As singer-songwriter Max McNown prepared to release his country-folk love song “Better Me For You (Brown Eyes)” last November, he felt reluctant to share such a vulnerable single about his girlfriend of nearly two years. But the track quickly resonated with fans, becoming his first entry on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart and the Billboard Hot 100 — and soon, the 23-year-old’s perspective changed.

“I wasn’t expecting a song that is so specifically about my girlfriend to do so well,” he reflects. “It gives me a lot of encouragement to keep writing personal songs about my life.”

McNown wrote “Better Me For You” in May 2024 during a session with Trent Dabbs, Ava Suppelsa and writer-producer Jamie Kenney, at the lattermost’s Nashville-area studio. At the time, McNown had a basic melody, a simple concept and the written phrase, “I didn’t know you’d have brown eyes,” which became central to the song’s chorus.

“Ava asked me more about my girlfriend, like, ‘What do you love about her?’” McNown remembers. “It’s about wanting to be a better person, because you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody.”

While McNown and his collaborators completed writing the hit-to-be in that session, slow-burning success from his summer 2023 ballad “A Lot More Free” allowed his team more time to build momentum. The prior bittersweet acoustic single — and title track to his debut EP released at the same time — gained traction in fall 2024, entering the top 30 on Hot Country Songs. It has more recently crossed over to alternative and pop formats, reaching a No. 8 high on Adult Pop Airplay.

“He hadn’t gone on any big tours yet, and ‘A Lot More Free’ was blowing up,” says McNown’s uncle and manager, Brandon Ebel, president of Tooth & Nail Records and Solid State Records, of opting to hold on releasing a follow-up single. “We wanted to wait for the perfect time.”

McNown and his team teased “Better Me For You” on social media in October, focusing on the chorus — and more specifically, his phrase about brown eyes. Seeing fans referring to the song as such in comment sections, they quickly added the words to the song title ahead of its Nov. 15 release.

“It already had thousands of people using the sound on [Instagram] and TikTok,” Ebel says, adding that they invested the bulk of McNown’s budget into advertising with online marketing campaigns, including on social media platforms.

But even before the backing support from his team, McNown had already proved his internet savvy. When the Oregon native moved to California in 2022, he was given his father’s old guitar and slowly learned hit songs by Zach Bryan and Tyler Childers. He began to busk on the San Clemente Pier within a few months of arriving, and at the suggestion of a friend, soon posted those covers online. After gaining a following, he self-released “Freezing in November,” a solo write, in 2023, which signaled to Ebel that McNown was ready for the next step.

“He’d written a few other songs we thought were good, so I said, ‘As a favor, I’ll fly you down to Nashville and we can record a couple of songs,’” Ebel says. “I also had a couple of writers at my publishing company [Fugitive Song Publishing], and they agreed to write with him.” One of those early sessions yielded “A Lot More Free.”

That September, McNown auditioned for American Idol but didn’t proceed with the show despite advancing in the competition. He wanted the space to continue building his discography — and his team. He had signed with Fugitive Recordings and inked a partnership with The Orchard in 2023 a few months before releasing his debut EP. McNown then moved to Nashville in 2024 and released debut album Wandering. This January, he signed a deal with Columbia Records — and released follow-up album Night Diving the same month, which included “Better Me For You.”

As his team took shape, so did a promotional strategy for success. He’s been able to experiment with various methods, ultimately landing on a Mount Rushmore of success stories that he continues to push on his socials. “‘Better Me For You’ is one of the ‘core four,’ ” McNown says. “That one, [May single] ‘Same Questions,’ ‘A Lot More Free’ and [2024’s] ‘Love Me Back.’ They seem to take off every time I post them on social media, so that has changed the approach. There’s maybe one post of each of those a week.”

A month before the official release of “Better Me For You,” the team focused on opportunities at radio for McNown as well, Ebel says. “We put out feelers to see their feedback,” he remembers. “As soon as it came out and started streaming very well, we decided to go to country radio.”

The decision proved to be wise: “Better Me For You” became his first Country Airplay entry on the chart dated Feb. 22 and has yet to leave the chart since. The following month, it surfaced on Hot Country Songs and reaches a new No. 28 high on this week’s chart. In June, boosted by its growing radio presence, “Better Me For You” debuted on the Hot 100 at No. 98, and has spent five weeks on the chart.

