9 Songs You Need In Your Life This Week

Young Thug is on one. After a week of making headlines—first for being charged with making terroristic threats, then for being implicated in a plot to kill Lil Wayne—the Atlanta rapper dropped a new single that's a complete 180 from anything we’ve heard from him before. “Pacifier” sounds more like The Roots’ "The Seed (2.0)” than anything on Barter 6. His multiple flows, recorded all the way back in 2014, are as dense and sticky as ever, but it’s the Mike Will-produced beat that wows. The song’s gummy bass, organic-sounding drums, and sharp guitar licks are a perfect, if unlikely, match for Thug’s yawns and yelps. Bleed it, bleed it, bleed it. — Rawiya Kameir

"I know I have to say the most disrespectful shit," Future confesses to Elliott Wilson in his new doc, and he's going for broke all over DS2. "I Serve The Base" is no exception, stuffed with enough one-liners to text in your basketball team's group chat. But the grinding bass is what really makes this one stand out; it's kind of like "Move That Dope 2," sounding as grimy and sweaty as the Atlanta traphouses it's meant to be heard in. — Matthew Trammell

The one and only time I went to Mexico City, it rained. It does that there a lot, and Julia Holter thinks that’s a good enough reason to go: you know I love to run away from sun, she sings early on “Feel You,” the first leak from her new LP, and the latest entry to her eclectic canon of songs so pretty they make your heart ache. I wish this one, with its ’60s pop-esque atmosphere and seriously cathartic hook, had existed when I was there. I would have listened to it as I paced the damp foreign streets, alone but curious, kind of like Holter in the corresponding video. In this fantasy, I too have a really cute dog. —Patrick D. McDermott

This week was a hectic one in music, but don’t let YG’s comeback track “Twist My Fingaz” slip by. Our first taste of Still Krazy, the forthcoming follow-up to his outstanding 2014 debut My Krazy Life, it finds the Compton MC trading out his usual DJ Mustard bounce for an old-school West Coast groove to delightful effect. Hold up, he snaps, I really got something to say, I’m the only one that made it out the West without Dre. He’s not wrong, and this is a very promising sign of what’s to come. — Zara Golden

Alice Glass has released her first solo track since she left Crystal Castles in October of last year, citing various personal and career-related reasons. "Stillbirth," a statement on Glass's long struggle in an abusive relationship, will hollow your heart out. The production is grinding, relentless, and razor sharp: it's a reminder of how crucial Glass's artistic vision was to the formation of Crystal Castle's sound. On the mounting chorus, you'll hear Glass crying out: I wanna start again. Lucky for us, that's exactly what she's doing. — Juliet Liu

Drake is an actor through-and-through, and he hilariously taps into that particular skill on he and Skepta’s remix of Wizkid’s “Ojuelegba.” The mellow afropop track was pretty much perfect on its own, but Drake’s imitation of a Nigerian accent is really quite clutch and maybe one of my favorite things of 2015. Skepta’s approach is a bit more serious—a forceful meditation on growing up an African immigrant in London. Sounds wild, but somehow it works. — Rawiya Kameir

I heard this track via Seani B's Reggae Gold 2015 mixtape, and probably liked it more than it deserves because it reminded me of 106 & Park-era Rihanna when she was a spunky island girl making shy, flawless pop like "If It's Lovin' That You Want." Toian popped with a Vybz Kartel collab and soon found herself under Protoje's tutelage, and sugary bids like "Love It" are gaining momentum in London. What's next?— Matthew Trammell

There are some songs you do not need to fuck with, and Fetty Wap's "My Way" is definitely one of those songs. But—but—this fun cover by Murlo with Irish singer Gemma Dunleavy gets a pass. It retains all the charm of Fetty's elastic hook, Dunleavy's vocal acts like a kind of cute gender-flipping call-and-response to the original, and Murlo's production is as springy and joyous as ever. Plus, Drake's verse remains intact, making this a perfect version to blast at your summer BBQ. — Aimee Cliff

Queens singer Zan is onto something with “Blending,” a debut that is an unusual combination of nocturnal R&B, a Jon B. “They Don’t Know” sample, and the influence of his Jamaican roots (his dad was in a reggae band called The Visionaries). We're here for it.— Zara Golden