We’re finally seeing signs of summer around the United States, a welcome sign in almost every single regard, but one that means “song of the summer” discussions will begin to heat up very shortly. As we continue to get an understanding of what songs will define the opening half of 2025, artists like Leon Thomas, BigXthaPlug and Sombr toss their hat into the ring.
Country Singers Pace The Top 20
At the very top of our chart, this year’s Mount Rushmore of familiar faces (Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Chappell Roan & Bruno Mars) gained notable neighbors of a different genre entirely. With warm weather proving a “rising tide” for the country genre in 2024 and 2023, the same trend is already taking hold this year, evidenced by continued success for Morgan Wallen. Even amid the post-SNL controversies, Wallen minted a new high water mark for his “Just In Case” a month after its release, “I’m The Problem,” “I Had Some Help,” and “I’m A Little Crazy.”
Sticking in the Down South category, the genre flexed its ability to mint true crossover hits once again. Already exemplified by Wallen himself via that aforementioned Post Malone collab and the Moneybagg Yo song “WHISKEY WHISKEY,” two new names in that respect, BigXthaPlug and Bailey Zimmerman, shot into the conversation with “All The Way.” To be sure, both the rapper and singer have already made their mark on the charts individually. But in this “greater than the sum of their parts configuration,” the two artists seem poised to bring in the biggest hits of either of their careers.
Leon Thomas And Sombr Brace For A Sad Boy Summer
Leon Thomas has been a presence throughout the year, but is creeping towards becoming one of the year’s biggest via his “MUTT.” It’s yet another exemplar of the “late bloomer” hit cadence that’s seemingly grown in incidence rate in recent years—while culturally relevant after the release of the song and the album of the same name in November 2024, it started truly heating up early this year. A primetime television performance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, always a bellwether of a commercial breakout, cemented such in February. Both a run-off effect of and a driver in the song’s late spring success came with the official Freddie Gibbs remix, spurring a climb on our rankings that took it to #18 this week (it clocked in around #120 at this time last month).
Thomas had been a behind-the-scenes mover in the industry for years, on songwriting duty for the likes of SZA, Zendaya, Ye and Ariana Grande in the past decade. One of this week’s biggest risers is of a more brand-new quality, as Sombr notched two top 100 entries via his “undressed” and “back to friends.” Both certifiable ballads, the 19-year-old artist has kept to his generation’s sensibilities with a heavy TikTok presence, yet exceptional streaming weeks (top 25 on Apple Music for both records) may portend a more conventional breakout in the near future.
You can catch all of the featured music in this piece wherever you stream your music.
Elsewhere in our coverage, catch an unexpected hit with Sheck Wes – ILMB.