McNown hopes to continue his hot streak with an extended cut of Night Diving — titled Night Diving (The Cost of Growing Up) — out July 18 through Fugitive Recordings/The Orchard/Columbia Records. Plus, he’ll follow up performances this year at CMA Fest and Boston Calling with a set at Lollapalooza in Chicago before launching his 30-show headlining Forever Ain’t Long Enough Tour. As McNown looks ahead, Ebel reflects on how far the rising star has already come.

“He’s the whole package: A songwriter, a lyricist, a performer,” Ebel says. He immediately becomes reflective, recalling an opening set his nephew played last year: “He’d never played harmonica live, but 30 minutes before he went onstage, he was like, ‘I’m going to play harmonica on “A Lot More Free”’ and just dominated. That was the moment I knew, ‘This kid’s going to be big.’ ”

A version of this story appears in the July 19, 2025, issue of Billboard.

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Kid Cudi‘s signed memoir, aptly named Cudi: The Memoir, is now available for preorder at Barnes & Noble.

Through this memoir, the Grammy-winning artist, actor and designer takes readers through a raw and real look at his life, from his upbringing in Cleveland to his rise to fame through tracks such as “Day ‘n’ Nite,” “Pursuit of Happiness” and “Mr. Rager.” The memoir is deeply personal to Cudi, so much so, in fact, that he even drew up the cover art.

The signed memoir retails for $30, while the hardcover goes for $27. You can also grab an eBook for $14.99 and an audio CD for $39.99. You can also preorder the memoir on Amazon sans the signature for $21. The Kindle version retails for $14.99, while the audio CD, like the Barnes & Noble edition, retails for $39.99. No matter where you buy it from, the audio CD is narrated by none other than Cudi himself.

“I cannot wait for u guys to read it. It’s filled with so much about my journey from my first memory to turning 40. Life lessons, the rager period of my life, and fighting my demons. All the way to the present, where happiness has found me,” Cudi wrote in a post to Instagram on May 11. “I hope this book does what my music does for u and gives u guidance and hope that u will make it through those difficult times.”

The memoir, according to Cudi, was written during a major point of self-discovery through depression, addiction, isolation and doubt. Beyond the cover art, you’ll get a chance to see more of Cudi’s colorful work throughout the book, as well as pictures from his childhood.

While you wait for your preordered memoir to arrive, you can browse Barnes & Noble’s extensive list of memoirs and biographies from impactful rappers such as Tupac Shakur and Gucci Mane. There are also memoirs and biographical works from music industry legends such as Aaron Neville, Lenny Kravitz, Slash, Bruce Springsteen and Jay-Z, just to name a few. If you’re looking to read up on your favorite musicians, it’s likely that Barnes & Noble carries a book about them.

Memoirs aside, Cudi has had himself a big week. The “Better Place” rapper announced he married his longtime partner, Lola Abecassis Sartore, back in June. The two wed in the South of France on June 28 in a dreamy ceremony. Cudi also dropped a new song titled “Grave” along with a music video. The track comes from his upcoming album titled Free.

Toby Keith’s 35 Biggest Hits shoots like a firecracker back to the top 10 on the Billboard 200, rallying from No. 43 to No. 9 with 26,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States in the week ending July 10, according to Luminate (up 56%).

The collection jumps up the list following streaming gains for its songs generated by Independence Day celebrations. The album, released in 2008, hit No. 1 on the Feb. 17, 2024-dated chart in the wake of Keith’s death that Feb. 5.

Of 35 Biggest Hits’ 26,000 units earned, streaming equivalent-album units comprise 24,000 (up 59%, equaling 32.9 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs — it vaults 43-11 on Top Streaming Albums).

About one-third of the album’s streams for the week were generated by Keith’s 2002 No. 1 Hot Country Songs hit “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American),” which was also his most streamed song of the week.

The patriotic anthem also reenters Country Digital Song Sales at No. 1, as it surged 121% to 3,000 sold. It concurrently reenters Hot Country Songs at No. 8.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multimetric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album.

Additional reporting by Jim Asker.

