Lute, and Omen. It marks the first collaborative effort from the label since 2020’s deluxe release of Revenge of the Dreamers III. D-Day drops just days before the return of J. Cole’s Raleigh, North Carolina-based Dreamville Festival after a three-year hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic. The two-day event begins Saturday, April 2nd with a lineup touting the label’s entire roster, as well as a special Gangsta Grillz set by the Atlanta-based ...