Skip to content

Tate McRae: How a ‘Very Sensitive, Very Introverted’ Singer Became a Pop Superstar

Search

A$AP Rocky Teams Up With Jessica Pratt for Genre-Spanning Single ‘Highjack’

A$AP Rocky Teams Up With Jessica Pratt for Genre-Spanning Single ‘Highjack’
Emily Zemler
By Emily ZemlerAug 02, 2024
Emily Zemler
See Full Bio

A$AP Rocky has dropped a new single, “Highjack,” featuring Los Angeles folk-pop musician Jessica Pratt. The track was produced by Greg Kurstin, Hitkidd, Jordan Patrick, and Zach Fogarty, and has background vocals from Creed B Good and Jon Batiste. The song will appear on the rapper’s forthcoming LP, Don’t Be Dumb.

In an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, A$AP Rocky spoke about working with Pratt and Batiste on the song. “I just love alternative,” the rapper told Lowe. “I love just different sounds and whatnot. [Pratt] kind of gave me this kind of Portishead meets Stevie Nicks vibe a little bit. Right. So I always fucked with her as a artist, and so I figured it was necessary to get her, Jon Batiste on this one, and kind of make it feel soulful to bring it on home in the outro.”

The rapper explained of the song’s theme, “I feel like the real is back man, and it’s just like, this shit is for the taking. It’s a hijack. Not only that, it’s just we coming with a whole new aesthetic on everything, especially with German expressionism and the whole ghetto futurism grim thing. So that’s just what the sound sounds like and whatnot. The sonics of it.”

He added, “I’ve been working on this stuff, this material for a while now, tweaking it and fixing it and whatnot. So this was just one of the ones that we decided to, it was the summer and here we are. Shot a visual and yeah, this is part of the new saga.”

A$AP Rocky has been teasing Don’t Be Dumb, due Aug. 30, for a few months. He premiered several untitled tracks from the LP during Paris Fashion Week, when he debuted his first AWGE collection, American Sabotage. Last year, he told Dazed he felt the new music was his “best work yet.” He added, “I want to leave expectations wide and open. I don’t want to tell you what to expect. I just want people to experience it how they do naturally.”

Pratt released her latest album, Here in the Pitch, in May. It marked Pratt’s fourth album, following a five-year hiatus after 2019’s Quiet Signs. “I never wanted it to take this long,” she said of the wait. “I’m just a real perfectionist. I was just trying to get the right feeling, and it takes a long time to do that.”  

Most Popular

Jimmy Kimmel Forms Cover Band With Conan O’Brien, Jon Stewart at Netflix Is a Joke Fest
Music

Jimmy Kimmel Forms Cover Band With Conan O’Brien, Jon Stewart at Netflix Is a Joke Fest

How Worried Should We Be About the Hantavirus Outbreak?
(Sub)Culture Features

How Worried Should We Be About the Hantavirus Outbreak?

The Rolling Stones Go ‘Back to Black’ With an Amy Winehouse Cover on ‘Foreign Tongues’
Music

The Rolling Stones Go ‘Back to Black’ With an Amy Winehouse Cover on ‘Foreign Tongues’

Taylor Swift’s Attorneys Call ‘Showgirl’ Trademark Lawsuit ‘Absurd’: Performer Trying to ‘Prop Up Her Brand’
Music News

Taylor Swift’s Attorneys Call ‘Showgirl’ Trademark Lawsuit ‘Absurd’: Performer Trying to ‘Prop Up Her Brand’

Kendrick Lamar and Dr. Dre Return to Alma Mater for Their High School’s Groundbreaking Ceremony
Music News

Kendrick Lamar and Dr. Dre Return to Alma Mater for Their High School’s Groundbreaking Ceremony

More Stories

Harry Styles Discos All the Time, School Assemblies Occasionally in ‘Dance No More’ Video

Harry Styles.

YouTube

Harry Styles Discos All the Time, School Assemblies Occasionally in ‘Dance No More’ Video

In his new video, Harry Styles leads the greatest pep rally ever. The “Dance No More” clip begins with Styles walking into a circle of musicians, dancing and singing, and eventually when (college-aged) students show up to watch him, the gym transforms into a a dance floor with everyone doing coordinated moves. By the end of it, people are of course kissing, because that’s what should be happening all the time. Colin Solal Cardo, who has made clips for Roby, Wolf Alice, and Charli XCX, directed the video.

