Compared to recent months, February was a relatively dry period for new music. Not to say nothing dropped (because there were certainly some gems), but it wasn’t the prolific month many listeners have come to expect. Here’s a rundown of notable music that dropped in February, including songs that you probably have heard, and some that you probably haven’t.

NO APOLOGY! – Kilo Kish

Kilo Kish just cannot miss right now. NO APOLOGY!, the fourth single she’s dropped in promotion of her forthcoming album American Gurl, is a bouncy, synthy cut that sounds like it’s straight out of Euphoria. I don’t think that it’s an understatement to say that Kilo Kish’s sound will expand to broader audiences, and this song is just one reason why.

Do We Have A Problem?- Nicki Minaj featuring Lil Baby

This song is pretty much what most people expect from Nicki at this point. A melodic hook, a generic trap beat, and a feature that carries the song (In this case, Lil Baby, who should have saved this verse for a better song). Nicki starts off the song doing her best Baby Keem impression, and it just doesn’t work that well. She kind of makes up for the lackluster first verse with a decent third verse and outro, but at this point, it’s is too far gone to magically turn into a good song.

Bussin- Nicki Minaj featuring Lil Baby

This song should have gotten the attention Do We Have a Problem? got, because it’s SO much better. The energy missing from the former song is present here, and the sequences where Nicki and Baby go bar-for-bar are particularly great. Lil Baby continues his trend of trying way harder on features than he does his own music, as he kills it once again here. His energy is infectious, and he slides in effortlessly with Minaj’s cadence. This song should have been bigger than it was, and it should have been promoted more (it came on the heels of Do We Have A Problem?, so it got way less attention)  because it’s everything her first single of the month should have been.

Chess Players- BabyTron featuring DaBoii

If you’re reading this, I’m practically begging you to get hip to BabyTron. No one is doing it like him right now, and Chess Players is just another example. To many, it sounds like he flows the same on every song, and raps over the same beats every time (which is partially true), but it doesn’t matter because either nobody else raps like him, or nobody else can do it as well as him. Tron and DaBoii, formerly of SOB X RBE, trade bars and speed-racer fast flows over a piano-laced beat. This song needs to be in your workout playlist. 

bbycakes- Mura Masa featuring Lil Uzi Vert, PinkPantheress, and Shygirl

This song is not for everyone. Coming into it, I was curious due to the eclectic mix of artists. Mura Masa’s best-known song is the A$AP Rocky assisted cut Love$ick, which is a similar vibe to what Masa attempts here. Lil Uzi is known for making some of the biggest (and most overrated) trap music of the late 2010s, but he does a pretty good job here, taking the majority of the vocals across the track. PinkPantheress, who dropped the excellent album to hell with it back in 2021, appears on the second verse, but is severely underused. Shygirl, to her credit, has made some pretty good music in the past, but she just does not do a very good job here. Her high-pitched vocals sound very out of place here, as PinkPantheress could have done it to justify her placement here. Actually, pretty much everyone here sounds out of place. I respect what Mura Masa was trying to do here, but it’s just too much. This song is fine for what it is, but it sounds like a leftover or a remix from Uzi’s extraordinarily average album Eternal Atake.

Channel Zero- Raury

Raury, back with his second single in nearly three years, continues to channel the forestry, woodland vibe that inspired his excellent 2019 album Fervent. This song just sounds like a ray of sunshine. Raury’s vocals are sometimes overshadowed by the drum-heavy production, but it somehow works here. The song stands out when it slows down and reveals some subtle backing guitars, allowing Raury to gently rap simply about how we should “be at peace with the moment”. Do you remember when Raury was on the XXL Freshman list back in 2014? Yeah, nobody does, but that’s probably a good thing, considering he makes music like this now.

City of Gods- Fivio Foreign featuring Alicia Keys and Kanye West

 City of Gods sounds like a worse version of Empire State of Mind, but with a drill beat. Alicia Keys kills the hook, Kanye does fine, and Fivio is Fivio. There’s really nothing else I can say. This song is disappointing, especially coming off the heels of the first Kanye/Fivio collab, the excellent Off the Grid, which also features Playboi Carti.

Falling Off- Duke Deuce featuring Rico Nasty

This song is fantastic. From Duke Deuce’s snarling hook and Lil Jon-reminiscent verse to Rico Nasty’s ferociously energetic second verse to the aggressive guitar-laced beat, everything in this song is perfect. Rappers love to position themselves as rockstars and are made fun of for it, but Falling Off proves that rappers making rock-influenced songs can be done right, and done well (looking at you, Trippie Redd). This song is probably the best thing that dropped during the month of February.

Louis Baggage- Curren$y and The Alchemist featuring Babyface Ray

There’s one way to describe this song: smooth. The Alchemist’s beat sounds like what melty caramel tastes like, Curren$y somehow manages to sound threatening while rapping about smoking and eating Cuban sandwiches, and rising Detroit rapper Babyface Ray (who himself is having an excellent 2022) slides in with an effortless verse. This song comes off of The Alchemist and Curren$y’s latest collab project Continuance, dropped in late January.