Month: June 2021

Spotify Comes Through With 2021 Song Of The Summer Predictions

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It feels like there isn’t a definitive song of the summer right now. While it may take a few extra weeks (and potentially a Drake album) to determine which song will rule the airwaves this summer, we’re officially in the thick of the warmer months and global streaming giant Spotify is sharing its predictions for the 2021 song of the summer.

Spanning across all music genres, Spotify’s editorial team came through with their predictions for which songs will be running our summers with replay-worthy attention by the pool. Some selections, like Olivia Rodrigo’s “good 4 u” and Doja Cat’s “Kiss Me More” with SZA are obvious frontrunners, but others, including Tyler, The Creator, Megan Thee Stallion, and more are also in the running.


Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The list of potential songs of the summer includes “WUSYANAME” from Tyler, The Creator’s new album, Silk Sonic’s beautiful single “Leave The Door Open,” Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” with DaBaby, Justin Bieber’s “Peaches,” Megan Thee Stallion’s “Thot Shit,” Polo G’s “RAPSTAR,” Lil Nas X’s “MONTERO,” Roddy Ricch’s “Late At Night,” and more. 

Across other genres, BTS, Ed Sheeran, Karol G, Bad Bunny, and others all have a chance to take over with their respective summer smashes.

“Spanning a variety of genres – from hip-hop to country – our Songs of Summer predictions are based on a number of factors like streaming numbers, current trajectory and future forecasting from Spotify’s global curation team,” explained the Spotify team.

Of course, this list only includes music that has already been released. It’s possible that somebody could steal the 2021 song of the summer debate with a late entry. 

In addition to the predictions list, Spotify also launched the all-new Summer Breakouts playlist, which is uniquely tailored to each user to shine a light on some potential summer hits, including music from Mac Miller, BIA, BROCKHAMPTON, Wiz Khalifa, and more.

What do you think will be the 2021 song of the summer?

Justice Clarence Thomas Admits Federal Weed Laws “May No Longer Be Necessary”

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Across the United States, different jurisdictions have begun to ease their ban on marijuana. While some states have chosen to decriminalize the substance and simply stop policing the substance, others have opted to fully legalize pot and have established state-sponsored markets. 

The United States Congress even recently re-introduced legislation to decriminalize the substance at the federal level, a tell-tale sign of the changing attitude towards cannabis consumption. Conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas issued a fiery dissent on Monday (June 28) arguing that federal marijuana prohibition may no longer make sense. 


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“A prohibition on intrastate use or cultivation of marijuana may no longer be necessary or proper to support the Federal Government’s piecemeal approach,” wrote Thomas. The infamously conservative justice shared his thoughts in the court’s denial of a petition to hear an appeal for a Colorado medical marijuana dispensary. 

The case centers on an IRS investigation into whether it illegally deducted business expenses. The current federal tax code denies companies dealing in controlled substances the privilege of deducting costs the way other businesses are able to. 

“Under this rule, a business that is still in the red after it pays its workers and keeps the lights on might nonetheless owe substantial federal income tax,” Thomas continued.


Lauren DeCicca/Getty Images

 

 

Thomas also noted that 36 states across the country allow for medical marijuana use, while 18 allow recreational use. The U.S. Department of Justice policy has long been against interfering in those states’ policies despite current federal law. 

“Once comprehensive, the federal government’s current approach is a half-in, half-out regime that simultaneously tolerates and forbids local use of marijuana,” he wrote. “This contradictory and unstable state of affairs strains basic principles of federalism and conceals traps for the unwary.”


Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

While the dissent doesn’t immediately change anything, it could assist in inspiring lower-level judges to strike down laws that make marijuana illegal. 

 

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DMX’s Role In Upcoming Film “Doggman” Will Be Finished With CGI

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DMX will appear in the upcoming film, Doggman, in a CGI capacity to finish a role he had begun filming prior to his death, earlier this year. The appearance will be akin to that of Paul Walker in Furious 7, his costar, Tara Reid, revealed to NME.

