Every week the AFTR PRTY Music Team will be cooking up a 25-song playlist (AFTR PRTY Radio available on Spotify) that encapsulates new releases, relevant artists, and general vibes hand selected by our AFTR PRTY Radio staff. The playlist is timeless and covers a wide variety of genres, showing how influential music can be over time and how major names in the music industry of today constantly draw inspiration from ageless sounds. Here are five tracks featured on AFTR PRTY Radio that stand out for us this week:
“Nobody Love” by 2g.Kaash
Up and coming Texas rapper 2g.Kaash recently dropped his second EP in late-April of this year. The project is called 3300, named after the strip where he grew up in Irving—a mid-sized city just northwest of Dallas. The video for the project’s most popular song, “Nobody Love,” premiered on the same day that the EP was released, and has received a surge of attention over the past couple months (currently standing at approximately 45k views on YouTube).
Though he emits an infectious intensity with songs like “2 Lit” and “Krooked i,” 2g. Kaash reveals his incredible range on “Nobody Love,” which features a tight, melodic flow over a playful beat. Though he just celebrated his 18th birthday last month, 2g.Kaash is slated to accomplish big things as he sets out to put Irving on the map.
"Sossgirl” by Pi’erre Bourne
(Image via Gunner Stahl)
Pi'erre is commonly known for his insane lofi production talent (see his work with Playboi Carti, Kanye West, Travis $cott, Uzi, Young Thug, Drake, etc.), but is rapidly making a name for himself as a serious rapper that needs to be noticed. With the release of The Life of Pi’erre 4 in June of 2019, Atlanta-based producer/rapper Pi’erre Bourne made his major-label debut as a solo act. Though the response from critics was largely underwhelming, TLOP 4 is coveted by hip-hop heads everywhere for its seamless transitions, autotune-drenched vocals, and hypnotic, psychedelic beats. It is clear that everything on the project starts and ends with him--a level of total ownership which seems increasingly rare in the music industry these days. This past Juneteenth, just shy of a year since the project’s original release, Pi’erre dropped the TLOP 4 (Deluxe), blessing fans with 15 new tracks. The man is prolific, to say the least. Though it is unclear what this 15-song deluxe adds to the vision of the original album, it includes some undeniable gems.
“Sossgirl” exemplifies Pi’erre’s signature sound: announced by the classic “Damn, Pi’erre, where’d you find this?,” vocals saturated with autotune bleed effortlessly into airy synths and a bass cloaked in distortion. "Sossgirl" is followed up by "Sossboy" solidifying Pi’erre’s recently launched record label Sosshouse, a subsidiary label of UMG (distributed by Interscope Records) founded by Pi'erre and two college friends (Marko Visuals and Pi'erre's brother/graphic designer AJ Bourne) back in 2014. To the delight of sadboys everywhere, love gone wrong persists as a motif: he croons on the chorus, “I need you right here / By my side, I need you right here / If you got these feelings for me, tell me, yeah / Cause I don’t wan’ be numb again .”
“Long Nights” by 6LACK
6LACK returns with a short-and-sweet release, 6Pc Hot -EP, which includes (you guessed it🤓) 6 new songs from the Atlanta-based R&B artist. While the Lil Baby feature has of course rapidly racked up streams, Ari Lennox’s beautifully blended back-up vocals make “Long Nights” a true standout. Produced by French DJ Stwo, the song features 6LACK’s distinctive vocals—oscillating on a spectrum between rapping and singing—over a moody, mellow beat. The song has the feel of dark liquor on a hot summer night, perfectly accompanied by lyrics which detail a courtship: the first verse kicks off with, “I got a good side, got a bad side, do you wanna find out? / Rollin’ through the city, I’m probably ‘posed to be on time out.”
“Gangstas” by Pop Smoke
On midnight of July 3rd, Brooklyn drill sensation Pop Smoke’s long awaited posthumous album, Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon, hit streaming platforms everywhere. While his feature on Nav’s, “Run it Up” indicated an intriguing new direction, it’s safe to say that much of this album is entirely unexpected--so much so that it almost has a certain shock value (I had no idea who was singing on “For the Night” for the entire first minute of the song). While the project includes some Brooklyn drill staples, Pop Smoke strays from the arena where he first found national attention on many occasions, where he frequently ditches drill for something that most closely resembles pop. I mean… Pop Smoke is literally singing. Sometimes it works surprisingly well (“Yea Yea”), and sometimes it falls drastically short (“Got it On Me”). If one thing is clear, it’s that the industry’s grubby little fingerprints are all over this album; the project is confusing at best and a chaotic mess at worst (three Quavo features? Really?). To quote Alphonse Pierre, this sort of “crass commercialization” is the inevitable result “when a subgenre becomes a cultural sensation.”
However, Pop Smoke’s talent cannot be understated--and still manages to shine through in several moments. “Gangstas” in particular provides a great bridge between this old and new sound.
“Summertime” by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince (contribution from Tye)
July 4th is synonymous with the summer time, and although we don't support the meaning behind the holiday, we definitely celebrate the summer. Cookouts, Barbeques. Pool Parties. All The Above. "Summertime" is the song that everyone knows will get a couple of plays at a 4th of July event. This will always be Will Smith's most memorable song and a holiday classic.
We'd also be foolish not to mention Jada's relationship with August Alsina, and the current rumors that have been spreading about the Smith's relationship. Historically, Jada has had many rumors surrounding her relationship with Tupac, but suspicions are now growing about Jada's history with other men, and even the type of marriage that her and Will Smith are in. Whether true or not, Will has been getting dragged on Twitter (see meme below), so here's a reminder that the Fresh Prince will forever be a legend.
See AFTR PRTY Radio Week 1 full playlist below, and look out for new songs added every Friday 😎
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