The legendary Cypress Hill has come through with a new single, linking up with Detroit producer Black Milk for “Champion Sound.” With the track arriving as part of the upcoming RBI Baseball 21 soundtrack, a video game that hits consoles and PC today, it doesn’t necessarily signal a forthcoming release from the west coast collective. Yet Cypress Hill previously teased that their upcoming album would be produced in its entirety by Black Milk, so perhaps we’re looking at an early glimpse.
Milk’s sonic fingerprints are all over this one, as dusty samples combine with crisp drum and a groovy bassline. Though their previous effort Elephants On Acid found Cypress Hill exploring a more experimental sound, this track finds them employing a more straightforward approach — which is to say, Sen Dog and B-Real spitting bars over a grimy instrumental. “It ain’t a riddle, we never play in the middle,” spits B, catching a slick pocket. “We spin it, you feel a little / Hesitation, you’re so riddled.”
Check out “Champion Sound” now, and sound off if you’re excited to see what Cypress Hill and Black Milk have been cooking up these past few years.
QUOTABLE LYRICS
And you could never stop runnin’ When you see me pop When you could predict the outcome Hands raised, I’m the champion It ain’t a riddle, we never play in the middle
Having known Kirk Franklin for years, Steve Harvey spoke on the situation on his radio show this week, sticking up for the Christian singer and saying his son “had it coming”.
“Kirk Franklin has always been there for me. So I called him. And I told Kirk, Kirk said, ‘I’m having a tough day today.’ And I just called him to lift him up. Because you didn’t do nothing wrong,” said Steve about the leaked phone call. “The pain that Kirk Franklin was in was for twofold. First of all, the betrayal of his son. That had to be devastating. That you would think so little of me. That you would take me in one of my rawest moments and try to destroy me by posting something that was purely between me and you. And his son knew exactly what he was doing. That’s why he posted it. But his son only posted the part that he thought could hurt Kirk. He didn’t post the part of what he was asking of Kirk. He didn’t post the part of what led up to Kirk’s anger. […] How you 33-years-old and posting something your father said. That don’t make no sense. That shows you the lack of manhood that this man has.”
Steve says the second thing that was hurting Kirk Franklin was the church’s reaction to what was happening. The talk show host says that other Christian people are “righteous” and, because Kirk is a gospel singer, he’s expected to be perfect in every aspect of his life. However, Steve clarifies that, before singing, Kirk Franklin was simply a man. A sinning man. He said that, just because Kirk was caught cussing on tape, he’s not the only Christian person that’s ever been caught cursing.
He concludes by saying that Kerrion Franklin “had it coming” and that he had no right to call his father out on social media.
Listen to what Steve Harvey says about the leaked audio above.
Charm La’Donna is a woman of many talents and she’s ready to let them all unleash. She’s an all-in-one creative outfit who can write a good song and a choreographed routine to go with it. Looking for visual creative direction? Charm can handle that too.
In fact, some of the biggest names in the industry have put their faith in her abilities such as Selena Gomez, Rosalía, Madonna, and even once opened up for fellow Compton native Kendrick Lamar. The greatness only gets greater, though. More recently, Charm choreographed Dua Lipa’s electrifying Grammy performance with DaBaby and she also was the woman behind The Weeknd’s prodigious half-time performance at this year’s Super Bowl.
In between all of that, somehow she also has found time to create for herself in the midst of the pandemic. Her track “So & So” is one of the first songs she’s released and the video features cameos from some of her closest friends including Selena Gomez (of course), Meghan Trainor, and Fulani, among others, lip-syncing the words to the catchy number.
Following the release of her track “Queen” and its captivating video, Charm talks to Uproxx about her barrier-breaking music career and what it was like once being a dancer during a Super Bowl half-time show with Black Eyed Peas to choreographing The Weeknd’s for this year’s performance.
Philip Cosores
Tell me about the single and the creativity behind your video for “Queen.”
“Queen” stems from me wanting to have a song that felt empowering, that embodied strength and everything of where I’m from. The visuals as well. It’s literally being taken a journey through all of my endeavors, everything that I love. I threw it all in “Queen.” The culture, my culture, where I’m from, how I feel now, how I felt growing up, it’s all in there.
What are some things to you that maybe you included in the video that represents being a queen? What’s a queen to you?
