USJ Predicts: Summer Hits
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May 12, 2023
Princess Diana feat. Nicki Minaj – Ice Spice:
Ice Spice is taking over the world. She’s hijacked for you pages and minds alike: “Boy’s a liar Pt. 2” and “In Ha Mood” are earworms with a combined 400+ million streams on Spotify — Spice is a bona fide pop culture icon. There’s nothing that can establish a rising star’s place like a big feature, a sign of respect and faith from a genre legend, and no one was more perfect for Ice Spice than Nicki Minaj.
When such an iconic artist gets their hands on a song, even if it was released months ago, they breathe an entirely new life into it. Minaj had fun with her verse, opening it with “I be eating my spinach” and rapping a few bars in a posh British accent. Spice’s energy infects everything. Summer isn’t summer without a bouncy, rowdy hype song, and this is Ice Spice’s year.
Unstoppable – Daniel Caesar:
Sometimes, all there is to do is cruise with the windows down while the sky turns indigo. In those moments, you don’t need a pop hit or a thrashy head-banger. You need “Unstoppable” by Daniel Caesar. He puts a reggae spin on chill R&B, and laid-back production creates a lush, beachy ambience that oozes relaxation and peace.
Nothing Matters – The Last Dinner Party:
“Nothing Matters” is the first single from British girlband The Last Dinner Party, an eccentric pop hit complete with guitar solo, horns, and a shoutable chorus. This is the kind of song you scream in the car, the kind of song you can have fun with, the perfect song to grab your summer by the horns and get over the funk of the past year.
A punchy, treble-boosted drumbeat marches this track forward, complemented by lead singer Abigail Morris’s unique, swooping voice, and it’s hard not to get lost in the groove. It builds to a big trumpet-forward, doubletime final chorus with fun vocal riffs, and if this is any indication of the quality of their music, The Last Dinner Party won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.
