Cheers to another New Music Friday! Here’s some of the latest to hit the culture:
Kehlani‘s Crash is out now, featuring 13 tracks she thought would be great to tour. “A crash, in any form, is the peak height of the moment,” she says of her new project. It finds her “at my most free, most fun, most loud, most fueled, so far.”
Ice Spice drew comparisons to Nicki Minaj when she posted a teaser of “Phat Butt,” but now the song is out with a new video. “Rap b**** on the pop chart/ toasting b****** like pop tarts,” she raps. “Fat butt and a back tatt /and I been bad like Mike Jack.”
6lack reflects on his journey as a man and in the music industry on his new single, “FTRG” (F*** The Rap Game)”. It was released alongside a music video that “brings to life the many sentiments at play in this song.”
GloRilla‘s “TGIF” is finally here. Among the most memorable lyrics is “It’s 7pm Friday, it’s 95 degrees…I ain’t got no n**** and no n**** ain’t got me,” which is already viral on TikTok.
The new song and video from Jaden, “Roses,” is “about young love and healing.” He says it’s “a Therapy Session set to the key of Bb Major and at the tempo of 165 Bpm.”
Rema teams with fellow Nigerian Shalipoppi for “Benin Boys,” a tribute to their native Benin City. The video captures the city’s landmarks.
Capella Grey wants fans to Vibe Responsibly, according to his debut album, which was three years in the making. It features Caribbean, R&B and New York vibes.
It’s been three years since fans heard from G-Eazy, but he’s back with Freak Show, featuring “Love You Forever,” a song dedicated to his late mother, Suzanne Olmsted.
If there are two things Saweetie is known for outside of her music and beauty, it’s her food concoctions and business acumen. Both are displayed in her latest venture, a partnership with The Boiling Crab and Postmates. Per the deal, she’s bringing a variety of seafood feasts inspired by her food combos to her fans. The Hot Mess, The Bigger Hot Mess and The Biggest Hot Mess — all of which include snow crab, shrimp, corn, andouille sausage and fries — are now available at The Boiling Crab through July 7, with Postmates exclusively delivering from participating locations.
Speaking to People, Saweetie says she got her food concoctions, which include oysters in honey barbecue sauce, from her father.
“Honestly, I get a lot of the concoctions from my dad because, as a young dad, he would make me spreads,” Saweetie says. “He would make me these cool ‘Scooby-Doo’ sandwiches with a whole bunch of chips, fries, however he wanted to make it.”
“But I’ve always just had a love for concoctions and for tasting new foods. I’m a really big foodie,” she adds. It’s why she was open to the collab: It’s something she already enjoys doing.
“At this point in my career, I’m not doing things for financial benefit. I’m doing things out of passion,” Saweetie says. “It’s always a special moment when you’re able to do business with people who you share a common interest [with]; in this case, it’s seafood.”
“The fact that it’s dropping the day of Cancer season, and I’m a Cancer (my sign is a crab), it just feels so aligned and so in sync with everything that’s going on for me right now,” she tells People, “especially with just having new music out.”
When Moneybagg Yo was working on his Speak Now album, his goal was to “deliver a body of work for my day-one fanbase who been rocking with me since Federal 3x.”
The album features melodic tunes like “Drunk Off U” with Chris Brown and the Morgan Wallen-assisted “Whiskey Whiskey,” but Moneybagg says he’d been experimenting with his singing voice long before he collaborated with either artist.
“I got 80 of those type of songs before even Chris [Brown] got on it,” he tells Billboard. “I was experimenting and playing with the craft and the talent. It came out good and I put Chris on it. I got one called ‘I Feel It,’ and the Morgan Wallen situation.”
Of the Morgan collab, he says it was two to three years in the making, adding it came together because Morgan’s a fan of his work.
“He’s actually a big fan of me. We been locked in for like two or three years,” the rapper says. “We had the song when we first locked in off the rip. I had it for like a year and a half, or two years, and he’s been on me about putting it out. … The perfect time is now.”
