A quiet Thursday on the calendar, but a loud one in the culture: NAO trades the major-label system for jazz and independence, French Montana and Max B take Friday, and two New Orleans dynasties roll through the South this weekend.
NAO Goes Indie With "Autumn," a Jazz Return
London R&B singer NAO announced her new album Autumn on September 30, arriving October 16 on her own Little Tokyo Recordings — her first release outside RCA after four albums with the label, per Clash Music. The ten-track record opens A Soulful Suite, a planned four-album, season-themed series in which each installment explores a different genre that shaped her music, with Autumn returning her to jazz — the music she studied for four years at conservatoire before developing the electronic soul sound of her earlier work. NAO made the album with musician and producer Dave Okumu after the pair reconnected through a tribute to D'Angelo: two days of loosely guided improvisation in her living room, captured on her phone, yielding roughly 20 to 25 ideas, with nine becoming the foundations of the record, per Dork. Two singles arrived with the announcement: "Eugene," honoring D'Angelo, born Michael Eugene Archer, and "Save The World," partly inspired by Marvin Gaye and concerned with personal responsibility in an overwhelming world. "I've given up trying to get a seat at the table, and I'm creating my own," NAO said.
French Montana and Max B Take Friday With "Night To Remember"
After a summer that saw them headline Summer Jam and perform "Ever Since U Left Me" and "Minx In Miami" at the BET Awards, per BroadwayWorld, French Montana and Max B are slated to land their disco-leaning joint album Night To Remember on Friday, October 2, per Fresh Hip Hop Mag's October release calendar and a Rolling Stone India interview with Montana in which he described the project as a forthcoming mixtape with Max B. The project is named for Max B's 2010 song, and it caps a year of relentless Wave Gods motion: the "Cheat Code (Follow Me)" single with its official performance video, per TrackBlasters, and the Coke Wave 3.5: Narcos tape and Wave Gods 2: Cosmos Brothers projects that preceded it.
Cash Money and No Limit Take Birmingham, Dallas — Then Tampa
The Cash Money & No Limit Tour rolls into its October stretch this weekend, with stops at Birmingham, Alabama's Legacy Arena on Friday, October 2 and Dallas's American Airlines Center on Sunday, October 4 at 7 p.m., per Pollstar. Headlined by Birdman and Master P — the two men who built Cash Money Records and No Limit Records — the 17-city package brings Juvenile, Mannie Fresh, B.G., Silkk The Shocker, Mia X, Mac, Mercedes, Fiend, Choppa Style, and Mr. Serv-On, with Boosie Badazz as special guest on most dates. Notably, Boosie skips the Dallas and Indianapolis stops, per The Source. "Bringing our people together on one stage, in front of the fans who rode with us from the beginning is what this is about," Birdman said in a statement, per The Source. The run closes November 15 in Cleveland, per Consequence — but Florida fans already have a date circled: November 7 at Tampa's Benchmark International Arena, per HotNewHipHop.