“It’s a movie called Doggmen. It’s his (DMX’s) last film and it was really interesting, because he didn’t get to finish the whole film,” Reid said. “They had to do what they did with Paul Walker (in Furious 7, his last Fast & Furious project). They make these facial sculptures and they put it on a face, and it looks exactly like him. It’s crazy.”


Mike Lawrie / Getty Images

Reid added that she’ll be acting in some of the final scenes that the production team will be adding him in for: “The last couple of scenes that he has to film, that will be what they are doing. It’s incredible and it looks so real. So, that is how they are going to film his last scenes, and I’ll be in those scenes with him.”

Doggman is being written and directed by Antonio Simmons. A release date for the film has yet to be announced.

DMX appeared in a number of films throughout his career including Romeo Must Die, Beyond the Law, and more.

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Curren$y’s Jet Life Brand Is Way More Than He Ever Imagined

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Getty Image/Paul Rosales

Everybody knows how much Currensy loves his cars, weed, and how much he loves to deliver good music to his legion of loyal fans. He’s managed to turn that love into his Jet Life brand, which keeps growing and growing since its birth in 2011.

As one of the more consistent rappers in the game, known for flooding the streets with fly tunes, what he’s built with Jet Life is a reflection of the many labels he’s had the opportunity to be part of with legends right out of his hometown of New Orleans, such as Lil Wayne’s Young Money label and Master P’s No Limit label under his brother C-Murder’s imprint.

From 2006’s “Where da Cash At” to the re-released collaborative mixtape Covert Coup with The Alchemist to 2021’s Welcome To Jet Life Recordings 2, which is a collection of songs by Jet Life Recordings artists which include Fendi P and T.Y., Currensy has proven to be as resilient as he is industrious. Over the phone, he took Uproxx on a cerebral journey of how his mind works and how he’s adapted to the ever-changing technology of the music industry.

What are you up to?

Watching some new cartoon I found on Amazon, but I think it’s just a pilot and I think that it’s called…it’s called The New VIPs and it’s not a full season, it’s just one episode. I think they’re trying to see what people think of it.

What do you think of it?

I think this is good. This sh*t is good. It’s just one episode. When we get done with this interview, I’m going to take the survey and I’m going to let them know that this is a f*cking good show and it should have went into production or whatever you call that. You should watch this when you get done.

What’s your favorite Adult Swim or just any cartoon show?

Home Movies. I don’t know if you remember that because it was four seasons. The voice from Bob’s Burgers and Archer, you know that guy? [Editor’s Note: It’s H. Jon Benjamin] He’s one of the voices on there. It’s a good f*cking show, man.

It’s so well written though. It’s like how The Office still works whenever you put it on.

Well, I guess if I ever need any TV recommendations, I’ll just hit you up.

Yeah, I’m the one.

Let’s talk Covert Coup. How long had you and Alchemist been talking about re-releasing it?

Oh man, you’re going to love this story. We didn’t know that it wasn’t on streaming sites. We didn’t even know. When we went to San Francisco recently for this Nautica and Diamond Supply photo shoot, we were like, “Damn, it’s been 10 years since Covert Coup came out.” And I was like, “Yeah, that’s crazy. We should probably jam it.” Then I was like, “Is it on iTunes?” He’s like, “I don’t know.” I was like, “F*ck, I don’t know either.” So I asked my manager and he checked, and he’s like, “No.” I was like, “Oh, what is it on, Tidal or something?” It wasn’t on anything. We missed 4/20. That would have been ideal because that would have been the exact 10 year anniversary, so we just put it out in May.

People were and still are reacting to it like it’s a new project. That’s a whole different generation of people. Some people outright did not know about it. Some motherf*ckers are jamming it like it just dropped.

A lot of artists are re-releasing projects that were on DatPiff. I look at DatPiff as a historical music archive. There are so many legendary debut mixtapes on DatPiff.

Yup. That was the avenue right there. To me, that was major distribution because it’s like, everybody go right here and anybody can get on it. They didn’t have they picks and choosers. The homies from down the street was like, “Yo, I’m uploading my tape to DatPiff tonight, bro.” It was giving everybody a shot and it still do. That’s why I always put sh*t out so much because it was just cool to go on different sites and sh*t and see and just download stuff.

