18 New Rap and R&B Songs Out This Week

The first week of 2021 is a wrap, and there's already plenty of cool hip hop, including the new Jazmine Sullivan and Griselda albums, both of which you can read about in Notable Releases. Also check out our list of the best rap albums of December for anything you may have missed over the holidays, and the two new music roundups we ran during the holidays for even more. And in case you missed it, we posted a list of the 50 best rap albums of 2020.

This week also brought new singles from Saweetie/Doja Cat, slowthai/A$AP Rocky, Nao, YG, dvsn, RMR, Conway the Machine, Dark Time Sunshine, Bas, Marlon Craft, and a couple musical tributes to the legendary MF DOOM, who recently passed away. Read on for those and more…

AESOP ROCK & HOMEBOY SANDMAN – "ASK ANYONE" (MF DOOM TRIBUTE)

Aesop Rock and Homeboy Sandman, who record together as LICE, have just shared "Ask Anyone," a tribute to MF DOOM that uses a beat from Doom's Special Herbs, Vol 9 + 0. "No one ever done it better," raps Sandman, "So I’ma keep my computer on caps lock forever."

OPEN MIKE EAGLE – "FOR DOOM"

Tributes from fellow artists to MF DOOM have been pouring in since the sad news of his death broke on New Year's Eve. Open Mike Eagle has now shared a tribute of his own, a freestyle that he delivers over a beat from Detroit emcee and producer Illingsworth.

SAWEETIE – "BEST FRIEND" (ft. DOJA CAT)

Saweetie's anticipated new album Pretty B.I.T.C.H Music is on the way, and she's prefacing it with this new Doja Cat collab. It's a very catchy ode to female friendship, and it comes with a video of Saweetie and Doja Cat palling around and doing things all best friends do, like ride on the hood of a glittery Tesla and go naked cliff-jumping.

NAO – "ANTIDOTE" (ft. ADEKUNLE GOLD)

UK R&B singer Nao follows up her recent single with Lianne La Havas with this new one featuring Nigerian highlife singer Adekunle Gold. Their styles sound great together on "Antidote," which Nao says "is the remedy to 2020, it's a song born out of lockdown which was something that affected everybody's lives all over the world. Both Adekunle and I had daughters born weeks apart during this time, they lifted our vibrations and we wanted to share that good energy with the rest of the world."

SLOWTHAI – "MAZZA" (ft. A$AP ROCKY)

There are a lot of cool guests on slowthai's anticipated new album TYRON, and today we get a song with one of them, "MAZZA" featuring A$AP Rocky. Read more here.

MADLIB & FOUR TET – "HOPPROCK"

Madlib and Four Tet have shared another taste of their upcoming collaborative album Sound Ancestors, and this one's a little more in-your-face than the chill, soulful "Road of the Lonely Ones."

YG, D3SZN, DAY SULAN – "HIT EM UP"

YG and fellow 4Hunnid members D3szn and Day Sulan team up on this new song, which is some of the most ominous, hard-hitting stuff we've heard from YG in a while.

DVSN – "USE SOMEBODY" (KINGS OF LEON COVER-ISH)

dsvn have released an alt-R&B re-imagining of Kings of Leon's "Use Somebody," and they incorporate bits of "Sex On Fire" into it too. It'll appear on their new project Amusing Her Feelings, which arrives January 15 via OVO.

RMR – "HER HONEYMOON"

Viral "Rascal" star RMR follows his recent 4th Qtr Medley with a chilled-out new song that comes with a mystery flick-inspired music video.

G PERICO – FREE EP

G Perico has spent the past few years putting a fresh spin on vintage-style West Coast rap, and this quick and dirty new EP finds him doing what he does best.

OXYMORRONS – "GREEN VISION"

NYC's Oxymorrons signed to Fever 333/Letlive./Pressure Cracks frontman Jason Aalon Butler's 333 Wreckords, and their first single for the label is "Green Vision," which puts a unique, modern twist on rap-rock.

LAST DAYS – "TRADITION" (ft. BENNY THE BUTCHER)

Griselda's Benny the Butcher has been on fire lately, and he keeps that going with his killer verse on this new Last Days song.

RICK HYDE – "FOLLOW ME" (prod. ARAABMUZIK)

Rick Hyde of Benny the Butcher's Black Soprano Family crew has tapped the great araabMUZIK to produce his menacing new single "Follow Me." His new project Plates 2 is on the way.

CONWAY THE MACHINE – "TOAST" (PROD. BIG GHOST LTD)

Meanwhile, Griselda's Conway the Machine will release another Big Ghost Ltd-produced project in 2021, and the first single "Toast" finds him delivering airtight bars over Big Ghost's trippy, post-boom bap production.

DARK TIME SUNSHINE – "FAMILIARS"

Underground rap duo Dark Sunshine will release their new album Lore on February 4 via Fake Four, and it'll feature appearances by R.A.P. Ferreira, Homeboy Sandman, Ceschi, and Hail Mary Mallon (Aesop Rock, Rob Sonic, and DJ Big Wiz). The new single "Familiars" is a very cool dose of psychedelic, left-of-the-dial rap.

KOJEY RADICAL – "28 & SUBLIME"

UK rapper Kojey Radical just turned 28, and to celebrate, he released this jazzy new song.

BAS – "SMOKE FROM FIRE" (ft. THE HICS)

Dreamville-signed rapper Bas has his own new podcast, The Messenger, and the theme song is this new psych/soul-tinged song.

MARLON CRAFT – "AT THE DOOR"

NYC rapper Marlon Craft has a new project, How We Intended, due in February, and he just dropped this new song which finds him delivering pensive rhymes over a chilled-out, jazzy backdrop.

For even more new songs, browse our daily 'New Songs' lists. For more hip hop news, browse our 'Hip Hop News' category.