Throughout quarantine, the general public’s relationship with celebrities has somewhat soured. While previously providing entertainment value, the onset of the pandemic led to many viewing their excessive displays of wealth and glamour as insensitive and downright selfish. In fact, while many Americans suffered huge financial losses, billionaires collectively added $3.9 trillion more to their own wealth. That being said, folks have a lot to be mad about. CupcakKe is joining the list of artists attempting to spread her wealth as much as possible, completely fronting the bill of one lucky fan in need.
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The Chicago native responded to calls for help from a big fan of hers on social media. Danielle tweeted two weeks ago (March 18), “Currently facing eviction in the middle of a fu**ing panny. Anything helps! I need $2,163, and I’ve currently been blessed with $86!!!!! Here’s my cash app: $Stanlife99 PLEASE RT SHARE AND BOOST! Please give if you can.”
Catching wind of the tweet, the “Discounts” rapper let Danielle know she was all set. “Took care of that bill for you . God bless you,” penned CupcakKe, quoting the original tweet with a screenshot of the transaction’s receipt.
The rapper is known to often make these kinds of donations to fans directly through social media and at her live shows. Back in 2019, she announced an upcoming North American tour with $10,000 to be raffled at each concert.
CupcaKe’s selfless contribution comes on the tail ends of Kylie Jenner’s controversial donation fiasco. The “billionaire” mogul asked fans via social media to donate to help raise the $60,000 needed to pay for her friend’s medical bill after suffering from life-threatening injuries.
The life of a recording artist includes a lot of studio time. Sometimes, an artist can spend days at a time in the booth, perfecting their craft and preparing material for future releases. Once you start to gain some worldwide recognition, the demand for studio time amplifies as the pressure ramps up. The label starts asking for more music, which you’ve got to deliver to keep getting paid.
Polo G is one of the most exciting young artists out there. His confidence is boundless, comparing himself to Tupac Shakur this week on social media. Elsewhere on the internet, Lil Capalot popped out on his girlfriend’s latest TikTok video, where she completes the “passing the phone” challenge by trolling her man.
“I’m passing the phone to somebody who wants to go to the studio instead of going to the mall when we come to Miami to take a trip but, um, yeah,” said Crystal before sliding the phone to her boyfriend Polo G. “We didn’t come to Miami to be on no f*ckin’ trip. We came out here to work! She the one that wanna go to the mall like it’s ‘shake that ass time,'” replied the rapper.
When the video got reposted by popular blogs across Instagram, Crystal confirmed that they ended up going shopping at the mall. However, that was likely after they got done at the studio.
The video has been watched over eleven million times so far. Watch it above and have a laugh.
Though Boosie has proven himself to be a relatively adept naturalist, at least where his fellow rappers are concerned, there is still much to learn for the outspoken Baton Rouge legend. Shortly after revealing his ability to communicate with marine life — a dolphin, to be specific — Boosie recently found himself face to face with another majestic creature — the Canada goose.
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Footage of Boosie’s encounter with the goose quickly found its way onto social media, and many were quick to have a laugh at the rapper’s emotional roller coaster. Clearly unaware that Canadian geese tend to stand on one leg, rendering the other one difficult to see, Boosie found himself moved by what he believed to be a “handicapped” goose.
“Man, I’m walking in the mall and see a one-legged duck,” remarks the rapper. “I feel sorry for him. He’s handicapped. I walked up to him and he didn’t do nothing. He a soldier. Look he can’t do anything. He hungry, bro.” The goose proceeds to lower its leg, prompting Boosie to lose his mind. “Oh, there go his other leg! Man he’s playing with my top!” remarks the rapper, having a laugh at the big reveal.
For those who can appreciate the rapper’s antics, the clip will certainly deliver in that regard. And who knows — should he be looking to secure an unexpected revenue stream, perhaps Boosie oughta consider launching his own series on Animal Planet or a similar network. If that’s not highly marketable content, what is?
Yung Miami welcomed her mother home from prison on Saturday (March 27) and has been expressing her joy nonstop across her respective social media channels. The Miami native’s mother Keenya Young was sentenced to five years plus 10 years probation in 2017 in relation to a hit and run incident that happened back in her home state back in 2009. She shared footage of her mother’s first moments out via her Instagram Sunday and threw her a lavish welcome home party for her as well. Continuing on with her massive homecoming celebration, other half of the City Girls JT treated Momma Miami to dozens of boxes full of new designer gear.
Amy Sussman/Getty Images
Young shared footage of lavish gifts she received from her daughter’s bandmate in celebration of her prison release. “Thank you [JT],” penned Young over the Instagram stories video, tagging the rapper.
In the video, Yung Miami’s mother pans over numerous Fenty, Chanel, and Dior labeled boxes, displaying just how much Lil Uzi Vert’s other half spent on her. The duo is known for purchasing lavish gifts for each other and their loved ones. In February, JT gifted Yung Miami $50k in cash for her 27th birthday and it looks like she gave the same treatment to Momma Miami too.
