Somehow, we're already halfway through December. And as Christmas draws closer, superstars and rising artists alike are putting the final touches on their musical stocking stuffers.
Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre mark the 30th anniversary of Doggystyle by delivering new album Missionary, Mario returns with his sixth full-length Glad You Came, DMX gets a second posthumous release with the heavenward Let Us Pray: Chapter X, and the soundtrack to Disney's Mufasa: The Lion King arrives with songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Lebo M.
Plus, a dearth of live albums drop including the National's Rome, the Cure's Songs Of A Lost World + Songs Of A Live World: Troxy London MMXXIV, and FLETCHER's THE ANTIDOTE: FLETCHER LIVE.
There's plenty to celebrate for the holiday season, too: while she may not generally acknowledge the passage of time, Mariah Carey reasserts her ageless title as the Queen of Christmas by gifting the 30th anniversary edition of her landmark holiday album Merry Christmas, complete with remastered live renditions recorded at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.
Below, press play on even more new releases, including singles by Offset, Tank And The Bangas and Graham Barham as well as exciting new projects from Stray Kids and DETO BLACK.
More than 30 years after their last collaborative project, rap's iconic duo Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre finally gave us the next episode.
Missionary marks their first full-length team-up since Snoop's 1993 classic Doggystyle, with Dre handling production on all 16 tracks. But they're far from the only collaborators on the album; Snoop recruits the likes of 50 Cent and Eminem ("Gunz & Smoke"), Sting ("Another Part of Me") and Jhene Aiko ("Gorgeous") among several others. No matter who is on the track, Missionary is proof that the legendary pair's musical chemistry is alive and well.
"We [still] in love with what we do. I'm peaking right now and Dr. Dre see that," Snoop said, according to a press release. As Dre added in a recent interview, "We're better together… It's a love and respect. We can get in there and just have fun being creative and just experiment."
Months after teasing the single on Instagram Live, Offset has finally released his new solo cut "Swing My Way."
Excess is on full display in the Kid Art-helmed visual for the track, with Offset bragging about private planes, luxury goods and getting "unlimited checks like I'm Capital One" in a garage filled with Tesla Cybertrucks and showing off his collection of blinged-out watches and exotic animals.
A sinister undercurrent of violence also runs through the video, from model Anok Yai tracing her eyeliner along the edge of a knife to flashes of a snake coiled in the grass, ready to strike.
Stray Kids — "HOP"
Nearly seven years after their unofficial EP Mixtape, Stray Kids are releasing their very first official mixtape, HOP.
Just hours after hitting the stage to perform "Chk Chk Boom" and "Jjam" at the 2024 Billboard Music Awards, the K-pop idols unleashed the 12-track collection, which includes lead single "Walkin on Water" and a long-teased collab with Epik High leader TABLO in B-side "U."
Each member gets a solo cut (with co-writing credit!) as well, from I.N's echoing "HALLUCINATION" to HAN's romantic, guitar-charged "Hold my hand."
In the spirit of the season, GloRilla and Kehlani team up for an original holiday cut, "Xmas Time."
The Blue Water Road songstress ably handles a warm and cheerful hook ("Nothing compares to the love at Christmas time") in between nostalgic verses.
Nearly two minutes in, the beat drops and gives Glo free rein to drive the sleigh into gleefully naughty territory as she declares, "Come sit on my lap/ I ain't Santa, but I stay givin' it" and "I'm the biggest helper Santa ever had/ He can get whatever that he want, he got good head/ Certified trick, I get it from my dad!"
Read More: Christmas Music 2024 Playlist: Listen To 50 New Songs From Pentatonix, Ed Sheeran, LISA & More
Will Smith is back on his musical journey. On "TANTRUM," his new collab with Joyner Lucas, the four-time GRAMMY winner is out to heal his inner child — or, at the very least, let little Will run wild for the space of three minutes.
"I'm 'bout to face all the s— I been running from/ You might relate to the places I'm coming from/ I been through trauma I thought I'd recovered from/ I got regrets, you heard about some of them," the Fresh Prince raps, possibly making a veiled reference to the Oscars slap heard 'round the world.
The song's music video leans into the child-focused theme with animation by Cartuna Cartoon that sends slick 3D renderings of Smith and Lucas through a series of dangerous obstacles, from dodging lightning in the middle of a storm at sea to falling through a futuristic cityscape a la Miles Morales.
It seems Beach Weather are celebrating Chrismukkah this year with their new single "Seth Cohen."
Taking its name from Adam Brody's beloved character on "The O.C.," the "Sex, Drugs, Etc." rockers put all the quirks, foibles and flaws that made Seth Cohen such a lovably awkward poster boy of 2000s youth culture on a pedestal, with frontman Nick Santino warbling, "I'm buried in the corner, ever lonely/ Wishing I could be Seth Cohen/ You're up all night with the king of self-loathing/ I make self-deprecation look so boring."
Tank Ball is fed up. Just look to Tank And The Bangas' new single "This Black" for proof, where the singer kicks things off by unapologetically pronouncing, "Uh, this Black girl got a attitude/ This Black girl got a defense mechanism, too."
The verses on the five-minute opus are presented as spoken word stanzas, with the group's leader airing her well-justified grievances and frustrations with society, men and a system crafted to continuously fail Black girls like her — while also powerfully expressing both her singular humanity and the myriad ways in which Black women everywhere "[pull] up the entire community by the strap of her bra."
On his latest single, Graham Barham is caught in the push and pull of a tempestuous, drama-filled relationship, his fiery love interest unafraid to throw him out of the house before reeling him back in when he's three blocks away.
The nonstop drama has not only left the country newcomer's head swirling, it's pushed him belly up to the nearest watering hole to cope, as he bemoans, "You don't know if I'm a locked screen door/ Or the lock screen on your phone/ I'll be at the bar killing Casamigos/ Racking up a shot count, Quentin Tarantino/ Baby, you won't let it be over/ So you won't let me stay, you won't let me stay/ Sober."
DETO BLACK — 'Nollypop'
In the three years since her debut EP, 2021's Yung Everything, DETO BLACK has been firing on all cylinders, making a name for herself not only as a poster child for Nigeria's alté movement but as a boundary-pushing model, fashionista and dual degree-holding chartered accountant, to boot.
On her sophomore EP, Nollypop, the budding Lagos-born multi-hyphenate taps Sadboi for "D - Ride" — which name-drops it-girl model Gabbriette Bechtel — and teams with Chi for the side-eye-flinging kiss-off "It's a No from Me." Other highlights include opener "Lady" and the deliciously cocky "Jump."