Picture
Picture Credit score
Maury Phillips / Stringer through Getty Photographs
Picture Alt
YG performs on the 2025 BET Expertise Fan Fest
Picture Dimension
landscape-medium
Key Takeaways:
- YG’s “LOVERS OR FRIENDS” music video blends Hip Hop and R&B with a moody aesthetic and choreography that displays emotional rigidity.
- Leon Thomas delivers a heartfelt hook that questions the boundaries between love and friendship.
- The rapper’s forthcoming album, ‘The Gentleman’s Membership,’ continues his evolution with introspective themes and smooth visuals.
On Friday (Aug. 1), YG launched “LOVERS OR FRIENDS” and its accompanying music video, in collaboration with Leon Thomas. The monitor is the most recent singled from the Compton rapper’s forthcoming album titled The Gentleman’s Membership,
The black-and-white video options easy choreography as YG kicks raps about shifting from the buddy zone to a extra romantic degree with a associate. “How we mates, you let me hit it in a taxi / I imply Uber black truck in a backseat,” YG raps. “You wanna hold me as a buddy so you’ll be able to have me / If you and your n**ga do not work out, trigger he a athlete.”
Nonetheless, by the top of the document, issues aren’t essentially what they appear. “Are we lovers or are we mates / Please don’t make me must ask once more / Are we lovers or are we mates / Inform me if I’ve to play fake,” Thomas sings on the music’s hook. The bubbly, but funky manufacturing is dealt with by Ty Dolla $ign. And earlier than we neglect to say it, there’s additionally a Michael Jackson impersonator within the Dangy-directed visible.
The Gentleman’s Membership is about to launch on Oct. 3. Within the meantime, YG has lately dropped a pair of songs in assist of the album: “HOLLYWOOD” and “2004.” Each tracks are in that mid-tempo vary that YG thrives in, and their music movies additionally function related black-and-white aesthetics. The uncooked monitor “2004” is particularly highly effective because it options YG rapping candidly about being sexually abused by an older girl when he was simply 14 years previous.
The “BIG BANK” artist’s final album was 2024’s JUST RE’D UP 3, his first solo album after leaving Def Jam Information. Again in March, YG introduced that he was launching his personal complement model. Compton rappers keep hustling.