With new albums from Metropolis Ladies and Sampha and a pair of massive bulletins from Megan Thee Stallion and Ty Dolla $ign & Kanye West, it’s been a characteristically busy week for hip-hop and R&B. New Music Friday (Oct. 20) unleashed a recent batch of latest R&B and hip-hop tracks to kind by as we rely right down to the announcement of the 2024 Grammy nominations on Nov. 10.
With Recent Picks, Billboard goals to spotlight a number of the greatest and most attention-grabbing new sounds throughout R&B and hip-hop — from Yuna’s bilingual rumination on a relationship’s demise to Rick Ross & Meek Mill’s newest style of their forthcoming collaborative mission. You’ll want to try this week’s Recent Picks in our Spotify playlist beneath.
Freshest Discover: Wu-Tang Clan feat. Technique Man, Ghostface Killah, Nicole Bus & Arithmetic, “Claudine”
The thirtieth anniversary of Wu-Tang Clan’s landmark debut album, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), is lower than a month away, and the hip-hop legends are ringing within the celebration with a beautiful new monitor. That includes a pair of emotive, nuanced verses from Meth and Ghostface, “Claudine” remembers the chugging, introspective relationship-minded songs that peppered the tracklists of Wu-Tang’s traditional data. A weighty hook from Billboard chart-topping R&B singer Nicole Bus brings issues full circle; her soulful, raspy vocal evokes the Southern R&B data RZA used to pattern to create a number of the most intricate Wu-Tang beats.
Yuna, “Unhealthy Intentions”
With this easy mixture of dembow, soul, and bossa nova influences, Malaysian R&B crooner Yuna delivers a bilingual ode to the all-consuming vengeance, harm, confusion, and attachment that linger on the finish of a relationship. The sparse manufacturing effortlessly embodies the vacancy that permeates the lyrics — from the devastatingly lush post-chorus to the hook, the place she sings, “I do know you like her/ Your new lover/ Would be the finish of me/ It’s a merciless world.”
Q, “Howdy”
Earlier this 12 months, Q dropped off one in all R&B’s greatest 2023 choices together with his gorgeous Soul, Current mission. For his first single launch since that set, Q has launched “Howdy” — a delightfully funky monitor about selecting to be your greatest and most genuine itself it doesn’t matter what seemingly insurmountable challenges are thrown at you. “Looks like 1,000,000 years since I acquired away from bed/ My mind’s fried from the lies I’ve been tellin’ myself,” he sings over an instrumental association that additional explores his penchant for Prince’s amalgamation of soul, rock, and funk.
Arin Ray, “Moonlight”
It’s been a banner 12 months for raucous, sexually express music, however Arin Ray opts for a softer, extra sensual angle for this lower from his new Phases III EP. With gentle vocal layering and an alluring tone, he’s in a position to bypass the innate raunch in lyrics like, “Put {that a}– on me, it’s ’bout to go/ I wanna see a f–kin’ present/ Child been a freak/ See she got here right here in with no panties on.” It’s good to listen to Arin holding it down for R&B’s bachelors in a sea of poisonous lovers and unhappy boys.
Rick Ross & Meek Mill, “Lyrical Eazy”
With a brand new joint mission on the best way, it’s solely proper that these two rap titans put their greatest foot ahead. Enter: “Lyrical Eazy.” The follow-up to final month’s “Shaq & Kobe,” “Lyrical Eazy” finds Ross and Meek buying and selling verses that flaunt their wealth and success whereas additionally reiterating why they consider they’re on the very high of the hip-hop ecosystem. “N—a diss, I ain’t respondin’, I’m like, “Y’all ain’t even poppin’/ ‘Trigger we’ve been mobbin’, flyin’ personal, totally different hours/ And I ain’t lyin’, I acquired this cash shit to a science/ Acquired your child momma within the Bahamas actin’ totally different and she or he wildin’,” Meek raps over a beat that reimagines the identical pattern (Stanley Clarke’s “Acquired to Discover My Personal Place”) from Jay-Z’s “Breathe Simple (Lyrical Train).”
Lola Brooke & French Montana, “Pit Cease”
As she readies the discharge of her forthcoming Dennis Daughter mission, Brooklyn rapper Lola Brooke has unveiled her new French Montana collab “Pit Cease.” That includes her trademark playful intonation — which pulls from each Lil’ Kim and Cunning Brown on this monitor, with a wholesome dose of Lola’s personal humor — “Pit Cease” is flirty back-and-forth between the 2 New Yorkers, one which performs on town’s distinctive courting dynamics. “Ask me the place my man at, n—a, I don’t know/ Say you wanna threat all of it, I hope/ May by no means play with ‘nani, mm, no-no-no/ Stated he like me greater than his b–ch, ooh, oh, no,” Lola spits.
Terrace Martin & Alex Isley, “2 Step within the Residing Room”
Each week R&B’s brightest stars proceed to show that the style is definitely alive and properly. On this mid-set lower from the pair’s new joint I Left My Coronary heart in Ladera mission, this duo completely captures the light-weight, love-drunk temper of grooving in the lounge to the soulful soundtrack of your life alongside the individuals you like probably the most. With a splash of vocoder in direction of the outro, the track pulls from Parliament’s most refined funk-indebted tracks to create one thing a bit extra subdued and hazy, all anchored by Alex Isley’s heat tone.
