16 New Rap and R&B Songs Out This Week
This very stacked week for new music brought new rap albums from Denzel Curry, Latto, Buddy, and the late Phife Dawg, all of which you can read about in Notable Releases, plus there’s the guest-filled Nigo album (ft. Tyler the Creator, A$AP Rocky, Clipse, Pusha T, Kid Cudi, A$AP Ferg & more), and I also recommend checking out the new LPs from Tha God Fahim and The Cool Kids. On top of that, we got new singles from Kid Cudi, Summer Walker/Cardi B, Chance the Rapper, Open Mike Eagle, Nicki Minaj, Bree Runway, Defcee, EST Gee & 42 Dugg, and more. Read on for all the hip hop we posted this week…
ZEELOPERZ – GET WET.RADIO
ZelooperZ follows his great 2021 album Van Goghs Left Ear with this new 10-song project featuring production from Black Noi$e, Mike, Nedarb, duendita, and Dilip, and appearances by duendita, Foushee, ilyHook, Apropos, and SuperCoolWicked.
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STOVE GOD COKS & SUPERIOR – “161” & “SWEET DREAMS”
Syracuse rapper Stove God Cooks and European producer Superior have put out a collaborative two-song single that finds Stove God’s gritty boom bap revival sounding as great as ever.
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KID CUDI – “STARS IN THE SKY”
Kid Cudi has put out a new song for Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and it finds him getting his upbeat synthpop on.
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SUMMER WALKER – “NO LOVE” (EXTENDED VERSION ft. SZA & CARDI B)
Summer Walker and SZA’s “No Love” was one of last year’s best R&B songs, and now it gets a new extended version which starts with a newly-added verse from Cardi B, who goes full airy R&B on this one.
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CHANCE THE RAPPER – “CHILD OF GOD” (ft. MOSES SUMNEY)
Chance the Rapper has released his first single of the year, and it’s a melancholic soul/jazz/rap hybrid that features Moses Sumney.
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OPEN MIKE EAGLE – “MULTI-GAME ARCADE CABINET” (ft. R.A.P. FERREIRA, STILL RIFT & VIDEO DAVE)
Open Mike Eagle is back with his first new single in a bit, and it features fellow underground rap icon R.A.P. Ferreira, as well as longtime collaborators Still Rift and Video Dave. It’s a great indie-rap posse cut over a lush, hypnotic beat from Illingsworth.
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NICKI MINAJ – “WE GO UP” (ft. FIVIO FOREIGN)
Nicki Minaj teams with Fivio Foreign for “We Go Up” and she sounds like she means business on this dark, tough, very New York song.
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BREE RUNWAY – “SOMEBODY LIKE YOU”
UK rapper/singer Bree Runway tones things down for a gooey R&B/’80s pop slow jam with “Somebody Like You.”
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FREDO BANG – “NO LOVE” (ft. SLEEPY HALLOW)
Baton Rouge rapper Fredo Bang teams up with Brooklyn drill rapper Sleepy Hallow for this infectiously melodic rap song.
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FIREBOY DML – “PLAYBOY”
Fresh off appearing on a Madonna remix, Nigerian singer Fireboy DML has shared his own new single, “Playboy,” which is set to appear on his next album and which offers up an appealing fusion of Afrobeats and American R&B.
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BIG K.R.I.T., WIZ KHALIFA, & GIRL TALK – “HOW THE STORY GOES”
As mentioned, Wiz Khalifa, Big K.R.I.T., Smoke DZA, and Girl Talk are releasing a collaborative album in April, and here’s the laid-back second single (which doesn’t feature Smoke DZA).
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SHEFF G – “BREAK FROM IT”
Brooklyn drill rapper Sheff G is currently incarcerated, but he just released this new single that shows off his melodic, pensive side and a press release promises that more music from Sheff G is coming later this year.
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DEFCEE – “DUNK CONTEST”
Chicago underground rapper Defcee has shared a new track off his upcoming BoatHouse-produced album For All Debts Public and Private, and it finds him delivering bulletproof bars over an ominous beat from BoatHouse with a hook that references a handful of NBA icons.
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EST GEE & 42 DUGG – “FREE THE SHINERS”
EST Gee and 42 Dugg, two rising rappers that are both signed to Yo Gotti’s CMG label, will release a collaborative project, Last Ones Left, this year. The first single is “Free the Shiners,” a tough, hard-hitting track that shows off a ton of chemistry between these two.
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BANKROLL FREDDIE – “BROKE ASF”
Arkansas rapper Bankroll Freddie returns with a new Southern trap banger and promises that more music is on the way soon.
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PUSHA T – “SPICY FISH DISS” (MCDONALD’S DISS TRACK, FOR ARBY’S)
This week in news you just can’t make up, Arby’s has tapped Pusha T to advertise their fish sandwich in the form a diss track against McDonald’s’ Filet-o-Fish. (Apparently Push did have a score to settle as he’s said he wrote the “I’m lovin’ it” jingle and was never credited.) “A little cube of fish from a clown is basic,” Pusha T raps. King shit.
Just dropped a diss track with @Arbys. Grab some popcorn and a Spicy Fish Sandwich. #ArbysSpicyFishDissTrack #ArbysPaidMeButIWouldSayThisAnyway pic.twitter.com/dzTuBlM9Ok
— King Push (@PUSHA_T) March 21, 2022
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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.