It’s so dope to see a lot of those tapes on there like Wiz Khalifa and Meek Mill.

That was an opportunity for people. It was just real listeners and people who respected the game, and curators of the whole vibe of what we do. They were shining a light on artists who they felt like deserved one because, at that time, all we had was MTV jams. We wasn’t on that motherf*cker. If the people saying your sh*t is dope, then dope people will give it a chance. If it’s what it’s supposed to be, then they’ll share it with other people. That put a lot of us in position, and it weeded out a lot of the bull. A lot of sucker sh*t couldn’t really advance at that time.

What’s the biggest difference between releasing music back then to today as a label owner of Jet Life Recordings?

I’m more focusing on the rollout of the next few projects that we putting out from Jet Life because I’m putting out a Welcome To Jet Life Recordings Vol. 2 and the first one that I did, a lot of the solo songs was for me and then a few from the artist. This time, everybody is on every song. There’s different artists on every record. I’m on all of them, but people from the label are on all of them too. Now, it’s about a rollout. How you going to promote this music outside of just putting up clips of you rapping?

What I would do before is put out one record from the tape or a snippet on Instagram, 30 seconds, just bars from the record. Maybe seven records I would damn near play the whole record — just putting up clips to get motherf*ckers ready for it and then drop it.

Now, I roll it out more like the way they do movies, where it’s just sh*t around it as opposed to the actual dish. You’re not really giving them that much in the promo, you’re just promoting the idea of what’s going on instead of playing the records and giving away so much of the project before you drop it. The physical aspect of purchasing music being removed. Everybody’s just getting it right from the phone and so you don’t have the thrill of picking up the CD and having to take the shrink wrapping off, so we have to save as much of that as we can for them so that the music is fresh to them once they download the project.

If I put so much of it up the way I used to, when they download it, it’s like, “Oh, I heard this one. I know this one, I know this one.” F*ck that. So now it’s like, Nah, I’m not going to do it that way. I’m going to roll the project out like a movie and let you see the process of us working. Maybe what car I drove to the studio and what we wore, what we was drinking. But, you’re not going to hear this sh*t until the sh*t drop. Until you actually sitting in the theater to watch the movie.

Tell us more about the compilation tape.

Welcome To Jet Life Recordings Vol. 2. features the entire label and some affiliates like Jay Worthy and Scotty ATL. Outside of that, it’s everybody on my label and a lot of rising stars from my city out of New Orleans: A lot of the people who I know are about to pop anyway with or without me. These people are going to blow anyway. I had better had got in front of that sh*t and fcking helped to usher them into the industry if I wanted to stay alive.

I saw also you tried that Jay-Z weed. I don’t really see Jay-Z as a weed smoker, but curious to know how it was from someone like yourself.

Well, they had different strains, but they weren’t labeled how you would think. It wasn’t jars just saying, “Oh, this is OG Kush.” They were all numbered and named little slick sh*t like Heavy. With anything associated with Jay-Z, if it was something that he not really in the know of, he’s going to do the research and then put the best people on the team to make it happen. Clearly, he’s got some good growers because the bottles marked Heavy are f*cking heavy. Those were the ones to smoke when I was at that shoot.

I also saw that you got into NFT. I’m still a little lost on that, what exactly it is.

Well, you know what? It’s because you live in the physical world, as do I. But do you remember when Dwight was playing Second Life on The Office? Okay, now Dwight Schrute was playing Second Life so much so that his character on Second Life had started an account on Second Life himself and it was second Second Life. His video game character was playing a video game of himself in the video game.

There are people who live, heavily immerse themselves, in the cyber world and cyber real estate. All of this is real because they live in a digital space. When they hang out with their friends and people are in these avatars on these computers, they need worlds and sh*t to live in, and in those worlds, you’re going to need dwellings, cars.

