Welcome to Re-Upped, Audiomack’s new editorial series dedicated to spotlighting the best and hottest new songs across genres and across the globe. For a playlist of all Re-Upped selections, click here. Enjoy the vibes.

YEBBA — “Louie Bag” feat. Smino

YEBBA’s glowing vocal tone will give you goosebumps. The multi-hyphenate, multi-award-winning artist carved her name into the pop sphere in 2017 with viral covers taking on classic ‘90s slow jams. Since then, YEBBA has continued to captivate with dazzling guest appearances like 2019’s “Don’t Forget To Breathe” with UK rap star Stormzy and this year’s “How Much Can A Heart Take” with contemporary R&B maestro Lucky Daye.

“Louie Bag,” the second single from YEBBA’s forthcoming Dawn album, is the shedding of melancholy, leaving grueling contentment and the development of a so it goes mentality in its place. A student of the iconic Detroit gospel group The Clark Sisters, YEBBA’s effortless runs atop Mark Ronson’s minimal production feel holy, while St. Louis native Smino adds a lush layer of detachment to her jazz-tinged world.

“Someone said to me: ‘You have to make sure this is not going to make you bitter. Bitterness will rob you,’” Yebba shares with Audiomack World about the song, which came to her during a rough period after she lost her mother to suicide. “And at the time I started that song I was in Resentment City, with all these labels trying to sign me and people pressuring me, telling me, ‘You’re never going to see a deal like this again,’ when I just wasn’t ready.

“So I said to them, ‘If you ever tell me I’m going to miss my chance or I’m going to run out of time, I will pack my bags and go back to Arkansas and I’ll quit singing. Because if I say I’m not ready because my mom just killed herself, then I’m not fucking ready. The answer is no.’ I don’t even own a Louis bag, but when I got my first check from publishing I wrote that line: ‘Put it in my Louie bag, don’t let it overflow.’ It’s for any label that tried to sign me—for all those men talking to me like that. It’s me talking about all the confusion and the disarray I was feeling at the time, and delivering that right to their doorstep. I just sent those bad vibes right back to those motherfuckers.”

Listen to YEBBA’s “Louie Bag”: Re-Upped