Future Pop is your weekly email featuring the hottest new pop songs and artists that you need to know about. Subscribe here then read on, listen up and make sure you tweet me @poptastic to let me know what you think of my picks!
Future Stars
Misha B didn't really appeal to the X Factor voting demographic, but if everyone who watched last year's series was somehow forced to vote she may well have won. Luckily Sony realised that and have signed her to the recently relaunched Relentless label, which released music by Craig David and Artful Dodger in the garage heyday. She got straight to work on new music with writers/producers like MNEK and Naughty Boy, and put out a very promising mixtape this week. It includes original songs, her much-loved version of Rolling In The Deep and tracks by TLC, Usher and other artists who are clearly inspiring her new sound.
This week's Future Pop is raptastic as here we have another female rapper. Jayelldee is more Lady Sovereign than Nicki Minaj, but as she's been working with brilliant former Xenomania writer/producer Tim Powell, I'm hoping she's got something poptastic up her sleeve. She's also Welsh so could be the first big Welsh rapper… no, I'm not counting Goldie Lookin Chain. She's been on tour with Labrinth and the live footage on YouTube suggests she is going to be quite noisy and obnoxious – maybe not a recipe for public appreciation, but just what I want from my girl rap!
Kirko Bangz is Kirk Randle, an American rapper who is currently enjoying a big breakthrough hit in the US with the grammatically depressing Drank In My Cup. It sounds incredibly dull to me, but Kirk is a charismatic performer and the music is clearly working for its target audience. His popularity is not just limited to the US either, as Drank In My Cup is currently beating Usher and David Guetta in the worldwide Shazam tag chart. The song has also been remixed several times to include vocals from big urban music stars including J. Cole, Bow Wow and Trey Songz.
Future Hits
This week's playlist features five songs by European artists that I think could be big UK hits this summer:
Tracklisting:
- Of Monsters and Men – Little Talks
- Loreen – Euphoria
- Michel Teló – Ai Se Eu Te Pego/If I Catch You
- Avicii ft. Salem Al Fakir – Silhouettes
- Martin Solveig – The Night Out (Madeon Remix)
Thanks for reading – I'll be back next Monday with more Future Pop! In the meantime don't forget to email and tweet me with your thoughts on the songs and artists above, and any suggestions for next week. Plus it would be great if you could spread the word about Future Pop to anyone you think might enjoy it and encourage them to subscribe for more.
I never knew Tim Powell had left Xenomania, when did this happen?!?! 😮
Xenomania in its original form doesn't exist anymore, they're all doing their own thing. All the more pop for us!