Even bosses take an L from time to time. For Atlanta rapper Young Thug, that happened this weekend after his latest trip to one of the many casinos in Las Vegas, telling the world about the exorbitant amount of money that he lost.
“Man, Vegas just won $800,000 from me, man,” said Thugger on Instagram, clearly upset by how reckless he was. While many people are pointing out that $800,000 isn’t that much money to Young Thug, you can tell in his tone that he knows it probably wasn’t the best move to go so hard at the casino. At the end of the day, that money adds up, even for a multi-millionaire with Thug’s wealth.
At the beginning of 2020, Florida rap legend Trick Daddy was arrested on charges of cocaine possession and driving under the influence, after being caught running red lights and allegedly hitting signs; police later reported that he appeared “asleep behind the wheel.” Though he agreed to a field sobriety test at the time, Trick Daddy was ultimately unable to complete it, leading to his arrest and subsequent booking.
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Now, TMZ has provided an update on Trick’s situation, one that signals a positive step for the rapper. Apparently, The District Attorney’s Office told the publication that Trick Daddy had taken a plea deal, pleading guilty to the charges and receiving time served in exchange. In another stroke of good fortune for Trick, probation was never on the table, though it does appear that a community service requirement of sorts was necessary. “As part of the plea he was also able to give back to the community he loves so much with a donation to Camillus House homeless shelter,” explains Trick Daddy’s attorney Harris Gilbert.
On the latest episode of BagFuel, Bay area R&B singer-on-the-rise, Journee, joined Hynaken and ES$O to discuss her upcoming album, her inspirations, and growing up surrounded by music.
Journee, a 22-year-old singer and model from San Jose, CA, recently signed to 1801 Records following the success of her single “Like That” released in July 2020. The songstress and her captivating melodies were endorsed by Hitmaka, formerly known as “Sexy Can I” rapper Yung Berg.
While discussing the rapid progression and success of her career, Hynaken asked Journee what motivates her to be a singer and pursue this art form, considering many people say music is basically a one-in-a-billion dream.
“My Dad used to rap so that’s how I started,” Journee answered, “He has a studio in the garage so he kinda just had me out there.” The California native added that she recorded her very first song when she was 10 years old. Growing up, she was surrounded by musicians, including her grandfather who was also a singer, and it pushed her to become an artist herself.
In addition to being influenced by her family, Journee named Beyonce as her idol. ES$O followed up asking if this meant she wanted to dance and act as well.
“I wanna explore the different realms of the creative world, but I definitely want to learn how to dance,” the songstress replied. Journee explained that she can move a little, but wants to learn how to follow choreography and do some real dancing. She mentioned possibly taking dance classes and pursuing acting as well.
However, Journee is currently focused on developing and honing her songwriting skills. On her upcoming album set to come out later this year, the songstress mentioned there are six songs: two songs she wrote completely by herself, two of them co-written, and the others were written for her. She also reveals that Ty Dolla $ign will be making an appearance on the project too.
ES$O applauded her work ethic saying that’s a lot of work that she got done during a pandemic, on top of her record deal and debut EP It’s Not You, It’s Me released on Valentine’s Day.
“We have a strong collection of work, but we’re still working on it though,” Journee said.
Lionel Richie has been linked to his longtime girlfriend Lisa Parigi for years, reportedly starting their relationship in 2014. They’ve made headlines over the years for events they’ve attended together but, for some reason, they began trending on Monday morning after people started reacting to their age difference.
Lionel Richie is 71-years-old and Lisa Parigi is allegedly 30-years-old. Parigi grew up in Switzerland and moved to Los Angeles as a young adult. Despite their age difference, Richie and Parigi have made their love work. This morning, fans were confused to see Richie’s name trending on Twitter. Upon clicking in and expanding the details, the reason why became evident as fans reacted to his relationship with Parigi, pointing out that she’s younger than half his age.
“Lionel Richie with his new Bae, he’s 71 and she’s 30, love wins,” said a viral tweeter, incorrectly referring to the model as his “new” girlfriend. A number of similar-worded posts have popped up, prompting people to react to their relationship with disbelief.
Despite Lisa only being eight years older than Lionel’s daughter Sofia, they’ve long been devoted to one another and often post each other on social media. Lionel and Lisa have not commented on the reason why they were trending this morning.
Scroll through some pictures of the beautiful couple below.
Keeping up with new music can be exhausting, even impossible. From the weekly album releases to standalone singles dropping on a daily basis, the amount of music is so vast it’s easy for something to slip through the cracks. Even following along with the Uproxx recommendations on a daily basis can be a lot to ask, so every Monday we’re offering up this rundown of the best new music this week.
