DeLuca’s 5 Picks: A rising North Philly rapper, Patti LaBelle on ‘Drink Champs,’ and Carly Rae Jepsen’s summer single

1. LGP QUA, freestyle rap on Instagram and TikTok. ‘Philly, Philly, Philly, that’s the place that I was born at,’ LGP QUA raps, pointing to broken streetlights above his head, ‘on the North side, where the lights was never on at.’

North Philly’s LGP QUA — the first three letters stand for ‘Let’s get paid’ — isn’t brand-new on the scene. Back in 2020, he had an eye-opening freestyle showcase with the influential DJ Funkmaster Flex on New York’s Hot 97.

Now, the rapper born Qidere Johnson is turning heads again with an attention-grabbing clip that led online commentators to compare him to a young Meek Mill and herald him as an up-and-coming master of streets-of-Philadelphia ‘pain rap.