“It’s hard singing about s—t that feels sad,” says Khamari. And with buzzy, somber tracks ranging from 2021’s “Doctor, My Eyes” to this year’s triumvirate of To Dry a Tear pre-release singles comprising the bulk of his catalog, Khamari knows a thing or two about sadness. 

After officially debuting with 2020’s Eldorado EP, scoring an Usher placement with the R&B icon’s Marshmello-assisted “Too Much” and sharing a stream of follow-up singles, the Boston-born, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter unleashed his debut studio album in 2023. Titled A Brief Nirvana, Khamari’s RCA Records debut announced the arrival of a new, strikingly post-Frank Ocean rising R&B star. Armed with classical training and a Berklee College of Music background, a beautifully forlorn falsetto that explores everything from existentialism to mortality and a wide range of genre-agnostic influences, Khamari primarily operates in the blues lane of R&B, while never forsaking his contemporary approach to narrative songwriting. 

Last winter, Khamari parted ways with RCA, citing creative differences, and joined forces with independent record label Encore Recordings ahead of his new full-length, the enrapturing To Dry a Tear. Introduced by singles such as “Head in a Jar,” “Sycamore Tree” and “Lonely in the Jungle,” Khamari’s sophomore album distills two years of life experience into 11 incredibly lush and seamlessly sequenced tracks. Across the album, Khamari gets introspective regarding withering romances, crises of faith and the frustrating allure of distance. Pulling from D’Angelo’s “Untitled” and the understated drama of Jeff Buckley, To Dry a Tear finds Khamari building on the sampling innovations of his debut, while reaching new heights as both producer and arranger. 

“A lot of the things I was aiming for on this project were an imperfect version of something already,” he tells Billboard. “When I listen to D’Angelo or Jeff Buckley, none of that s—t is perfect. It’s a very raw version of what they had in their head, and it’s a very musical, dramatic emotion they experienced. Trying to translate that into something today can be difficult in terms of production style, but that’s definitely something that I fought for. I don’t want it to be perfect; I just want it to be this version of imperfect.” 

Below, Khamari discusses crafting his sophomore LP, parting ways with RCA and the rise of rock influences in contemporary R&B.

Was there a particular song that signaled to you that you were headed towards a new album? 

Every song is so individual in the creative process that there wasn’t one song that was [clearly] the centerpiece. There were definitely dope moments along the way, like writing “Lonely in the Jungle” and “Sycamore Tree” and “Lord, Forgive Me” and “Acres.” Those were such specific moments that I was like, “This is definitely going to be a part of whatever I do.” 

Who did you most closely work with to bring this album to life? 

My collaborators are still similar to the [Brief Nirvana cast, including production duo Trackside]. I brought in a lot of my musician homies and my music director, Q, to help me flesh out ideas that I started in my bedroom. I play a lot of keys on the album, as well as guitar. I’m also leading the production that ties everything together. I play bass on “Lonely in the Jungle” too. I had a hand in all of the parts for songs like “Lonely” and “Lord, Forgive Me,” even if I didn’t play them myself. 

How would you compare the experience of creating a project driven by samples to one that’s not? 

With samples, you have to be respectful of the [original record’s] history and context. You’re thinking about where everything came from, what it was a part of, and what it meant to other people and how it feels. With original music, starting from scratch is so dope because it’s a blank slate, and the possibilities are endless.  

But that’s also why it’s hard. You’re making sure the parts don’t just feel good musically, you’re also ensuring they feel tightly knit enough that they’re memorable for anyone that’s not a music head. It’s daunting to try and find a very distilled version of something that feels musical and is still very original, given that everything’s already been done. 

You flip D’Angelo’s “Untitled (How Does It Feel)” on “Sycamore Tree.” Is there added pressure when you’re messing with a song of that magnitude? 

I didn’t run into that. I genuinely try not to put out things that I don’t love. I obviously respect the history of D’Angelo and what he’s done for R&B music, so when something like that comes up, I’m like, “This is a part of my history too.” It’s a part of my inspiration and my process. I’ve listened to it as many times as my parents; it’s in my blood. I don’t feel pressure in that way — but there’s definitely that moment when you hope he or whoever is going to clear the song hears that I’m trying to pay homage. 

Jeff Buckley is also a major influence on this album’s sound. What drew you to his music?  

