Okay, we’ll admit it: We’re still hung over from celebrating after our stellar “Hitmakers” event last night — a virtual party that basically turned into a virtual mini-awards show with appearances from Harry Styles, Billie Eilish, Lil Baby and many more. Congrats to the honorees, and if you missed it, you can catch the whole thing here:
Also, we took last week off for the holiday, and while it wasn’t a big week for songs, there were a pair of big albums released — Bad Bunny and Miley Cyrus — along with Shawn Mendes’ latest this week, and of course The Weeknd’s remix of “Blinding Lights,” featuring Rosalía.
Lil Baby “Errbody” In a surprise release for his 26th birthday, Atlanta’s own Lil Baby dropped a pair of songs and videos — and while we like both of them equally and neither gets into the social-justice themes of his “The Bigger Picture,” which earned him Variety’s Hitmakers Voice of Impact award — “Errbody” gets the nod by a nose for the power of his flow on the song.
Popular on Variety
Juice WRLD with Benny Blanco “Real Shit” Two years after Juice WRLD’s death from an accidental overdose at the age of just 21, it’s remarkable how much material he left in the vault — and how strong a lot of it is, like this tag-team with superproducer Benny Blanco, an updated version of what is apparently the first song they ever recorded together. Juice’s voice is at his strongest here, rap-singing with a punk-pop power over a trap beat, but the hardest part is hearing how often he sings, “Life’s good, life’s great.” Blanco went deep about the song in an Instagram post that accompanied the release.
Enny (featuring Jorja Smith) “Peng Black Girls” (remix) We don’t usually go for remixes here, but we missed this stellar self-affirming song on its first go-round a few weeks ago and it now includes one of our favorite young singers, Jorja Smith. While we love Jorja’s verse, we’re also posting the video of the original version, which is a beautiful statement on how a person can embrace more than one culture.
Melii (featuring 6lack) “You Ain’t Worth It” There’s nothing like a good kiss-off song, and Harlem-based singer-rapper Melii delivers here, accompanied by R&B singer 6lack — and, well, the photo kinda says it all. Fans of Summer Walker’s “Over It” will fall for this one.
Yuna “Dance Like No One’s Watching” Compared with some of the heavier songs above — not to mention the psyche-crushing events of 2020 — sometimes you just need a song that just feels good. Malaysian singer Yuna, who can certainly serve up serious fare, just goes for the groove with this song about, yep, dancing like no one’s watching.
