What does the ‘song of the summer’ mean in 2025? The concept usually tried to idealize what a time period looked like, a good way of defining a strong part of the year. In a normal environment, it was easier to parse through. Santana defined the summer at the turn of the century, Usher and Lil Jon ran 2004, Drake had a myriad of hits to define his summers. It is subjective but there are some real world attributes that help distinguish them. What is everyone listening to and does it feel like summer?
Nowadays, everything is hyper-specific to our own strange listening habits. It’s a strange enigma, especially to someone like Lil Jon, who came in an era where hits had real weight. Recently, he spoke to Billboard ahead of his appearance on Celebrity Name That Tune. There, the interviewer asked him if there was an album that has really stuck with him in 2025. He doesn’t really address that question directly; instead, he notes what got the most interest and muses on how music has lost the hype it used to have to create songs of the summer.
Lil Jon: “The hype around music is not like it used to be”
The thing that got the most talk was Kendrick, really. The hype around music is not like it used to be. I saw debates about, ‘There’s no song of the summer,’” the crunk visionary recalls. “When ‘Turn Down for What’ came out, that was one of the songs of the year, not just the summer, and there hasn’t really been something that’s crossed all the different lanes. It’s just that songs are big in their particular area, and it just hasn’t been everywhere like it used to be.
Then, Lil Jon highlights the difference between streaming and radio. Ultimately, radio allowed a communal experience with popular music. Consequently, when everything is so individualistic, you don’t share big moments anymore. That’s why he emphasizes Kendrick Lamar so heavily. He’s carried enough hype to keep him relevant even a year later.
I think also, people are streaming and not listening to the radio. Back in the day, you’d listen to the radio, and that’s how you’d know what the song of the summer was because everyone was bumping it in their car on the radio! The radio dictated a lot of what was hot,” Lil Jon explains. “Radio isn’t where it used to be because there are other ways of listening to music. Coming off Super Bowl, all you heard was Kendrick… I think he’s had the most hype this year.
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