Nov 8, 20267 min read

Week 45 in Hip Hop

Week 45 in Hip Hop was a reunion week: Future put Drake and Travis Scott back on the same record, Lil Baby dropped his fifth album, Skepta ended a seven-year solo wait, Thriller got the November verdict Week 44 promised, and Atlanta hosted five stadium nights of R&B history.

OMYGOTTI

Toronto hip-hop artist | 730K+ Facebook

No. 1 - The Reunion

Future Puts Drake, Travis Scott and Loe Shimmy on Ya Hit

Friday, November 6 started with a surprise. Future released Ya Hit as a single, with Drake, Travis Scott and Loe Shimmy listed as featured artists on the official streaming release, and Sexyy Red contributing ad-libs during Drake's verse without a primary feature credit. The record runs 3 minutes and 34 seconds on Apple Music, is produced by ATL Jacob, and arrived through Sahluna Management Company under exclusive license to Epic Records.

The guest list is the story. Ya Hit reunites Drake and Travis Scott on an official recording for the first time since Meltdown in 2023, and it puts Drake back on a Future lead single after the pair reconnected earlier this year on Drake's Ran to Atlanta. The record started even closer to home: it was first previewed at Drake's 40th birthday celebration in New York City as a three-way cut for Future, Travis Scott and Loe Shimmy, and Drake heard it in the room and jumped on it shortly afterwards. Future teased the new chapter himself on November 4, posting: Bringin the static back, with the hashtag INFINITY.

That hashtag is the campaign. Ya Hit is the first official single from Future's forthcoming album, a project linked to the title Infinity. No tracklist and no release date have been announced, and this post does not invent either. The single follows Future's 2026 album The Real Me, released in August.

My take: Three headliners and a rising Florida name on one Friday-morning record, and nobody had to announce it for a month first. It just showed up finished. That is how you start an album run.

No. 2 - The Album

Lil Baby Drops FRESH, His Fifth Studio Album

Lil Baby released FRESH on Friday, November 6, a 17-track album through Quality Control Music and Motown Records. Universal Music Canada's album-day release lists features from Young Thug, Future and Rylo Rodriguez, all three together on track 7, All My Partnas, and production from Metro Boomin, Pharrell Williams and London on Da Track, among others. The album-day push was built like a hometown coronation: a cinematic trailer earlier in the week, and a custom alligator Xbox marking release day.

The single carrying the album already has its receipts. Dead Fresh, produced by Pharrell Williams, has spent more than 14 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, peaked at No. 18, and recently reached No. 1 at Urban and Rhythmic Radio. Lil Baby first debuted the song at Louis Vuitton's Menswear Spring-Summer 2027 show in Paris in June. Alongside the album he dropped the video for Mr. Do Something, directed by ILMATO, riding through his old Atlanta neighbourhood.

The weekend does not slow down after release day. Lil Baby was billed for the Atlanta Hawks halftime show on November 7, and he is set to perform on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon after Sunday Night Football on November 8. His birthday celebration show, Lil Baby: Fresh Prince of Atlanta, follows on December 5 at State Farm Arena. FRESH follows WHAM, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 last year.

My take: Seventeen tracks, the whole Atlanta family on one song, a Pharrell single already No. 1 at radio, and a halftime show in his own city the next night. FRESH is not a quiet drop. It is a victory lap with a schedule.

No. 3 - The Return

Skepta Ends a Seven-Year Wait With The Fork and Knife

Seven years is a long time to hold a solo album. Skepta ended the wait on Friday, November 6 with The Fork and Knife, his sixth studio album and his first solo album since Ignorance Is Bliss in 2019. The album runs 15 songs in 55 minutes, out through his own Big Smoke Records under exclusive licence to Epic Records, and it was first announced on New Year's Day 2024 under the flipped title Knife and Fork.

