Jack Harlow surprised fans with an unexpected twist during his recent performance. The 26-year-old entertainer delivered a soulful rendition of Elvis Presley’s timeless ballad, “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” By covering an iconic love song, he displayed his vocal range and versatility, moving beyond his usual hip-hop style. With the release of his critically acclaimed Jackman in 2023, the rap star has been experimenting with his sound.
Originally recorded by Presley for the 1961 Blue Hawaii soundtrack, the heartfelt track has been reinterpreted by many artists over the years. Harlow’s version, performed at his fourth annual No Place Like Home concert in Louisville, maintained the song’s classic tempo and romantic essence. Backed by the Louisville Orchestra at Whitney Hall, he captivated the audience with a stripped-down, elegant interpretation that showcased his vocal depth.
Jack Harlow Performs Elvis Presley Classic With Orchestra At Home
Fan-shot footage from the performance quickly gained traction online, with a TikTok video capturing Harlow dressed in a sleek black suit and tie as he stood before the orchestra. Fans expressed their astonishment at the rapper’s ability to effortlessly pivot to a new musical style. “THIS IS HIM SINGING????” one user exclaimed, while another admitted, “I thought, ‘This looks like Jack Harlow,’ and then read the caption. WHAT!!??” Comments poured in from fans marveling at his hidden talent. “Jack Harlow, you’ve been holding out on us,” one joked, while another called him the “Jack of all trades fr.” Others saw the performance as a pivotal moment for the artist. “He should’ve been doing this from the START,” one fan declared. “Now I’m a fan.”
With this unexpected foray into classic balladry, Harlow has not only stunned his audience but also opened the door to exploring new facets of his artistry. Fans are already clamoring for more, eager to see where this newfound vocal direction might lead. The two-night event follows his two-night festival that debuted earlier this year, with headlining acts SZA, Vince Staples, and more.
In between quality time with friends and family, Jack Harlow spent some of his holiday time with fans. On November 28 and 29, the “Hello Miss Johnson” rapper teamed with the Louisville Orchestra for a performance at The Kentucky Center’s Whitney Hall. Now, a clip from his special concert has spread far beyond his hometown.
During his show, Jack Harlow decided to show off his vocal ability by performing a cover of the late Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling In Love.” Now, the video (viewable here) has sparked a viral response from users online.
Initially, supporters were impressed by Harlow’s singing voice. However, that quickly faded away as users claimed Harlow was “softly launching” his exit from rap music. Others took it even further accusing Harlow of being a culture vulture.
“It’s starting… soon he’ll be just like the rest of the white rappers,” declared one user.
“A culture vulture covering a song by the ‘KING’ of the culture vultures,” wrote one user.
“MGK, Post Malone, and now Jack Harlow using the rap genre/black culture as a stepping stone to being famous ,” chimed another.
“This is so typical of [white] rappers, get clout and fame off rap music then transition to another genre,” penned another.
But not everyone feels like Harlow is washing his hands of rap. “The narrative that he’s shifting genres is stupid lmao. His last album was a RAP album, he just covered a song ,” wrote one fan.
The video for Jack Harlow’s new song, “Hello Miss Johnson,” is a neat one: Shot by Shadrinsky, the visual was filmed in a suburban cul-de-sac, entirely on security cameras and doorbell cams.
Over a samba-inspired instrumental, Harlow courts a special someone, and on the chorus, he delivers a message for his interest’s mother:
“Hello, Miss Johnson, you know why I’m callin’
You know I’ve been fallin’, fallin’ for your daughter
I think about her often, correct mе if I’m wrong, but
Was it you that gave the eyes to her I be lost in? Thought so
Tell her I said hello if you can, and also
That I can’t wait to see her again, and also
Tell her call me when she get a chance
‘Cause I got so much to say, and I appreciate you, ma’am”
Meanwhile, a press release teases, “Jack is working on a new project right now. More on this to follow…”
The new project will follow Harlow’s latest album, 2023’s Jackman. As for what else Harlow has going on, next week, he’ll be heading back to his home state of Kentucky for a pair of special performances with the Louisville Orchestra.
Jack Harlow is falling for a girl, and he wants to communicate that in one of the most relatable ways possible: wild neighborhood antics? Moreover, he just released the new single and music video “Hello Miss Johnson,” and as the title suggests, it’s about his love for a partner and how he’s basically asking her mother for her blessing. In the music video, you see a lot of random home security camera footage of some shenanigans in a pretty nice neighborhood, most of which depict the Kentucky rapper doing romantic gestures, rapping to the doorbell camera, or taking his partner home. It’s a pretty creative and quirky set of visuals from the YBN fan, which fits the tone of the track itself.