This week saw a Taylor Swift/Haim reunion and Ariana Grande expanding her latest beloved album. Yeah, it was a great week for new music. Check out the highlights below.
Haim — “Gasoline” Feat. Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift and Haim have a healthy professional relationship, which they extended last week with a Swift-featuring version of “Gasoline.” The collaboration was enough for Swift to proclaim herself the fourth Haim sister, so she has apparently snatched the title from Bernie Sanders.
Ariana Grande — Positions (Deluxe)
Deluxe editions of albums took on a new level of prominence in 2020 and Grande is keeping that going in 2021 with an expanded release of her own. Grande’s new deluxe version of Positions adds five new tracks, including her star-studded remix of “34+35” that features Doja Cat and Megan Thee Stallion.
Wild Pink — A Billion Little Lights
The band’s John Ross recently spoke with Uproxx about his new album, saying of the just-released effort, “I wanted to have something very lush and just bigger than anything that I’d done before. And I got to play with amazing players, that was my favorite part.”
The Hold Steady — Open Door Policy
The veteran indie rockers recently sat down with Uproxx to review all of their albums, and Craig Finn told us of his band’s latest, “I’m super excited about it, but I’ve struggled to tell people what’s different about it. I think there’s been a continuation of figuring out this six-piece line-up and where everything goes and I think that that’s a huge part of the story. It’s allowed us to be more expansive musically than maybe we have in the past. There’s maybe a little bit more of headphone moments. There’s this weird scraping of guitars, some weird little noises that brought something we haven’t done before.”
Another Michael — New Music And Big Pop
Another Michael’s Nick Sebastiano recently told Uproxx of the band’s free-wheeling new album, “I look back upon it as one work that’s like a big pizza: One song was like the cheese, another song was like the bread. And then we only saw it as that for a while.”
Kaytranada — “Caution”
Kaytranada and TikTok linked up to celebrate Black History Month with the groovy new single “Caution.” Elsewhere this month, TikTok is also set to drop a cover of 1971 gospel song “Like A Ship” by Leon Bridges, as well as a live concert featuring Saweetie, Snoop Dogg, and Tyga.
Curry and Beats highlighted 2020 with their collaborative project Unlocked, and now they’re getting ready to expand upon that effort for 2021. This year will bring a reworked version of the album titled Unlocked 1.5, which they previewed with a new version of “So.Incredible” with Smino and Robert Glasper.
CJ — Loyalty Over Royalty
Staten Island rapper CJ got a major taste of music industry success recently when his single “Whoopty” managed to crack the top ten of the Hot 100 chart. Now he’s dropped his debut project and he builds on his momentum by going at it totally feature-free save for a guest spot from French Montana.
Conan Gray — “Overdrive”
After a breakout 2020, Conan Gray has re-emerged in 2021 with “Overdrive.” Uproxx’s Caitlin White described the track well, calling it “classic, blockbuster pop with huge guitar riffs, soaring vocals, and the kind of chorus that makes you want to roll the windows down and scream it out into the night.”
To celebrate the one-year anniversary of his win, Fury took to Instagram where he decided to mock the Bronze Bomber. In the IG post below, Fury relived some of the highlights of the fight, all while saying “One year ago today I did exactly what I said I would do to the big Dosser Deontay.”
The word is out — Dr. Dre has been steadily putting in work on his next project, an album that may or may not be the long-awaited Detox. In any case, fragmented news on the project’s production has been relatively steady, with a recent update from KXNG Crooked signaling a long-anticipated collaboration between the two legendary west coast icons. Now, thanks to an IG Live stream from DJ Silk, who was previously pictured alongside both Crooked and Dre, we have an idea of what their collaboration will sound like.
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Off the bat, fans will recognize many of Dre’s signature sounds, including minimalist percussion and chilling high-octave keyboards; one thing that may stand out on an instrumental level, however, is the beat’s unconventional rhythm. Lyrically, Dre appears incensed, addressing some of the recent headlines that have been associated with his name — specifically his publicized divorce from ex-wife Nicole Young, as well as the alarming brain aneurysm scare that left him hospitalized.
“Trying to kill me with them lies and that perjury, I see you trying to fuck me while I’m in surgery,” he spits. “In ICU, death bed, on some money shit / Greedy bitch, take a pick, girl you know how money get.” He switches up his flow but not his message, rapping “you know we don’t tolerate that nonsense, by any means get your hand up out my pocket / this life is private just like the pilot, it’s been decided, this the Poseidon.” From there KXNG Crook slides in with the hook and a dexterous verse, making impressive work of Dre’s haunting production as he tends to do. “Tin man shit, your music lack heart,” spits Crook. “Thought it was voodoo, we making magic with this black art.”
