Aesop Rock Rogue Wave

18 New Rap and R&B Songs Out This Week

With the Grammys last weekend, we got a handful of new rap and R&B songs, and who knows maybe the Super Bowl this weekend will lead to more songs revolving around that (Jennifer Lopez and Shakira are playing the halftime show, and a bunch of artists are playing other Super Bowl week events). We also got the new Lil Wayne album this week (more on that below), a very good new album from Tha God Fahim (more on that here), and new singles from Drake/Future, Gorillaz/slowthai, Aesop Rock, Jadakiss, Gang Starr, Phony Ppl/Megan Thee Stallion, Bad Bunny, Young M.A, Meek Mill, A$AP Ferg, and more. Read on for all the rap and R&B songs we posted this week…

LIL WAYNE – FUNERAL

At some point in the last decade, Lil Wayne elevated to legendary status — thanks in part to how influential he clearly was on a huge group of new rappers — and though his new music wasn’t always so hot, he made a genuine comeback with 2018’s very good Tha Carter V. Today he followed it with Funeral, which is a verrrrrry long album (24 songs!) and I’m not sure if it really earns its running time or if I like all of it, but there’s some obviously great stuff on there. Guests include Jay Rock, 2 Chainz, Takeoff, Big Sean, and more. If you haven’t already, check out the whole thing for yourself here:

DRAKE & FUTURE – “DESIRES”

Drake and Future already put out one collab song this year, the unstoppably huge and irresistibly catchy “Life Is Good,” and now they’re back with another, the more R&B-tinged “Desires.”

GORILLAZ – “MOMENTARY BLISS” (ft. SLOWTHAI & SLAVES)

Gorillaz have just launched a new music and cartoon series, Song Machine, which will find them releasing new episodes and accompanying songs with various collaborators throughout the year. This is the first.

AESOP ROCK – “ROGUE WAVE”

Underground rap lifer Aesop Rock is back with a new standalone single, “Rogue Wave,” and his hard-hitting, tongue-twisting sound is as great as ever on this one.

JADAKISS – “KISSES TO THE SKY” (ft. RICK ROSS & EMANNY)

The eternally great New York rapper Jadakiss released the genuinely good single “Me” last year, and now he announced a new album, Ignatius — his first solo LP in five years — arriving February 28 via Def Jam. Along with the announcement comes a second single, “Kisses To The Sky,” which finds Kiss in slow jam mode joined by Rick Ross and R&B crooner Emanny.

GANG STARR – “BAD NAME” (REMIX ft. METHOD MAN & REDMAN)

Last year, DJ Premier released the first Gang Starr album in 16 years featuring posthumous recordings by his late Gang Starr partner Guru, and earlier this week he announced that he’s doing some type of Gang Starr performance on the Gods of Rap UK tour with Nas, DMX, and The LOX. Now, he released a new remix of “Bad Name” featuring new verses by the Wu-Tang Clan’s Method Man (who pays tribute to Guru in his verse) and his frequent collaborator Redman.

PHONY PPL – “FKN AROUND” (ft. MEGAN THEE STALLION)

As promised, Phony Ppl and Megan Thee Stallion have officially released the collab they debuted in an NPR Tiny Desk Concert last year, and it’s cool to hear Megan change it up and rap over lively full-band funk like this.

BAD BUNNY – “6 RINGS”

Bad Bunny has released a new song that pays tribute to Kobe Bryant. It features clips of sports announcers talking about Kobe, fans chanting his name, Kobe himself speaking, and as Rolling Stone points out, the title comes from this lyric (translated from Spanish): “You won 6 rings, 5 with the NBA and one in a marriage that gave you your daughters/ Thinking that one of them left with you, got me outta control/ But nah, it’s so you don’t play ball alone in heaven.”

YOUNG M.A – “2020 VISION”

Young M.A continues her reign with the dark, hard-hitting “2020 Vision.”

MEEK MILL – “LETTER TO NIPSEY” (ft. RODDY RICCH)

One of the highlights of last night’s mostly-boring Grammy Awards Ceremony was the tribute to the late Nipsey Hussle, during which Meek Mill rapped an emotional new verse he wrote for Nip, with an interlude by Roddy Ricch (whose Nipsey collab “Racks in the Middle” won Best Rap Performance). It turns out that was all part of a new song called “Letter to Nipsey,” which is out now. All proceeds from sales and streams of the song will go to Nipsey’s family.

LIL NAS X – “RODEO” (ft. NAS)

Another song debuted at the Grammys came after Lil Nas X’s truly absurd performance of “Old Town Road” (which featured BTS, Walmart yodeling kid, Diplo playing banjo, and Billy Ray Cyrus). He went into a new remix of his song “Rodeo,” featuring a new guest verse from the iconic rapper that Lil Nas X probably took part of his name from, Nas. (The original version featured Cardi B, who was in the audience last night but did not perform.)

H.E.R. – “SOMETIMES”

One more new song debuted at the Grammys was “Sometimes,” a new piano ballad from soul singer H.E.R. (whose performances were the talk of last year’s Grammys).

A$AP FERG – “VALUE”

A$AP Ferg has dropped his first new single of 2020, and it’s a sinister banger.

ROYCE DA 5’9″ – “I DON’T AGE”

Royce Da 5’9″ releases his new album The Allegory on February 21 via Heaven/eOne, and the veteran (but not aging!) rapper is in fine form on this head-nodding new single.

SA ROC – “HAND OF GOD”

DC rapper Sa Roc was added as support to the great Rapsody’s “A Black Woman Created This Tour” tour, alongside R&B singer Heather Victoria, and she also released this killer new single on Rhymesayers today.

CJ FLY – “SHOW YOU”

Pro Era’s CJ Fly is dropping his new album RUDEBWOY on March 6 via Pro Era, LLC, and its latest single is the Statik Selektah-produced boom bap revival of “Show You.”

DAWN – “DIE WITHOUT YOU” / “BUTTAH”

R&B great DAWN is back with a new double single, and these both find her in hard-hitting, electronic R&B mode.

For even more new songs, browse our daily ‘New Songs’ lists. For more hip hop news, browse our ‘Hip Hop News’ category.