The tracklist is a map of where Skepta lives musically. Broken Hearts pairs Central Cee and Jorja Smith, Aloe Vera brings in Asake, Cold Shower features Project Pat, Outside features Novelist, and the closing Victory Lap teams him with Fred again.. and PlaqueBoyMax. Viper's Friday Rotation led with Pandora's Box, which arrived with a brand-new video, noting Skepta produced the record himself and celebrated album night at London's The Cause. The sound pulls from grime, garage, house and jungle, with his British and Nigerian identities at the centre.

Skepta was not alone on the Friday schedule. Statik Selektah released Expensive Taste, Jack Harlow returned with the Sweet Action II EP, and Mathematics, the Wu-Tang Clan DJ and producer behind the group's W logo, released the 10-track Mathematics X Wu-Tang: Black Samson - The Saga Continues, featuring Method Man, AZ, Inspectah Deck and Masta Killa, one week before Wu-Tang Clan's official induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on November 14.

My take: First solo album in seven years and he produced the lead moment himself, in his own city, on his own label. Skepta did not come back asking for a seat. He brought his own table, fork and knife included.

No. 4 - The Verdict

Thriller Gets Its November Verdict: Hot 100 No. 20

Week 44 left this story on a promise: Thriller was chasing the Hot 100, and the Halloween-week numbers would land in November. The verdict is now in. In the MJ Charts Weekly update dated November 7, Thriller re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 20, a clear improvement on No. 32 at the same point last Halloween. The Thriller album sits at No. 13 on the Billboard 200, with Michael Jackson's Number Ones at No. 21.

The numbers behind the return are bigger than last year across the board. Reporting based on Luminate data put Thriller at 9.3 million chart-eligible U.S. streams for the tracking week of October 23 to 29, up 49 percent, with its American radio audience doubling to 4.2 million. The seasonal wave lifted its neighbours too: Rockwell's Somebody's Watching Me re-entered at No. 39 and This Is Halloween returned at No. 41.

One honest line to close the chase: Thriller peaked at No. 4 on the Hot 100 back in 1984 and it still has never hit No. 1, and No. 20 is not No. 1. What it is, 43 years after release, is a bigger Halloween return than last year, beating last year's mark by 12 places while a new generation treats it like a seasonal release date.

My take: We said see you in November for the verdict, so here it is, no spin: Top 20, not No. 1, and still up 12 places on last year. A 43-year-old song does not need the top spot to prove the point. It is the season now.

No. 5 - The Stand

Usher and Chris Brown Take Five Nights of Atlanta

Atlanta is hosting a residency disguised as a tour stop. Usher and Chris Brown's co-headlining R&B Tour, also billed as the Raymond & Brown Tour, is playing five nights at Mercedes-Benz Stadium: November 5, 6, 8, 10 and 11. That is the longest single-city stand on the tour, and reporting on the run notes it edges past Beyonce's four Cowboy Carter shows at the same stadium in 2025 as a single engagement record. The tour launched in Denver in June, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporting cited this week put the run at more than two million tickets sold and over 400 million dollars in gross revenue.

The first two nights told two different stories, and both are on the record. Reviewing the November 5 opener for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, DeAsia Paige reported that Brown and Usher never shared the stage that night, even though joint performances had featured at other stops. On night two, November 6, the joint moment arrived: the pair performed the Back to Sleep remix at the same show, in a night that turned into an Atlanta family reunion, with appearances from Xscape, Monica, Bow Wow, Jermaine Dupri, Dru Hill, Da Brat, Tyrese, Muni Long and the YoungBloodZ.

Three Atlanta nights remain, on November 8, 10 and 11, before the tour moves on through Los Angeles, New Orleans, Houston and Miami and closes December 12 in Tampa. For Usher, raised in Atlanta, the stand is a homecoming. For everybody watching the scoreboard, five stadium nights in one city is the number that will be quoted long after the guest list is forgotten.

My take: Night one kept the two headliners apart, night two put the record on and filled the stage with half of Atlanta R&B history. Five nights, one stadium, over 400 million grossed on the tour. However the week started, that is a stand, not a stop.