Every week, seemingly a gazillion new hip-hop songs are released on streaming services. From SoundCloud and Bandcamp exclusives to the endless array of songs on Spotify and Apple Music, it’s a lot to take in.
Additionally, some tracks aren’t nearly as good as they should be. Who wants to waste their time sifting through records in fear that some aren’t very listenable? How can one possibly have the time to even do it?
This is where Noisey has you covered. We’re saving you time in the playlist department to narrow it down to the three most essential songs in hip-hop and R&B you should hear. Maybe you’ll find a new favorite artist or album in the process.
3 of the Best New Hip-Hop Songs and R&B Records of the Week
“Melanate It” by La Reezy
When guys like Nas and Q-Tip lamented the death of hip-hop in the mid 2000s, it was an issue of commercialism hollowing out the culture. But a lot of people interpreted it as the music itself losing its way. It didn’t sound like it once did back in the lauded ‘golden age’ of hip-hop. Even today, the rhetoric persists, years of traditionalists lamenting ‘mumble rap’ and how new rappers don’t sound the same.
La Reezy bridges the gap, a young New Orleans rapper who cherishes rap conventions without dating himself in golden age nostalgia. Instead, he’s punchy and buoyant on tracks like “Melanate It”, a rosy ode to the dimensionality of Black identity. He takes to the streets, basking in the glow of golden hour and learning from old Jeezy about taking the good with the bad.
“Like when Monday come and you get some dumbass papers you reviewing / Wish that time could stop on a Sunday afternoon barbecuing / Suns out, guns out, kids run in, run out / Wifey runnin’ her mouth about getting Trump out,” La Reezy raps. By the outro, he coos over sweet chords, knowing that, rain or shine, he’ll always glow and persevere.
“2019” by Bby Kell
Sampling is a lost art within hip-hop. Too often, artists and producers combine for the easiest, lowest common denominator sample. Or maybe they’ll find a soul sample but settle for an easy loop.
But on Bby Kell’s “2019”, she manages to split the difference. Sure, the Usher “U Don’t Have to Call” flip is glaring, but it slices off a portion of the Neptunes beat, speeds it up, and turns the record into a track race.
From there, Kell bobs, weaves, and punches in like prime Floyd Mayweather. “Four black trucks around me, I feel like O-Bama,” she raps, contorting her flow for the rhyme scheme. Then, she muses how she misses Obama, wishes she got to smoke with him. “If I meet him, I’ma call my mama / s***, I mean my grandma, she the one that likes Obama.” Funny, sharp, and fresh in how it uses its sample.
“BOY IN RED” by Isaiah Rashad and SZA
Isaiah Rashad and SZA are musical soulmates. Like Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell before them, they understand each other’s language, how the tones of their voices interplay, how they approach their themes.
“West Savannah” is a euphoric, psychedelic piece of soul about how love carries them past suicidal tendencies. “Stuck in The Mud” is a lethargic and downtrodden record sopped in doomerism. Even after SZA became a global superstar, their chemistry wouldn’t waver on records like “Score“.
“Boy in Red” continues their undefeated streak, a bluesy, smoky spiritual successor to “West Savannah” for a pair that aged past their youthful romanticism. There, Isaiah Rashad channels his inner Prince, trying to swoon a woman so he could be her boyfriend. “And if that doesn’t work, then I’ll just be your girlfriend,” he coos. “Boy in Red” plays like the flickers of love that burn within us, even at our most burnt out and despondent.
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