I’m always looking for inspiration outside of what other people who look and sound like me would be inspired by. Jeff Buckley was it for me. He came up in conversation with my manager, and I listened to him one day, and I was like, “How the f—k did you not put me onto this s—t earlier?” 

I love Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Strokes and alternative rock, but [Buckley] was one person I’d never heard before. There’s such drama in his music, voice, and even his guitar-playing. He plays so gently, but he’s also very aggressive in the same way that there’s drama in a Kanye album. I was able to really appreciate that and figure out how to bring some of that into what I do. 

What was the most difficult song for you to land on a final mix for? 

All of them. [Laughs.] If you ask me, the mixes still aren’t done. There are songs that took longer than others because there’s more going on in them. “Sycamore Tree” and “Lonely” were the two songs I had the most versions of. If I were given more time, I would change a lot. 

A lot of people think I’m an artist who never stops working on a project — and I kind of fell into that thinking that about myself, too. As creatives, we feel like the thing to say is that we’re hard to please. Sometimes, it’s just that you know things aren’t right, but you don’t know how to navigate yourself to that place of rightness. More and more, I realize that I do actually know what’s right. I’m also very aware that I can’t always be the executor who gets it across that finish line. I don’t think I’m unpleasable, and would work on an album forever, but I do recognize when things don’t feel the way I feel. It’s a balance. 

It feels like we’re hearing more R&B songs with rock sensibilities penetrating the mainstream this year. Why do you think that might be?  

I think about that all the time. I’m not an anthropologist, but music is always reflective of the culture. It’s self-expression, so it’s going to mirror what’s going on in our lives. We’re all anxious. I look at [Playboi] Carti, and that’s the new rock to me.  

People want more for themselves. Whether it’s because of our phones, the way we digest things or how much we’re pushed to consume things, people want to express themselves more. They don’t want to be told what to do. Not just in the U.S., but in the world, we’re all internally anxious and looking for a way to release this thing that’s bubbling inside of us.

The instrumental arrangements got the same level of care as the vocals and lyrics on this project. Why was that important to you?  

There are so many people who are dope musicians. I went to Berklee [College of Music], I did the whole thing, and I wanted to be that person. But I realized there’s a difference between being a good musician and being a producer, knowing how to make a record, and knowing how to make something palatable enough for people who aren’t musicians to appreciate. That was a skill that I had to really work on to develop, because otherwise this s—t can get crazy, musically.  

I was actively cognizant of how I could distill this moment, and that was through repetition and fine-tuning phrasing and instrumental arrangements. Does the music evolve or loop? Does the topline then evolve to better serve the chorus? I didn’t want the musicality to be so broad and engrossing that it became distracting. That’s what movie scores or operas are for. 

When people hear music, they don’t necessarily want to hear how talented the musicians are. As a musician, I do — but people want to move more than they want to listen. They want to feel things. They aren’t necessarily like, “Oh my God, that bassline is crazy!” There are so many artists and songwriters who are top-tier musicians of our lifetimes, but the musicality has to stick out like an extension of the songwriting.  

Nina Simone understood that; she was a pianist, but her instrument was the song. I’m trying to grow more in that direction. I’ll just pick up instruments as they feel right, and if it’s the right way to tell the story, not necessarily, so I can be flashy. 

To Dry a Tear really emphasizes the “blues” in “rhythm and blues” and explores that side of the genre beyond love and romance. Was that intentional? 

100%. I wanted this project to feel more narrative than my last one. On earlier projects, I wanted to get out of the box that I put myself in, which was writing love songs. I was tired of writing love songs and things that I felt people expected from me. My manager once told me that whether you’re writing about something you hate or something you love, everything’s about love. That’s why I gravitate to writers like Frank [Ocean], SZA, The Weeknd and Kendrick [Lamar], because they write about love through subjects you wouldn’t expect. 

On El Dorado, I was searching for that place. On A Brief Nirvana, I was looking for a moment of peace. To Dry a Tear is coming from a narrative perspective because it’s about being present. Instead of wanting more and wishing you were somewhere else, it’s about standing still, acknowledging life, and telling those stories. 

When did you part ways with RCA? What led to that decision? 

[Winter 2024]. It’s difficult. A business has to make business decisions, and, as an artist, I try to make decisions based on what I think is right for the art. Sometimes, that may not align with what the expectations are for a business partner. It’s all love. It’s all about the team. 

