Major Lazer returns with new member, new single
Reunites with Busy Signal for ‘Gangsta’
Published:Monday | September 1, 2025 | 12:07 AM
Major Lazer is back with brand-new music and a new member. British-Jamaican artiste and content creator America Foster, has joined Diplo, Ape Drums, and Walshy Fire in the latest iteration of the multi-platinum and diamond-charting group.
Gangsta, the first Major Lazer single of 2025, reunites the group with dancehall icon Busy Signal, who previously featured on their salsa-infused 2013 classic, Watch Out For This (Bumaye). The track also sees the group team up with Kybba, the Italy-raised, Amsterdam-based DJ/producer behind record label, video channel and events brand Basshall Movement. Gangsta fuses dancehall and future-leaning dance sounds with Busy Signal’s quick-witted badman lyrics.
While they gear up for an upcoming project, the group has been on the road, debuting new music at live performances around the world. America Foster made her live début with Major Lazer during four raucous sets at Paris’s Fête De La Musique in June, and revealed the news of her joining the group in an Instagram post after Major Lazer’s headlining set at Austria’s Electric Love Festival in July.
Foster is described as “all-around performer [with a] distinctive style, humour, bold personality, authentic voice and creative versatility”. This caught the attention of the group and led to a collaboration in Jamaica that evolved into membership. Raised between cultures and continents, she has built a loyal online following through sharp-witted freestyles, sketches, and genre-fluid music.
The group has been making pop-up appearances at street parties and unlikely venues this summer, including a surprise rave at a Bronx bodega in July. Major Lazer recently visited London for the first time in 10 years with performances at Notting Hill Carnival as well as a pop-up performance at a Shoreditch location with Busy Signal to celebrate the release of Gangsta. Up next is a headlining set at Chandler, Arizona’s Goldrush Music Festival in September, and spontaneous pop ups at colleges and universities across the US throughout the fall. Additional tour dates across Europe and North America are also forthcoming.
“Coming back out now with America and Busy Signal feels like starting a new chapter while revisiting an old one,” Diplo said. “Busy Signal was a big part of our journey with Major Lazer, blessing us with his incredible vocals on ‘ Bumaye,’ a massive single that helped define what Major Lazer was going to be. Now, more than a decade later, we’re starting another journey with America joining the group. It’s amazing how much she complements the dynamic we’ve already established with Walshy and Ape Drums. While she’s not on this track as a vocalist, look out for her on some new music coming real soon.”
Formed by Diplo and UK producer Switch after a trip to Jamaica to produce tracks for M.I.A., Major Lazer debuted in 2009 with the dancehall-punk concept album Guns Don’t Kill People…Lazers Do. Following the departure of Switch in 2011, the group returned with 2013’s Free the Universe, and the addition of Walshy Fire and Jillionaire. Ape Drums joined the group in 2019, replacing Jillionaire, with that line-up remaining the same until this summer’s addition of America Foster.