Keeping up with new music can be exhausting, even impossible. From the weekly album releases to standalone singles dropping on a daily basis, the amount of music is so vast it’s easy for something to slip through the cracks. Even following along with the Uproxx recommendations on a daily basis can be a lot to ask, so every Monday we’re offering up this rundown of the best new music this week.
This week saw J. Cole shock the world and Doja Cat expand her Scarlet universe. Yeah, it was a great week for new music. Check out the highlights below.
For more music recommendations, check out our Listen To This section, as well as our Indie Mixtape and Pop Life newsletters.
J. Cole — “7 Minute Drill”
https://youtu.be/5KRMLBh3-N4
He finally did it. After Kendrick Lamar wrapped up March by dissing Drake and J. Cole on “Like That,” Cole fired back. He dropped Might Delete Later, a surprise mixtape featuring “7 Minute Drill,” on which Cole delivers jabs like saying Kendrick “fell off like The Simpsons.” If this seems corny, well, Cole agrees, as he shared at his festival over the weekend that he’d be removing the song from streaming.
Doja Cat — “Masc” Feat. Teezo Touchdown
More Scarlet is here! Doja just dropped the new deluxe edition (which ended up being officially titled Scarlet 2 Claude), and among the highlights is the Teezo Touchdown-featuring “Masc,” which features some clever turns of phrase from Doja, like, “You gave me the dick, then gave the dick without the D.”
GloRilla — “Wanna Be” Feat. Megan Thee Stallion
GloRilla just dropped her new Ehhthang Ehhthang mixtape, calling for a big hip-hop collab (between Nicki Minaj and Cardi B) on “Aite.” She went ahead and made one happen herself, though, on “Wanna Be,” which sees her teaming up with Megan Thee Stallion.
Charli XCX — “B2B”
The Brat era is approaching, and Charli XCX has made it clear that she’s veering away from the straightforward pop of her 2022 album Crash. That’s true on the two new songs she dropped last week, which are better suited for a sweaty night in the club than pop radio.
Kehlani — “After Hours”
After teasing an upbeat new album for this year, it looks like Kehlani is starting to deliver on that, as “After Hours” indicates. The tune samples the drums from Nina Sky’s 2004 favorite “Move Ya Body,” and she told Zane Lowe of that artistic decision, “Because those drums, when they drop, it’s so recognizable and everybody just loses it. It’s one of those things where it drops and everybody goes, ‘Woo,’ and bends their knees and puts their hands on their knees.”
Bryson Tiller — “The Multiverse Freestyle”
Video game design might be in Bryson Tiller’s future, but for now, he’s sticking to music with the self-titled album he just released. It’s his first project since 2020’s Anniversary, and he confidently sounds like he never left on “The Multiverse Freestyle.”
Conan Gray — “Fainted Love”
Conan Gray has gone all in on the ’80s for his new album, Found Heaven. It’s not a low-effort nostalgia grab, either, as Gray has done an exemplary job at bringing the decade’s synth sounds to modern day on songs like “Fainted Love.”
Khruangbin — “Hold Me Up (Thank You)”
Khruangbin’s A LA SALA is out now, and they blessed the release with a delightful video for “Hold Me Up (Thank You),” starring an industrious chinchilla (sorry, a “Khruangchilla”).
Vampire Weekend — “Prep-School Gangsters”
On the latest episode of the Indiecast podcast, Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen discuss how the new Vampire Weekend album Only God Was Above Us changes the band’s sound just enough while staying true to the core of what they’re about, which songs like “Prep-School Gangsters” evidence.
NxWorries — “86Sentra”
Anderson .Paak and Knxwledge have been teasing a return of their duo NxWorries and actually manifested it in 2022 with a one-off single. At last, though, the news fans have been waiting for is here: A new album is finally on the way. The two introduced it to the world last week with “86Sentra,” which Uproxx’s Aaron Williams describes as having “a groovy, bass-driven beat, and scintillating, swaggering verses from .Paak in classic rap braggart mode.”
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. .
