Hits from Jazmine Sullivan, Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion and Drake are featured on a list of “19 Songs that Matter Right Now” in the annual New York Times Magazine Music Issue.

Sullivan’s Heaux Tales track, “Bodies,” is described in the issue as an “existential mystery” tale about a woman who’s grown tired of situation-ships and casual hookups — “the compass of one woman’s consciousness and the discomfiting places it has led her. Messier than the songs that are promoted to radio and streaming playlists, this track is searching, enigmatic and inward-facing.”

Cardi and Megan’s history-making “WAP” collaboration is also featured on the list. The magazine points out Meg and Cardi’s use of metaphors like “Macaroni in a pot” and “Punani Dasani” to describe the female anatomy and brag “about their sexual prowess.”  The 2020 anthem earned a record-breaking 93 million streams in the United States in its first week of release last August.

New York Times Magazine also chose “Toosie Slide” from Drake’ 2020 mixtape, Dark Lane Demo Tapes, complimenting the song’s quotable dance lyrics, as well as Drake’s “stylistic playfulness that could accommodate dancehall, Afropop, Houston trap and New Orleans bounce.

“‘Toosie Slide’ is the sound of Drake in emotional and artistic stasis, rapping about the same immature romantic conflicts he was rapping about in 2010,” says the magazine. “It revealed an artist who had not matured along with me, who could no longer evoke emotional specificity.”

Other “Songs that Matter Right Now” include Freddie Gibbs and Alchemist‘ Alfredo track, “Skinny Suge.”

By Rachel George
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