Nicole Bus lolls next a disco ball and floats in a pool in the new clip for her single “You.” This is a decade-hopping mash-up: The singer quotes lyrics from the Charmels’ “As Long as I’ve Got You,” while the beat pulls from the Wu-Tang Clan’s “C.R.E.A.M.” — which sampled the Charmels’ track. Bus’ single was produced by Needlz, who previously worked on Jeremih’s “Oui” and Bruno Mars’ “Just the Way You Are.”
Like Yella Beezy’s “That’s On Me,” Ella Mai’s “Boo’d Up” or LightSkinKeisha’s “Ride Good,” the popularity of “You” stems initially from radio. The single has only 430,000 Spotify streams to date worldwide, but it reached an audience of more than 5.5 million Americans on the airwaves last week, according to Nielsen BDS. “You” appears to be performing especially well in Southern markets — Shazam-ing at Number One in Greensboro, NC and inside the Top 15 in New Orleans and Miami — along with traditional R&B hotbeds like Philadelphia (Number Two on Shazam).
Program directors and their devoted constituents are often particularly susceptible to nostalgia, which helps explains the recent radio success of outright covers (Weezer’s version of “Africa,” Bad Wolves’ rendition of “Zombie”), pastiche singles (Bruno Mars’ “Finesse,” Portugal. the Man’s “Feel It Still”) and new songs that sample old hits (Tory Lanez’s “Say It,” Mariah Carey’s “A No No”). Some of these tracks also went on to become major records in the streaming-verse; some didn’t.
Bus, who is half Dutch and half Curaçaose, is a former competitor on Holland’s edition of The Voice. She will release a new EP later this year.