If you haven't heard, Lana Del Rey has gone country. "The music business is going country. We're going country. It's happening," she said at the Billboard Power 100 Party back in January," adding that producer Jack Antonoff had followed her to Muscle Shoals, Nashville and Mississippi over the past four years.
But whether that country album entitled Lasso actually materializes this September is neither here nor there, though, because today, she's released "Tough" — a "country-trap" (as per press materials) collaboration with Quavo. The pair initially debuted the song live at Del Rey's Fenway Park show in Boston last month, but now the studio version is here alongside a music video co-directed by the singer-songwriter, the former Migos member and Wyatt Spain Winfrey.
"Our new song is out with the toughest rapper I know," Del Rey wrote on Instagram. "Love everyone who helped make this happen."
Quavo is listed as the main artist on "Tough," which was written by 12(!) people including Del Rey and Antonoff, as well as Andrew Watt, who co-produced the song with Cirkut. Think a less melodic, more beat-driven version of Beyoncé's "LEVII's JEANS" with Post Malone — both of which are rooted in a refined, expensive iteration of modern bro-country production, but lean more into mid-tempo melancholy atmospherics.
Check out "Tough" below.