Just when poor aul One Direction are going on hiatus, Jay-Z has announced plans for Harry Styles, insinuating his desire to team up with the boybander to make him a superstar solo artist. It might seem like an odd coupling, but Jigga did mentor one of the biggest pop stars around, Rihanna.
However, Jay-Z’s previous British signings haven’t exactly set the world on fire. Most recently, Alexa Goddard and Romans have failed to create superstar buzz. Rita Ora is a bona fide transatlantic star, but she was with Roc Nation for four years before her debut album was released, and is now suing the company. Meanwhile, Jay-Z’s interests have drifted from nurturing artists at the label to sports management and a film and TV agency.
Still, in terms of management, Roc Nation still represents some very big guns; Kanye, Haim, Grimes, Rihanna, the Stargate songwriting team, Emeli Sandé and others. But who else should team up to take on the pop world?
Drake and the Rubberbandits
As soon as Drizzy stops playing with Skepta & co, he needs to hit up Limerick City, kid, for some next-level A&R. Drake prides himself on his magpie-ish approach to mentorship, having himself been brought through the ranks by Lil Wayne, so he will be more than willing to rewrite The Motto to spell Y.U.R.T., and trade the Toronto Raptors for the Limerick junior hurlers.
Björk and Bieber
They're not entirely unlike each other, you know. Both are from cold, northern hemisphere countries, both have a penchant for cancelling shows and getting annoyed by photographers, and, em, anyway. Justin Bieber unexpectedly released an album of pop bangers with Purpose in 2015 that had even this hardened Bieber-hater humming along to Sorry.
By working with American EDM titans Diplo and Skrillex, he stripped back the membrane of boring bubblegum that previously surrounded his music and made it somewhat legit. The obvious next phase is for the Biebs to continue his electronic music exploration by creating increasingly good and frustratingly innovative pop. We would very much like to hear Bieberphilia.
Miley Cyrus and Girl Band
Once Cyrus releases Wayne Coyne & co from the psilocybin-anthemic-indie-pop prison they've built themselves, she will probably be looking for a slightly cooler band for the edge she's so desperately and constantly looking for. Enter Dubliners Girl Band, who could continue to become one of the most talked-about face-melting Barons of Noise. Could Miley be their Baroness of Collaboration? Probably not. But we would watch that wrecking ball.
Kanye and Jaden Smith
So obvious it's inevitable. Jaden Smith even out-Kanyed Kanye by wearing a white Batman suit to the Kardashian-West wedding. Both are prone to ludicrous statements and comparing themselves to geniuses (West to Michelangelo, Smith to Einstein), so it's really only a matter of time before they get lM Pei to build them a treehouse where they can plot the takeover.