On “Hello Miss Johnson” Jack Harlow delivers buttery and calm flows over a bossa nova sample with very minimal additional percussion, such as some snaps and muffled kicks here and there. It’s a really nice pallet for the “Lovin On Me” MC, especially as it’s been a while since we heard new music from him. He’s dabbled in more movie fare and also released some sneaker collabs, and we’re happy to say that none of this took away from his musical talent. In fact, this is probably one of this catalog’s best tracks in a while, as its topical charm and simple beat are a treat. Find the song on your preferred streaming service or check out the music video on YouTube below. Down there, you can also find some standout bars and the comments section for you to leave your thoughts on the track.
Jack Harlow’s “Hello Miss Johnson”: Stream & Watch The Music Video
Quotable Lyrics Your mom called asking when you plan to be home, It’s been a week or so, longer than you said you’d be gone, You say you love her, then you ask her what the family’s on, Before you hang up on her, hand me the phone so I can say
Jack Harlow loves hip hop. It’s become easy to pile on the “First Class” rapper for his pop-friendly approach, but he has spoken at length about the artists he listened to growing up and the passion he has for the genre. Jackman, his last album, was a testament to this. It should then come as no surprise that he would be willing to talk hip hop via social media. Jack Harlow played ten questions on Instagram on November 13, and one fan inquired about his favorite hip hop group. His answer was not at all what we expected.
The question had some easy candidates build in as potential answers. “Most legendary rap group,” the fan asked. “Between Wu-Tang, Dipset and A$AP Mob? Can only pick one.” Jack Harlow responded with a very concise and very surprising answer. He posted a photo of YBN Cordae and YBN Nahmir and wrote back: “Try again.” There you have it. Jack Harlow’s favorite rap group is YBN, which ran from 2014-2020 and released only one collaborative album. You’d be hard-pressed to find a hip hop fan who would put the YNB crew in the same company as say, Wu-Tang Clan or A$AP Mob, but we have to hand it to Jack Harlow for taking a left turn.
Jack Harlow has never worked with Nahmir, but he has gotten on a record with Cordae. In fact, he was able to rap alongside Cordae and a mutual hero of theirs, Eminem on the remix to “Killer.” Harlow gushed about the opportunity to collaborate with such notable talents during a 2021 interview with Billboard. “He gave me a lot of props that any artist would love to get,” Harlow said regarding Em. “Sometimes, the best gem is just somebody you admire, letting you know who you think you are. He let me know, ‘You’re that.’”
Jack Harlow’s endorsement could not have come at a better time for Cordae. The former YBN member is dropping his third studio album, The Crossroads, on November 15. The album will feature several rappers that Harlow has collaborated with in the past, including Lil Wayne and Kanye West. Cordae recently made headlines for asserting that he doesn’t “give one f*ck” about first week album sales, as well. Harlow, on the other hand, claimed that he has some “special sh*t” on the way during a recent Brooklyn concert.
Mark Zuckerberg had himself a viral moment recently, when he shared a photo of himself in a recording studio with T-Pain, posting it on his Instagram Story with the caption, “It’s happening guys” (as Billboard notes). Jack Harlow has since weighed in with the perfect joke: On his Instagram Story, Harlow shared a photo of Zuckerberg and wrote, “New sh*t otw.”
Some context: While Zuckerberg has previously been described with words like “robotic,” in recent times, he has switched up his personal style, growing his curly hair out and wearing more casual outfits. (Slate went as far as to ask in October, “Is Mark Zuckerberg … Hot?“) Some have pointed out that with his new look, Zuckerberg looks like Harlow, especially after a faked image of Zuckerberg with facial hair went viral in April.
All that is to say that once Zuck crossed over into the music world, Harlow saw his opportunity and pounced.
In other Harlow news, last month, he announced a pair of performances in his home state of Kentucky, alongside the Louisville Orchestra, set for the end of November. Harlow also recently celebrated the release of his first-ever sneaker, the New Balance 1906R “Rose Runner,” which is out now.
Jack Harlow is going back home to Kentucky, and no, it has nothing to do with Louisville Racing FC. Yesterday (October 10), the “Lovin On Me” rapper announced the fourth installment of No Place Like Home.
On November 28 and 29, Jack Harlow will team up with the Louisville Orchestra for a special evening featuring his buzz-worthy discography inside Whitney Hall at The Kentucky Center. In a statement, Teddy Abrams, the Louisville Orchestra’s music director gushed about the upcoming performances.