I’m involved in some NFT low riders right now and car parks for these f*cking digital cars because people want to upgrade them. People sit in front of they computer and live like that more than they step outside of the house because it’s hot outside, people are shooting. They’ll just rather just sit there and do that. You going to need all that s*it, so you better figure out what you going to sell them. When we get off the line, you better figure it out. You better come up with something. They need some digital mirrors, haircare supplies… They got NFT shoes, all that. NFT weed, lighters… all of that sh*t is already in the market.

I haven’t seen a NFT fish tank yet, so I don’t know. Cook that one up.

I’m thinking about all the games I play. I buy stuff for Call Of Duty all the time.

Dude, you’re fu*king buying NFTs then because where can you use those guns? Can you protect your house with that sh*t that you bought? With your money that you’re working for? Alright, you bought a NFT.

Okay, so what made you decide to hop in on the wave?

Because that digital money transfer to real money. It’s the same reason I’m telling you if those people believe you sold them a fish tank, you need to make them a fish tank and sell them the fish and sh*t.

Welcome To Jet Life Recordings 2 is out now. Check it out above.

Ski Mask The Slump God Seeks Revenge In His Gory ‘Admit It’ Video

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The theme of Ski Mask The Slump God‘s “Admit It” video makes perfect sense in light of his new mixtape, Sin City. Taking inspiration from the 1990s neo-noir crime comics by Frank Miller — or perhaps the 2005 film based on them — the video is a desaturated, gory revenge tale that sees Ski Mask come back after being left for dead to execute violent retribution on his foes. As with the Sin City movie, Ski Mask’s video is washed of almost all color save a few bright splashes that accentuate the action, whether through the gold glinting on his teeth or the blood splashing on the walls.

Sin City: The Mixtape is Ski Mask’s first full-length project since 2018’s Stokeley, which highlighted the South Florida rapper’s impressive technical skill and hedonistic outlook and featured appearances from a then-emerging Juice WRLD, Lil Baby, and Lil Yachty. However, he seemingly took a hiatus in the wake of his friends Juice WRLD‘s and XXXTentacion’s deaths, with the pandemic delaying the comeback he teased in 2020 with his protest anthem, “Burn The Hoods.” While he did provide a guest feature on DJ Scheme’s “Soda” with Cordae, 2020 was a relatively quiet year for the Slump God.

However, earlier this year, he expressed excitement for a spate of new videos and dropped Sin City amid a crowded New Music Friday that included new Tyler The Creator and Doja Cat albums. The nine-track album is spare and straightforward, but with such a tight concept and sharp execution, it’s not one to be overlooked.

Watch Ski Mask The God’s “Admit It” video above.

Sin City The Mixtape is out now on Victor Victor Worldwide and Republic. Get it here.

Lloyd Banks’s “The Hunger for More” Turns Seventeen Today

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I’ve always found it rare that a legitimate studio album warrants a sequel. Mixtapes, sure, I get it. Just keep piling it on until we can’t handle hearing your voice anymore, but a sequel to an ALBUM? That first one had to be pretty damn special. And, luckily, in the case of one Mr. Lloyd Banks, his debut album seems to have aged like wine.

The New York-bred rapper took to Twitter earlier and spread his arms out to his “baby,” mentioning the seventeen-year anniversary of 2004’s critically acclaimed The Hunger for More.

From interpolating Queen Latifah’s smokey hit “Just Another Day” and turning it into an absolute flossing fest (“Throw a couple grand at the NBA Store / Rock $24,000 on the NBA floor”) to some quintessential Snoop Dogg features, this was a seminal rap album for the early end of the 2000s.

With G Unit still on the rise way back in 2004, Blue Hefner took it upon himself to further the group from merely being 50’s heir apparent, going to show each and every one of them was as big a go-getter as he was. Sure, sometimes you don’t get the Dr. Dre co-sign; but, when an artist is still able to drop something so timelessly pristine, then who the hell even cares?

Lloyd Banks’s latest LP is titled The Course of the Inevitable and garnered positive feedback for the most part. Have you given it a listen? Or are you sticking with the classics?

