We might as well change the title of our latest R&B Season playlist update to "Leon Season," as two genre-adjacent artists came through with the best of the best releases this week. Leon Thomas continues to roll out and expand upon his 2024 album MUTT, this time tapping Chris Brown for a new remix of its titular track. At the end of the day, this is still the same "MUTT" you know and love, but with a soulful and charismatic Breezy feature. The contrast between their vocal tones works pretty well here, with Brown taking up the heft of high-soaring vocal runs and Thomas offers a buttery-smooth performance.
Even though his 2024 was great enough, it seems like the former VICTORiOUS star has no plans to slow down this year. This new "MUTT" remix follows Leon Thomas' "Here We Go (Uh Oh)" rework, assisting fellow R&B singer Coco Jones with a remix of her 2024 single. Hopefully we get some original material down the line as well, because these collaborative link-ups are a treat. You can also find that track on our R&B Season playlist.
HNHH R&B Season Playlist
And on the other side of the Leon coin on R&B Season, we have Sean Leon with his atmospheric and ambitious new single, "sean leon must die." Despite the foreboding title, this track opens up in a heavenly way with a "Wonderwall" interpolation, wistful synthesizer wails, lightly plucked acoustic and electric guitars, and a lot of room in the production. Eventually, an earthy drum pattern emerges to give the cut a little more groove, and background vocal croons set up a very dreamy soundscape. It's lyrically scant, but the transportive nature of the instrumental communicates the title's sense of discovery and new beginnings quite fittingly.
While that's it for our R&B Season playlist update this week, the hip-hop world also held some big new releases on our Fire Emoji collection. Leading the way is the new single "Just Us" from a new duo, Jack Harlow and Doja Cat. It lands ahead of the former's upcoming album, which he seems very excited to share as the next step in his artistic development. This is a more peppy offering, but one we're sure will pair well with the rest of Harlow and Doja's 2025 repertoire.
