Summer Isn’t Over Yet
With songs like “Choosin’ Texas” and “Spend Dat” blasting everywhere, DJs have their own ideas about what rules the season
Diamora Hunt didn’t have to do much during the first stretch of her CultureCon Café set in early June. Organizers for the event recruited the Los Angeles-based DJ, who performs as Rosegawd, to keep the room from feeling static. For a while, she played background tracks while guests mingled throughout Sincerely Yours, a Black-owned art gallery and club in downtown L.A. Once everyone seemed comfortable, Hunt found the perfect moment to turn up the heat.
The crowd’s attention had been split between each other and Game Four of the NBA Finals, where the New York Knicks were rapidly rebounding from a 29-point deficit against the San Antonio Spurs. With less than two seconds left in the match, the Knicks took the lead. In time with the final buzzer, Hunt dropped “Spend Dat,” the Yung Miami hit released in April. “That room erupted in a unison of happiness,” Hunt tells Rolling Stone. “They just took that moment to be talking about, ‘Where are the scammers?’”
In the weeks since, “Spend Dat” has surged to certified summer soundtrack status with a Number 17 peak on the Billboard Hot 100. The chart’s top 10 has been consistently occupied by blockbuster hits from Ella Langley (“Choosin’ Texas”), Olivia Dean (“Man I Need”), Tame Impala (“Dracula”), and more. But the charts and the clubs don’t always agree on the song of the summer. Playing a song in a car or through a set of headphones counts as a single stream, but what about a track dropped in a room full of hundreds of sweaty bodies?
