Courtesy of The Prelude Press
New York-based singer Jeremy Zucker released his latest single, “not ur friend,” on Friday, Feb. 28. It is the second single off his debut album, “Love is Not Dying,” which is due to be released in Spring 2020. The album’s first single, “always, i’ll care,” was released on Friday, Feb. 7.
Zucker is managed by Visionary Music Group, an independent management company that is home to artists like Logic, Jon Bellion, Chelsea Cutler and a handful of other talented artists. His record label is Republic Records. Zucker’s most recent EP, “Brent,” was a collaboration with Chelsea Cutler, a frequent collaborator, that was released back in May 2019. The release of “Brent” garnered a lot of attention for Zucker and Cutler. The two of them recorded and released a live version of the EP and even performed some songs on the “Today” show back in November 2019. The two artists previously collaborated on the songs “better off” and “Lonely Alone.”
Before “Brent,” Zucker released his EP “summer” in September 2018. Off that EP, one of the best-selling songs was “comethru.” The song became a certified gold record in September 2019 and achieved 1 billion global streams. It even got the remix treatment, with Bea Miller gaining a feature. The success of “comethru” was a big deal for Zucker, as he had written the song in his backyard in New Jersey the summer before its release. He did not think that his music career would go anywhere, which is why he was a microbiology major in college, but a part of him always knew that music was the career path for him. Zucker also acknowledged that if his career were to come to an abrupt end, he would be okay with it, because all of the things he has accomplished are just insane to him. He revealed all of these thoughts on his success in an Instagram post back in September 2019.
Zucker announced the release date for “not ur friend” on Monday, Feb. 24, on his Instagram account. This was just 13 days after he announced his U.S. and European World Tour. A couple days later on Wednesday, Feb. 26, he posted a video teasing the song’s chorus captioned, “THIS SONG COMES OUT ON FRIDAY —— 2020 WE ARE CUTTING OFF ALL TOXIC ENERGY.” Then on Friday, Feb. 28, the song was finally released on all streaming services for enjoyment of listeners. There is also an official lyric video that was released on Zucker’s YouTube channel.
The song itself is about dropping a toxic friend and moving on, which was confirmed by Zucker’s Instagram caption. In the song, Zucker sings of a person, specifically a girl, who made him close the door on certain opportunities and he is tired of it. He doesn’t mean to make this person’s current situation worse, but he’s tired of this person holding him down from pursuing other opportunities. He does not want this girl to even pick up the phone and talk it out because he has decided that he’s, “not your fucking friend.” He does not care about what this girl’s friends think, because he would rather be sitting in silence than listen to their dramatics.
Zucker has made it crystal clear that 2020 is the year to cut out the toxic people in his life. Will this be the overarching theme of his album? Fans will have to wait see when the album is finally released.
“Not ur friend” was placed on several of Spotify’s promotional playlists including Pop Rising, New Music Friday, Fresh & Chill and Chill Hits. With well over 1 million streams less than a week since its release, fans are enjoying the song and anxiously waiting for Zucker’s next single to drop. Fans can stream the song on Spotify, Apple Music and Prime Music. The song can also be bought through iTunes and Amazon Music. If fans want to see Jeremy Zucker live, he will be touring the U.S. this upcoming summer.