“I want to run free when I chose it, play the wrong chord, say something stupid,” Soulwax declares on its latest single “Run Free,” released July 9.

It’s a yearning for a kind of behavioral looseness rarely witnessed and barely tolerated in this meticulously curated modern moment, an era the group thoroughly explores on their forthcoming album, All Systems Are Lying. The title effectively sums up the notions of paranoia and social fracture — and the freedoms that might be their alternative — explored throughout the 14-track project.

All Systems Are Lying — the first studio album in seven years from Soulwax, the longstanding and perpetually cool electronic band lead by Belgian brothers David and Stephen Dewaele — is coming October 17 via Because Music and the band’s own longstanding label, DEWEE. Emanating from an impeccably designed studio in Ghent, Belgium, DEWEE releases music that’s either written, recorded or mixed (or a combination of all three) in the building by the Dewaeles. DEWEE has released music by artists including Charlotte Adigéry and Marie Davidson, with Soulwax earning a 2020 best remixed recording Grammy nomination for their indelible edit of Davidson’s “Work It.”

Between putting their fingerprints on every label release, making their own music and touring as both Soulwax and their lauded dancefloor selector project 2manyDJs, it’s not shocking that the brothers often find themselves in a struggle against time itself. (Along with LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy, the pair are also behind Despacio, the beloved roving sound system/pop-up club space that’s been a regular at festivals including Coachella, III Points and Sonar and which will make it’s next U.S. appearance in September at San Francisco’s Portola, where 2manyDJs are also playing.)

But while whizzing across the world on a recent high-speed train ride, Soulwax found time to reflect on the new album, its lead singles (“Run Free” was released in tandem with the album’s spare, glitchy title track) and something Tiësto once told them, in this joint interview.

1. Where are you in the world right now, and what’s the setting like?

We’re on the Eurostar to London.

2. What is the first album or piece of music you bought for yourself, and what was the medium?

Stephen: Axe Attack, a “hard rock” compilation in 1980. Just to give a bit of context, our dad was a DJ on national radio in Belgium, and famously one of the first to introduce rock music back in the late ’60s, and our mom was the one helping him select the records. So even though our house was filled with whatever was happening in 1980 at the time, probably Blondie, Bowie, Talking Heads, etc., I used my savings as a 10-year-old to purchase this particular record, which contained the kind of stuff our dad would not necessarily get and gave me the feeling I had my own thing going on. Motörhead and AC/DC in particular were the artists that spoke to me on this record.

David: I was 8-years-old, it was the 12” for a track called “Rat Rapping” by Roland Rat Superstar. Roland Rat was a British Saturday morning children’s television puppet character, who was brash and loud, and I remember liking the fact that adults seemed to think he was cheeky and funny. The record contains the extended remix, which in 1983 was quite the thing.

3. What did your parents do for a living when you were kids, and what do, or did, they think of what you do for a living now?

Explained this above, and they are currently both into what their sons are up to, perhaps our mom a bit more.

4. What is the first non-gear thing you bought for yourselves when you started making money as artists?

Probably a horrible Bose 5:1 surround sound system. Seemed fancy at the time.

5.  If you had to recommend one album for someone looking to get into electronic music, what album would you give them?

You’d be hard-pressed to find a record these days that isn’t electronic, in that it is made in the same way as dance music. So in a sense everything is “electronic music” nowadays, even the band stuff. If one were to find a luddite who had only heard banjo music to this point in their life for example, we’d probably recommend starting with Kraftwerk’s Man Machine perhaps? But we’d recommend that person to maybe also check out The Beatles.

6. What’s the last song you each listened to?

David: “Dirty Back Road” by The B-52’s.

Stephen: “Sparkles, Crystals, Miracles” by James Holden & Waclaw Zimpel.

7. What’s the philosophy behind All Systems Are Lying, how did it come to be and how does it reflect your current states of mind?

Quite a bit of our time and energy goes into helping other people out with their songs, or producing  or remixing or scoring, and our job then is usually to facilitate someone else’s vision, and we tend to use the part of our brain that is there to solve a problem.

