Okayplayer's Songs of Summer 2018: Playlist
From Anderson's .Paak's swaggering smash to an Pusha T's ice-cold anthem to searing sleepers from Jitwam and Ben Khan - here's all of this summer's most essential listening.
Quicker than Roseanne’s Ambien-induced cancellation, all of the symptoms of the fairest season have finally set in; the skin, the sweat, the smoke — an entrancing haze of quick-strike coals and half-lit backwoods. It's summer and Brooklyn's finally (barely?) worth the cost of breathing. Cue: resurgent willingness to actually be outside and face fellow humans. Also cue: frenzied post-hibernation scramble to catch-up on the year in music so you don't have the very public realization of just how much you may have slept through this winter.
Luckily, the final cue is our own.
Presenting this year's Songs of Summer playlist -- a 60-plus track sequence of anthems, bops, and footwork fodder fine-tuned for just about anything the coming months may throw at you. Summer's it's This year's installment is entirely top-shelf, comprising the brightest, breeziest, heavy-leaningist cuts of the last six months and change, including standout selections from Jorja Smith, Tierra Whack, Okay Kaya, Naji, Ben Khan, Jitwam, Masego, Raveena and Sudan Archives. You'll also find plenty of new heat from perennial powerhouses; The Internet, GoldLink, Childish Gambino, Kaytranada, A$AP Rocky, Little Dragon, Kid Cudi, and yes, even Kanye, are all accounted for in this deep and definitive scan of the songs that'll get you through the season unscathed and painfully prepared for the year-end superlatives discussion.
Slip into the first days of summer with our latest playlist below. Hit the link to subscribe to Okayplayer's Spotify channel and never wonder what's next on the rotation.