Billboard’s First Stream 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.
This week, Meek Mill is back with some iciness in time for autumn, Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett return to a winning formula, and Kane Brown finds common ground with H.E.R. Check out all of this week’s First Stream picks below:
Meek Mill, Expensive Pain
“Sometimes I just be havin’ to vent though, I ain’t gon’ lie,” Meek Mill admits on “On My Soul,” the sound of ice clinking around in a glass audible in between syllables. For as secure as the Philly rapper’s legacy is (especially in his hometown) and as enjoyably easy as it would be for him to keep cranking out hyped-up street anthems in perpetuity (“Intro (Hate On Me)” certainly scratches that itch here), new album Expensive Pain also serves as that necessary venting session, with tales of conflict, mixed feelings, calls back to the streets and triumphs outside of it. We’ve heard some of these stories before, but with Meek Mill’s gravitas on the mic, they’re still absorbing as ever.
Lady Gaga & Tony Bennett, Love For Sale
Seven years ago, Lady Gaga was at a professional crossroads: following a scorching start to her pop career, 2013’s Artpop earned mixed reviews and disappointing commercial returns, a first for the superstar. So Gaga did what exactly zero other pop stars would do — recorded a duets album full of jazz standards with Tony Bennett, and that album, Cheek To Cheek, reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Since then, Gaga has more than reasserted her mainstream dominance, but on Love For Sale, a long-awaited re-pairing as well as Bennett’s final studio album, the duo still crackles with vocal strength and tenderness, particularly on the loving finale “You’re The Top.”
Kane Brown & H.E.R., “Blessed & Free”
Although H.E.R.’s solo focus is soulful R&B and Kane Brown creates pop-leaning country, new collaboration “Blessed & Free” finds a satisfying halfway point between sounds, with the ode to self-preservation relying upon the type of airy production that H.E.R. thrives over but an omnipresent guitar chug also giving the track a rustic glow. Most importantly, the duet sounds effortless, as if their dueling stories of solitude had been waiting to find each other; “Blessed & Free” could be the start of an unexpected but fortuitous collaborative streak between the two rising stars.
Farruko, La 167
Make no mistake, Farruko’s “Pepas” is one of the most deliriously fun singles of the year — a party song that doesn’t grow stale, and for the Puerto Rican singer-songwriter, an important hit professionally, since so many of his prior achievements had come as collaborations with other Latin pop stars. New project La 167 packs “Pepas” and other smash “La Tóxica” at the top of the track list, but there are plenty of gems that toe the line between EDM and reggaetón — especially “El Incomprendido,” which interpolates Alice Deejay’s “Better Off Alone” one week after Trevor Daniel’s single “Alone” did the same.
Burna Boy feat. Polo G, “Want It All”
With “Want It All,” Nigerian superstar Burna Boy continues his stateside crossover bid by leaning into the sonic and lyrical style of his foil on the track, Polo G: in the same way the latter hit the top of the Hot 100 earlier this year with the wounded rhymes and melancholy beat of “Rapstar,” Burna Boy exudes contemplation while discussing his painful beginnings and the spoils of fame he can’t afford to lose. It’s an effective pairing on an affecting track — one that’s easy to imagine breaking Burna Boy into the U.S. mainstream with even greater force.
Coldplay x BTS, “My Universe” video
“My Universe,” the high-wattage team-up between Coldplay and BTS released a week ago, now has an intergalactic music video that mashes up mythologies, a ban on music (that must be broken, of course!), outlandish costumes and dancing aliens, with a pulse-pounding action sequence to cap it all off. It’s a spectacle worthy of making James Cameron envious, although the highlight may be the footage of Coldplay and BTS clearly having the time of their lives shouting along with that planet-sized chorus — even if they’re often doing it in hologram form.
