Supa Dupa Fly by Missy Elliott

Un Verano Sin Ti

Bad Bunny

A groundbreaking superstar drops his most expansive and evocative musical vision.

After a couple years spent collaborating with and co-signing new talent—and then watching the effects of his influence—the sudden arrival of Un Verano Sin Ti in May 2022 put the focus back on Bad Bunny himself. Described by the artist as a summer playlist of sorts, it’s his most expansive and evocative musical vision to date: Gone was the streetwise trap of his past, supplanted by potent and uniquely genre-bent takes on reggaetón, pop, indie, and tropical forms. Its release signaled a clear and kaleidoscopic shift in global pop, emphatically sweeping away any misconception that Latin American music (and its many fans) was just a regional phenomenon.

Recorded in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, the album features several cuts in the same elevated reggaetón mode that largely defined previous album YHLQMDLG. But true to its sunny origins, Un Verano Sin Ti also departs from this style for unexpected diversions into other Latin sounds, including the bossa nova blend “Yo No Soy Celoso” and the dembow hybrid “Tití Me Preguntó.” With further collaborations from familiars Chencho Corleone and Jhayco, as well as unanticipated picks Bomba Estéreo and The Marías, Un Verano Sin Ti embodies a wide range of Latin American talent, with Bad Bunny—Apple Music’s Artist of the Year in 2022—as its charismatic center.

Supa Dupa Fly

Missy Elliott

An avant-garde rap hero and a revolutionary producer team up for a radical, ecstatic debut.

By 1997, Virginia rapper Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott and producer Timothy “Timbaland” Mosley were already two of the most forward-thinking hitmakers of the era, writing boundary-pushing avant-R&B tracks for Aaliyah, SWV, and more. But nothing could prepare the world for Elliott’s star turn—a rap-sung tangle that played like a stroll through a malfunctioning robot factory, which she delivered dressed as a crazysexycool funkateer in inflatable garbage bags.

Elliott’s debut single, “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly),” thrust her into instant stardom; her offbeat coughs, melodic tangents, pauses, and onomatopoeias served as gateways to pop ecstasy, and Supa Dupa Fly as a whole is full of similar bouts of radical expression. Funny, sexually aggressive, careening between sultry singing and cartoonish sound effects and laughs—she offered hip-hop a new avant-garde hero.

“We weren’t scared to take risks, because our ears hadn’t adjusted to hearing a certain sound. All we were hearing was what we were doing, so it sounded correct to us.”

Missy Elliott

For his part, Timbaland redefined hip-hop production, making tracks full of chirping birds and giggles, laced with hi-hats and snares that stutter and trip in unexpected places. Combined with Missy’s art-bubblegum brilliance, Supa Dupa Fly would have a lasting influence across hip-hop, R&B, and electronic music.

Apple Music 100 Best Albums

Un Verano Sin Ti

Supa Dupa Fly