Indonesian rapper Warren Hue has shared the energetic new single ‘Handsome’.
Released on Friday (June 24), the track was produced by the South Korean producer and Hue’s longtime collaborator, Chasu. It’s the latest preview of Hue’s forthcoming album ‘Boy Of The Year’.
‘Handsome’ marks the third single the 88rising rapper has dropped this year, following ‘W’ featuring Yvngxchris in March and ‘Runaway W Me’ in February.
“Boy of the year scream fuck a month / Noise disappear when I drop the bunch / Ring chandelier, middle finger up / Yeah, fuck it, I promise I’m running the game,” proclaims Hue over the boisterous beat.
Listen to ‘Handsome’ here.
In a statement, Hue said that ‘Handsome’ is “based on the fabricated lifestyle of an artist having jewelry and expensive things to feel successful in this journey. I would say this is an experimental rap song with interesting chorus breaks and a completely different outro segment. The process was really fun because my intent for this song was just to have fun but it turned into a whole new idea.”
In an interview with NME earlier this year, Hue shared that “there’s some personal moments on this album, and some sounds that I’ve never touched before this album. I’m in a very new space and I feel like it’s visually going to go crazier than my older projects. I’m really honing into my sound… It should be unexpected.”
Prior to dropping ‘Handsome’, Hue dropped a freestyle with labelmate Rich Brian, ‘A.N.W.’. When he announced the freestyle via Instagram, Hue mentioned that the “album is 99.5% done” and that listeners can expect new music to “be coming very shortly.”
At Coachella this year, 88rising took over the main stage during both weekends for the showcase Head In The Clouds Forever. It featured their signees and associated artists including NIKI, Jackson Wang, and MILLI. At the festival, Hue teamed up with Brian and BIBI to debut their track ‘Froyo’.
“‘Froyo’ is going to be part of [making it] more than just a performance – we want to make it like an era,” explained Brian in an interview with NME. “So I think ‘Froyo is one of those things to mark this point in time by making something more permanent in the world.”
At the BandLab NME Awards 2022, Hue clinched the Best Song By An Asian Artist award with his debut single for 88rising, ‘Ohomo Punk’. In May, he was listed on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list for Asia. He was also part of the NME 100 2022 list of emerging artists to watch out for this year.