“Jack Harlow is an icon and has already established himself as a Louisville legend,” he said. “We’ve worked together to build a unique, incredibly special set that shows Jack’s full range of artistry. His attention to orchestrational detail and compositional form is remarkable. I’m honored to build this program with Jack for our community, and I can’t wait for Louisville to hear what we’ve been creating together!”
The pre-sale for No Place Like Home 2024 launches on Tuesday, October 15 at 10 a.m. local time. The public sale will begin on Thursday, October 17 at 10 a.m. local time. Find more information here. Proceeds from No Place Like Home 2024 go towards the Louisville Orchestra. As a non-profit, the Louisville Orchestra’s work includes local educational and community programs focused on providing Kentuckians with access to music.
Jack Harlow 2024 Tour Dates: No Place Like Home 2024
11/29 — Louisville, KY @ Whitney Hall at The Kentucky Center
11/30 — Louisville, KY @ Whitney Hall at The Kentucky Center
Chicago-based visionary Cole Bennett started out shooting for up-and-coming teens and twenty-something blog favorites, but in the past five years, he has become one of rap’s foremost music video directors, working with top names like Eminem, J. Cole, Lil Durk, and more. He’s even shot for actor Jack Black, delivering a colorful video for Black’s Super Mario Bros. Movie crowd-pleaser, “Peaches.”
“I was a very visual person, but I never knew that I loved music videos,” Bennett said in a 2021 XXL interview. “I always had this idea since I was super young of what it would look like if I made a music video.” For nearly a decade, Bennett has been bringing these ideas to life to the praise of the artists he works with and his growing fan base.
With that being said, we decided to scour Bennett’s Lyrical Lemonade page for his best work. Here are the 10 best Cole Bennett-directed music videos.
Honorable Mention: JID & J. Cole — “Off Deez”
Okay, it’s a pretty basic concept with workmanlike execution, but it might be the best song Bennett’s ever done a video for. JID and J. Cole are left turns for Cole Bennett, if you take in the entirety of his filmography, so it was pretty meaningful that the Dreamville cohorts teamed up with him on this standout from JID’s DiCaprio 2. It’d be nice to see them do it again.
10. Ski Mask The Slump God — “Catch Me Outside”
An early standout from both Bennett and Ski Mask The Slump God, “Catch Me Outside” perfectly illustrates the possibilities of a limited budget when you’ve got unlimited imagination. Awash with eye-popping visual effects, “Catch Me Outside” offers a prime example of Cole’s early style; it’s raw, but flashes of his future brilliance shine throughout. Many of the techniques Bennett used here eventually became hallmarks of his style, and with polish, set off the concepts of his future videos with Cordae and Eminem.
9. Central Cee — “Doja”
As “Doja” is one of Bennett’s more recent videos, its simplicity might seem out of place in a list featuring so many brain-bending, colorful visuals. But it also marks Bennett’s transition from colorful collaborator to kingmaker; Central Cee is a star stateside after working with Bennett, making the most of essentially an indie budget to secure the coveted director’s services and show he belongs on the biggest stage.
8. Jack Harlow — “What’s Poppin”
While the visuals are pretty tame for a Cole Bennett production, Harlow’s “What’s Poppin” video is still representative of the elements that have made Bennett’s videos so eye-catching and amusing. Even the low-key imagery mirrors Jack’s tongue-in-cheek humor, highlighting and elevating it with some juxtaposed elements as bottle service and satin sheets at a late-night diner and a woman “smoking” a french fry like a cigarette. It’s also impossible to discount what the video did for Harlow’s career, taking him from an indie unknown to a potential chart-topper with 170 million views.
7. Drake — “Another Late Night” Feat. Lil Yachty
Say what you want about Drake, but “Another Late Night,” at least visually, has been the height of his last couple of rough years. Drake and Yachty have great chemistry, and despite the relatively straightforward treatment, the video manages to be eye-catching and stand out from the rest of Drake’s admittedly wonky catalog.
6. Lil Durk — “Kanye Krazy”
Bennett’s referential style comes to a head in Durk’s “Kanye Krazy” video. Pulling from infamous clips from the titular auteur’s oeuvre and public outbursts, Durk reimagines the videos for “Runaway,” “Bound 2,” and “I Love It” — specifically, the moments in which Kanye’s mental illness seems to have gotten the better of him, for better or worse. This was just after Drake’s “Laugh Now Cry Later” had put Durk back on the national map, so to speak, so the cheeky visuals helped aid in lending mainstream audiences a better sense of Durk’s personality outside his harrowing drill stories.