“Dance No More” appears on Styles’ latest album Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally. Earlier this year, the musician performed the song during his double-duty stint on Saturday Night Live. It was an unexpected choice given the previous release of singles “Aperture” and “American Girls.” But “Dance No More” perhaps best captures the beating heart of the album.

Keep ReadingShow less
Kodak Black Turns Himself in to Police on 2025 MDMA Drug Trafficking Charges in Florida

Kodak Black.

Joy Malone/Getty Images

Kodak Black Turns Himself in to Police on 2025 MDMA Drug Trafficking Charges in Florida

Kodak Black was arrested in Orange County, Florida, earlier this week, on suspicion of drug trafficking, according to a search of Orange County Inmate Records. The records show that authorities have accused the rapper, real name Bill Kahan Kapri, of trafficking an amount of MDMA greater than 10 grams in mass but less than 200 grams. The rapper, whose last known location was Fort Lauderdale, was booked on Wednesday and “presentenced.” His case will be considered in a circuit court.

The Orlando Police Department did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone’s request for comment.

Keep ReadingShow less
The Radical Life and Surprising Reinvention of Steve Albini

The Radical Life and Surprising Reinvention of Steve Albini

On a brisk November day in 2024, a crowd gathers on Belmont Ave. in Chicago outside a two-story brick building, the only hint of its storied significance a red door bearing a lower-case “e” placard. Family, friends, and fans are here to pay tribute to Steve Albini, the venerated recording engineer, who died of a heart attack six months prior at age 61. The City of Chicago is honoring him, giving the street flanking his long-running Electrical Audio studio the designation of Steve Albini Way.

It’s an apt distinction: Albini’s way — from his unusual approach to recording, which emphasized the live sound of a band and influenced decades of rock music, to his cantankerous screeds, which often warranted accusations of misogyny and racism in his earlier years — was one of a kind. Albini was also a loyal friend whose personal sense of fairness, often delivered with scathing humor, served as his compass. And he had a redemptive sea change in the last decades of his life, one that many close to him attribute to Heather Whinna, who married Albini in 2009.

Keep ReadingShow less
KJ Apa Chides ‘F-cking Liar’ Mr. Fantasy After His Friends Show Up on His Video

KJ Apa posted a video on social media alluding to Mr. Fantasy after all his friends goofed off on a recent music video with the dreamaker.

Gary Gershoff/Getty Images

KJ Apa Chides ‘F-cking Liar’ Mr. Fantasy After His Friends Show Up on His Video

After all of his friends partied on Mr. Fantasy’s “Do Me Right” video without him, KJ Apa is saying “enough is enough.”

Apa, who is believed by many fans online to be the man behind the shoddy wig, plastic sunnies, and fake teeth, set the record straight on Monday. Although he insisted he usually doesn’t do this, Apa took to social media and alluded to the celebrity-stuffed video — which features cameos from his former Riverdale co-stars, Lili Reinhart, Camila Mendes, and Madelaine Petsch — and claimed the whole charade has been “hurting me and my career.” He continued, “There was recently a music video that was released that included a bunch of people who are really close to me by a guy who’s completely and utterly stolen my image and misappropriated my image and my likeness, and I think we all know who we’re talking about, and it’s fucked up.” Apa, who never named Mr. Fantasy in the clip, also lamented that he “lost on a huge job and can no longer go in for serious work because people think that I’m a joke because of this guy.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Kanye Denies Stonewalling Musicians at ‘Hurricane’ Copyright Trial

Kanye West took the witness stand on Wednesday at a copyright trial over his an early version of his hit song "Hurricane."

Getty Images

Kanye Denies Stonewalling Musicians at ‘Hurricane’ Copyright Trial

Kanye West took the witness stand at a copyright trial in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday, and the artist now known as Ye showed visible signs of irritation.

When the plaintiffs’ lawyer, who claims Ye owes more than half a million dollars for alleged infringement tied to his Grammy-winning track “Hurricane,” greeted him after the lunch break with, “Good afternoon, Ye,” the artist stared back silently without responding. Asked whether he repeatedly changed lawyers and licensing representatives in 2022 and 2023, making him difficult to reach, Ye answered in a flat monotone, repeatedly saying, “I don’t recall” and “I don’t remember.”

Keep ReadingShow less