When did you partner with Encore? What made that decision feel right? 

This partnership fell into place around January, soon after [I parted ways with RCA]. I felt like they understood me and what I want to achieve — and, most importantly, the way I want to achieve them. It doesn’t matter if you become the biggest artist in the world if you end up not being the artist you want to be. [Encore Recordings president] Ned [Monahan], who’s on my team, was one of my biggest early supporters. 

When I put out El Dorado and we got a random top 15 spot on the New Music Friday , before I had any real editorial placements, even though I was on RCA at the time, Ned gave us that shot. He’s at Encore now, so it’s a cool full-circle moment that made the decision to partner a no-brainer. You want people who have seen you grow throughout the years and still want to be a part of that. 

If you turned To Dry a Tear into a movie, who would direct and who would star? 

I gotta go with Denzel [Washington]. One of my favorite directors is Christopher Nolan, because he’s got such a f—king twisted way of telling a story. He’ll start in one place, and you think it’s going this way, and then it’s a zigzag that brings you back to some place that was kind of adjacent to where you expected, but equally as refreshing. 

“It’s safe to say that Rihanna is the premier artist of the second half of the decade, with no signs of wear and tear,” Michael Menachem wrote in a review of her then-new single, “Disturbia,” in the July 5, 2008, Billboard issue.

“This latest is a sort of ‘Thriller’ for partygoers, with multilayered vocals cascading across Ri’s lower register, alongside fun scatting, a la ‘bum bum bi dum bum,’” the spotlight lauded. “In short order, Rihanna has become the trustworthy ‘it’ girl of our time.”

The same week, “Disturbia” debuted at No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100. Among Rihanna’s prior 11 entries, she had never opened in the chart’s top half (starting at a No. 51 best to that point with “Unfaithful” in May 2006).

Seven weeks after its arrival, “Disturbia” hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 dated Aug. 23, 2008. Beginning a two-week reign, it became Rihanna’s fourth leader, following “Take a Bow” (one week, May 2008), “Umbrella,” featuring Jay-Z (seven weeks, June-July 2007) and “SOS” (three, May 2006).

“Disturbia” and “Take a Bow” were released from the deluxe Reloaded edition, released in June 2008, of Rihanna’s 2007 album Good Girl Gone Bad. “Umbrella” introduced the original version.

Among the writers of “Disturbia,” Chris Brown earned his second of two Hot 100 No. 1s as an author. He previously led as a writer and recording artist with “Kiss Kiss” in 2007. That hit was penned with T-Pain, who produced it and is featured on it.

“Disturbia” was solely produced by Brian Kennedy, who crowned the Hot 100 with his first entry in that role. He’s since added two more top 10s: Kelly Clarkson’s “Mr. Know-It-All” (No. 10 peak, November 2011) and Brown’s “Don’t Wake Me Up” (No. 10, November 2012). He most recently reached the chart via The Weeknd’s “Here We Go… Again,” featuring Tyler, The Creator, in 2022.

“Disturbia” also topped the Pop Airplay and Dance Club Songs charts and was nominated for best dance/electronic recording at the Grammy Awards in 2009.

Rihanna has, of course, continued to fulfill the promise of the praise in Billboard’s review of “Disturbia.” The superstar artist and fashion mogul has upped her count to 14 Hot 100 No. 1s — the most among all acts over the first quarter of the 21st century.

Away From Home, the traveling festival curated by Louis Tomlinson, will make its U.S. debut this October with a two-day takeover of Cooperstown, N.Y.

Tomlinson will top the festival bill along with pop singer-songwriter Lauv and mega-producer Steve Aoki, who is billed as a “special guest.” Other performers include Plain White T’s, Daya, Circa Waves and Pale Waves, with Abbie McCarthy as the resident DJ for the weekend.

“I’m so excited to be bringing Away From Home to the U.S., and for the first time, a two-day festival!” Tomlinson said in a statement. “Really honored and grateful to have such a strong lineup over both days, got a few things up my sleeve too. Can’t wait to see you all there — it’s going to be special!”

Away From Home will be held on Oct. 4 and 5 at the Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown. Pre-sale tickets will be available on Aug. 26 at 10 a.m. ET, and general onsale starts on Aug. 28 at 10 a.m. ET. Full details for the festival can be found at its official website.

