New Music Friday: Here’s Your Weekend Playlist
It's finally Friday ladies, and whether you plan on staying in and getting some much-needed alone time or going out with your girls, you'll need some fresh new songs to add to your repertoire of bops and xoNecole has you covered, sis.
From Drake and Future's rags-to-riches visualization of their latest single "Life Is Good" to Meg Thee Stallion and Normani's #GirlGang banger from the new Birds of Prey soundtrack, this list of songs is guaranteed to set the ultimate mood.
Kick off your shoes and relax your feet, 'cause xoNecole is here with some fire ass beats for you to jam to this weekend. Keep scrolling for 10 songs you need to add to your weekend playlist ASAP:
Megan Thee Stallion & Normani (Birds of Prey: The Album) - "Diamonds"
I didn't know I needed a jewel-incrusted bodysuit until today and now I need 12 of them. Meg spit all of the bars and Normani came through per the usual with her crazy dance moves that will have you in a one-man twerking competition (in the comfort of your car, of course).
Drake & Future - "Life Is Good"
Teasing their sophomore joint album, Drake and Future dropped their video for "Life Is Good" and it's a Friday mood. We see the rappers as fry cooks, bakers, mechanics, and more in this comedic rap video with cameos from a few stars you might know.
Summer Walker - "Come Thru" (with Usher)
Although the 23-year-old singer released "Over It" last year, sis finally slid through with a video for "Come Thru" earlier this month which features a sultry Summer and an undeniably delicious Usher swerving through the streets of Atlanta giving us big old school R&B energy.
Alicia Keys - "Underdog"
We can always count on Alicia Keys to pull up with an inspirational bop for the culture and "Underdog" is no exception. Co-written by Ed Sheeran, this guitar-infused track will make you feel seen AF.
Snoh Aalegra - "Whoa"
If you know me, you know I love me some Snoh Aalegra, and the fact that Michael B. Jordan makes me love her even more (and hate her just a little).
Halsey - "You should be sad"
Halsey unleashed her inner hot girl with this country-esque music video that has already amassed more than 1.4 million views in less than 14 hours. Featuring hella bundles, line dancing, a stallion, and cutthroat lyrics about an ex-boyfriend, this is the breakup song you didn't know you needed.
Mick Jenkins - "Carefree" Black Boy
You know I had to pull up with some fresh heat for my die-hard hip-hop fans, and if you didn't know about Mick Jenkins before, now you know. On this soulful, 420-friendly track, Mick raps about the forces the come between his reality and truly living life as a "Carefree Black Boy".
Kehlani - "All Me" (feat. Keyshia Cole)
If your plans are to be 100% boo'd up this weekend, this track needs to be added to your rotation ASAP.
Amindi - "Love Em Leave Em" (feat. Kari Faux)
Jamaican singer Aminde linked up with rapper Kari Faux for this colorful collab that will have you feeling yourself all damn weekend.
Common - "My Fancy Free Future Love" (Tom Misch Remix)
After his latest release, Let Love, Common is back with a woke AF love letter to his future partner in love that promises a life of watching ATL, drinking wine, and ordering Postmates.
Featured image via Giphy
Did you know that xoNecole has a podcast? Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify to join us for weekly convos over cocktails (without the early morning hangover.)
Taylor "Pretty" Honore is a spiritually centered and equally provocative rapper from Baton Rouge, Louisiana with a love for people and storytelling. You can probably find me planting herbs in your local community garden, blasting "Back That Thang Up" from my mini speaker. Let's get to know each other: @prettyhonore.
ItGirl 100 Honors Black Women Who Create Culture & Put On For Their Cities
As they say, create the change you want to see in this world, besties. That’s why xoNecole linked up with Hyundai for the inaugural ItGirl 100 List, a celebration of 100 Genzennial women who aren’t afraid to pull up their own seats to the table. Across regions and industries, these women embody the essence of discovering self-value through purpose, honey! They're fierce, they’re ultra-creative, and we know they make their cities proud.
VIEW THE FULL ITGIRL 100 LIST HERE.
Don’t forget to also check out the ItGirl Directory, featuring 50 Black-woman-owned marketing and branding agencies, photographers and videographers, publicists, and more.
THE ITGIRL MEMO
I. An ItGirl puts on for her city and masters her self-worth through purpose.
II. An ItGirl celebrates all the things that make her unique.
III. An ItGirl empowers others to become the best versions of themselves.
IV. An ItGirl leads by example, inspiring others through her actions and integrity.
V. An ItGirl paves the way for authenticity and diversity in all aspects of life.
VI. An ItGirl uses the power of her voice to advocate for positive change in the world.
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It’s been nearly twenty years since India.Arie’s crown anthem, “I am not my hair,” gave Black women an affirmation to live by. What followed was a natural hair revolution that birthed a new level of self-love and acceptance. Concerns around how to better care for our hair birthed an entire new generation of entrepreneurs who benefitted from the power of the Black dollar. Retailers made room for product lines made for us, by us, on their shelves, and we further affirmed that though our hair doesn’t define us, it is part of our unique self-expression.
