19 New Rap and R&B Songs Out This Week
Another quarantined week is a wrap, and here’s all the hip hop we posted during it. I wrote about the new Thundercat, NNAMDI, Rod Wave, and Conway/Alchemist projects in Notable Releases, and you can keep scrolling for new singles by Drake, Frank Ocean, DaBaby, Public Enemy, Tierra Whack, Quelle Chris, Earl Sweatshirt, Evidence, Problem, Kool Keith, The LOX, and more.
And in case you missed it, check out our list of the 8 best rap albums of March 2020.
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DRAKE – “TOOSIE SLIDE”
Drake, never one to shy away from the power memes have on the music industry, has released a song that’s meant to go viral on TikTok and has already started to. Toosie is a popular dancer on social media, and he helped Drake get this new dance going viral before the song was even officially out. We know songs get big on TikTok all the time now, but can we really — *clears throat* — let this one slide?
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FRANK OCEAN – “CAYENDO” & “DEAR APRIL”
We’re still waiting on that Frank Ocean album, but meanwhile Frank put out this new two-song single. Both are hushed, intimate songs with little more than Frank’s voice and a guitar, and they sound great.
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DABABY – “FIND MY WAY”
DaBaby continues his unstoppable reign with this new single, which finds him mixing his usual rubbery, bass-heavy production with some gentle acoustic guitar and getting a little more sentimental than usual. It’s a two-minute, 19-second song that comes with a ten-minute short film.
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ENEMY RADIO – “FOOD AS A MACHINE GUN” (ft. PUBLIC ENEMY)
Chuck D says the whole Public Enemy breakup was just an elaborate April Fool’s joke and today the duo released this new song as part of Chuck’s new Enemy Radio album. Flavor Flav denies it’s a hoax. More on this very odd story here.
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TIERRA WHACK – “STUCK”
Tierra Whack interpolates/samples Alanis Morissette’s “Ironic” for this new song that’s very directly about being quarantined.
https://twitter.com/TierraWhack/status/1244013842952314880
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QUELLE CHRIS – “SACRED SAFE” (ft. MERRILL GARBUS, CAVALIER & HOMEBOY SANDMAN)
Quelle Chris’ upcoming album Innocent Country 2 includes a song with Tune-Yards’ Merrill Garbus, Cavalier, and Homeboy Sandman. That song is now here, and it’s a very cool dose of soul, jazzy alt-rap.
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DRAKEO THE RULER & 03 GREEDO 0 “IRON RAP BEEF” (REMIX FT. EARL SWEATSHIRT)
Earl Sweatshirt has been making abstract, psychedelic music lately, but he spits like the old days on this new remix of Drakeo the Ruler and 03 Greedo’s “Iron Rap Beef.”
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EVIDENCE – “UNLEARNING”
Undreground rap vet Evidence has followed 2018’s Weather Or Not with a new single, the laid-back and ridiculously smooth “Unlearning.”
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PROBLEM – “DON’T BE MAD AT ME”
The eternally-underrated Compton rapper Problem returns with a sentimental new song about relationship troubles that pulls sounds from all throughout the past three decades of West Coast rap.
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KOOL KEITH & THETAN – “LET’S TAKE A TRIP”
Abstract rap legend Kool Keith and metal duo Thetan’s collaborative album Space Goretex comes out next week (4/10) and here’s another dark, mind-bending song from it.
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THE LOX – “LOYALTY AND LOVE”
Fresh off the new Jadakiss album, Kiss, Styles P, and Sheek Louch have dropped a new LOX single. It’s a slow jam that finds them staying true to their roots.
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TURBO, GUNNA & YOUNG THUG – “QUARANTINE CLEAN”
Increasingly huge rappers Gunna and Young Thug hopped on this beat from Turbo and came out with a slick-sounding song that makes an obvious nod towards the weird time we’re living in.
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RJD2 – “20 GRAND PALACE”
Underground rap producer RJD2 has shared another song off his upcoming album The Fun Onesand I’m gonna let RJ do his own talking: “Kickin’ like Bruce Lee or Jim Kelly, the drums and the bassline and the rhodes and the synths and the horns and the strings oh my god the STRINGS!!!!”
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ANUEL AA – “3 DE ABRIL”
It’s the four-year anniversary of Puerto Rican rapper Anuel AA being incarcerated for possession of firearms, and he’s looking back on his arrest with this introspective new song.
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JESSIE REYEZ – “ANKLES” (ft. RICO NASTY & MELII)
The deluxe edition of Jessie Reyez’s new album BEFORE LOVE CAME TO KILL US came out this week, and among other things, it includes this song featuring two of the most exciting new-ish voices in hip hop, Rico Nasty and Melii.
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THE WEEKND – “NOTHING COMPARES,” “MISSED YOU” & “FINAL LULLABY”
The Weeknd recently released his new album After Hours, and now here’s the deluxe edition with these three new songs.
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For even more new songs, browse our daily ‘New Songs’ lists. For more hip hop news, browse our ‘Hip Hop News’ category.