Welcome to Heat Check, a biweekly music column where AJC culture reporter DeAsia Paige explores the temperature of Georgia’s buzzing, expansive music scene. The column includes music news, trends and any Georgia-related music that DeAsia is listening to. If you’re a Georgia artist and have music you want to be considered for this column — or if you just want to talk music — feel free to send an email to deasia.paige@ajc.com
This year in music wasn’t short of excitement. Pop acts Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan and Charli XCX ruled the summer. Megastars Beyoncé and Taylor Swift made thunderous declarations with new albums. Shaboozey became country’s next big thing. And a rap battle royale between Kendrick Lamar and Drake felt like it would never end.
Georgia music became just as fun. After years without an album, the Black Crowes and Usher returned with new songs. Latto delivered a career-defining LP. Future continued his rap reign with three no. 1 albums.
Below is a list of the best Georgia projects released this year (which also features a playlist):
10. 21 Savage - “American Dream”
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
21 Savage turns inward on “American Dream.” The East Atlanta rapper reflects on his roots and rising celebrity. He tackles his emotions with the confidence of an artist who fully knows the man he wants to be — an inspiration to those whose upbringings were also riddled with crime and violence. But the album’s touching moments don’t prevent 21 Savage from leaning on his signature menacing bars (“Red Rum” is a great example) or his R&B interests. The rapper has seen massive success over the past few years (Grammy nominations, joint album/tour with Drake, etc.). “American Dream” thoroughly captures that momentum.
9. The Black Crowes- “Happiness Bastards”
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
Fifteen years after their last studio album, The Black Crowes returned as if they never left. “Happiness Bastards” has all the soul that defined the rockers since their inception in the 1980s. Across 10 tracks, the band brings the funk and fun. “Flesh Wound” is backed by splashy drums that guide the song’s endless optimism. The blues-inflected “Wanting and Waiting” makes loneliness sound less alone. “Happiness Bastards” presents a salient reminder: having fun has no age limit.
8. Amaarae - “Roses Are Red, Tears Are Blue”
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
Although “Roses Are Red, Tears Are Blue” is only an EP, it has the strength of an album. That’s how talented Amaarae is. She approaches each song as if it’s an entire project. The seven-track follow-up to her succulent 2023 album “Fountain Baby” continues the kinetic Afropop rhythms of its predecessor. In turn, the EP becomes an endless after-party. “This!” radiates with striking synths. “Sweeeet” is a sexy groove. “Roses Are Red, Tears Are Blue” is a mighty extension of Amaarae’s thrilling soundscapes.
7. Megan Moroney - “Am I Okay?”
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
There are breakup albums, then there’s “Am I Okay?”— an intricate story about loss. It captures the hope before the heartbreak. The desire for revenge. The grief that’s reminiscent of other grief. The urge to move on, but you can’t. Megan Moroney bares all on her sophomore album. “Am I Okay?” shines for its layered storytelling that centers the often excruciating pain that feels too familiar to let go.
6. Coco & Clair Clair - “Girl”
Credit: Photo by Nicole Steriovski
Credit: Photo by Nicole Steriovski
“Girl” sounds like the score for an A24 comedy about 20-something party girls whose lives are messy and fun. The duo trade lines about trying hard not to care about a cheating ex (“Martini”), the subsequent revenge (“Everyone But You,” “My Girl”), and rosy romances (“My House,” “Gorgeous International Really Lucky”). Amid the drama, Coco & Clair Clair exude unyielding confidence that makes their bedroom rap bars feel inspirational. As Clair Clair says in “Kate Spade,” they can “write a hit song, then I read a big book/ I’m all about lovin’/ you can call me bell hooks.”
5. Faye Webster - “Underdressed at the Symphony”
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
On “Underdressed at the Symphony,” Faye Webster invites listeners into the crevices of her anxious thoughts. The album makes the most silent feelings loud. There’s the burning desire for intimacy that’s better left unsaid (“But Not Kiss”). There’s the constant thinking about being an overthinker (“Wanna Quit All the Time”). Webster exposes a beautiful mind filled with humor and introspection. Her lyricism and instrumentation are subtle yet mesmerizing. The album is a buoyant declaration that for her, less is always more.
4. Future - “Mixtape Pluto”
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
After delivering back-to-back no. 1 albums with Metro Boomin, Future doesn’t sound tired at all. Instead, he swings high into a new gear. “Mixtape Pluto” is Future at his most energetic. It’s seeped in the glory of his early mixtape days while introducing new flows. The chorus of “Plutoski” is so garbled yet masterful because he utters the word “yeah” as if it’s a different language. With radio hit “Too Fast,” Future floats over cloudy drum patterns while reflecting on a cloudier theme: the troubling pressures of fame. In 18 tracks, Future secures his rap throne with rejuvenation.
3. Usher - “Coming Home”
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
“Coming Home,” includes the best elements of Usher’s relentless, genre-bending dance-capades. Placing R&B at its core, the album bounces from Afrobeats to 2010s pop to soul ballads with the ease of a charming skater. He gives stans and neophytes just enough to stay on the dance floor. “Bop” could soundtrack a midnight lovers’ waltz. “Kissing Strangers” sounds like Usher’s subtle return to his EDM era. “Big” brings pomp and funk the size of its song title. “Coming Home” showcases Usher’s 30-year skill to effortlessly entertain.
2. Latto - “Sugar Honey Iced Tea”
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
“Ain’t nothing like a Georgia girl.” That’s the chorus to “Georgia Peach,” the opening track of Latto’s third LP “Sugar Honey Iced Tea.” But it could easily be the album’s thesis. The Grammy-nominated rapper uses her Georgia roots as the backdrop of her best and most authentic work yet. Across 17 songs, Latto delivers a Southern fried playlist — resting in her self-assured bars and lover girl lines. Standout tracks “There She Go” and “Brokey” illuminates Latto’s infectious it-girl attitude. The Hunxho-assisted “Copper Cove” (an ode to the Buckhead lounge of the same name) and the 2000s-nostalgic “Good 2 U” (which features Ciara) are sugary tracks laced in love and lust. Latto doubles down on her rap mastery and proves she’s the one to watch.
1. SahBabii - “Saaheem”
Credit: Silas Onoja
Credit: Silas Onoja
“Saaheem” teems with inspiration from Atlanta rap royalty. The self-titled album (named after SahBabii’s real name Saaheem Valdery) wades in moments reminiscent of Young Thug, Playboi Carti and Future without sounding like imitation. Take “Viking,” the album’s best track. For nearly 3 minutes, the rapper completely unleashes on any doubter while offering fans the humor he’s known for. He calms down on “Lost All My Feelings,” where he croons about dealing with trauma. Leaning on the lineage of Atlanta rap’s weirdos, “Saaheem” is an autobiographical portrait of an artist who’s primed to take that quirkiness to more exhilarating and honest levels.
