Billboard’s Friday Music Guide serves as a handy guide to this Friday’s most essential releases — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond.
This week, J. Cole fires back, Vampire Weekend get heavenly and Doja Cat returns with more fire. Check out all of this week’s picks below:
J. Cole, Might Delete Later
Much like it was with Future and Metro Boomin’s We Don’t Trust You two weeks earlier, the immediate emphasis on J. Cole’s new surprise project Might Delete Later will be on a short burst of disses: on the final song, “7 Minute Drill,” Cole claps back at Kendrick Lamar’s “Like That” venom by taking shots at K. Dot’s reputation and discography. However, “7 Minute Drill” is just the coda of an unexpected return that will leave longtime Cole fans excited and satisfied, complete with inspired guest spot selections — the slow-rolling opener “Pricey,” for instance, features Gucci Mane, Ari Lennox and a hook from the always-great Young Dro.
Vampire Weekend, Only God Was Above Us
Vampire Weekend has long transcended the late-‘00s indie-rock explosion and moved on to arena headliner status in the decade that followed, but fifth album Only God Was Above Us nods to the subtler pleasures of their self-titled debut, as well as the muted colors of 2013’s Modern Vampires of the City. Songs like “Classical,” “The Surfer” and “Connect” capture a band reflecting on what makes them great while also aging with grace — Only God Was Above Us could be called a course correction from 2019’s more expansive Father of the Bride, but the lessons from that album have also been folded in here as Vampire Weekend keeps moving forward.
Doja Cat, Scarlet 2 CLAUDE
With the Scarlet era another monster success for Doja Cat, thanks in part to smash hits like “Paint the Town Red” and “Agora Hills,” the Scarlet 2 CLAUDE deluxe edition could have been a chest-thumping victory lap — but instead, Doja brings seven more songs of heat, further twisting her futuristic pop approach and offering up more radio fodder than leftovers. The strongest new track is “MASC,” a spacious breakup lamentation that fully unleashes Teezo Touchdown, although “URRRGE!!!!!!!!!” with A$AP Rocky is the type of delightfully unhinged rap track that Doja fully embraced on the original Scarlet.
Bryson Tiller, Bryson Tiller
The recent success of “Whatever She Wants,” which became Bryson Tiller’s first solo top 20 hit on the Hot 100 since his breakthrough single “Don’t,” has acted as an exclamation point on a consistently excellent studio run, as Tiller has remained at the top of the R&B songwriting game while occasionally crossing over to hip-hop and pop platforms. His new self-titled album is brimming with heartily crooned sexual innuendos, a cocktail of ecstasy and regret that Tiller fans will have on repeat — although recent best new artist winner Victoria Monét nearly steals the show with some raucous wordplay on “Persuasion.”
Young Miko, att.
While artists like Bizarrap and Feid have offered co-signs to Young Miko — and helped the Puerto Rican trap artist score some of her biggest hits to date — new album att. represents the moment that the rising star stands on her own two feet and showcases just how far-reaching her vision of modern Latin music can become. Although Miko often moves quickly over sizzling beats, she can operate efficiently on dance tracks, sing impressively in more heartfelt moments and cede the floor graciously whenever a guest star does pop by; in other words, she has no glaring weaknesses on att., and album opener “Rookie of the Year” is aptly titled.
Editor’s Pick: Kehlani, “After Hours”
Summer is quickly approaching, and we are already thinking about which singles will define the hottest season… and just like that, Kehlani returns with her first solo release since 2022’s Blue Water Road, and immediately throws her hat in the ring. “After Hours” effervesces in its dance floor beguile, as Kehlani lifts Cordel “Scatta” Burrell’s “Coolie Dance Rhythm” and re-imagines the classic as a siren cry: “Why don’t you stay here after hours?” she beckons, the power of her voice and the swirl of the production making it difficult to detach from the single until its breathless conclusion.