A queen is someone who is powerful in their own right, who is strong, who is also vulnerable, who exudes greatness and follows whatever that is for themselves. One thing for me, I could even say in the video, I love gold. I’ve always loved gold and I love bamboo. So I decided to do something and play with that in the visual and the video. It’s how I rock my bamboos in a way. You see the gold on the dresses and the bamboo and how I rock them and just me being in a swap meet top type of situation. It shows where I’m from and how I grew up, to how I live now. Also, getting my hair braided is very important.
How would you say a queen moves in life and in this industry?
A queen… It’s about being yourself. Being yourself and not compromising your morale and who you are and going after everything you want. Going out to everything you want and people say wearing many hats, I just say wearing many crowns.
That’s kind of my next question because you do so many things. I know you did the Super Bowl choreography for The Weeknd. You’ve done choreography for so many people. You’ve opened up for Kendrick Lamar and all of that. I noticed this industry is dominated by men. It’s so much testosterone. How do you maintain your crown in a room full of men?
Myself, knowing where I come from, knowing who I am as a woman and not compromising that and believing that I can do anything that anyone else can do.
Do you ever feel intimidated or were there ever times where you did feel intimidated and had to make yourself come out of that or evolve out of that?
I don’t think I’ve ever felt intimidated. I felt more-so nervous. When you embark on something new or you try something that people are not known, they don’t know you for trying. You get a sense of maybe nervousness. There was never any form of intimidation though because I come through. I feel like I’m a strong woman and I’m raised by a bunch of women. I don’t think I’ve ever felt intimidated.
How involved are you with your visuals and the creative?
I’m heavily involved in my business. I do my creative. I do my choreography. I’m hands-on with styling. I’m hands-on.
How do you find time? How do you balance it all?
Oh, with a great team. Very great. To be honest, as I am now putting out music I’m still choreographing, I’m still creative directing for different artists as well as myself. It’s just balance; it’s just balance and structure in the best way, but my team has been amazing in helping me do that.
Now, how many more singles do you have coming before you drop a full-length project?
I think I have one more single coming and then I’m going to drop a project.
Philip Cosores
During this journey of you creating your project, creating the visuals for it, and also in between doing choreography for other people, how has that been while making it a priority because I’m pretty sure you have had to do some readjusting, right?
It organically happened for me in the past year. Due to staying at home and with COVID, I kind of took a pause with the world as well. Then when I took that fall, I had my music. It was a time for me to continue being creative and put my stuff out. To not be nervous, not be afraid, even in a time of the unsure, put my stuff out. That was the beginning of the push. As of right now, I have a great balance. I’m able to help others when I can, and there hasn’t been any controversy or any stipulations with it. It’s been cool.
What artists did you grow up listening to that inspire you?
My inspiration of course are a lot of the artists I work with and I’ve been able to collaborate with. I also find inspiration like my mom and my family, friends. I’m inspired… It sounds super cliche to say but I’m inspired by literally just… I intake a lot of energy from different places. I’m inspired by multiple things.
You said that you were raised by mostly women. Who were those women?
My mom, my god-mom my aunt, my grandma, women, all my past teachers, my mentor Fatima Robinson. All these women have played a role in my life.
What could you say is something that… In what way do they support you? Maybe when you need encouragement or if you need somebody to talk to. In what way and how do they support you?
My mom has encouraged me always to follow and follow my dreams. Hard work, push yourself and you’ll be able to conquer whatever it is that you want. Each woman, I think, played a different role. I’ve learned in the industry from Fatima Robinson. My aunt has always been there to encourage me to continue on because I’ve missed growing up, so many family things.
They never made me feel as if though one thing was more important than the other. They were always supportive of me and my dreams and what I wanted. I think that’s important because my grandma is just always been my rock, always been my rock. Even hearing stories of how she grew up and my grandmother’s 95. Those stories have also inspired me and pushed me to be the best I can be.
Is anybody in your family into music, that you looked up to as well?
My brother, he was a writer and a rapper back in the day. That’s where I kind of got my music. That’s where I got the itch to start rapping and getting in the studio with him when I was younger.
What was that like? Were you like little sister following big brother around or just watching him?
Yeah, it really was. Exactly. He would pick me up from school because my mom was working and I would go to the studio with him before dance class or after dance class until it was time for me to go home. It started off just me doing my homework in the studio and then me getting in the booth and rapping. Now here we are.
