Songs Of The Summer 2023

The songs that defined and filled the air for the summer of 2023

1. Sexyy Red “Pound Town” / “SkeeYee"

For the people who don’t leave the house, hustle at that job everyday, or just don’t enjoy fun this is the last set of songs you want to hear. As a rapper Sexyy is simple and effective, she came for 2 reasons and both of them are all she talks about; money and having fun mostly by shaking ass and taking home whoever she wants. The beats are cavernous and equally simple creating a universe that only her style of frivolous and raunchy strip club ready rapping could fill. As much as she is a meme she’s also a star in the mold of Cardi B; a strip club queen turned internet darling who knows what she does and doubles down on it whether she’s side by side with Travi$ Scott or sliding on tour dates with Drake. But what seperates her from Cardi is that she isn’t (yet) doing things to appeal to wider audiences. The entire Hood Princess mixtapes is not meant for middle American consumption the way Cardi’s “Be Careful” is. It doesn’t aim for international crossover the way “I Like It” succeeded to do. It’s something for the streets, made by someone who has no interest in leaving them.

2. Gunna “Fukumean”

Claims of whether or not Gunna is a snitch and how the hip-hop community at large would accept him in the aftermath fall to the wayside with the one thing that cures all hatred and woes; a hit. Something about extra bouncy 808’s just hits the serotonin receptors in ways man has not found the proper words for. Toss on a choir that can act as a call to your friends across the room and you have a hit on your hands that not even a near life altering prison sentence can change. In the context of this comeback album “fukumean” hits even better than as a standalone record, with a transition into the equally inviting “rodeo dr.” tickling those same receptors all over again. Has Gunna had bigger songs? For sure. But having anything reach this level after a year where your world revolved around being shuttled from cold prison cells and to media filled courtrooms, all applause is good applause.

3. Veeze “Not A Drill” / “GOMD”

Are you half drunk in the club right now? Good. Are you in the backseat of someone you just met Nissan Altima hotboxing like it isn’t a lease? Good. Are you dozing off after you’ve been up working for 18 hours and your homeboy just asked you to hit a house party with him and your friends, of which you know you’ll say yes to? Good. In all of these scenarios you have more energy and coherent verbal skills than Detroit's newest superstar Veeze, but until you reach his level of either exhaustion or drug abuse you won’t hit the punches just right in these songs. This is all the draw of Veeze, a one of one bar focused MC that has sleep walked his way into the best album of the year to this point. The intro “Fire Drill” and standout deep cut “GOMD” feature nonstop swarms of lyrics that if you just mumble along to them no one will know you don’t know the words, but if you manage to keep up you’ll appreciate his sly wit. “My closet like a fucking clothing store i need a cash register”. “She got on Bottega purse and feet, it look like bamboo leaf”. “Watch me pour this red in this Big Blue, watch me set trip”. “I don’t got change for twenty, twenty ain’t nothing but change”. And on, and on, and on.

4. That Mexican OT feat. Paul Wall & DRODi “Johnny Dang”

Verse one is such a fun singalong moment that in a perfect world there is a hip-hop version of James Cordon’s Carpool Karaoke (let’s make it LA radio legend himself Big Boy) where an entire van is full of not only OT, Paul, DRODi and Dang himself but enough guys with Edgar cuts that you feel like you’re at a real Texas flea market. OT has been a breakout star with this record pushing his bowling ball smile to every timeline and Lonestar Luchadore making sure that smile gets brighter and brighter. His style has the deep booming country drawl of a Republican congressman, the tenacity of NBA Youngboy and the unintentional humor of Kevin Gates. Also, never to be forgotten is Paul Wall reminding the world that once upon a time he held the Championship Belt for Coldest White Boy In The South (bridging the gap between Jason Williams and Tim Tebow) with one of the best guest verses of the year. 