Check out the snippet right here via HHNM, as shared by DJ Silk’s Instagram Live. Do you think this sounds like a promising direction for Dre’s next album?
Offset has one of the most extensive sneaker collections in the entire hip-hop world and fans have taken notice of what he wears on a daily basis. He mostly has a taste for rare Air Jordans, and whenever he posts his collection to social media, sneakerheads get incredibly jealous, and rightfully so. Some of the shoes he has are incredibly rare and some of them are even one of ones, which just goes to show how connected he in the industry.
Recently, Offset appeared on a new Complex show called “Sneaker Stories” where he showed off some of his favorite rare shoes. One of the sneakers that caught everyone’s eye was the yellow Travis Scott Air Jordan 6 which can be found below, at the 4:08 mark.
During this episode, Offset explains that he saw Travis wearing these kicks and told him to send a pair over. That’s when Travis took the shoes right off his feet and gave them to Offset. This is the only pair in the world, which makes them pretty priceless. Offset proceeded to show off a whole slew of other rare Jordans, including the Maya Moore Air Jordan 11s, which showcase a unique white and aqua color scheme.
Offset’s sneaker collection appears to cost millions of dollars, and it’s clear that he has put a lot of thought into what he cops, and how he arranges the collection. If you’re an avid sneaker collector, you can’t help but feel a tad envious.
Bobby Shmurda is finally getting released from prison on Tuesday and the hip-hop community couldn’t be more excited to welcome him back with open arms. The GS9 rapper has remained culturally relevant despite his seven-year sentence. While he didn’t release a lot of music before his incarceration, Bobby quickly became one of the most enticing up-and-coming rappers from New York, spitting new energy into the game at the time. He had gotten close with the Migos, teasing their collaborative ShMigo mixtape, which was never released. There’s new hope that the album could eventually come because, when Bobby gets released from prison tomorrow, Quavo will be there to pick him up.
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The rapper’s post-prison plans have been detailed by his mother Leslie Pollard, who told TMZ that he will be coming home to a home-cooked meal and quality time with his family before focusing fully on his music career again. However, Quavo will be there at the correctional facility tomorrow to give Bobby a proper welcome home from the rap community, planning something big.
“I’m going to get my guy,” said Quavo in an exclusive new interview with Billboard. “I’m personally gonna go pick up Bobby Shmurda. I’m bout to go get him. I’m gonna let him show you how I’m gonna pick him up, yessir.”
The “Hot N***a” rapper’s return home has been long-awaited by fans over the years. Quavo believes that his return to music will be “big”, and it feels like he could be poised to make a huge splash in the coming weeks. One thing’s for sure– a lot of people are waiting on a “First Day Out” with Bobby Shmurda and Rowdy Rebel.
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We’ll keep you posted with updates on Bobby’s return tomorrow.
When it comes to the modern-day hip-hop production landscape, few can deliver quality on a consistent basis like Mike WiLL Made-It. Known and respected for his versatility — he’s as comfortable lacing bangers as he is tackling more melodic cuts — Mike WiLL has assembled no shortage of collaborators throughout the years. Yet as he recently explained in a Twitter thread, he’s occasionally had a difficult time expanding his network, blaming his own ability to follow through with sending beats.
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“I’m the worst beat sender there is , and a lot of relationships were damaged because of it because some took it personal like I wasn’t sending them beats,” reveals Mike WiLL. “But my greatest success came from being there in the studio playing game-changing beats to lift the vibe…It’s hard being a producer, CEO of a production company with 10 producers signed , CEO of a record label (creatively in tuned ) a real estate investor , high as hell , and still able to hit the target EVERYTIME sending the beats…”
“I’m fye , but I’m still human… If u ever took it like I was on some funny shxt cause I didn’t send beats , forgive me , and know if I was on funny shxt I would of straight said “I’m good bro , keep banging.. “ I don’t play no games but 2k,” he continues, offering an apology of sorts to anyone who ever felt slighted by his perceived ghosting. “Can’t wait to lock in 3 days with ANY artist coming from THE SOUL , not this cap ass fairy tale trying to fit in bullshxt… a REAL artist speaking their TRUTHS , or setting a new trend , or an artist that’s already fye just looking for where to take it next…”
From the sound of it, Mike WiLL prefers the experience of working directly alongside an artist, rather than the more detached (but admittedly practival) method of collaboration. Unsurprising, given how many classics were ultimately made directly in the booth. It’s unclear what spurred Mike WiLL to speak on this topic, but we can only hope that he’s actively preparing to lock in and do what he does best. Check out his extensive explanation below, and sound off if you’re excited to see what the producer cooks up next.
