Related Articles
Billboard’s First Stream serves as a handy companion to this Friday’s most essential releases the crucial music that everyone will be talking about moment, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond.
This week, Megan Thee Stallion reminds us why she’s among rap’s new greats, Nicki Minaj comes back with a killer sample, and Rod Wave takes us inside “ I ’m done being nice, ” Megan Thee Stallion declares beforehand on in Traumazine, an unyielding and meaning new full- length that, after a fleet many times for the Houston rapper that included multiple good pop crossovers and a justified stylish new artist Grammy, returns Meg to the glory of her mixtape days, full of mixed conceits and free of diced words. While Traumazine includes top 40 immolations that could join the recent Dua Lipa platoon- up “ Sweetest Pie ”( included as a homestretch then), utmost of the reader follows the scorching-hot bars of “ Plan B, ” from the sniggering crucial Glock collaboration “ Ungrateful ” to the piano- led flex “ Gift & A Curse ” to the vulnerabilites- retaining “ Anxiety ”; it’s clear that Megan Thee Stallion set out to produce amulti-faceted rap number with Traumazine, and shedelivered.Nicki Minaj’s 2014 smash “ Anaconda ” was designed in a way that introduced Sir Mix-A-Lot’s “ Baby Got Back ” to a new generation, while also delighting the numerous listeners formerly familiar with the fogy hit by digging and flipping it. “ Super Freaky Girl ” serves as a spiritual follow- up to “ Anaconda ” by shoving its sample of Rick James ’ “ Super Freak ” right up front, also letting Minaj have a festive time revitalizing its lecherous funk with sexual imputation and a inflow that knows when to speed up and when to really land a punchline. Minaj is a pro at songs like “ Super Freaky Girl, ” and returns with a front- to- reverseblast.Last time, Florida rapper Rod Wave turned heads when his third LP, SoulFly, debuted atop the Billboard 200 compendiums map, a huge achievement for his brand of tender, lyrical hipsterism- hop. Follow- up Beautiful Mind fleshes out Rod Wave’s sound and personality across 24 tracks and 68 twinkles, and while Jack Harlow swings by for the early highlight “ Yungen, ” the reader substantially lets Rod Wave float in his complex studies, delicate recollections, sizzling beats and guitar indications by himself, exhibiting his seductiveness enough to make that daunting track list breathby.Happy Anitta August to one and all, as the Brazilian pop star is celebrating the month with a new videotape each week leading up to the release of the luxe edition of her recent reader performances of Me. moment, she’s unveiling a collaboration with Maluma that will sound right at home on the design “ El Que Espera ” showcases both of their luxurious lyrics as they circle around each other, with Anitta and Maluma each getting single time to shine while latterly harmonizing with a naturalease.Nicole Zefanya, more known as NIKI, has seen her profile grow since subscribing to 88rising and taking part in show- stopping moments like their Coachella marker show, but the Indonesian songster- tunesmith stands on her own — and will continue rising with Nicole, her sincere and precisely constructed sophomore reader. conforming of new tracks as well as times-old songs that have been reworked and reevaluated , Nicole demonstrates the breadth of NIKI’s strengths as a fibber — each line in “ The Apartment We Wo n’t Partake, ” for case, sparkles with detail and quiet desolation.
