Hip-hop is moving as fast as ever. Luckily, we’re doing the work to put the best new rap music in one place for you. This week, there were new tracks by YG, Cupcakke, and Lil B, and a new video from Key Glock. Here’s the rest of the best new rap music this week:
Conway — “Front Lines”
On “Front Lines,” Conway feeds the menacing beat his usual dose of gruff, braggadocious lyrics, but then spends the second half of the song indicting police brutality, proclaiming, “We ain’t takin’ no more, we ain’t just pressin’ record/ Can’t watch you kill my brother you gon’ have to kill us all.”
Dave East — “Menace”
Dave East pays homage to classic West Coast cinema in the video for “Menace,” a brooding track from his Karma 3 album where he reflected, “I was too down, and nobody noticed, I was too young to be at them funerals.”
Apollo Brown & Che Noir — “94”
Che Noir and Apollo Brown’s As God Intended album is dropping this July on Mello Music Group. This week they dropped another single, a reflective ode to 1994 where Che Noir rhymes “Illmatic dropped same day I came in this world,” and pays homage to Nas and the other rappers’ who’ve informed her impressive craft.
Songs of The Moment
The whole world has been affected by the death of George Floyd, including a rap game that has always discussed police brutality. Society’s collective disdain for racial injustice has manifested in a week of tense uprisings and calls of justice for Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and more people who have been murdered by the cops. This week, several artists have released songs that will someday serve as a portrait of this tumultuous moment:
Jim Jones — “The People”
“Everytime we dig our way out, we sinkin’ like a sand trap / We need more than reparations man, why can’t you understand that?”
Dre — “Captured On A iPhone”
“Tell me what you’d die for? / This for the souls that ain’t get captured on the iPhone”
TeejayX6 — “Black Lives Matter”
“How the f*ck my mama gonna sleep at night and the police keep killin’ us? / I can’t even go outside no more, I’d get shot for bein’ innocent”
Icewear Vezzo — “No More Pain”
“Black is Black, rich or poor they treat us all the same / No standin’ still, gotta fight, that’s just part of change”
Nappy Roots — “Blind Faith”
“Life is good if you livin’, everybody should save the children / Every cop should hate the killin’”
Papoose — “Tribute”
Distressingly, Papoose was able to use all 26 letters of the alphabet to rhyme about someone who was slain by the police.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. .
