What a week for music! Childish Gambino released This Is America and the world briefly stopped on its axis, pausing to process what it had just witnessed. Less culturally important perhaps, but still very exciting, is Christina Aguilera’s second track in two weeks, aptly named Twice. It’s a grower. Impressively resilient Rita Ora has bagged Charli XCX, Bebe Rexha and Cardi B for her new tune, Girls, an ode to loving women and a proper banger. Want more epic female pop collaborations? Look no further than here.
Elsewhere, exactly two years since his Mercury Prize-winning Konnichiwa, Skepta’s Pure Water opens like a dark nursery rhyme but quickly descends into a dirty bass-heavy track with a lot of sci-fi references. Remember AUGUST 08? We loved his song Funeral, met him on tour with Rich Brian, then premiered the video for Lately. Today he’s back with a whole LP of greatness called Father — and favourite track is called Don’t Waste It, which is a nice reminder for all situations really. Talking of Rich Brian… Dua Lipa’s IDGAF was already a certified bop, but ask any sane person what it was missing and they’d be sure to tell you it would benefit from a Rich Brian and Diablo Remix. Great news! That’s exactly what it just got.
Like that wasn’t enough, there’s also a jazzy collab from Kojey Radical and Mahalia (who you can catch on the i-D stage at TGE next week!), Bladee’s Red Light LP, and YouTuber-turned-popstar Charlie Puth’s new album which — turns out — is actually pretty great and includes a feature from Kehlani. Then there’s that new Selena Gomez country tune from the 13 Reasons Why Season 2 soundtrack, good stuff from Noah Cyrus and Courtney Barnett’s Sunday Roast, which takes us one step closer to the release of her forthcoming album of the same name.
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