It has long been the case for Lil Wayne collaborators that the time they spend in the MC’s orbit can be some of the most inspired or fruitful of their careers. But imagine for a moment the perspective of someone like Mannie Fresh, accomplished DJ and producer, engine of the late-’90s/early-2000s Cash Money Records hit parade, and the man whose beats helped Wayne realize his potential as an MC. “I always start Wayne projects or songs like it’s my last day on earth,” Fresh tells Apple Music. “Because he is so important to rap, plus he is a real rap-rock star.” Their latest collaboration, Fresh’s *Lil Wayne: The Mix Before Tha VI*, is an Apple Music-exclusive DJ mix celebrating the impending arrival of Wayne’s *Carter VI* album. In true Mannie Fresh fashion, the set features a wealth of Wayne classics artfully arranged alongside the music that inspired some of those songs, spliced with a few curveballs Fresh threw in to keep even diehard Wayne stans engaged. “I try to listen to the records from a DJ point of view as well as a fan, \[because\] I want to make you feel good about new music,” he says. “I never, ever feel like \[I’m\] finished, because he always make me want to go harder every project.”
After 2018’s *Glory Sound Prep*, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Jon Bellion stepped back from releasing music of his own. He still wrote and produced for other artists like Justin Bieber, Maroon 5, and Jonas Brothers, and headed up his label Beautiful Mind Records, which has released albums by the likes of Tori Kelly. He also became a dad—an experience, he tells Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, that sparked a realization. “You start to realize, ‘The father is wildly important in the home,’” he says. “You hear that, you believe that—and then you have children, and you’re like, ‘Oh, my God.’” Across *FATHER FIGURE*—Bellion’s first full-length in seven years—the Long Island-born pop alchemist comes to grips with fatherhood’s enormity while also appreciating the way that living life apart from the day-to-day artist grind has opened up his creativity. Now fully independent (*FATHER FIGURE* is his first album on his own label), Bellion is striking out in directions that, he feels, he wouldn’t have even found if he hadn’t gone on hiatus from performing. “My music has grown and matured in a way that would have never happened if I didn’t walk away from the artistry for a little bit,” he says. The massive task of nurturing young humans in a chaotic world hangs over the album, giving urgency to Bellion’s innovatively constructed, genre-fluid compositions. On the jittery “MODERN TIMES,” a reggae-tinged collaboration with jazz savant Jon Batiste, Bellion laments those who “got some money and lost \[their\] sense of mind.” The stripped-down “WHY,” a collaboration with Luke Combs, questions love’s existential purpose—“If the higher I fly is the further I fall/Then why love anything at all?” they wail on the chorus. The sinewy “RICH AND BROKE” brings the listener inside Bellion’s mind during an earthquake’s immediate aftermath. It combines breakbeats, sirens, and fractured choirs, creating a maelstrom that underscores what feels like the album’s statement of purpose: “Had a big chain ’round my neck/That I worked for my whole life/But the first thought was my kids.” While most of the album operates with what Bellion calls a “very gorilla energy of the masculine,” its last track, the luminous lullaby “MY BOY,” punctures that concept. “Fit inside these arms forever, ’cause the world’s not all it’s cracked up to be,” he croons to the child he’s holding, and the racing thoughts he confesses to God expand on that: “I hate the weakness of showin’ my son what makes me sad,” he raps. But with that vulnerability, he notes, a stronger bond is formed: “He said a present father is worth way more than a perfect dad.” *FATHER FIGURE* wrestles with masculinity, fatherhood, and culture bravely and with gusto, with Bellion’s ever-evolving artistry and hunger for the truth fueling his desire to get even more real.
