The number of Rihanna comparisons that South Africa's Tyla Seethal has gotten in the last few months are a little daunting. But I get it, because it's not that often that someone from outside America lands on our shores seemingly so ready for stardom, so ready to forge an international sound that works on multiple continents (Tyla's sort of fusing South African Amapiano with broader Afrobeats trends). We'll see if "Water" is the best thing she ever does or if it's the beginning of something bigger, but in the meantime I have yet to get tired of this song and enjoy everything else I've heard from her ("To Last" is great, I hope her album has a couple more that sound like that). 

Victoria Monet is the feelgood music industry story of the year: a thirtysomething mom who's put in work for a decade, writing hits for Ariana Grande and Chloe x Halle and singing hooks on Nas and T.I. tracks, but kept investing in and believing in her own solo career, making great records with impressive videos and live performances, and it finally paid off with a #1 radio hit and seven Grammy nominations. Like a lot of modern hits, "On My Mama" has a familiar sample from an old hit, Texas rapper Chalie Boy's 2009 song "I Look Good," but instead of just looping up an old track, producers D'Mile, Deputy, and Jeff Gitelman put together an opulent groove with horns and a killer bassline to go under that sample. 

It's a testament to just how much R&B vanished from Top 40 radio in the 2010s that Miguel's "Sure Thing" was a massive R&B radio hit in 2011 that crossed over so little at the time that pop radio felt free to treat it as a new song when it blew up on TikTok this year. While one of his earliest singles experienced a revival, though Miguel continued following his muse in the unpredictable way he always has, and the music we've heard so far from his 5th album Viscera refuses to follow a formula. 

Death Row Records has changed owners a few times since the legendary '90s gangsta rap label filed for bankruptcy in 2006 and was subsequently auctioned off, and last year one of the label's biggest stars, Snoop Dogg, bought the label. Surprisingly, the first hit from the new revitalized Death Row is a gentle R&B track from Indiana singer October London's Marvin Gaye tribute project The Rebirth of Marvin. There's a real uncanny valley quality to how "Back To Your Place" isn't a cover but an expert mimicry of '70s Marvin, in some ways even more of a retro soul cosplay act than Silk Sonic. Still, you can't say the guy's not talented, I let the song play when it comes on.