Billboard’s Friday Music Guide serves as a handy guide to this Friday’s most essential releases — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond.
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This week, Nicki Minaj releases a contemplative banger, Doja Cat exorcises her “Demons,” and Timbaland gets the dream team back together. Check out all of this week’s picks below:
Nicki Minaj, “Last Time I Saw You”
One of the reasons why Nicki Minaj has endured as one of the most successful rappers of the past decade following her 2010 arrival is her range — throughout her entire career, the superstar has refused to be pigeonholed into one sound or style. That skill set is on full display on “Last Time I Saw You,” a new single from the upcoming Pink Friday 2 that recalls the original Pink Friday’s “Moment 4 Life,” with a gentle pop production providing the foundation for an impassioned sing-rap performance in which Minaj reflects on drifting apart from someone special. “Last Time I Saw You” requires Minaj to sing gently, belt effectively, rap hurriedly and provoke an emotional response in three-and-a-half minutes, and she makes it all look easy.
Doja Cat, “Demons”
“Living well is the best revenge” is sure to be a recurring theme on Doja Cat’s upcoming album Scarlett, based on the advanced singles that the superstar has unveiled: after “Paint the Town Red” said what it said and blasted into the top 10 of the Hot 100, “Demons” continues the clapback, as Doja dismisses her haters with some expert wordplay and a wall-rattling hook. “I’m a puppet, I’m a sheep, I’m a cash cow / I’m the fastest-growing bitch on all your apps now,” she declares, both quickly nodding to her viral beginnings with “Mooo!” and reminding the world that nobody’s trajectory to the top resembles her own.
Timbaland feat. Nelly Furtado & Justin Timberlake, “Keep Going Up”
In the mid 2000s, no pop triumvirate was as mighty as Timbaland, Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake: as Tim helmed Furtado’s enormous album Loose and Timberlake’s FutureSex/LoveSounds, the veteran producer helped both artists rack up hit after hit while scoring some of his own (including the 2007 Hot 100 chart-topper “Give it To Me,” featuring both artists). Sixteen years later, the trio have joined forces once again for “Keep Going Up,” a rhythmic vocal showcase from consummate professionals out to prove that they’re aging like fine wine; fortunately, the process of hearing these three voices reflect off one another again is both a nostalgia rush and an absorbing new pop experience.
Lil Wayne, “Kat Food”
Lil Wayne remains a magician: who else is dropping singles that are nearly five minutes long, rife with not-so-subtle cat double entendres, rhyming “subpoena” with “Purina,” and having the whole thing actually work? “Kat Food” finds Weezy busting out the thesaurus and breaking down a sample of Missy Elliott’s “Work It” with his trademark giddy energy, continuing a whirlwind year in which the rap veteran sounds as vital as ever and offering one last floor-filler before summer’s end.
Speedy Ortiz, Rabbit Rabbit
Speedy Ortiz’s past records have always compelled thanks to the blistering guitar work, intricate song structures and mastermind Sadie Dupuis’ searingly smart songwriting, but with the band’s most fully formed songs to date and new level of lyrical vulnerability, Rabbit Rabbit is the quartet’s strongest album to date. As Dupuis prods at a complex past and present sensitivities, tracks like “Cry Cry Cry,” “Ghostwriter” and “Ballad of Y & S” boast immediate hooks amidst the ornate arrangements — these are songs that you can hum while they hit you in the gut.
Editor’s Pick: Jhayco & Peso Pluma, “Ex-Special”
Jhayco is no stranger to smash collaborations — a pair of them with Bad Bunny have earned over 1 billion Spotify streams — but “Ex-Special,” a team-up with quick-rising star Peso Pluma, stands out as a highly successful summit of respective styles that wouldn’t necessarily fit together seamlessly. Yet Jhayco’s reggaeton mastery crackles against Pluma’s prolonged crooning here, as the artists weave around each other’s voices while waxing poetic about an ex that’s still haunting their thoughts; hopefully, “Ex-Special” expands each artist’s fan base by reaching across the aisle to another.
