Jack Harlow's return after a three-year hiatus may not be going how he envisioned. If you didn't know, the Louisville, Kentucky rapper completely ditched his pop rap aesthetic and went headfirst into its neighboring genre that is R&B. Monica is wholly a neo-soul/R&B project, and it's upset some of his fan base.
But that's not the only thing that's gone wrong over the last 72 hours or so. Prior to the album's release, Harlow appeared on the New York Times' podcast, Popcast. During his sit-down with Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli, he discussed how he didn't fall into "that safer landing spot that a lot of my white contemporaries have found."
While he didn't mention anyone by name, it was implied that the comments were about artists like mgk and Post Malone. Both of them veered off into more "traditionally white" genres like punk rock and country.
As a result of not being another rapper of his skin color to do so, he feels he "got Blacker" instead. "I think I love Black music. I love the sound of Black music... Of course, it appealed to me to do something that I felt like, at a time when there's plenty of people expecting me to take some of the routes that y'all are taking, to take the route that not only might not be expected but is also the one I genuinely want to take. So, all the stars aligned in that way for me, to be honest."
Overall, the wording of his explanation is not landing, and it's led to some ridicule but some jokes as well.
When Did Jack Harlow Drop Monica?
More specifically, users on X have been coming up with some wild nicknames for Harlow, per Bossip. As you can see above, they are pretty creative as they take popular Black artists and put a "whiter" spin on them. Charlie Kirk Franklin, is a twist on the iconic gospel singer. Brian McWhite is a play on 90s R&B crooner Brian McKnight. Then there's others like Stevie Wonderbread, J’Nilla, Arnold Kelly, and Mos Definitely Not Yakub Kweli.
As of yet, Harlow hasn't caught wind of this just yet, or at the very least said anything. But he's a pretty chill and comedic guy himself so it'll be interesting to see if just lets this roll off of his shoulders.
The 28-year-old hitmaker dropped off Monica last Friday, March 13, which just so happens to be his birthday. It's nine tracks long and has zero features.