Tomlinson launched Away From Home in London in 2021 as a means of celebrating the return of live music following the pandemic shutdown. Since then, the festival has traveled to Malaga, Spain, in 2022; Camaiore, Italy, in 2023; and Mérida, Mexico, last year, with artists including The Cribs, DMA’s, Hinds, and The Vaccines among the artists who have performed at the festival.

Since One Direction’s final album in 2015, Tomlinson has released two full-lengths — 2020’s Walls and 2022’s Faith in the Future. Walls scored a No. 9 peak on the Billboard 200, while Faith in the Future did even better, reaching No. 5 on the albums chart three years ago. In May, Tomlinson shared photos of himself in the studio, presumably working on new music, to his 19 million Instagram followers. 

Doja Cat is back. The Grammy-winning rapper-singer returned on Friday (Aug. 8), serving up the first taste of her upcoming album Vie, as “Jealous Type” hit streaming services.

“Jealous Type” feels like a return to Hot Pink Doja, and the disco-pop track may sound familiar to fans as she previewed it on Instagram Live in April, and it later provided the soundtrack to Doja Cat’s Marc Jacobs ad in May.

“Boy, let me know if this is careless/ I could be torn between two roads and I just can’t decide/ Which one is leading me to hell or paradise/ Baby, I can’t hurt you, sure, but I’m the jealous type/ I’m the jealous type,” she sings.

Vie remains without a release date, but Doja relayed to V Magazine that her Scarlet follow-up is a pop-focused project.

“I do want to be self-aware enough to admit the fact that this is a pop-driven project,” she said. “I know that I can make pop music, and pop is just that it’s popular. It starts to become a bit of a thing that’s viewed as a sport by people who are just bystanders to it, who enjoy it, but maybe also don’t respect it or what it is, which is just music … They see it as if this is some kind of football for girls and gays.”

Showing off her bilingual abilities, Doja Cat revealed in June that her album was finished, but wrote the X message in French.

While she hadn’t released any singles in 2025 until now, she’s been busy on the collaboration side. Doja joined up with RAYE and LISA on “Born Again” and hopped on Jack Harlow’s “Just Us.” She also appeared with Don Toliver on the F1 soundtrack for “Lose My Mind.”

Listen to “Jealous Type” below.

Several months ago, Russell Dickerson was at a crossroads. The gregarious country singer had experienced success, including four Billboard Country Airplay No. 1s between 2017 and 2020, but his career had seemed to level off.

“I had gotten to a point last year of just like surrendering it to God: ‘I’m burnt out. I’ve tried. My wheels have spun. I’ve been going and going and going, but it feels like I’m on a treadmill,’” he recalls over breakfast during a recent trip to Los Angeles. Exhausted, he decided, “I’m not going to keep hustling and hustling and saying yes to everything.”

Compounding his growing frustration, at the beginning of this year his business managers told Dickerson that with the high level of production he wanted on his headlining Russellmania tour, he would only net about $60,000 from the road for the entire year. “I was like, ‘I may quit. We should just wipe the books, and I’ll stay at home and drive an Uber,’” he says.

Then “Happen to Me” happened to him. The ebullient song, written by Chris LaCorte, Jessie Jo Dillon, Chase McGill and Dickerson, with a credit also given to “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” writer Robert Hazard for its interpolation of the Cyndi Lauper hit, details a random meeting with a woman in a bar that is about to change his life for the better. The tune, which was only meant to be an album cut that would add even more energy to his high-octane live show, took off.

The song, which has climbed to No. 5 on the Country Airplay chart, garnered more than 130 million streams and became an immediate viral sensation, in part thanks to an endearing dance Dickerson — who learned his moves from watching Michael Jackson and Usher — created, complete with raised arm clapping, booty shaking and twerking. He’s now posted multiple versions of the dance, including in the gym, on the golf course and on the beach, and even from a Target while back-to-school shopping with his son. There are also star-studded versions with fellow artists Carly Pearce, Lauren Alaina and Maddie & Tae, and Dickerson promises more to come.

As the popularity of “Happen to Me” rose, Dickerson began selling more concert tickets, adding extra nights and expanding to bigger venues on his tour, which has just started its third leg. “Our business managers were like, ‘You’re going to be just fine,’” he says.