As a condition of the New Orleans rap legend’s supervised release from prison in 2023, a federal judge in Louisiana ruled that the artist born Christopher Dorsey would have to allow the government to approve his lyrics going forward. (He’d served 11 years of a 14-year sentence, having pled guilty in 2011 to two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice.) It wasn’t the first time a rapper’s lyrics were used against him in the courtroom (see the State of Georgia v. YSL Records trial of 2023-2024), a seeming infringement upon First Amendment rights which the former Hot Boy doesn’t shy away from emphasizing on his first solo album since 2009. “I want to tell them stories, but I ain’t ’bout to risk it,” B.G. rasps in his familiar drawl on the fiery title track, on which he shouts out Young Thug, urges young rappers to learn from his mistakes, and stoically reaffirms, “Through it all, I hold my head up.”
After almost four years in prison, Flint, Michigan, rapper Rio Da Yung OG returned in early 2025 with his first project since incarceration: *RIO FREE*. Despite the prolonged absence, the MC, who has been a staple in the Wolverine State since 2019, picks up right where he left off before lockup. On the project, he’s not inclined to harp too intensely on the years lost to prison, instead reiterating that his status has remained unaffected despite his presence missing from the streets. On opener “Yung OGee,” he marvels at his status in the hood, his independent streak, and his ability to cook up a mixtape in less than an hour. He allows for some introspection, though, on “RIO FREE,” spitting over a mournful piano melody, reminiscing on the highs and lows of life in prison. He brags that the guards never found his phone (he hid it in some lotion) but also takes a moment to offer up a striking admission, a pain that clouds the celebration of his freedom: “I just did four years,” he raps. “I’m a lonely man.”
SAILORR, aka Jacksonville, Florida-raised Kayla Le, has built a world that is equal parts vulnerable and protected—sacred but open for visitors. On her full-length debut, she bridges these conflicting tendencies with ease, placing her diaristic songwriting and hilarious social commentary against a backdrop of smooth R&B and alt-pop. She moves from delicate croons that touch on her refusal to shave her legs for a bum partner to a Florida-inspired rap flow about soft-girl summers. Highs, lows, and seemingly every emotion in between: SAILORR owns them all on *FROM FLORIDA’S FINEST*. Her ability to convey these feelings so honestly and relatably comes from her unique perspective as a cultural commentator. “I think that, in general, memes play a large role in how we communicate with others,” she tells Apple Music. “It\'s a very universal thing. I really, really love just being able to be vulnerable with what I’m saying, but also kind of mask it with comedy.” Many of the lowest points of the album find SAILORR employing this “laugh to keep from crying” mentality. “That’s just how I deal with my own emotions. And so, if I can find a fun way to say something, I’ll do that,” she explains. SAILORR is never one to wallow in her despair, though, even on tracks like “DOWN BAD.” “I feel like genuinely that song just perfectly encapsulates what real love will do to a person,” she says. Despite the ecstasy of love, it was a real challenge for her to embody this mindset, which helps illustrate just how much SAILORR has grown since her emergence in 2023: “It’s actually so much easier to write a heartbreak song over a love song. I feel like it’s so much harder to be vulnerable in that way, to be like, ‘Oh, I’m in love, and I’m happy now.’”
As you’re by now well aware, the host city for Super Bowl LIX is New Orleans, which gives us a chance to celebrate a region with one of the most storied legacies in the history of Black music. New Orleans hip-hop, specifically, is so rich with culture and originality, you’d be doing yourself a severe disservice by trying to get the story from just one person. Which is exactly why we’ve enlisted four(!) of our favorite NOLA-based DJs to deliver sets highlighting New Orleans the way they hear it. We’ve got masterfully seasoned mixes from the engine of Cash Money Records himself, superproducer Mannie Fresh, the man who orchestrated the sound of No Limit’s ’90s dominance, KLC The Drum Major, one of the area’s foremost remixers and bounce experts, Streetz 100.3’s DJ Poppa, and a woman who knows exactly what’s moving in the city right now, Player’s Ball founder Legatron Prime. These are people who know New Orleans hip-hop and who’ll have you wanting to visit the city long after the big game’s final whistle is blown. Make time for them all—we promise you won’t regret it.
