All four members of Blackpink have released a bunch of solo music over the last few years, it's almost like Wu-Tang the way they still tour and occasionally record as a group but most of the output and most of the hits are solo stuff. Rosé has had a little more of a pop/rock flavor to her stuff, I loved her 2021 debut single "On the Ground" and was disappointed that it kinda came and went, peaking in the lower half of the Hot 100, and I was kinda neutral about her massive hit "APT." I really like "New Trick," though, I hope it benefits from the momentum of "APT" even though Bruno Mars has nothing to do with it. Here's the 2026 singles Spotify playlist I update every month. 

Bruno Mars guested on a track on the album Karol G released in August, as did Drake, and both of those songs seemed like pretty big plays for a Latin pop superstar to cross over in America to a greater degree than she had so far. Instead, those songs peaked outside the Top 40 and it was a different track featuring two lesser known Spanish artists that blew the fuck up and spent a few weeks in the top 10, which was pretty cool just in terms of completely upending expectations. The drums on "Bby Wow" are from the Coolie Dance riddim that was on a few 2000s hits that were big in the U.S. (Nina Sky, Pitbull, Mr. Vegas, etc.), so that definitely helps make it accessible, but its popularity is still kind of surprising and the title is the only part in English. 

Kane Brown is a very hit-and-miss singles artist to me, but I like this one, it has a very slick bombastic '90s country Shania Twain sound to it, which was how I thought of it even before he followed it up with a collaboration with Shania herself. The chorus ending with "I got a woman and she got a man" kinda makes it sound like he's in the cuck chair, though, even if that's not how he meant it. 

Lucky Daye and D'Mile have been on such a great run the last few years, I'm excited that Lucky's got a new album coming out this week, the lead single is great. 

I enjoyed some of the darkly funny punchlines that teen Chicago rapper BabyChiefDoIt had on his Warning Shot EP last year. And his breakthrough radio hit has the same kind of barbed sense of humor even on a romantic song, some people have found the lyrics on this song kind of fucked up but I like the way he made something really catchy and danceable that isn't too saccharine. And Drake shouldn't be the only one mining these kinds of Ghost Town DJ's vibes. 

Last month I wrote a piece for Publik / Private about the 20th anniversary of John Mayer's Continuum, and Mayer's been doing some more collaborative stuff this year, including production and guitar on two really good Lainey Wilson songs, and hopefully more for her next album. In the chorus, Wilson lists of a few things she needs in her life: "Jesus [Christ], [George] Jones, mama, my phone, keys, wallet, and you." But she speeds through that oddly phrased list so it sounds like she's talking about Jesus Jones of "Right Here, Right Now" fame -- apparently Mayer thought the same thing when they were talking about the song on a podcast. 

On one hand I understand and kind of respect that Drake seems to want to collaborate with the younger melodic rappers and acknowledge them as the next generation of his musical lineage. On the other hand, Don Toliver and especially Loe Shimmy are fucking terrible.