5. Baby Keem & Kendrick Lamar “The Hillbillies”

Sometimes shit is supposed to be just fun. A concept that has been the hardest for Kendrick to master is doing records with no weight attached. Even lead joints from his most party friendly project DAMN. (which, for that to be your most barbecue ready is saying something in itself) like “LOYALTY.” and “HUMBLE.” lack the straightforward wordplay and conceptual lightness of “The Hillbillies”. Flipping a Bon Iver sample and being tagged as a remix of Drake's “Sticky” provide the kind of oddity that can keep an auteur like Kendrick interested while still being simple enough for a crowd pleaser like Baby Keem to smile across. The cousins spend 3 minutes twitching and weaving between one another flexing about designer clothing, modes of travel and women with no end in sight like an aberrant Migos record. “range brothers” and “family ties” hit similar strides as this but neither have the straightforward bounce and sing along quotables quite like this.

6. Young Nudy feat. 21 Savage “Peaches & Eggplants”

Not only is yelling “bwah bwah bwah bwah” in a Young Nudy voice fun as hell, there may not have been a more concentrated collection of ass tattoos in a single music video in all of human history. Another notch on the belt of 21 Savage's recent feature run is helping propel Nudy in the zeitgeist of hip-hop with one of the few true hits of the year from an album full of songs fit for Spotify Playlists and DJ mixes. It just so happens to double as the unofficial theme music for dudes who want to hold up the wall blowing down backwoods while women dance on them which is really what summer is all about.

7. 41 feat. TaTa “Fetty”

A creeping intro and bouncy 808’s, a pad soft enough to wrap a baby around and a flute as powerful as a siren song are the components of an NY Drill earworm that is as distant from traditional drill rules as one could get without being a whole new sound. TaTa and his agro delivery isn’t the kind of overdone and fearsome growl that brings floors shaking like Kay Flock, but it isn’t alluring the way Pop Smoke mastered once upon a time, but rather a spine chilling third thing that makes you feel like not dancing will get you jumped faster than overdoing it on the floor. Short, sweet, and more distinctive than anything else the scene has produced outside of Ice Spice with a barrage of voices and verses that keeps the tune pumping, begging to be ran back again and again.

8. Lil Yachty “Strike (Holster)”

Let’s Start Here is a great project, with great songs, and even a hit and half that should be blared at every day party from Miami to LA in “drive me crazy”, but it’s a Yves Tumor and Little Dragon influenced record that leans into indie rock and psychedelia instead of traditional hip-hop. Instead, as a quick reminder to the offput fans and critics, Yachty shows he's still one of the best around at making purely great rap songs. “Strike” was released and repackaged a couple times across this year (once with “Solo Steppin’ Crete Boy”, a song that alone is almost big enough to overtake “Strike” for this article) and hits every piece of Yachty that the rap fans love and the enjoys of LSH can meet in the middle on; subtle vocal runs, shout outs to mushrooms, lean and weaponry and a beat that ebbs and flows like a moonlit ocean. It’s a short and sweet reminder of the greatness of Lil Yachty while playing centerfield to all of his fans and expectations at once.

9. Niontay “Thank Allah”

Florida rap has had a handful of micro-smashes that the world will never hear north of Jacksonville house parties, but Niontay, a Kissimmee Florida transplant running side by side with MIKE, Sideshow, Na-Kel Smith & 454 across Europe and the underground circuit has a hit buried on his full length debut Dontay’s Inferno. Reminiscent in a way of the world beating Kodak Black single “No Flockin’", it’s 3 minutes of rapping and rapping and more rapping. The beat is tense and drumless until the last 30 seconds with a hyperactive baseline and high speed laser sounds acting as the only groove. In this space Niontay introduces himself to the world and thanking the most high on giving him another day to live as he always has.