After a prodigious 2024 run, which included a late-in-the-year joint project with Kalan.FrFr, Sacramento rap star Mozzy took only a few short months before putting out his next full-length. Not unlike his reflective 2022 album *Survivor’s Guilt*, the 18-track *INTRUSIVE THOUGHTS* doesn’t shy away from the trials and tribulations that drive some of his most memorable recordings. On cuts like the unfiltered “UNDER OATH,” he doles out truths on his own terms, laying waste to those who fail to live by the hood code or, perhaps worse, flaunt it without regard. He dismisses pocket watchers and cautions the opps on the ominous “KATTA CLIPS,” proudly standing on his principles for the existentially broader “KEEP CALLIN MY NAME.” That clear commitment to street-level ethics extends to some of his invited guests too, namely EST Gee on “DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR” and Polo G on “WHO WANT WAR.” As locked in with his contemporaries as he is, Mozzy also recognizes the Californian hip-hop lineage that precedes him on “PAC PROUD” and “HELLA HYPHY.”
When Casyo “Krept” Johnson and Karl “Konan” Wilson released mixtape *Young Kingz* in 2013, it set a Guinness World Record for the highest-charting album by an unsigned act. By 2015, their full debut *The Long Way Home* saw them collaborating with Ed Sheeran, Skepta, and Wiz Khalifa. Ten years later, the Croydon rap duo, who met when they were teenagers, evolve further with *Young Kingz II*, a raw and reflective album full of playful lyrics and emotional moments. “There’s so much to talk about, so the album’s developed over a few years,” Krept tells Apple Music. “Things have changed and lots has happened and we want to document it all. We just create whatever feels natural at the time and then you have the process of having to narrow it down, thinking, ‘What flows through the album? What makes the most sense?’” Krept & Konan are keen to uplift those around them, whether it’s new artists or their local community: Shortly before the release of *Young Kingz II*, they opened their own supermarket, Saveways, to create jobs in Croydon and bring a diverse range of affordable food to people. It’s an inspiring attitude and standing up for others is something the duo wanted to continue on *Young Kingz II*. “Having a voice for people, our friends that are in situations, is important,” says Konan. “We just want people to feel human after they’ve listened to the album and realize we’ve all got different emotions, which we’ve tried to tap into here. We want to take you on a journey. I think this album is like going back to the essence of Krept & Konan, how a lot of people first heard of us. So the origin of the hunger and trying to make it in the scene and breaking out of the doors, but now we’re in a new chapter.” The 18 tracks were recorded in London, Hertfordshire, and Jamaica and encompass many different styles, plus collaborations with Ghetts, Chip, and Popcaan, so it’s a journey with plenty of ups, downs, and beats that go off. Read on as the duo talks Apple Music through 10 key tracks. **“100 Mistakes” (Konan Solo)** Konan: “This song is like a psychotherapy session. I’m talking to myself about everything that’s going on, realizing who I am and being open. Hopefully, it helps other artists coming up to hear that after everything we’ve done, we still feel like this. All we do as artists, and you might get those flowers, but you can’t always rely on other people to give them to you, so you’ve just got to do it for yourself. I feel like it sets the tone for the album—people will know we’re going to be talking about some real stuff and there’s going to be a lot of reflecting.” **“Low Vibrations”** Krept: “‘Low Vibrations’ is a track that is exactly what it says on the tin. We don’t want anyone to come around here with the low vibrations. You can see that vibe in the video, where we’re with our friends celebrating. Everyone around us was having fun. In this life and in this industry, there are a lot of things that can be negative, so we just wanted to create that song that makes you feel good. It felt like that was needed. We’re coming out of our ring with no bad vibe and no bad energy.” **“How Many Times”** Krept: “It’s a song for the mandem and it’s got a laid-back, cool vibe. You’ll not really hear me on a song like that, so it was good to try it. It’s simple, there’s not too much going on with the beat in terms of the drum snares and hi-hats. It just feels so relaxing because it’s something that I don’t usually do, and