Welcome back, ladies and gents!
While this past summer for me personally was not too awesome (no need to get much further in that conversation thread), this summer when it came to music hits has been very entertaining to witness. Almost everyone in the music industry seemed to want to air some grievances (particularly Kendrick Lamar and Drake) and some of the most popular pop stars right now have released some summer bangers. All in all, a great summer filled with some great music! That is why I plan to give you my list of favorite tracks that came out this summer.
But first some ground rules:
We are only talking songs...if we tried doing albums, we would be here all day.
They had to have come out this summer. So, TikTok-viral oldies do not count. The timeline here is from May - August of 2024.
One song per artist (sorry Kendrick and Charli, but you are only going to have one entry on this list)
It's MY opinion, but I would love to know what I could've missed out on so let me know in the comments below!
Also these are not in order from best to worse or anything like that. Just wanted to share some of my favorite bops while we were off doing summer stuff!
Mission Control
by Logic
Featuring T Man the Wizard
What better way to start than with the biracial rapper himself, Bobby Logic III. Now as a middle schooler who liked hippity hip hop and lyrical miracle rappers, I listened to Logic quite a lot. Now as a college student, I found him quite corny and simply not as lyrically talented as other rappers. But since Vinyl Days and him leaving his studio Def Jam to work independently, it seems that Logic is finally showing off his passion for the art that is...hip hop. And it shows in his single from his newest album Ultra.85 (which is pretty darn great): Mission Control. While he did release many singles for the new record, I found this one to truly retain it's standing in my continuous rotation. The sample (which is apparently from a Gucci Mane song) works really well with the typical boom-bap instrumental and godDAMN does Bobby flow so smoothly through this instrumental. The beat on this song just works it's way into my brain and has been playing in my head rent-free since it has come out. And again, Logic seems energized again and inspired to make more fun classic hip-hop bangers. I would've never expected a Logic song to have hit for me in the current day, but I gotta say that he truly made a song that'll continue to stay in my rotation for a while.
Where Them Girls At
By Megan Thee Stallion
Megan Thee Stallion is probably one of the best female rappers right now (beating Nicki to the top atm...and yes that was a sleight to piss Barbiez off). And of course when she released a new album this summer, it was time to once again celebrate Hot Girl Summer with the namesake herself. And this song "Where Them Girls At" is Hot Girl Summer in a nutshell. I know that this probably not a well-known track compared to hits like "Hiss" (which came out earlier this year and pretty much led to the downfall of Miss Minaj) and "Mamushi" (which is a song that I just don't vibe with too much), but seriously, if you haven't listened to this song, put this on all your hype playlists, because that is what "Where Them Girls At" does. It gets the girls (and hell some of the guys including myself) out of their hiding spots. It's just a simple trap banger with some bumping bass and drums and Megan raps her booty off on the verses with a shouty hook. Plus the line delivery of "nails check, hair check, face pretty, pussy wet" is just so Megan and it goes just so hard. Just a bundle of energy that made Hot Girl Summer even hotter.
Lithonia
By Childish Gambino
First of all, rest in peace to the moniker of Childish Gambino. I don't know if Donald Glover is planning to just retire the moniker and perhaps go by a different name or if he's quitting music in general or hell if he is just retiring in general, but if so, it is unfortunate that he is ending his music career with a soundtrack for a film that we don't even know if we will get. While I didn't hate "Bando Stone and the New World", it just felt so uneven and had no sense of identity and just not too memorable. Fortunately, there is a reason why "Lithonia" is on here: it was a single that showed so much promise. At the time, it was so cool to hear this from an artist who was leaving the world with such a mature sound compared to "Les" Glover's first record as Childish Gambino. It has more of the sound of "Awaken, My Love!" except it sounds more alternative and less funky, even improving on that sound and experimenting with different sounds. The guitars go really hard on the track and the vocals are pretty awesome and memorable. Though, could anyone tell me who the heck Cody McRae is?
Genesis
By RAYE
One of the first curveball picks so far, because 1. it is not a hip-hop/rap song (I don't just listen to rap guys) and 2. it is genuinely really good. Now I can't say I am too familiar with Ms. RAYE, but I believe that she is a UK artist who is pretty underrated if you ask me. From basic research, she apparently was a songwriter for some really popular artists such as Rihanna, Beyonce, and John Legend before popping off on TikTok and releasing her debut album last year. I remember skimming through it and liking a lot of what I heard. But man does Genesis go really fricking hard. There are two phases on this track and one of them is pretty typical but still really catchy pop and the second is a full on old school jazz song...yeah didn't expect that, didya? While it seems like these two phases wouldn't blend together well, they mish-mash so well together. And RAYE as a songwriter is just so great. We have a artist here talking about mental health and specifically body image, which yes, is a topic that a lot of artists talk about, but it feels so unique under this light. Truly a underrated track and overall a underrated artist, so if you haven't checked it out, I HIGHLY recommend it. Give some love to our UK artists. As much as I like to clown on the British, they make some banger music.