I did kind of want to talk about just Super Bowl a little bit, because that’s huge. You choreographed The Weeknd’s half-time performance.
Well, that, from that experience, if you want me to be honest, what I don’t think people know is that we did this literally in the middle of the pandemic. I don’t think people know that. So I say this to say, it’s like the journey, and what it took for us to get this was beyond. I was having Zoom rehearsals because safety is always a priority. I’m trying to keep people away for as long as possible, but the overall experience, I wouldn’t change for anything. I got to choreograph the Super Bowl with amazing people.
It’s crazy, because for me, I danced at a Super Bowl. Fatima choreographed it and I was a dancer, so then you fast forward now I’m choreographing.
Wow, that’s huge. Which Super Bowl was that?
I danced with the Black Eyed Peas at their Super Bowl. I danced at that Super Bowl and then I choreographed this one. It was just a surreal situation. Even with everything going on, all the preparation we had to do. It still is an amazing accomplishment, I think for everybody. I think we delivered a great show in the time and the space that we were allowed to.
Then also I want to talk about the “So & So” video. I thought it was so cute. I know you had some of your friends in there. Tell me how you put that video together.
I dropped something, actually on my birthday last year and at the beginning of a pandemic. They’re trying to figure out what was going on. What I did was I’m calling all my friends asking can you guys sing some of the lyrics to my song, I want to put it in a video. I thought about doing it with my friends because of the songs, a lot of them… actually everybody in the video had already heard it and they loved it anyway.
It was such a girl-empowering kind of a song. It just made sense. Everyone was still everywhere and was trying to adjust to what’s happening in the world. I was very grateful that they, still came through and did it for me because it just was such a difficult time for everyone.
What is it that you love the most about being a music artist?
I think what I love the most is the different form of expression. Me being able to tell my story with words. Me being able to create visuals to go along with my story. Me being… I basically perform this music. I think that’s what means the most to me.
While King Von‘s posthumous appearance on the new video for “Jump” is an obvious highlight, the clip also displays the chemistry that runs throughout Lil Durk‘s OTF crew. Fellow Only The Family members Booka600 and Memo600 set things off with a give-and-go verse showing off their complementary mindsets, then Von and Durk bat cleanup. In the video, Booka and Memo hold down a gangsta house party, while Von and Durk’s half of the song soundtracks an apparent midnight meeting between two twitchy gangs.
“Jump” is the latest posthumous appearance of the late King Von, who was killed in Atlanta after being shot in a nightclub parking lot during a fistfight. While Durk has put forth a heroic effort to keep his friend’s music at the forefront of pop culture, releasing the “Still Trappin” video as one of the singles from his album The Voice, Von verses became a hot commodity shortly after his death even without Durk. Fivio Foreign and PNB Rock both included appearances from Von on recent releases, while Von’s album Welcome To O-Block spawned the posthumous single “Armed & Dangerous.”
“Jump” also constitutes one of Von’s three appearances on the new OTF compilation, Loyal Bros, which was released earlier this month. The project also features cameos from some of rap’s biggest names, including Lil Uzi Vert, Tee Grizzley, and rising star Foogiano. You can listen to it here. ‘
Gospel superstar Kirk Franklin recently found himself catching heat after his 33-year-old son Kerrion released footage of a heated phone conversation, during which he let fly an explicit and disrespectful rant. The footage quickly went viral, and many accused the Sunday’s Best host of verbal abuse. Though Kirk Franklin since apologized for his behavior, citing a longtime toxic dynamic and promising visits to familial therapy, Kerrior Franklin accused his father of being inconsistent in that department.
Despite the serious nature of the situation, that hasn’t stopped many from embracing their gallows humor and firing off jokes at Kirk Franklin’s expense. Following Plies having a laugh at the situation, Snoop Dogg took a moment to follow suit, sharing a meme on his own Instagram page. The picture parodies Kirk Franklin’s “Imagine Me,” only remixed as “Imagine Me Beating Yo Ass.”
Michael Kovac/Getty Images
Though it’s likely that some will react to Snoop’s foray into dark comedy with shock and outrage, be it sincere or otherwise, many clearly found humor in Kirk Franklin’s outburst. Of course, the irony of a gospel legend and spiritual leader having such an explosive temper has not been lost on the masses. Don’t be surprised to see more memes continue to surface in the coming days, though not everybody is quite so amused. Kerrion Franklin has openly expressed distress over his fractured familial dynamic, alleging to have been shunned for nearly fifteen years.