Bagg notes that he’s in the part of his career where he’s “really about enjoying what I’m doing and expanding at the same time” because he feels he has “nothing else to prove.”
“I got all these plaques, I got success,” he says. “Just basically coming off a two-year break. I’m just letting them know I really do this. Don’t play.”
There are some songs that are best untouched, and Monica once thought “The Boy Is Mine” was one of them. That is, until she heard the remixAriana Grande and producer Max Martin had put together.
“I’ve always said that the song should not be touched, right? And I said that because I felt that it did not need to be redone in the idea of, let’s say, actually doing it the exact way that it was,” Monica explains to ET. “But Ariana and [producer] Max Martin — as soon as I heard this version, I fell in love with it.”
Working and speaking with Ariana, Monica says, also helped in bringing the collaboration to fruition.
“Everything has been directly from her chest and, for me, authenticity, humility, all of those things are key,” Monica says. She adds that it was Ariana’s enthusiasm that ultimately convinced her to do the song.
Ariana’s “The Boy Is Mine (Remix)” is now out, also featuring one-half of the original hit, Brandy. Though the two had put rumors of a feud to rest during their Verzuz battle in 2020, Monica says the new collab further helped heal their relationship, which had briefly given in to the chatter of a beef and became real.
“The process of the new collaboration did a lot of closing the gaps…,” Monica said. “It made it a lot easier just to talk,” she continued, adding she and Brandy have talked more recently than they have in “the last two decades.”
The singer didn’t rule out a future Brandy/Monica collab, saying, “There is a chance, there is for sure.”
Until then, her wish is for fans to “have fun to this record because it is really the rebirth of ‘The Boy Is Mine’ in such a special way.”
Kendrick Lamar‘s Pop Out event on Juneteenth was a star-studded one filled with natives from the city of LA. Though it seemed like everyone was in attendance, fans took notice of the absence of The Game; he’s since taken to social media to shut down rumors that he’s taken sides in the Kendrick and Drake feud.
“Now, as far as the Kendrick and Drake s*** concerned, that’s Kendrick and Drake s***,” he said in a 17-minute long video on Instagram. “Kendrick do his s*** and what he did last night was amazing for the West Coast. I sat back and I watched it. I ain’t have to be there, you know what I’m saying? I think it’s a W for the coast.”
“I think what K.Dot did for a lot of West Coast n***** last night was hard as f***. I think it was dope of him and big-hearted of him to do that for n*****,” he continued.
Game then acknowledged that he also has a relationship with Drake, saying, “Drake is my brother. I f*** with Drake.”
He claimed that the two rappers are both doing “amazing” things in their career and noted his belief that they “just came out of one of the biggest hip-hop beefs ever and survived,” something he says Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G. were unable to do.
As for why he chose to skip out on the event, The Game said, “I’m doing me!”
Among those who did appear, though, were The Weeknd, SZA, Roddy Rich, Black Hippy, Mustard, LeBron James, Rick Ross, RussellWestbrook, Tyler, the Creator and more.
Cancel culture can’t and won’t dictate who Ty Dolla $ign supports, according to his recent interview with Billboard. In it, he spoke of his decision to work on Vultures 1 with Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, despite the backlash over his antisemitic remarks and alleged bad treatment of employees, among other things.
“Ye is the best artist of this generation, besides me, and I don’t give a f*** about what people were talking about. I know my n****. He’s one of the best people I’ve ever met,” he says, adding his belief that Ye’s talent supersedes his behavior. “Just with my analysis of how it goes with him, he goes all the way to the top. And something may happen and he’ll say (something people find offensive) — and then people (get) right back, you know. Because this s*** is undeniable.”
Following the success of their album, which peaked atop the Billboard 200, Ty and Ye are now working on Vultures 2, which was delayed a few times but, according to Ty, is almost done.
“We got all the songs. Basically, it’s just like, ‘How can we get it there? How can we go bigger than the first album?’” Ty says. He adds he’ll stay focused on completing the Vultures trilogy and bringing out Ye’s creative potential while Ye worries about marketing and distribution.