Don't Get Me Started
By The Smile
I have a confession to make and it is a confession that a lot of people will either hug and kiss me for or will abduct and torture me for. Welp, here goes...I am not a Radiohead fan. I know, shocker. To be fair, I need to relisten to In Rainbows and I need to listen to their most iconic albums, but at the moment, I just don't hear what others go gaga for. Don't get me wrong, I understand why people enjoy the music. The music is quite forward thinking, however for me, I just haven't heard a Radiohead song that I truly love like say "Creep" (I know, basic emo pick). But let me make myself clear: The Smile, the spinoff band from Radiohead, make some pretty darn good music. And while their output this year has been just as hit or miss for me as Radiohead in terms of replay ability and enjoyment, one of the highlights of the summer for me was "Don't Get Me Started". And I'm gonna be straight up with you, I shouldn't even like this song. This song is pretty bare in terms of sound and isn't as rocking as I would like. But I don't know as of late, I have started to appreciate more ambient tracks specifically from Aphex Twin and honestly, sometimes I need a slow vibey track and this one is it. Except it does something that I always love in music in general but specifically rock: there is a buildup. The synths build up and layer on top of the other and the song becomes more spacey and vibrant by the end. This song builds up my hopes to find the source of the hype behind Radiohead for me and hopefully, the mob outside of my house has left happy because of this. Whew.
King Tonka
By Yeat
If you don't know me at all, you may have seen and/or heard that due to the new Yeat album that came out earlier this year, I am on my tonka era. If you don't understand what that means, guess what? I don't either. Point being, I like Yeat now and this was an excuse to put Yeat on my best songs of the summer list. But also like this song goes stupidly hard. Yeat has sorta become the new Playboi Carti for me in terms of my growing love for rage music (because let's be honest, Carti hasn't impressed me since WLR). Yeat's sound is far more interesting ESPECIALLY ON 2093. Alright, I'll stop glazing. Let's continue.
Hostage
By Fit for an Autopsy
I love me some great rock bangers, but when it comes to metal, I get a bit picky. At some point, a lot of music in that scene sorta blend together into some loud, hard screams and gnarly guitars. Fit for an Autopsy is a metal band that hasn't fallen into this pitfall for me. I found these guys randomly when I first started introducing myself to new music releases and they have some of the catchiest and hard-hitting metal right now. And while I admit I haven't heard much else besides one album, hearing this single, Hostage, got me excited to hear a new album. It involves your typical metal breakdown, but man, it's the chorus that gets it for me. Instead of going down a more traditional metal path, we actually have some solid melodies on the hook that has ear wormed it's way into my neural pathways. It blends the traditional with something new, which is quite respectable. I'm sure I am going to be told that this is just basic metal, but I don't care. This rocked! And the fact that this is coming out near Halloween is freaking perfect. Go check this band out if you are interested.
Sin Miedo
By JPEGMafia
I Lay Down My Life For You is one of my favorite albums of this year. Let's just make that 1,000,000% clear. However, I had a really hard time picking only one song from the album, because damn all of them are bangers! But I decided to go with Sin Miedo, because one it was a single and two it is probably the song that I have listened to the most from the album. I am slowly falling in love with JPEG's style and production, because it seems super clear that he might be the next big and influential rapper/producers, the next Kanye and Doom. His love of experimental and industrial hip hop is not subtle and in fact very in your face. Sin Miedo has those gnarly drum beats and pixely synths and the sample is just hilarious. JPEG is also just a great rapper as well, because I feel like he is the only one (besides Danny Brown but that was on full display on Scaring the Hoes Danny and JPEG's collab album) that can flow over these types of chaotic beats naturally. JPEG's sound reminds me a TON to Yeezus' sound a lot and it's probably my favorite Kanye album, so it makes a lot of sense as to why I really mess hard with JPEG in general. But yeah, it isn't for everyone, but if you are curious about JPEG as a artist, just check the album out and/or particularly this song.