The attack allegedly happened back in February while Lil Baby was in Miami, Florida for the Super Bowl. According to an alleged source that witnessed what went down, Baby and his team were attempting to get into a nightclub during the Big Game Weekend when somewhat of a panic ensued. The rapper and his entourage reportedly hid behind a black car with a woman. Moments after, an altercation was reportedly captured on video, which allegedly contains audio of Baby asking about the stolen camera. The alleged victim also details what happened to her, claiming that her camera was taken before she was “stomped out” and had her hair pulled.
The woman who alleges that Lil Baby and his team attacked her didn’t explain why it took over a month to tell her side of the story.
This is a developing story and we’ll keep you posted as more updates come out.
Rap veteran Bow Wow and Drake are looking like hardcore BFF’s. The hip-hop pair have social media’s attention after linking up to celebrate the 6 God earning the top three spots on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Drizzy shares footage of himself turning up at his “1-2-3” party alongside the music veteran. Drake also shared […]
This year’s Grammys ceremony was a first in many ways. Taking place over the weekend (March 14) after initially being delayed as the COVID-19 pandemic roars on, it was the first time ever the event had been held at a secret location. Additionally, it perhaps marked a switch in the music industry’s attitude towards the Recording Academy, earning criticism from major acts in the game like The Weeknd and Justin Bieber. The show itself was jam-packed with NSFW performances and history-breaking moments all night, but even that wasn’t enough to stop the show’s ratings from tanking to an all-time low this year.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Early ratings from Nielsen have the awards show drawing in around 7.9 million total viewers, although the numbers are set to climb a bit once they are adjusted to account for timezone. Regardless, the ratings are still not expected to be better than the 2020’s awards. In fact, according to The Wrap, they’re actually expected to hit a record low.
Last year, the January pre-pandemic show hosted at Los Angeles’ Staples Center drew in a whopping 18.7 million viewers, nearly three times as many viewers tuned in this year.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
While it’s hard to tell exactly what turned viewers off from tuning in to this year’s show, organizing the event brought on different challenges due to the pandemic. It was filmed at the less-glamorous LA Convention Center, and the usually star-studded red carpet was kept on a much smaller scale this time.
Of course, the anti-Grammys train that’s been running at full speed for a bit by some big names in music may have also resulted in the dismal viewership. What’s your theory as to why the ratings flopped this year? Let us know in the comments!
Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
OVO Sound boss Drake knows there’s only one way to celebrate making a historic splash on the Billboard Hot 100. The hip-hop star has shocked social media by linking up with veteran rapper Bow Wow and letting him know just how special he is. Drake Hooks Up W/ Bow Wow Drizzy went to his Instagram […]
“I have three thoughts. First off, congrats to Drake. That is an incredible feat,” said the radio host. “I asked a question a few months ago and the question was simply, ‘are we still in a Drake era?’ When you’re #1, #2, and #3 on the charts, I think that answers your question. When it comes to streaming and radio, he’s still the guy. That top 3 might not reflect what’s happening in the clubs or with a slightly younger demo but he’s still the guy with regards to radio and streaming.”
While he gave Drake his props, Charlamagne pointed out that the artist “cheated” to unlock this achievement, manipulating streaming and radio. “Streaming and radio manipulates the game in ways we’ve never seen but we’ll forget all that,” he said. “The pressure is really on for Drake right now. Because the three-pack is dope and I like the energy of the three-pack. […] The pressure is on because with Certified Lover Boy, I’m expecting an undeniable body of work. When I think of the greats like the Hov’s and the Nas’ and the Lil Wayne’s, these guys were giving us classics much later in their career. Whether it’s The Blueprint, Illmatic, or Tha Carter III, I’m expecting that level of project from Drake at this point in his career.”
John Phillips/Getty Images
Charlamagne says Drake needs to make a “real statement” by starting off this decade with a classic album, concluding by saying that he “cheated” to get his latest charts achievement. “My third point is simply this. He cheated. He cheated,” laughed the Breakfast Club host.
It’s safe to say that we’re still in a Drake era. What do you think of Charlamagne’s comments?
