13 New Rap and R&B Songs Out This Week
This was a very stacked week for new music. Here at BV, we reviewed 25 albums that came out this week alone, including the great new Maxo Kream album which you can read about here. Also out this week is the new JPEGMAFIA, and you can read a little more about that one here. We also got a ton of new rap, R&B, etc singles this week, including The Weeknd & Swedish House Mafia, Mick Jenkins, Joell Ortiz, Beanz, the new West Coast supergroup Mount Westmore, Big Sean, DJ Snake (ft. Megan Thee Stallion), and more. Read on for all the hip hop and hip hop-adjacent songs we posted this week…
SWEDISH HOUSE MAFIA AND THE WEEKND – “MOTH TO A FLAME”
One day after it was more or less revealed that Swedish House Mafia are playing and probably headlining Coachella 2022, the trio put out a new song featuring lead vocals by 2018 Coachella headliner The Weeknd. SHM cater to the moody, ’80s-style synthpop that’s become The Weeknd’s calling card in recent years, and it basically sounds like a great new Weeknd single.
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MICK JENKINS – “SCOTTIE PIPPEN”
Chicago rapper Mick Jenkins’ new album Elephant in the Room comes out next week, and here’s another new single. This one finds him going in a chilled-out, indie-soul direction.
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JOELL ORTIZ – “OG”
Joell Ortiz has announced a new album, Autograph, due November 12 via Mello Music Group. It features Sheek Louch, KXNG Crooked, CyHi The Prynce, and more, as well as production from Heatmakerz, Apollo Brown, Salaam Remi, Namir Blade, and more, and new single “OG” is a lyrical and musical reminder that Joell is a lifer. “I feel so lucky to be able to call myself an ‘OG,'” he says. “Where I come from adulthood isn’t always a guarantee. But here I am, alive and well still doing what I love to do.”
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BEANZ – “WAKE ME UP WHEN I’M DREAMING”
Pennsylvania rapper Beanz has shared a new song off her upcoming album Tables Turn, and you can read more about it here.
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MOUNT WESTMORE (SNOOP DOGG, ICE CUBE, E-40 & TOO $HORT) – “BIG SUBWOOFER”
Snoop Dogg has announced Snoop Dogg Presents The Algorithm, which appears to be a compilation album of Def Jam artists, and its first single is also the debut single by his new supergroup Mount Westmore. Read more about it here.
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MAJID JORDAN – “STARS ALIGN” (ft. DRAKE)
Drake appears on a new song by Majid Jordan, who are signed to his OVO Sound label. It’s off their new album Wildest Dreams, and it’s cut from a similar synthpop cloth as the classic Drake/Majid Jordan collab “Hold On, We’re Going Home.”
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BIG SEAN & HIT-BOY – “WHAT A LIFE”
Frequent collaborators Big Sean and Hit-Boy have put out another new single together, and it finds Sean’s infectious pop-rap in fine form.
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DJ SNAKE – “SG” (ft. OZUNA, MEGAN THEE STALLION & LISA of BLACKPINK)
DJ Snake is back with a guest-filled, multi-cultural new single which features Puerto Rican reggaeton/Latin trap star Ozuna, Houston rapper Megan Thee Stallion, and Lisa of K-pop giants BLACKPINK. It’s largely in the reggaeton realm, but everyone brings their unique flair to this.
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BONOBO – “TIDES” (ft. JAMILA WOODS)
Electronic wiz Bonobo has shared a new song off his upcoming album Fragments, and this one veers into psychedelic soul territory, with guest lead vocals from the great Jamila Woods.
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RIC WILSON & YELLOW DAYS – “LIFE’S BEEN GOOD TO ME”
Chicago rapper Ric Wilson has announced a collaborative EP with London’s Yellow Days (aka George Van Den Broek) called Disco Ric In London Town, due October 29 via Free Disco/EMPIRE. First single “Life’s Been Good To Me” is a groovy, catchy disco/funk/rap hybrid. Yellow Days and Ric Wilson are also doing a North American tour together. All dates and ticket links (including NYC’s Webster Hall on 11/30) here.
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ZAC JONE$ – “THE WEED SONG” (ft. JESSE ROYAL)
Zac Jone$ teams up with Jesse Royal and producer Iotosh for a hip hop/reggae/dub ode to weed.
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PROBLEM – “DIM MY LIGHT” (ft. SNOOP DOGG)
Compton rapper Problem keeps the sound of classic West Coast rap alive, so it’s no surprise that Snoop Dogg — an architect of that sound — sounds great on this.
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BOBBY FISHSCALE – “OWN EYES” (ft. INK & MOZZY)
Roc Nation-signed Florida rapper Bobby Fishscale taps Ink and Mozzy for this powerful, mournful-sounding new song. “Own eyes to me means to not let others dictate your future,” said Bobby. “See it with your own eyes.”
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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.
