First Stream: New Music From Pharrell Williams & Travis Scott, Nicki Minaj, Maluma and More

Billboard’s First Stream serves as a handy guide to this Friday’s most essential releases — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond.

Pharrell Williams has a new collaboration this week. Nicki Minaj & Maluma are the World Cup anthems, while Sawetie celebrates the single life. Below are all the First Stream picks for this week.

Pharrell Williams & Travis Scott, “Down In Atlanta”

In addition to producing tracks for artists ranging from Rosalia to Kendrick Lamar to Omar Apollo this year, Pharrell Williams also dropped “Cash In Cash Out,” a masterclass from 21 Savage and Tyler, The Creator with one of the most icy-cold beats of the year. “Down In Atlanta” is a new track by Pharrell Williams. It features Williams giving the floor to Travis Scott, a multi-hyphenate, and Savage, who mix zonked out warbling with tales about luxury.

Nicki Minaj, Maluma & Myriam Fares, “Tukoh Taka”

It’s World Cup season, and to celebrate the 2022 kickoff in Qatar, Nicki Minaj, Maluma and Myriam Fares have joined forces for a frenetic single that is the “Official FIFA Fan Festival Anthem” and sung in English, Spanish and Arabic. “Tukoh Taka” moves swiftly and tries to score efficiently: around the jittery hook, Minaj raps about a girl’s night out (with some soccer references tossed in for good measure), Maluma croons about scoring a goal in the 90th minute of play, and the beat throbs with the intensity of the tournament that the song is designed to celebrate.

Saweetie, The Single Life EP

Saweetie is winding up for a major 2023, but before this year comes to a close, the ascendant MC demonstrates the combination of her current star power and artistic potential on the six-song project The Single Life. The California native sounds collected, charismatic on tracks such as “Don’t Say Nothin'”, and “Bo$$ Chick”, but it’s “Handle My Truth”, where she discusses staying single over throwback, Gfunk-informed productions that reminds us of her lyrical depth.

Disturbed, Divisive

Brockhampton, The Family and TM

If new album The Family and surprise release TM represent the final works of the audacious hip-hop collective Brockhampton, who have been hinting at a going of separate ways for some time, then the group will have gone out with a creative bang: instead of getting lost in contemplation and wobbling toward new beginnings, Brockhampton uses both projects to get back to what made them captivating upon their breakthrough, from zany sing-alongs (the Nickelodeon homage “All That”) to R&B and dance riffs (“Man on the Moon,” which checks both boxes) to hardened bars about who they are and what they want to accomplish (the stirring coda “Brockhampton”). It is safe to say that Brockhampton’s music will always be there, no matter what happens.