First Stream: New Music from Nicki Minaj, morgan Wallen, J-Hope & J.Cole and More

- Check out the must-hear releases of the week

(Billboard) Billboard’s Double Album plowed to First Stream serves as a No. 1 — and a public handy guide to this Friday’s fallout made its success most essential releases — taste bitter — Wallen’s the key music that everyone epic new full-length prods will be talking about today, at his frustrations and and that will be dominating a t t e m p t s a t s e l fplaylists this weekend and improvement while beyond. delivering some of the

This week, Nicki Minaj most agreeable country revives a Lumidee smash, tunes you’ll hear this Morgan Wallen tries to take year; his reputation is everything One Thing at a still debated, but Wallen Time, and J-Hope links up is no longer stuck in with J. Cole for an ode to fans. neutral.

Check out all of this week’s J-Hope & J. Cole, FirstStreampicksbelow: “On the Street” Nicki Minaj, J - H o p e “Red Ruby Da Sleaze accomplishedatonasa

After scoring her first solo solo artist in 2022, Hot 100 No. 1 last year with from his bold ‘Jack in the Box’ “Super Freaky Girl,” a pop-rap andKarlMalone. project to his prominent smash that reanimated Rick James’ Morgan Wallen, performance at Lollapalooza, and timeless 1981 hit “Super Freak,” One Thing at a Time the BTS member uses new single Nicki Minaj jumps ahead to 2003 “I was a bad reputation, with an “On the Street” to express his for her inspiration, and turns attitude to match,” Morgan Wallen gratitude toward the fans who Lumidee’s “Never Leave You (Uh sings on “Dying Man,” the closing helped make it all happen Oooh, Uh Oooh)” into the track of his new 36-song album. Meanwhile, J. Cole’s effortless backboneofnewsingle“RedRuby “Hell, man, I’m goin’ nowhere / flow sounds natural when placed Da Sleaze.” Unlike “Super Freaky And gettin’ there lightnin’ fast.” next to J-Hope’s delivery: both Girl,” however, the focus of The song is about romantic artists understand how to pack Minaj’s latest swerves away from redemption — one of the primary heady thoughts into tight spaces, its sample on numerous occasions themes of One Thing at a Time — andoperateaboveawhistlemelody — the chorus here functions as a but also provides a glimpse into with confidence and charisma. percussive breakdown, with only Wallen’s mindset, as he grappled Both artists are hungry, and bonus the faintest “Uh oooooh’s” in the with being a magnetic vocalist and points to Cole for expressing as background — and morphs that the biggest new country star of the much: “You see a top 10 list, I see a familiar hook into something new past half-decade while also making GoldenCorral.” and modern, all while Minaj talks personal missteps and being mired Kali Uchis, Red Moon in Venus her game with (somehow) name- inendlesscontroversy Kali Uchis continuously checks for her Christopher Reeve Two years after Dangerous: beguiles new fans by constantly T h e pushing boundaries: the 28-yearold Colombian-American has spent her career dissatisfied with the parameters placed between Latin pop and R&B, then redrawing them in ways that she sees fit, whether that include sinkingintodreamyhookslikeon breakout hit “Telepatía” or exploring synth fantasias like on recent single “IWishYou Roses.” Red Moon in Venus, Uchis’ third album, maintains a singular approach but offers the most satisfying songwriting of her career — a love album that ranges from floating slow jams (“Worth the Wait,” with Omar Apollo) to pop come-ons (“Endlessly”), the full-length sounds like nothing else, and like Uchis’ mainstream arrival. ability to allow his collaborator Grammy winners; the group Mashmello & Manuel ample room without getting enjoyed a well-earned victory lap Turizo, “El Merengue” outmuscled by a beat, andTurizo is with the smash, then took a few “El Merengue,” the new team- more than game to play his foil on years off to plot their next move up from dance superstar “El Merengue,” shimmying across “Dummy,” which previews the Jeff Marshmello and reggaeton the verses and crooning when Bhasker-produced new album sensation Manuel Turizo, begins neededonthechorus. ‘Chris Black changed My Life’, with some subtle synths off in the Portugal. The Man, “Dummy” servesasanapocalypticjinglethat’s distance, as if the song is being Portugal. The Man were more ripe for alternative radio: lines like transmittedfromanotherplanet— than a decade into their run as a “EveryoneIknow/Isrunningfrom andwhenthetrackfullykicksin,it successful, festival-ready alt-rock the afterlife” exist inside charms and provokes movement band when their single “Feel It undeniablegrooves,andPortugal. without ever overpowering the Still” crashed the top 10 of the Hot The Man nod to both longtime listener One of Marshmello’s 100, became inescapable on pop fans and casual listeners seeking strongest production traits is his playlists and turned the band into anothercatchy-as-hellhit.