Summer Walker & SZA Flaunt Their Curves In Flirty Studio Session Photo

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SZA has been working to ready the release of her forthcoming sophomore album. The rollout to the highly-anticipated follow-up to 2017’s CTRL began last summer with its Ty Dolla Sign-assisted lead single “Hit Different.” She followed up the single with “Good Days” released on Christmas day, going on to become her first solo top-10 hit.

Earlier this month, she revealed she was planning to debut new material from the forthcoming project during her Grey Goose live performance, meaning the album will likely arrive shortly after the show. One feature fans of the songstress can possibly expect o the upcoming LP is from none other than Summer Walker. The two R&B powerhouses posed together for a sultry shot in the studio, blessing fans with the photos on Instagram.

Adding a simple tongue-sticking out emoji, the songstresses flaunted their curvy figures as they posed in front of studio equipment. They both donned body-hugging blue trousers and crop tops as they gave the camera a cheeky grin. 

“Not me stalking u til this went up,” wrote the “Good Days” songstress in the comments of the sexy snap. Right now, it’s unclear exactly what the leading ladies of soul music are cooking up right now. 

Summer Walker unleashed her Life on Earth EP last year, which arrived after her debut project Over It in 2019. Considering this, the untitled collaboration could appear on an upcoming project from the Atlanta songstress. 

Either way, one thing that’s for certain is this collaboration will be one for the books. Let us know if you’re looking forward to it down in the comments. 

“F9” Breaks Pandemic Box Office Record With Appearance From Cardi B

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F9, the latest installment in the Fast & Furious franchise, hit theaters, on Friday (June 25), and is expected to break the Box Office pandemic record with an estimated $70m domestically during its first release weekend. The film is the first in the series to feature Cardi B as the character Leysa.

As for worldwide figures, F9 is expected to take home $405 million in total, much higher than the $225 million it cost to produce. 

“I love the fact that I’m representing such a powerful, strong woman,” Cardi recently said of her character. “She’s just that bitch. Leysa’s such a badass.”

Cardi B, F9
Dia Dipasupil / Getty Images

Her costar, Vin Diesel, recently confirmed that she’ll be returning in the role for the series’ next film. In F9, Leysa is an old friend of Diesel’s character, Dom Toretto.

Director Justin Lin said he loved working with Cardi when asked about her performance on set.

“I love Cardi, you know? I mean, it’s amazing she showed up and within a minute she’s part of the family, right?” he said recently. “And I love how when I got together with her, her and Vin were talking about the character because she’s actually really embedded into the overall universe, she’s been around for a long time and this is just the first time we are seeing her, so I’m really excited to explore that character of her.”

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Curren$y Explains How Diddy Singled Him Out Because Of His Weed

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On the latest episode of High Tales, the video series introduced by JAY-Z’s cannabis brand MONOGRAM, rapper Curren$y spoke about his love of weed, telling anecdotes about some of the funniest things that have happened to him while he was high. Before revealing the recipe to his munchies-quenching grilled cheese sandwich, the cannabis connoisseur spoke about how he met Diddy because of how strong his weed was.

“If you smell something cutting through the room, you know that that person is of a certain cloth and did whatever they had to do to acquire that bag,” explains Curren$y on High Tales. “I know that’s how I met Puff Daddy. I met Diddy like that at fucking SXSW because of the joint that I lit up. On my way to perform, I just [blew some smoke] and I’m sure he was going to do something else at Fader Fort, do some real Diddy shit, but he was like, nah, where is that train going? He went to the side stage, watched the whole set, and then we got off and he was like, ‘You got more of that shit?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, but you gotta check this out!'”


Scott Dudelson/Getty Images

Curren$y says he was working on a mixtape called Puff Daddy with Chuck Inglish, and Diddy gave him the O-K based on their meeting at SXSW. 

Spitta also spoke about his early Cash Money days, which included him impersonating Birdman when a woman asked for his autograph. He says the woman didn’t know who he was, overhearing her on the phone with her kids before introducing herself and asking for his signature. He even signed  Stunna’s nicknames as a joke.

Check out Curren$y’s episode of High Tales below and be sure to also watch our latest episode of How To Roll with the rapper underneath.