Jack Harlow Drops Monica on His 28th Birthday, a Nine-Song Neo-Soul Album Cut at Electric Lady

Jack Harlow’s new album sounds nothing like a rap album, and he knows it. Monica, his fourth studio LP, arrived Friday (March 13), his 28th birthday, as a nine-song set of soft, melodic, late-’90s-leaning R&B that The FADER says “isn’t hip-hop, but rather neo-soul.”

It was recorded in New York at Electric Lady Studios, the same room where D’Angelo made Voodoo, XXL notes, after Harlow moved from his native Louisville. Billboard lists producers including Aksel Arvid (PinkPantheress’s “Fancy That”), Jermaine Paul, Clay Harlow, Angel “BabeTruth” Lopez and Hollywood Cole, plus guests Robert Glasper, Ravyn Lenae, Omar Apollo and Louisville R&B newcomer James Savage. XXL’s standouts are “All of My Friends,” “Lonesome,” “Trade Places” and “Say Hello.”

The race question, answered up front

The release came with a debate Harlow didn’t dodge. On The New York Times’ Popcast, he was asked why he chose soul instead of following white peers who have moved away from rap, and he answered directly:

I love Black music. I'm hyper aware of the politics ... that safer landing spot that a lot of my white contemporaries have found. There's plenty of people expecting me to take the routes [they] are taking.

Jack Harlow, The FADER, quoting Popcast

“I got blacker,” he told hosts Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli, with what The FADER describes as a slight smile. He added, “I love the sound of soft, intimate, melodic music.” The FADER noted that peers like Post Malone and mgk have moved toward country and pop-punk. Online, one X post said he had “turned into a Soulquarian,” a nod to the Electric Lady-centered scene around Questlove, D’Angelo and Erykah Badu, and others joked about his Mos Def- and Common-style hats and scarves.

What fans think

Reaction split in the way you’d expect. One X user called it a “dead a*s R&B album,” while another wrote, “New jack harlow is chill but 3 years for a meh lofi r&b album is a bit wild.” Others loved the shift: “This is my type of s**t right here. Real YEARNING,” a third commented, per XXL.

Why it matters

Monica is a long-delayed return. Harlow had kept a low musical profile for much of the past year, Billboard notes, since his Doja Cat single “Just Us” in March 2025, and his last album, Jackman, came in April 2023 and peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard 200. His hits are the reason anyone paid attention to the pivot: “What’s Poppin” went Diamond last year, and “First Class,” “Lovin on Me” and “Industry Baby” each reached No. 1 on the Hot 100.

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Monica is one of 10 picks in our best new music of March. The rollout leaned on teasers in which Harlow discussed love, race, etiquette and heartbreak with others, including sports journalist Taylor Rooks and two older men talking about R&B from the ’80s to the 2000s, Complex notes.

MonicaJack HarlowListen on Apple Music

Added to the High Grailed archive on October 12, 2026.