COUNTRY

Kidd G featuring YNW BSlime, "Left Me"

There's been an increasing amount of crossover between country and hip-hop in recent years, though often the relationship between the two influences can feel strained. But here's a collaboration between two sing-rappers, both teenagers, that sounds utterly unforced: Kidd G, who's making the kind of naturally syncretic music Nashville should be inching toward, and YNW BSlime, younger brother of the incarcerated star YNW Melly. Kidd G taps into his Juice WRLD influences, with pitter-patter syllables and scraped-up singing, and YNW BSlime's guest verse is chilling, and sung with disarming innocence: "Two years my brother's been gone/ And I've never/felt so alone." It sounds like the No. 1 song of 2030.

JON CARAMANICA, New York Times


POP/ROCK

John Mellencamp, "I Am a Man That Worries"

The Rock Hall of Famer from Indiana stays grim and grizzled throughout his new album, "Strictly a One-Eyed Jack." In the song "I Am a Man That Worries," he's worried about everything and belligerent about it: "You better get out of my way," he growls. It's a vintage-style blues stop with slide guitar and fiddle flanking his voice, and though he proclaims his bitter solitude, he has a crowd shouting alongside him by the end.

JON PARELES, New York Times


HIP-HOP

Key Glock, "Proud"

Young Dolph, who was shot and killed in his hometown of Memphis in November, had mentored and collaborated with his cousin, Key Glock. "Proud," a tribute song by Key Glock, is the first single from the compilation "Paper Route Empire Presents: Long Live Dolph," and it's burly in presentation but the lyrics ache: "I can get it back in blood but still I can't get back the time." In the video, Key Glock raps his regrets at the site of the killing, a stark choice.

JON CARAMANICA, New York Times

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