Pops Culture

By: Papa Minnow

There was a plethora of music for the culture in 2018 that made it humanly impossible for fans to digest at a reasonable pace. Almost every week had numerous projects to listen to which made it an overbearing chore to enjoy certain works.

Thankfully not every artist felt the need to be in the mix, and while it would be in the culture’s best interest to slow down with the drops, there are a few artists who need to be heard this year.

Rihanna

When Rihanna released her Fenty Beauty cosmetics company in 2017, it propelled the 28-year-old singer from pop star to mogul in only a few short months. With an entirely new brand to manage, there’s been less time for her to focus on making new music.

Last year she topped the charts with a guest feature on N.E.R.D’s hit single Lemon, and in 2017 she snagged another number one with Wild Thoughts. Since those occurrences, rumors have surfaced that her next album may be a double disc with a side full of chart friendly songs and another side with experimental music.

What is known is that Rihanna’s new project will be a reggae album, and her vocal producer Kuk Harrell has described her album as “amazing” and “incredible” during a Q&A on his Instagram live.

Rihanna’s last release, ANTI, was her best body of work yet and we’re just three weeks shy of it’s third year anniversary so there should be some new music coming from the captain of Rihanna’s NAVY soon.

PARTYNEXTDOOR

In an abnormal way it’s been quiet for Toronto’s own PARTYNEXTDOOR. His last major release in 2016 was his second studio album, P3, and it wasn’t received as well as his first two. 2017 saw him return with two EP’s that had great music, but lacked commercial success.

Last year had a dramatic change for the 25-year-old singer in that, the songs that were released under him were leaks, he had no major projects, and his only noteworthy appearances came in the form of features such as Ghost Town and Wouldn’t Leave off Kanye’s YE album.

Despite a nonexistent music year from him, PARTYNEXTDOOR did accumulate some credits as a composer on Nipsey Hussle’s Victory Lap and a vocalist Drake’s Scorpion. Hopefully PND is ready to get back in the booth for himself this year.

Future

2018 was by no means a quiet year for Future, but yet it felt like fans needed more from “Super”. The Atlanta rapper got himself in a bit of a tiff with Wendy Williams last year, and was a huge trend on social media after he refused the advance of a woman and got the phrase “I’m good luv, enjoy” trending.

Musically he took to producing the soundtrack album for the movie SuperFly, contributed to DJ Esco’s mixtape Kolorblind, surprise dropped Beast Mode 2, and joined forces with one of the hottest new artists in Juice WRLD for a full project titled WRLD on Drugs. However, none of those struck the way Future has been known to make music and the level of a run that he’s had in the past few years.

Despite Beast Mode 2 being a solid project with the hit song 31 Days, it didn’t do much for the culture; and WRLD on Drugs was one of the most disappointing albums of the year. In 2019 we need to hear Future get back to being Future and it looks like he may already be on track with his latest song NASA (Feat. French Montana) which dropped on New Year’s Eve.

Rick Ross

The self-proclaimed “Nobody’s favourite” rapper has not missed when it comes to albums. Ross has been a consistent player in the game with a quality catalogue of 10 studio albums.

His last album, Rather You Than Me, came out in March of 2017 and was well received for it’s depth and introspection. 2018 didn’t do much for Ross musically, he only made a few features but he appeared on one of the most impactful songs of the year with his verse on What’s Free off Meek Mill’s Championships album.

As the head of his own label, it may have been in Ross’ best interest to stay quiet as both Wale and Meek had strong musical efforts, but it would be great to hear from what the boss has been up to these past few months especially with the arrival of his new son “Billion”.