As early as two weeks after the song’s release in March, “I felt an immediate shift — even in Nashville, arms-crossed, jaded, industry town,” Dickerson says, describing the first time he played it in Music City later that month and the audience roared as soon as it recognized the opening chords. “That’s the feeling that I’ve been chasing… That’s the most electric feeling in my career. I’m a big, crazy dreamer and I feel like for the first time in my career, what I’m seeing is matching up to my dreams.”

The song is the breakout hit from Dickerson’s new album, Famous Back Home, out today (Aug. 22) on Triple Tigers. The title track deals with balancing his career and family life as both expand. “Before you have kids, you’re like, ‘Dude, I want this [career] to be as big and crazy and everything as possible,’” the father of two young boys says. “And then I’m to the point now where I don’t want anything to take away from my home life. Obviously, we travel all the time, and it just gets harder. Remy is almost five and [he asks] ‘How many sleeps until you’re back?’ My No. 1 priority is how can we be efficient in this whole crazy career and still have a beautiful family. When I come home, [my kids] run to me. I’m famous back home.”

For this tour, Dickerson and his wife have focused on alone time. “Kailey has been coming out with me, just us. We finally got a full-time nanny. Thank you, Jesus,” he says. But the pair often find themselves working on their separate pursuits: Kailey recently signed a deal for two non-fiction books and a children’s book, “so she’s working on that while we’re on the road together,” Dickerson says proudly. “We go on a coffee date every day. It’s been so amazing just to have us time to have a conversation.”

If the title track looks at his current life, the album also looks backward on the reflective “16 Me,” an autobiographical song that reveals how the musical spark was ignited in Dickerson when he picked up a guitar and was leading his church worship group and learning how to perform in front of an audience as a teen. “Sixteen is such a ‘Where is my life going’ kind of thing, but you’re not really that worried about it yet. It’s a cool thing to just look back and picture you right here with your 16-year-old self.”

Dickerson signed with Range Management almost two years ago and that helped realign his priorities, including creating the new album, his first full-length release since 2022’s self-titled set. Previously, in a blurry, non-ending cycle, he would bring songwriters on the road with him and then as soon as he was home, he would head into the studio. “When I was opening — 30-minute set, easy — I could write all day, but now that I’m headlining, that’s a 90-minute full-on performance,” he says. “I don’t want to write on the road. Range has been very strategic in how we book my calendar now and it’s been so much more productive. If it’s everything all the time, nothing gets attention. It was just so beneficial to go back to that old feeling of one thing at a time.”

The change has also helped with his ADHD, a condition he’s been very open about, as he’s often able to hyperfocus on one thing. “My brain never stops, so song ideas are just non-stop. Business ideas, products, just non-stop,” he says. “The negative is I get overwhelmed very easily with decision fatigue. Like when making a record, I’ll get [told], ‘We need your mix notes for 12 songs by tomorrow afternoon.’ That’s just like paralysis. And then you go into overdrive. I took Adderall all through high school, and I never touched it again because I hated it.”

But recently, when tour rehearsals and completing the album overlapped and Russell felt like he was making “nine million decisions a day,” his doctor prescribed a low dose of ADHD medication “and it rocked me in a great way,” he says. “So, if there’s anything that I really need to focus in on, it’s really, really helped.”

At a time when country songs are often dealing with darker and more intense subjects than ever before in the last 25 years, according to a report from ChartCipher, Dickerson prides himself on being “the antithesis of that. I want people to hear my music and find love and joy.” Even his slower songs, like “Yours,” “Bones” or “Love You Like I Used To,” revel in love’s successes and durability. (The new album’s “Never Leave,” a ballad with backing vocals by Vince Gill, is the rare regretful song.)

Columbia Records’ promo team is now working “Happen to Me” to pop radio, resulting in Dickerson’s first Adult Pop Airplay hit. There’s also a Steve Aoki dance remix. At a time when country artists like HARDY, Jelly Roll and Morgan Wallen are appearing on multiple genre charts, he’s not worried about alienating his country core. “No way,” says Russell. “I’m all for taking this thing as big as possible.”

“Happen to Me” has also become his first No. 1 on the U.K. country chart, leading to conversations about expanding Russell’s international audience. “That’s my conversation with Range: ‘Where are we going? You tell me. I’m open. I’m ready.’”