Lloyd - King of Hearts

I don’t listen to a ton of modern R&B. I love the good stuff, but it’s one of those genres where the ratio of crap to quality material is too high to make it worth the effort. At least for me.

I love when a good single drifts across my radar, though, and this new one from Lloyd (otherwise a pretty standard R&B crooner) is a gem. The bouncy, retro feel is great on its own, but the secret weapon is the guest appearance by Andre 3000 of Outkast.

Reader support helps sustain our work. Donate today to keep our climate news free. All donations DOUBLED!

A3K has been lying low for a while. Even on the last album he did with Outkast, there was as much singing as there was rapping. There’s been speculation on and off that he’s leaving the hip-hop game behind entirely.

But this track shows that he’s still got it — for my money, he belongs with the hip-hop greats, though he’s too wackadoo to get the respect a Jay-Z or Biggie gets.

Grist thanks its sponsors. Become one.

Anyway, it’s called “Dedication to My Ex (Miss That),” and it’s from Lloyd’s album King of Hearts. This is the radio version. The album version is considerably more risque. If you can imagine every use of “lovin'” here replaced by, oh, a slang word for cats … you get the picture.