Today, that movement has turned into a wig uprising where Black women are able to experiment with colors, styles, and more without causing irreparable damage to our hair. It could even be said that we’ve arrived at a new level of acceptance: one that does not equate love of oneself to one’s willingness or lack thereof to wear her hair the way others deem acceptable. Not even other people who look like us.
However, as with Blackness itself, the issue of Black women’s hair is layered.
On the surface, it’s nothing more than a matter of personal preference. However, in a deeper dive, issues of texture, curl pattern, and of course, proximity to social acceptance, as well as other runoff streams from the waters of racism and patriarchy, rear their heads. The natural hair movement, though a wide-reaching and liberating community builder, also gave way to colorism and often upheld mainstream beauty standards.
Sometimes, favoring lighter-skinned influencers/creators with very specific hair textures, the white gaze leaked into our safe space and forced us to reckon with it. Accurate representations of natural hair in various states of being—undefined curls, kinks, and unlaid edges—are still absent from brand marketing. Protective styles, though intended to provide breaks from styling for our sensitive hair, have become a mask to help our hair be more palatable. A figurative straddle of the fence in order to appease the comfort of others in the face of our hair’s power.
And then there’s the issue of length.
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As a woman who has spent much of the last decade voluntarily wearing her hair in many variations of short hairstyles, from a pixie cut to a curly fro and a sleek bob, what I’ve gleaned throughout the years is that there is a glaring difference between how I am treated when wearing my hair short than when I opt for weaves, extensions or even grow it out slightly longer than my chin.
The differential treatment comes from women and men alike and spans professional and personal settings, including friends, coworkers, and industry peers.
What has become abundantly clear is that long hair is often conflated with beauty, softness, and any number of other words we relate to femininity in a way that short hair is not. That perceived marker of the essence of womanhood shows up in how I am received, communicated with, and complimented.
Even more so than texture, length has a way of deciding who among us is deserving of our attention, affection, and adoration. Whether naturally grown or proudly bought, the commentary around someone’s look or image greatly shifts when “inches” are present.
When it comes to long hair, we really, really do care.
In an effort to understand whether I had simply been misinterpreting the energy around my hair, I decided to take my findings to social media. I began with two side-by-side photos of myself. In both pictures, my hair is straightened; however, in one, I am wearing my signature pixie cut, and in the other, I am wearing extensions.
I posited that treatment based on hair length is a real thing, and what followed was confirmation that I was not alone in my feelings. “Long hair, like light skin, button noses, and being thin are all forms of social capital,” one user commented. “Some Black women enforce the status quo too, why wouldn’t we?”
Courtesy
This also brought to mind the many times celebrity women (like most recently Beyoncé's Cécred hair tutorial) have done big reveals of their own natural tresses in an attempt to silence any doubt that Black women are able to grow their hair beyond a certain length. Of course, we all know that to be true, so why do we still feel the need to prove it so?
The responses continued to pour in from women of all skin tones, who felt that hair length played a role in people’s treatment of them. “When I have short hair I always feel like people don’t treat me like a woman, they treat me like a kid,” another user commented. “When my hair is long I get a lot more respect for some reason.”
From revelations about feeling invisible to admitted shifts in their own perceived beauty, Black woman after Black woman poured out her experience as it relates to hair length. Though affirmed by their shared realities, knowing that reactions to something so trivial have become yet another hair battle for Black women to fight was disheartening. Though we continue to defy gravity and push the bounds of imagination and creativity by way of our strands, will it always be in response to the idea that we are, somehow, falling short?
Unlike more obvious instances of hair discrimination, the glorification of longer length is sneakier in its connection to Eurocentric beauty standards. Hair commercials, beauty ads, and even hip-hop music have long celebrated the idea of gloriously long tresses while holding onto the ignorant notion that it is inaccessible for Black women.
Even as we continue to fight to prove our hair professional, elegant, and worthy in its natural state to the world at large, we’ve also adopted harmful value markers of our own as a community. It’s evident in how we talk about who has the right to start a haircare line and which influencers we easily platform. It’s evident in the language we use to identify those with long hair versus short hair. And it’s painfully obvious in how we treat one another.
It makes me wonder if India.Arie’s brave rallying cry, almost two decades old in its existence, will ever actually hold true for us. Or will we just continue to invent new ways to uphold the harmful status quo?
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Feature image by Willie B. Thomas/ Getty Images