{"id":5238,"date":"2025-09-17T01:25:20","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T01:25:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/leon-thomas-gelo-ravyn-lenae-odeal-future-black-music\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T01:25:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T01:25:20","slug":"leon-thomas-gelo-ravyn-lenae-odeal-future-black-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/leon-thomas-gelo-ravyn-lenae-odeal-future-black-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Leon Thomas, GELO, Ravyn Lenae &amp; Odeal Are the Future of Black Music | Billboard\u00a0News"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div class=\"pmc-not-a-paywall\">\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tBillboard awarded GELO, Ravyn Lenae and Odeal as Rookies of the Year and named Leon Thomas the Breakthrough Artist of the Year for Billboard\u2018s 2025 R&amp;B\/Hip-Hop Power Players. We\u2019re breaking down how these artists represent the future of Black music. Billboard staffers share why they believe each singer is transforming their respective genre, how their hits\u2014\u201cMutt,\u201d \u201cLove Me Not\u201d and \u201cTweaker\u201d\u2014resonated with fans, and more!<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tCarl Lamarre:<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tBillboard is always about chart success, but not only to have a cultural impact and see the buzz and how they\u2019re resonating, not just online, but the streets as well. The kids are talking about you. Most likely we\u2019re gonna cover y\u2019all and see what\u2019s up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tFan 1:<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tTonight, I\u2019m most excited to see Leon Thomas and Odeal.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tFan 2:<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tGag it, Odeal. What? Ravyn Lenae too.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tFan 3:<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tI\u2019m most excited to see GELO, for sure.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tFan 4:<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tLeon as well. It\u2019s gonna be my third time seeing him, and I\u2019m gonna see him again on my birthday, so.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tInterviewer:<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tWho are you most excited to see?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tFan 5:<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tLeon Thomas, plain and simple. You don\u2019t have to finish the question. You don\u2019t have to finish it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tHeran Mamo:<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tLeon Thomas had such a breakthrough moment. \u201cMutt\u201d went No. 1 on Hot R&amp;B\/Hip Hop Songs and three different radio formats.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tLeon Thomas:<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tI think \u201cMutt\u201d definitely resonated with the culture so much because it has a lot of essence of P-Funk, Bootsy Collins. I feel like post-pandemic everybody got into their little toxic energy, so it\u2019s like, perfectly toxic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tFan 6:<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tI\u2019m definitely excited to see Ravyn, I love her music. It\u2019s a very, like, chill, soulful vibe, and she just always puts me in a good mood.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tFan 7:<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tI\u2019m absolutely excited to see Ravyn Lenae. I\u2019ve loved her forever. I got onto her train when she came out with \u201cCandy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tGail Mitchell:<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tShe\u2019s just the total package. In terms of her songwriting, the lyrics, very relatable lyrics, like her hot song, \u201cLove Me Not.\u201d Kind of a play on the whole daisy thing \u2014 he loves me, he loves me not.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<em>Keep watching for more!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Billboard awarded GELO, Ravyn Lenae and Odeal as Rookies of the Year and named Leon Thomas the Breakthrough Artist of the Year for Billboard\u2018s 2025 R&amp;B\/Hip-Hop Power Players. We\u2019re breaking&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[217,2618,99,108,100,94,101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-billboard","category-genre-afrobeats","category-genre-hiphop","category-genre-rb","category-media","category-music-news","category-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5238\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}