That can be very rewarding and is by no means less creative — but when we set out to make this album, we wanted to work a lot more on a subconscious level and let spontaneity guide us. Towards the end of the process we realized that so many of the lyrics we had come up with had a certain dystopian feel to them, and “all systems are lying” isn’t necessarily both us saying that that is the case, but more a reflection of the time we live in.

There seems to be a general feeling of distrust towards the very systems that are in place in our society to keep it all together, which can easily lead to people not believing in any of them anymore. The greatest human achievements happen when we all believe in the same thing, and right now it seems like almost everyone is questioning something, if not everything.

8. When you say “I want to run free with the music” on the new single “Run Free,” what do you mean?

Similar to the previous answer, it expresses a need to be less cerebral or more intuitive when it comes to music. It’s probably a reaction to how frustratingly rigid and formulaic so much music, and everything that surrounds it, has become.

9. If all systems are lying, how do you know what to believe in? What do you believe in for sure?

That the weather in Belgium will suck.

10. Do you ever feel disillusioned with technology, and if so, how do you balance that feeling with the fact that the use of technology is necessary for you to make music?

A large part of our studio time is being spent trying to push machines that are so old or slightly broken to do what we want them to, and they rarely comply. So you can imagine how frustration with technology is just part of our every day life.

11. What does success for All Systems Are Lying look like to you?

It finally coming out after having finished it in January. Honestly with the amount of music that is being released on a daily basis, just getting people to be aware of its existence seems like a victory these days.

12. Given that you both work on every DEEWEE release, how do you decide which projects to take on and what to devote your precious, and I’m assuming limited, time to?

It’s a constant struggle. The artists on DEEWEE are friends first and foremost, so we find ourselves spinning plates all the time while sometimes having to prioritize other projects, which sucks if they are your friends! On a good day it’s the best, and when we are stressed for time, it can be the worst.

13. How connected do you feel to the American electronic scene, and what parts of America are most exciting/interesting for you to play in?

Not sure if there is a specific “American” scene to be connected to right now as everything is so splintered culturally, but other than the obvious DFA connection, our dear friend Dave P in Philadelphia runs a festival called Making Time, and it’s truly inspiring to see that become successful, because he put his whole heart into it.

14. Is there any wariness of playing the U.S., given the current political situation?

We’re always happy to come and play in the US, as long as we are allowed in.

15. What are the proudest moments of your career thus far?

Losing a Grammy twice.

16. What are you currently finding most challenging?

We’re in a constant race against time. And we’re losing badly.

17. What’s the most exciting thing happening in electronic music, currently?

Anything Quinn Whalley touches, basically.

18. What’s the best business decision you’ve ever made?

Not sure if we’ve ever made a good one.

19. Who’s been your greatest mentor and what’s the best advice they ever gave you?

We once met Tiësto, and he told us we should move our company to the Cayman Islands for tax reasons. We never did, so it kind of answers the previous question as well.

20. What’s one piece of advice you’d give your younger selves?

Put out more music. For everything we end up releasing, we’ve probably thrown away three things that lead up to it. We can’t change the way we are in that respect, but sometimes we stumble on something we buried and realize it’s pretty good.

All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

Amazon Prime Day has become the major sale event next to Black Friday to score slashed prices across every possible shopping category while also giving you a chance to do some early holiday shopping. The bi-annual event ended on Friday (July 11), but that doesn’t mean you still can’t snag steals on everything from fashion, tech, beauty and video games.

Whether you’re searching for gifts for the music lover in your life or just need to refresh your wardrobe for the fall season, you can rely on Amazon in order to score deep discounts on high-quality items. Major brands across all categories are celebrating the upcoming long weekend with post Prime Day sales that’ll keep the money saving opportunities going.

Don’t know where to start? Keep reading to learn more about where to find the best post-Prime Day sales online.

The Best Prime Day Deals Still Kicking Around

ShopBillboard did the research for you and put together a list of all the major deals and sales going on right now that you can shop below.

Apple’s popular AirPods are still seeing great discounts up to 20% off. For under $200, enjoy excellent everyday earbuds that feature active noise cancellation, hearing aid capabilities, an impressive transparency mode, and personalized spatial audio under the hood. If you’ve been eyeing the AirPods Pro 2, this is the best time to jump in, save and grab.

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