I feel like I’ve done it well on that song. We’re always open to just trying things out on songs and there might be some stuff that will never see the light of day.” **“Bedroom” (feat. Sizzla)** Konan: “‘Bedroom’ was a wild card, to be fair. And then for the beat, we were just thinking about who we could collaborate with that would make it sound different. And Sizzla came to mind. It was gold from there. When we make songs, it’s not forced—we just make the music and it’s like the album creates itself.” Krept: “People are not going to be expecting that from Sizzla when they hear it, which makes the song quite special.” **“Nala’s Song” (Krept Solo)** Krept: “This song is so important for me because I’d love my daughter, Nala, to have something of me. She can always go back and listen to some words from her dad. Music is something I love and always will love, so being able to give that to my daughter in hard form forever and actually giving her life lessons and some gems is special—I wish someone had done it for me when I was younger. Now when I play it to her, she knows the ‘baby girl’ line, but as she grows older, she’ll understand how deep the song is. I’m also appreciating her mum \[health and beauty influencer Sasha Ellese\], who’s carried my child into this world on that journey that us men didn’t have to go through.” **“Delroy’s Son” (Konan Solo)** Konan: “This song’s about my dad \[late reggae star Delroy Wilson\]. It was a difficult one, so I wrote it in parts. When I listen back, I do get a bit choked up. I had a lot to get off my chest, but being transparent in the music, especially on a song like that, is important. There’s a line in there about when were playing one of our shows at Brixton Academy and, just as we were going on stage my mum said, ‘The last time I was here, your dad was on.’ It’s a sick experience to perform in the same place as my dad. With the hardships of the industry, I feel like he didn’t get his flowers. But now it feels like I’m completing my dad’s work.” **“Kilimanjaro” (feat. Oxlade)** Konan: “This was the last song we made and it feels like what was missing from the project. We needed that ‘G Love’ or ‘Freak of the Week’ kind of vibe. I shouted a couple of producers saying, ‘Just send me beats,’ then I was like, ‘This is the one.’ Once we’d got the beats, I was thinking about who could deliver what we wanted and I couldn’t come up with anything myself, so I shouted Oxlade. He was on tour at the time, so we messaged on Instagram and exchanged numbers and he filmed himself singing it and, as he was playing it in the background, he was smiling and saying, ‘This is a hit.’ And I was like, ‘Say no more.’” **“Smooth Lovin” (feat. Popcaan)** Konan: “‘Smooth Lovin’ is one of the first songs that we had for the album. We’d already done a song with Popcaan \[‘Freak of the Week (Remix)’\], which was a bit more street. As soon as we started the album I said, ‘Yo, I need another one, bro.’ We had the beats for a while, trying to figure out who we wanted to do the song with, and Popcaan helped to make it something more light-hearted and more summery with that Caribbean feel.” **“Rage” (feat. Ghetts)** Krept: “‘Rage’ was done in stages. We already had the beat and we were working on it at Geejam Studios in Jamaica. It’s one of those beats that just makes you want to go crazy. It was like, ‘Who else could we get on this that is able to come with this much venom?’ Ghetts was the perfect person for it. So we sent him the song, and straightaway he made his verse. He sent the video back to me and you know when you screw up your face like, ‘Yeah’? That’s how the song came about, and everybody just went crazy on the beat.” **“Last Cards” (feat. Michael Ward)** Konan: “‘Last Cards’ was originally meant to be the title of the album because, when we were making it, we thought it would be the last one on the label. That was the concept behind it. And then we ended up getting out of that situation into a new situation \[*Young Kingz II* is on Krept & Konan’s own label, Play Dirty\]. Then we didn’t want to confuse people and make them think, ‘Ah, it’s their last album ever.’ It just happened to be the 10-year anniversary of *Young Kingz*. It made more sense, like a full-circle moment.” Krept: “You know we’re not the youngest kings, we scratched out the young on the artwork because we’ve \[been through\] a lot of maturity and growth in the last 10 years. But I think what we’ve done in this space and time, respectfully I feel like we can call ourselves kings.”