Black Flag Freestyle
By Denzel Curry
Featuring That Mexican OT
If you thought I had a rough time trying to find only one song off JPEG's new record, imagine just how much harder I was trying to find a song on Denzel Curry's new mixtape, King of the Mischievous South Vol. 2. So many hard-hitting and grimy trap bangers from one of the best rappers of this century. I decided to go down a similar route and choose my favorite single from the project, Black Flag Freestyle featuring That Mexican OT, most known right now for his unorthodox rapping style from his hit song "Johnny Dang". And let's start there, because holy moly does OT go hard on this type of beat. His iconic rolling of his Rs will always go hard. But I feel like Denzel's lyricism and OT's flow work well enough together to create one of the bangeriest of bangers that have ever banged. I love that Denzel decided to just do a simple trap banger album after releasing what some would argue was his most mature and best album. Gotta love the man!
Fuel
By Eminem
Featuring JID
One of the most foundational rappers for me (and for every white kid nowadays) is Mr. Marshall Mathers aka Eminem. Now if you are like me, Eminem is merely a nostalgic rapper less than he is an actually good rapper, at least in this past decade. Revival is considered one of the worst pieces of music in the past twenty years of music and Kamikaze and Music to be Murdered By are just two albums with an old man yelling at air and rapping really fast. There are certain tracks from this era that I like still to this day, but even I can admit that I feel that Eminem had fallen off. After four years, Em finally released a brand new album, doing what he knows best, look back to the past for inspiration aka "killing off" Slim Shady, his alter ego. While I have to say that I liked this album a bit more than other Em records of the recent past, it was still hit or miss. Fuel was no miss. It hit me harder than a fry pan. Fuel is the long-awaited collaboration between Eminem and JID, one of the best lyricists and rappers of the current era. JID obviously slides through his verse but fortunately Em matches with his verse. His "R-A-P-E-R, got so many SAs / wait he didn't just spell the word rapper without a P, did he (Diddy)?" double entendre, of which he is most known for, is chef's kiss awesome. Made me feel like a kid again but also genuinely a great track.
Girl, so confusing remix
By charli xcx
Featuring Lorde
This is the brattiest song that has ever bratted on the album brat. All jokes aside, when it came to charli's album this year, it actually wasn't that hard to pick a song from charli that I loved out of them all. For some reason, it was the remix that got to the top. The Girl, so confusing remix is probably one of the best songs of the year for me, which might be surprising to some, but if you have listened to the song, you would understand. It's a perfect remix, because it does something that is the sole purpose of a remix that not a lot of remixes do recently: they enhance the original song. The original was rumoured at the time to be about Lorde and charli's relationship with that particular artist...and guess who is on the remix? Lorde's inclusion does more than confirm the song's message, as the song lets both artists air out how they felt about each other. Now, I am the least qualified to talk about the whole charli-Lorde timeline, but I can sorta infer about what was happening between the two. It's super personal to the point that it almost put me in tears when I first listened to the song. Lorde's verse still brings me chills when I hear it. It sounds weird to say, but in a lot of ways, I do relate to certain moments of the song (does that make me brat? let me know in the comments below). Again, that is why that song is going to be most likely top five of the year for me...
but there is one more song we have to talk about...and we all know what this song is.
Psst
I SEE DEAD PEOPLE
NOT LIKE US
BY KENDRICK LAMAR
NOT LIKE US
I mean like...c'mon. If there is one song that everyone is talking about that came out this summer, it's this one. Not Like Us is a monumental song by the GOAT Kendrick "K.Dot" Lamar who, if you don't know, went toe-to-toe with Drake in a historic rap beef that rivals old time beefs such as Jay-Z and Nas and even 2pac and Biggie. For my take on the beef, I was always sorta on the Kendrick side of things. I like Kendrick's music more (tho even to this day, there are still some Drake bangers I listen to), but who would have known that a beef that was only relegated to subliminals for the past decade or so would intensify this fast in such little time. I would go down the rabbit hole, but that's a lot of writing. Not Like Us is the banger of the diss tracks that came from either side. Sure, you could argue that Drake's tracks are more "mainstream" but Not Like Us combines a mainstream West Coast-style banger instrumental with memorable punchlines and Kendrick's genius lyricism (the Certified Lover Boy Certified Pedophile and "a-minor" lines will be ingrained in my mind till the day I die). It's such a successful track that Kendrick played the song 7 TIMES in a row at one of his concerts and no one (including myself) complained. We simply sang along and crip-danced all over Drake's grave. RIP Drake.
Annnnnnnnnnnd, that's my list of favorite songs from the summer! I hope you found some hidden gems in here and if I missed a song, let me know! My instagram is juice_aka_hugo_05 and this was DJ Hugonius ZZer and I will see you in the next post!
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