5. BabyTron — “100 Bars”
BabyTron, like Central Cee’s “Doja,” is a more recent addition to Bennett’s filmography, albeit one with a much higher concept. It’s executed deliriously well, with a new BabyTron outfit/persona for each of the titular “100 Bars” and seamless transitions between each. It’s a format that Bennett would return to with Eminem’s “Tobey,” but it’s impressive that the Detroit and Chicago natives were able to make this work without the benefit of a huge star (and the accompanying budget). BabyTron, for all the lethargy of his flow on the song, also appears to be having a ball, as does comedian Andy Milonakis in his cameo role.
4. Eminem — “Godzilla”
“Godzilla” is the moment Cole Bennett “made it,” in the sense that he began working with established megastars like Eminem in addition to the SoundCloud standouts in his own DIY cohort. Fittingly, the increased budget came along with some stunning visual effects to spice up the flow of the video’s narrative while enhancing Bennett’s trademark surrealism. Em gets punched in the face by Mike Tyson, breathes fire, vomits Legos, and performs surgery alongside longtime collaborator Dr. Dre. And speaking of collaborators, “Godzilla” is a hallmark moment for Marshall too; it’s the first time he really embraced the SoundCloud rappers he’d formerly spent huge segments of his albums belittling.
3. Polo G — “My All”
Of all Cole Bennett’s most frequent collaborators, he most frequently turns in his best work with hometown artists like Juice WRLD and Polo G. In the video for “My All,” the Chi-Town natives tone down the usual comedic elements of Cole’s catalog in favor of something more emotionally resonant. It looks simple, but it’s not; a seated Polo performs the lyrics as a montage of memories both celebratory and traumatic, scroll behind him. The fourth wall break at the end is a fun surprise.
2. Cordae & Juice WRLD — “Doomsday”
My personal favorite out of the videos presented here, “Doomsday” takes a simple concept and adds stupendous visual flair with the aid of facial overlay technology. This is how you pay homage to departed artists; Cordae puts on a clinic as both himself and his late friend Juice WRLD, while Cole puts deepfake algos to an actual artistic use that doesn’t require stealing the work of real artists.
1. Juice WRLD — “Lucid Dreams”
The video that put Bennett on my personal radar, “Lucid Dreams” is far from his most stunning. But it’s hard to argue with a billion views; “Lucid Dreams” is the song that made Juice a star, it’s still his biggest song to date, and the video displays Cole’s gift for dreamlike visuals, which also fits the theme of the song.
Jack Harlow first started his partnership with New Balance back in 2021, with a joking anti-endorsement of the sneaker brand’s 11th version of the 1080 running shoe (“I hate running,” he says in response to the upbeat voiceover). The ongoing endorsement deal would find Harlow playing pickup with Clippers star Kawhi Leonard (not so unrealistic, it turns out) and throwing together special edition colorways of the brand’s staples, but today, his first-ever collaboration with New Balance hits the shelves.
The 1906R “Rose Runner” is a modern update of a classic silhouette, with Harlow taking control first the first time of aspects like materials and construction, rather than just colors. The color and floral print gives the “Rose Runner” its name, while the Kentucky native adds some dashes of playful luxury with velvet on the tongue and laces. They also come with custom packaging and will retail for $180 on NewBalance.com and at select New Balance stores. You can find more information here. The shoes go live at 9 am PT/ 12 pm ET. Jack also shared an energetic preview video on Instagram.
Harlow hasn’t put out much new music lately, but he has had a busy year, as his long-awaited film with Matt Damon and Casey Affleck, The Instigators, made its premiere on Apple TV, Jack joined the ownership group of Racing Louisville FC, his local NWSL team, and his late 2023 hit, “Lovin On Me,” reached No. 1 to start the year.
The sneaker features an olive rubber outsole and a matching midsole. This sneaker is built perfectly for casual outings and has performance aspects. Also, the upper is made of leather and mesh, with a pink floral print found throughout. Further, the iconic New Balance “N” logo is on the sides. Overall, these sneakers take on a cohesive and vibrant color scheme.
More Photos
Kicks On Fire reports that the Jack Harlow x New Balance 1906R will be released on October 4th. Also, the retail price of the sneakers will be $180 when they drop. Further, make sure to let us know what you think about these kicks in the comments below. Additionally, stay tuned to HNHH for the most recent updates and news from the sneaker community. We’ll make sure to offer you the newest products from the most notable brands.
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