If New Orleans MC Rob49’s *Let Me Fly* was an IRL coming-out party, it’s likely one you wouldn’t be able to get into. Just look at who showed up to pay homage: The album has features from Lil Wayne, Cardi B, Fridayy, Meek Mill, Sexyy Red, Quavo, G Herbo, YTB Fatt, and Polo G, and an increasingly rare appearance from Cash Money Records impresario Bryan “Birdman” Williams, who pops up just to talk shit between a few Rob49 verses (“Get the Picture,” “JetWifi”). Artists—as well as fans—love Rob49, and not just for his impossible-to-see-coming runaway smash “WTHELLY.” The MC has plenty to offer, and he offers plenty of it across *Let Me Fly*’s 22 tracks. There are songs for war (“Get the Picture,” “Supposedly,” “On Sight”), for celebrating (“BLOUSIN,” “High or What”), for repenting (“Hear Me Momma”), for those in need of motivation (“Pick Your Poison,” “Widebody”), for women who think he’s sexy (“So Sexyy,” “I Swear to God,” “Tell Nobody”), for the dawgs locked away (“Where I’m From”), and a few for day-one Rob49 fans (“Wassam Baby,” “Off Dat Drank”). He’s got an authentic New Orleans accent and a voice with the kind of bass young men used to emulate when they wanted to sound cool over the phone. And to be fair, Rob49 does sound cool. And unbothered. And like someone you wouldn’t want to piss off. Basically, he is the rap superstar archetype.
Canadian rapper Raz Fresco has often drawn upon fashion for inspiration, evidenced by projects like *Deluxe Hilfiger Regalia* and *Gorgeous Polo Sportsmen*. A sequel to the latter of those albums, *Stadium Lo Champions* nods to the coveted Polo Ralph Lauren collection from 1992 as it properly reunites him with Toronto producer Futurewave. Together, they make a sonically stylish pair, lacing rugged yet lush boom-bap-indebted instrumentals with intricately layered and dexterously delivered rhymes. While Fresco’s catalog includes solid work with the likes of DJ Muggs and Nicholas Craven, he sounds particularly on point when locked in with this kindred hip-hop spirit for tracks like “Mind Light” and the sublimely beat-free “Tesla Tower Power.” Another of the rapper’s repeat collaborators, Daniel Son, steps into the ring for “Steve Austin,” while grimy Massachusetts spitters Estee Nack and al.divino take pride in the hustle on the international exchange “Alpaca.”
As the first woman to sign to Drake’s OVO Sound label, Dutch singer-songwriter Naomi Sharon wasted no time in matching the high expectations set for her debut album, *Obsidian*, released in 2023. With her EP *The Only Love We Know*, Sharon aims to exceed them, diving into the emotional complexity of moving on from experiences that no longer serve your happiness. Jordan Ullman (of R&B duo Majid Jordan fame) helms production with assists from talent such as Alex Lustig (Drake, Lil Wayne) and hitmaker Justin Tranter—who applies their polished pop pen to “Can We Do This Over”—crafting a solid base of intricate but spacious instrumentals for Sharon’s spotless vocals to build on. “Bittersweet” calls for her to echo and boom with rich reverb; with “Soft Like Dawn” she allows it to float and drift over a haunting bassline sweetened by soothing guitar riffs. Sharon saves the best for last, powering the dynamic energy of the title track with stacked choral harmonies that soar above the steady, linear percussion of the otherwise unobtrusive beat. *The Only Love We Know* may deal in the language of letting go, but Sharon’s arresting performances compel the listener to stick around for more.
