Tems’ songs tend to take the long road through American radio. “Free Mind” spent 33 weeks on Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart before it reached No. 1 in 2022. “What You Need,” the slow song from the EP she put out without warning last November, has now made its own long climb, to No. 1 on Billboard’s Rhythmic Airplay chart dated Oct. 24.
It moved up from No. 3 on the Oct. 17 chart, in its 14th week on the list.
It is her first No. 1 there as a lead artist. Her only earlier Rhythmic Airplay No. 1 came as a guest, on Future’s “Wait for U” with Drake in 2022. “Essence” with Wizkid stopped at No. 2, “Raindance” with Dave reached No. 8 this year, and her best as a solo lead had been “Free Mind” at No. 10. At mainstream R&B/hip-hop stations, she has five No. 1s, two of them this year.
R&B radio got to this song first. It topped Billboard’s Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart dated July 4, and it has now spent 29 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, where it peaked at No. 29 in August.
Tems produced it with GuiltyBeatz for Love Is a Kingdom, the seven-song EP that showed up unannounced on Nov. 21, 2025, and RCA and Since ’93 put it out again as a standalone single on March 4. The morning the EP arrived, Melony wrote on The NATIVE’s first-impressions panel that the song is “where it all clicks.”
Nearly eleven months on, rhythmic stations have caught up with it.