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25 Early 2000s Rap Albums That Hold Up Today
Ghostface Killah – Supreme Clientele (2000)
Deltron 3030 – Deltron 3030 (2000)
Lil’ Kim – The Notorious K.I.M. (2000)
OutKast – Stankonia (2000)
Ludacris – Back for the First Time (2000)
Eve – Scorpion (2001)
Cannibal Ox – The Cold Vein (2001)
Jay-Z – The Blueprint (2001)
Jay-Z made a name for himself rapping alongside Jaz-O and then Big Daddy Kane in the late '80s and early '90s, but took his time when it came to making his own album. And while he was watching and waiting, the young Queensbridge rapper Nas released his 1994 debut album Illmatic, an instant-classic that received a now-legendary score of five mics from The Source and changed rap forever. Jay took obvious notes from Illmatic (and sampled a line from it) when he finally released his own debut album, 1996's Reasonable Doubt. Gone was the fast-rapping Jay-Z of the Jaz-O days and in his place was an artist with a smoother, grittier style who told real-life stories of life on the streets in Brooklyn over some of the finest production of the era (courtesy of Ski, Clark Kent, Illmatic contributor DJ Premier, and others). Jay-Z intended for Reasonable Doubt to be a classic, and it was, but it wasn't the instantly-game-changing album that Illmatic was and it couldn't compete with the flashy, pop-crossover "Jiggy Era" that Puff Daddy started to lead after Biggie's tragic death. So Jay-Z went in an increasingly pop direction, and by the time of his 1998 single "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)," he wasn't just competing with the "Jiggy Era," he was starting to take over.
Going pop in the late '90s and early 2000s also meant getting dissed by other rappers, among them Prodigy of Mobb Deep and Nas, whose feud with Jay-Z was about to boil over as Jay-Z geared up for his best album since Reasonable Doubt, The Blueprint. Months before its release, Jay made Hot 97 Summer Jam history by debuting "Takeover," a diss track aimed at Prodigy and Nas, during his set, alongside a childhood photo of Prodigy in dance clothes on the big screen. The finished version of "Takeover" ended up on The Blueprint, and the studio version proved it to be not just a brutal diss track but also a genuinely great song, and one of many on The Blueprint. Jay-Z didn't stop being "pop" on The Blueprint -- it still had the radio-friendly "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)," the sentimental balladry of "Song Cry," and other "pop" moments -- but he figured out how to put the accessibility of the "Jiggy Era," the grit of the streets, and the album-oriented structure of Reasonable Doubt into one whole masterpiece of an album. Production came largely from Just Blaze and Kanye West (plus Bink, Timbaland, Eminem, and others), and together they established a rich, soulful production style that would dominate rap for years. There's perhaps never been a better example of the classic Kanye sound than "Heart of the City (Ain't No Love)." Jay's ear for beats on The Blueprint was matched by his most consistently great rapping since Reasonable Doubt, and still some of the very best rapping of his career. Unlike his previous guest-filled albums, Jay carried the album almost entirely by himself, and he never lost steam. The only guest appearance came from Eminem on "Renegade," and look, Nas is right, Em out-rapped Jay on the track, but Jay still packed some of his finest rhyme schemes into that song.
Aesop Rock – Labor Days (2001)
Nas – Stillmatic (2001)
El-P – Fantastic Damage (2002)
Eminem – The Eminem Show (2002)
If we're picking one album per artist, a lot of people would go with 2000's near-perfect The Marshall Mathers LP for Eminem, but if pressed, I always go with The Eminem Show because it feels like the grand finale to the classic Eminem era. The Marshall Mathers LP is just as essential, but Eminem as we came to know him doesn't exist without The Eminem Show.
An artist who almost always knew how to title an album, Marshall Mathers introduced the world to his massively offensive alter-ego Slim Shady on 1999's The Slim Shady LP, he introduced us to the man behind the madness on The Marshall Mathers LP, and he took a look at the impact Eminem the artist had on the world with The Eminem Show. (He also admitted the show was over with 2004's Encore, and then made a series of failed comeback attempts with Relapse, Recovery, The Marshall Mathers LP 2, and Revival, before finally abandoning this trend on the still-just-okay-sounding Kamikaze and Music to Be Murdered By.) Eminem catapulted to the forefront of rap because of white privilege but also became a scapegoat for everything white suburban conservatives hated about rap, and there's perhaps no better response to all of it than "White America," the first proper song on The Eminem Show. And then there's "Sing for the Moment." The Marshall Mathers LP gave us "Stan," a Dido-sampling ballad about the real-life dangers of toxic fandom and the importance of mental health, and The Eminem Show gave us "Sing for the Moment," an Aerosmith-sampling ballad about the importance of rap music to young kids amidst backlash from the media, the government, and scared parents. You might argue that song ruined white rap forever (and also unfortunately convinced Eminem he needed more and more ballads on later albums), but it also spoke directly to and validated the feelings of a lot of kids who needed to hear it. The Eminem Show also attacked George W. Bush ("Square Dance"), took on personal issues like the toll fame takes on a person ("Say Goodbye Hollywood") and fatherhood ("Hailie's Song"), and also reminded the world Eminem was still better than most people at making straight-up rap songs ("Business"). One of three songs on The Eminem Show produced by the man who made Eminem a star, Dr. Dre, "Business" found Eminem packing so many career-best punchlines over a top-tier Dre beat, reminding us that -- when you put all the baggage associated with Eminem aside -- he was truly one of the greats at the pure art of rapping.