Billboard's Friday Music Guide serves as a handy guide to this Friday's most essential releases — the essential music everyone will be talking about today and that will dominate playlists this weekend and beyond.
This week, Post Malone and Morgan Wallen help each other out, Gunna remains as prolific as ever, and Megan Thee Stallion gets even more tiresome. Check out all of this week's picks below:
Post Malone feat. Morgan Wallen, “I Had Some Help”
No artist has logged more weeks atop the Hot 100 and Billboard 200 in 2023 than Morgan Wallen. Meanwhile, Post Malone is enjoying a hot streak as a collaborator, with recent appearances on Beyoncé and Taylor Swift's respective blockbuster albums, while also nodding towards a country crossover. Those fertile paths intersect on “I Had Some Help,” a country rocker with a faster tempo than Wallen's greatest hits and more of Posty's typical work. Popular country is increasingly influencing the mainstream, and this group sounds like they're poised to dominate the summer.
Guna, One from Wun
Last year, Gunna's album a gift and a curse it reflected the rapper's complicated feelings surrounding the YSL RICO case and did not include any features. One from Wun it's a different story, with a more festive feel (especially after the success of last year's smash “Fukumean”) and Offset, Normani, Leon Bridges and Roddy Ricch dropping by. In both modes, Gunna sounds masterfully bending syllables over zoned beats and One from Wun it may approach the 60-minute mark, but it flies by, hitting a groove in the middle with solo tracks “Back in the A,” “Still Prevail” and “Blackjack.”
Megan Thee Stallion, “Boa”
“All of a sudden they're going vegan, they don't want beef,” Megan Thee Stallion — who has already topped the Hot 100 once this year with a diss track, “Hiss,” to kick off a year of huge diss tracks — quips near the peak of new single “Boa”. While her most recent singles gesture toward shredding more enemies, “Boa” actually showcases Meg's pop savvy: a clever sample of “What You Waiting For?” by Gwen Stefani. brings the hook to life, setting up an elegantly crafted chorus amidst the wild wordplay.
Camila Cabello feat. Lil Nas X, “He Knows”
Camila Cabello's reinvention continues with “He Knows,” which takes the grittier exterior of “I Luv It” but offers more straightforward pop delights, with handclaps, a curling hook, and Cabello rhyming “provocateur” with the “knower”. Lil Nas X knows a thing or two about provocative pop and spends his verse doubling down on double ends before joining Cabello for some beautifully delivered harmonies on the chorus.
Ice Spice, “Gimmie a Light”
Throughout her ascent over the past year and a half, Ice Spice has sounded calm, cool and collected, never allowing her flow to be disturbed even as beats pierce her voice and her A-list collaborators drop into pieces of it. New single “Gimmie a Light” represents a new nuance for the rapper, as she uses the Sean Paul classic as the basis for a breathy scream. the track is designed to rattle club walls, but also opens up more possibilities for Ice Spice's aesthetic as she continues to take the New York hip-hop formula and run in different directions with it.
Editor's Pick: Chief Keef, Almighty So 2
Chief Keef fans have been waiting for the 2013 follow-up Almighty Well for so long, with years of target release dates giving way to countless delays, that the arrival of Almighty So 2 it feels like a minor miracle. The even better news is that the sequel is Keef's best work in years: building on the momentum of his recent collaboration with Mike WiLL Made-It, Dirty Nachosthe drill legend pulverizes an hour's worth of beats here, tracing a strand of his early-career energy and delivering a mix of hunger and confidence to every track.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/friday-music-guide-post-malone-morgan-wallen-gunna-1235680251/