10. Ice Spice & Nicki Minaj “Barbie World”

Every few months something happens in music that grabs the attention of everyone, micro-culture and bubbles be damned. But as the world progresses and technology advances we stray further and further from these moments happening with everyone aware that it’s happening (how many of you knew Morgan Wallen had a song that was not only #1 on the BIllboard charts, but it’s also about to break the record for longest running #1 ever?). Yet the Barbie move still prevails on every level of entertainment fandom from music, to film, to TV, to podcasting, to politics. So it’s only fitting that the theme song that has accompanied the ads and endless TikToks in relation to the film has been equally everlasting, but luckily it’s just as fun as it is a serendipitous crossover of elements. What is more perfect than two of the most powerful women in hip-hop (one who calls her fans Barbz, the other an admitted Barb herself) coming together over a drill flip of a song that was once a mega-hit about the main character of the movie. Some things are just meant to be.

 

11. Drake “Search & Rescue” / “On The Radar Freestyle”

A BYNX tag on the front of your song alone may guarantee you a hit this year but Drake does his best to give us the crooning and fawning that has been missing from his last few records. Honestly, Nevermind is amazing but Drake is an accent more than the star, and the quick swoons on“Her Loss don’t fulfill the title's promises of recovering from heartbreak in stride. Longing for Kim Kardashian while a few weeks later rapping like a man possessed with one of the biggest potential cross-pond-stars the UK has produced in a generation is enough to hold the world over and remind everyone of the skills laying in arms reach while his tour rages across the US. 

12. Devin Malik “Link Ducker”

Since apparently being one of the backbones for Isaiah Rashad's immaculate The House Is Burning wasn’t enough, Devin Malik has chosen to up the stakes by taking the beatmaker to rapper path. Going from successful producer to successful rapper is easier than it was 20 years ago (everyone take a moment and thank Kanye) but sometimes the barriers to break are too easy. Devin isn’t saying anything that matters, but he knows for someone with these lyrical handicaps keeping the verse short and sweet can never go wrong (everyone take a moment and remind Pi’erre Bourne of this in his IG comments or something). Every playlist needs a joint that can knock the review mirror out of place, and for the rest of these 90+ degree days, this will be mine.

13. Anycia “So What (Snippet)”

To be an unofficial release and still have my life on lock in this way should be illegal. A true crime on multiple accounts, the largest of which being not an indictment on Anycia but on the industry as a whole. After a GoPro video of Anycia and her friends went viral (peep here) with the Popstar Benny produced loosie playing over top, the hope was for an immediate release of a full version to streamers or at least Youtube / Souncloud. But for the proper push to be given to a record that by all means checks the boxes for a smash (1. Tapping in on the female MC Renaissance 2. Sample of an older hit record with Field Mob’s  “So What” 3. Quotables and IG captions to last a whole summer 4. Tapping in with a producer buzzing across the underground but waiting for a major star to tap in to break the seal) the business side needs to be considered. Going from borderline obscurity to viral overnight isn’t the dream for every aspiring artist, but it speeds up the timeline. Whenever this song is pushed to the public it’ll mean Anycia is set up with a proper team to send it to the moon with her riding on the comet.

14. Young Thug feat. Drake “Oh U Went”

Things you never realize you want more of until you have them; good candles, a friend who bakes a lot, and Young Thug over samples. For as adventurous as the Thug catalog gets samples are few and far between, and for this blue moon moment he shows out tying together couplets with ease as hazy The Stylistics loop sings backup. A drive by Drake verse and a music video getting up close and personal with the everyday people of Atlanta hits all the marks of what a good warm wind feeling you feel as this plays out your speakers. 

15. Nippa “Maddest Hoes”

Nippa does the same kind of tightrope walking between rap and R&B that Blxst and Don Toliver have mastered but with a more pure R&B tone in his vocals that neither have touched. The UK singer goes at length mostly repeating the same sentiment in different ways; The girls he stays with are fine and come by the dozens, yours on the other hand, not so much. It’s a simple bounce that slides right into any situation.

Honorable Mentions

Earl Sweatshirt “Danity Kane”

Don Toliver feat. Teezo Touchdown “Luckily I’m Having”

Planet Giza feat. Saba “WYD” 

Kaytramine feat. Pharrell “4Eva” 

YL “Open Arms”

Listen to all of these songs here: Spotify

Written By: Anthony Seaman (@soflogemstone on IG & Twitter)