For the week of Oct 28th, we have new music from Rihanna, Smino, and Westside Gunn.
Rihanna
Whew, after six long awaited years, Rihanna has released a new song, “Lift Me Up”, from the ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ soundtrack. The song serves as a tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman, who died of colon cancer in August 2020 at the age of 43. Nigerian singer Tems co-wrote the song along with Rihanna, Ludwig Göransson and director Ryan Coogler. Tems shared in a press release, “I wanted to write something that portrays a warm embrace from all the people that I’ve lost in my life. I tried to imagine what it would feel like if I could sing to them now and express how much I miss them.” Rihanna teased the track on Thursday with a snippet of the song and caption, “lift me up 10.28.22”.
Westside Gunn
Buffalo, NY rapper, Westside Gunn, is ending his Hitler Wears Hermes series of mixtapes with his latest mixtape, 10. The twelve-track album has various artist features including but not limited to Dj Drama, A$AP Rocky, Black Star, Raekwon, and Ghostface Killah. 10 serves as a follow up to Peace ‘Fly’ God which Westside dropped back in July. The Griselda Records artist is currently working on his fifth studio album, Michelle Records.
Smino
Soulful rapper and singer, Smino released his third studio album, Luv 4 Rent. Released under Motown Records, the fifteen-track album features ten guest appearances some including J.Cole, Doechii, Fatman Scoop, Lil Uzi Vert, and Lucky Daye. Smino’s sound can be described as modern neo-soul with eclectic energy. On October 19th, the singer shared that he was having an album listening party: “open house! 🏡 put yall applications in to come hear “Luv 4 Rent” early. 👉🏾swipe👉🏾 for dem details . “