Callista Clark featuring Jimmie Allen | “Wish You Wouldn’t”
Last fall, 19-year-old Georgia native Callista Clark released her first album, Real To Me: The Way I Feel. Clark has been writing songs since she was 11 and became the youngest member named to CMT’s Next Women of Country franchise. To add some new dimensions to this achy breaky ballad, which she performs solo on the album, Clark brought in another vocal powerhouse in Jimmie Allen. The team-up was “a literal dream come true,” she said.
Delaware-born, 30-something, award-winning country star Allen made history in 2018 as the first Black artist ever to hit Number One on the country music charts with a debut single (“Best Shot”), a milestone he qualified as extremely bittersweet. “Hopefully, a few years from now . . . a Black guy comes into country music, it’s not ‘the first Black guy to do this.’ It’s just, ‘Cool, you’re another country artist,’” he told the Washington Post. (Photo by Alexa Campbell)
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Grip | “Ain’t Ok”
East Atlanta rapper Grip continues to show off his versatility with this immediate follow-up to his homage to early ‘90s hip-hop, “94 Flow.” Here, we get his latest single from the October mixtape Five & A F*** You. In the span of just two minutes, Grip gives us a host of reasons why the kids are not, in fact, alright. From pills to money to Tik Tok, his scathing critique spills forth in rapid bursts of sound and images: “Fast pacing, the lads is crashing out at gas stations, glass breaking, kick dooring your dad’s basement, not a tad patient.”
The video, shot first in the subdued style of a classic jazz set, gradually morphs into color, chaos, excess and then darkness. It’s his second outing with Eminem’s label, Shady Records, which signed him in 2021.
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DeMarco Sisters | “Atlanta G.A.”
The DeMarco Sisters shone brightly but briefly, having performed on comedian Fred Allen’s radio show and sharing the stage with Frank Sinatra on the Vegas circuit before the group broke up in the 1950s. This song, chosen as our Vintage Track of the Week for its title, was written in 1945 by New Yorkers Sunny Skylar and Artie Shaftel, who may or may not have ever set foot in the ATL as they crafted this buoyant little ditty.
As a result, there’s not a ton of specificity around the city the song describes. I mean, the sun generally shines in most places! And Mardi Gras? Less our thing here. But you can’t deny that it’s catchy. And hey, at least they didn’t commit the cardinal sin of calling our town “Hot ’lanta.”