5 Writers 5 Summer Slaps
The shit we're gonna bang all summer
I’ll give it to Lil Nas X, “Old Town Road” probably has the song of the summer crown on lock. But, to me, that award should be personal. You know that shit that possesses you like Bobby Shmurda in the “Bobby Bitch” snippet. The song that recharges your summer spirit on the walk home after getting curved in the club. That’s why I hit up four writers I read and trust to each give me the slap that has their hearts for the next two months.
Pop Smoke - “Welcome to the Party”
So far this summer Pop Smoke’s “Welcome to the Party” has East Brooklyn dudes who haven’t taken off their MCM backpack in days and are only months removed from their True Religion phase stepping like they’re playing “Dance, Dance Revolution.” The New York phenomenon is ready to move beyond the city’s Facebook pages. You understand it once you hear the mesmerizing, deep voice of Pop Smoke that sounds like he’s spent 18 of his 19 years killing packs of Newports. The one-liners like, “Bitch I’ma thot get me lit,” and, “Don’t let that henny in my system,” were made to be recited on a day-drunk IG story that will be deleted within three hours. The production is true to Brooklyn’s love of UK drill, with a staticky bass that’s blowing out the speakers of every Nissan Altima in Brooklyn and a pillowy vocal sample that sounds like the song might breakdown into UK garage at any minute. Six months ago Pop Smoke was a Brooklyn enigma, with only one song to his name. Now “Welcome to the Party” is on the verge of making him a household name—the song has even got Cardi B in her bag. It’s Brooklyn’s first true anthem and unifier since Bobby Shmurda threw his fitted in the air.-Alphonse
Nav - “Tap” [ft. Meek Mill]
It’s hard for me to explain why I’ve fallen for Nav’s “Tap.” Its components are insufferable on their own: Meek Mill slamming home the “thumb all in her a-hole” line like his career depends on it, Nav’s nursery-rhyme chorus whose cadence bears the closest resemblance to Bolbi Stroganovsky’s, the way Nav inflects “cage” and “slave” with that robotic twang, sounding like some algorithm’s attempt at a Young Thug imitation. But I think I’ve come to realize that Nav’s best music is, quite frequently, an oddly endearing dumpster fire.
The Nav of today is no longer the steely SoundCloud phantom who racked up plays off the strength of opiated melodies, drawing from the late Speaker Knockerz. Ever since hunkering down with XO to chase RapCaviar placements, Nav has become a soulless caricature of his old self: a rap game Alexa. He tried The Weeknd’s enigmatic cool guy schtick for a while; now, he rates Toronto rappers on Genius. He’s producing less for himself. His voice has become totally sterile.
What hasn’t been scrubbed away, though, is Nav’s sheer absurdity as a writer. Lines that initially made you wish Nav’s voice wasn’t so crystal-clear but now stand as genuine, career-defining moments. Lines about Nav getting head outside a Toys ‘R Us and leaving diamonds in your lip and selling beats at rates that your crush can’t afford. And here’s Nav singing a chorus that goes “tap...tap...tap, tap, tap” with the veneer of a mafioso android. It’s velvety ear candy disguised as the most vexing shit ever, destined to go through that summer lifespan of being annoying, then incredible, then unbearable.
Of course, I’ve also been groomed to like this song. It’s become inescapable. I’ve heard “Tap” in myriad settings in the last few weeks alone: blaring out of car systems in Boston rush hour, in musty basement parties, and on my brown friends’ IG stories while they’re blowing hookah clouds. It’s ridiculous, chantable, infectious. It’s the song of the summer. -Mano Sundaresan
-All drawings by Martine
AMBJAAY - UNO
This one’s for all the late-night taco truck orders—you know, the ones drunkenly mumbled with a few Spanish words from the high school memory bank. Ambjaay is 19 years old, and his latest video “Uno” is racking up numbers like nobody in L.A.’s regional scene since the meat show arrived. Now that the faux-Western wave is dying down, Ambjaay is onto the next, ready to carry us into the summer with some mariachi flair.
If schools weren’t already on summer break, those trash can bangs on “Uno” would have every LAUSD kid thumping lunch tables. The song is rhythmic and chantable, with quotables like “Uno, dos, no tres, she a thot though,” and some more questionable ones like, “Bust on her face, she look like horchata.” Jaay recently told Genius, “Latinos and blacks don’t really be getting along so this song could bring us together.” The track has already inspired viral dance videos and, of course, is a hit with the TikTok kids. Now the question becomes whether the rest of the country will see “Uno” as more than a meme. Even if East Coasters are shouting the hook ironically or not, that won’t disqualify “Uno” from being a hit. -Harley Geffner (Follow Harley on Twitter)
Kamaiyah - “Windows” [ft. Quavo and Tyga]
“Everything that we do gets stolen/If you don't fuck with us, then you really are against us/Motherfuckers stop stealin our culture,” raps Kamaiyah on the Bay’s early contender for song of the summer “Windows.” “Windows” is a testament to the region’s hyphy era of side shows, back when gentrifiers were afraid to take BART. Bay Area heavy hitters like Drew Banga and Trackademicks insert the earth-shaking thumps that can only be honored by shakin’ them dreads in the Town. Rich, Frisco, Vallejo, and even Modesto earn shoutouts on the track, because this shit is for everyone in the Bay, and the culture is here to stay, you feel me. -Taylor Crumpton (Follow Taylor on Twitter)
MOSTACK - “WILD”
In 2016, Drake sailed across the Atlantic to recruit Wizkid for Views, and then again in the following year to enlist Giggs, Skepta, Jorja Smith, and Sampha for More Life. But this summer, DJs have to make their overseas selections themselves—with no Drake collection of B-sides to give them the juice. And you gotta give them credit: they’re trying, even though they’re mad late on everything. I’m begging each and every radio DJ to give “Joanna” a rest.
But if you need to get hip about what’s hot across the pond, I’m here to tell you that MoStack has given us a song of the summer. “Wild.” is hanging out the sunroof music. Stack raps about devouring expensive steaks, getting that blue check on Twitter, and buying new fits over bright keys, synths, and high-pitched claps. The music video has the UK hitmaker posted up with some life-sized teddy bears on top of a parking lot and hitting a dance number on a golf course. “Wild” is about to be stuck in my head all summer. -Brandon Callender (Follow Brandon on Twitter)
Big Love to Martine for the drawings and Dani Blum for making sure I spell words right.