Social media allows us to share everything we are doing. Lucky for us, (almost) every one of our favorite rappers has a cell phone, an Instagram account, a Vine account, a YouTube account, etc., and in their moments of excitement, they'll give us a sneak peek behind the scenes. The most exciting of these previews comes in the form of a song snippet.
We might see the photo of Yung Lean and Travi$ Scott together in the studio, but we want the audio. And, we want it early. We want to obsess over what our favorite artist might have on the horizon. We want to be able to flex on more casual fans—"Oh, yeah, I remember when they played this for two seconds on a LiveStream back in 2011." Sometimes these snippets aren't released by the artist, and to those producers, songwriters, friends, hangers-on, and unscrupulous bloggers, we salute you. Previewing a song has now become a crucial step in building buzz, the oil for the hypemachine. Here are this year's 15 Most Anticipated Songs Based Off Snippets.
Justin Roberson is a writer from South Carolina. Follow him @BauceSauce.
Lil Wayne and Mannie Fresh's Tha Carter V Track
Drake's "Heat of the Moment"
Meek Mill and Migos' "Contagious"
Bobby Shmurda and Rowdy Rebel
Travi$ Scott and Metro Boomin
Earl Sweatshirt
With Odd Future, we usually have to wait for full projects to hear their new music. This is a special treat. We get not one, but two Sweatshirt snippets, and new Earl is always welcomed. Nothing unexpected here; it's straightforward Sweatshirt: extended, dense rhyme schemes over murky instrumentation. However, the beat with the sample in the beginning sounds like it has a lot of promise. We can't wait to see what else he has in store.
Kanye West's "Awesome"
Kanye apparently previewed his entire album in Paris the other night. The majority of new Kanye music we've been blessed with has been in the form of guest verse snippets. "Awesome," which has been around for over a year now in "freestyle" form, is the only Kanye song we've been lucky enough to be gifted. Yeezus must have been feeling generous, because on the season finale of Keeping Up With the Kardashians we finally got a CD-quality snippet. Awesome.
Theophilus London and Kanye West's "Can’t Stop"
Rich Homie Quan and Young Thug's "She Do the Most"
Many people predicted "She Do the Most" would be the second single from the Rich Gang: Tha Tour, Part 1 mixtape. That project was released, and this Rich Homie Quan-led track was sadly nowhere to be found. An extended, sing-along version has been on YouTube since July, and it actually highlights the best part of this song (and, really, their whole mixtape): drunkenly singing this with all of your friends. Rich Homie has a pension for pacing and phrasing, and, of course, catchy hooks. We're hoping for this sooner rather than later.
Young Thug's "Lil One"
Nicki Minaj
French Montana and Kanye West's "Money Can Change That"
Justin Bieber and DJ Mustard's "Turn Up"
Young Thug and Travi$ Scott's "Warrior"
Young Thug's influence was all over Travi$ Scott's Days Before Rodeo album, with their tracks being two of the standouts. Previewed way back in May, "Warrior" has been hyped by Thug, Metro, and La Flame. From the sounds of it, it's a monster. Who knows if this was supposed to be on DBR and got cut, or is slated for Metro Thuggin, or locked away in a vault for a future, proper Thugger album release. In addition to "Warrior," let's pray we get this "Dip It in Gold" track soon, as well.
Chief Keef and Kanye West's "Nobody"