As mentioned previously, Yung Miami, née Caresha Brownlee shared with fans late last week that her mother was finally coming home. “My mom get out tomorrow,” tweeted the “P*ssy Talk” artist on Friday (March 26). “I’m so anxious,” she continued.
“My Mom left me with 2 kids plus Jai I was 22 going on 23 I didn’t know what to do I had to figure it out. Look at me now God is so good,” penned the rapper in a second tweet. Check out footage from their reunion below, as well as pictures from her mother’s brand new Instagram account.
It’s been well established that Migos will soon be delivering their new album Culture 3 at long last, though we have yet to receive anything confirming a concrete release date. Still, the group has been vocally operating in “album mode,” increasing the pace and previewing a few new snippets from the forthcoming project. Now, Quavo has come through to share another promising preview, further signaling the imminence of their climactic Culture chapter.
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“Don’t Nun Get Straighten But STRAIGHTEN!” captions Quavo, alongside a clip from what appears to be an upcoming music video. “In this game sit back be patient,” raps Quavo, who sounds like he’s got a chip on his shoulder. “N***as act like the game went vacant, n***as act like sumthin been taken / ain’t nothin but a little bit of straightenin’ / been kicking shit popping out daily.” The clip ends, but it’s enough to set a tone, one that suggests that the Atlanta trifecta is looking to make a statement.
Having previously hinted that Culture 3 would be a return to the group’s formative sound, many have been excited to see how the group bounces back from the lackluster response of the second chapter. Based on what we’ve seen so far, Migos aren’t about to disappoint with this one, as everything we’ve heard so far suggests a welcome sense of urgency and hunger. Check out this latest snippet below, and sound off if you’re looking forward to their new album.
It’s been just a few months since Jazmine Sullivan returned to release her critically acclaimed album Heaux Tales, which detailed all that the singer learned about herself in the six years since her last record. Continuing to share her new music, Sullivan brought her soulful track “Pick Up Your Feelings” to a captivating performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.
Joined by a full band, Sullivan belted out each lyric with candor while showcasing her powerful vocal range. Her performance follows a busy couple of months for the singer. Not only is she on the heels of her Heaux Tales release, but Sullivan was also invited to deliver the National Anthem at this year’s Super Bowl game.
Ahead of her late-night performance, Sullivan sat down with Uproxx for a conversation about all she learned while recording Heaux Tales. Sullivan said the process helped her understand that she doesn’t have to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders as a woman:
“Especially as a woman, because we feel like we have to do everything perfectly and just be perfect. We have the world on our shoulders normally anyway so we feel like we have to live up to a certain standard and, as a woman growing up, I always felt that way. This process and making the project helped me to do that by listening to the tales of other women, my girlfriends, and older women. And, just knowing that we’re human and we don’t have to be perfect and just allow ourselves to figure things out.”
Watch Sullivan perform “Pick Up Your Feelings” on Jimmy Kimmel Live! above.
The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.
When asked about how he’s been handling the last year of pandemic, Sacramento rapper Caleborate paraphrases Bruce Lee: “What I’ve been doing to keep things all together is just being like water.” The quote, which implores the listener to be flexible, malleable, and to go with the flow, aptly describes Caleborate’s music style as well. Although his new album, Light Hit My Skin, is ostensibly a hip-hop album, it’s also a genre-fluid affair that allows Caleborate to transform according to his whims and needs of the lush production. And yet, while water can fill a container or run like a river, it remains water — that’s a lesson Caleborate puts into practice here, as well.
So, while he tackles straightforward, storytelling rap on “Contact” with fellow indie rap stalwart Kota The Friend, he also spends several of the interludes — titled “Light 001,” “Light 002,” and “Light 003” — vocalizing like a praise leader on Sunday morning. He calls these his favorite tracks on the album. He demonstrates his versatility throughout; there’s the house-inspired, synth-pop experiment “Homecoming” with Duckwrth, the soft-rock ballad “Untitled (Hit Record),” and the post-hyphy intro “Cliquot Shower.” Each emanates authenticity — there’s no major label-mandated push for algorithmic ambivalence. Instead, Caleborate is like the titular light on his skin — a full spectrum of wavelengths and colors — all of them are not always visible, but they are the same beam of light.
Over the phone with Uproxx, Caleborate reflects on his unique artistic philosophy, other lessons he’s learned over the past year, and questions why, with such a multifaceted array of lights to choose from, mainstream hip-hop continues to constrain itself to just a few shades of red.
What have you been doing over the last year of quarantine?
I’ve been doing some Caleb work, some Caleborate work, some Mr. Parker work, you know what I mean. All different facets of me. Some work as a brother, as a son, as a businessman.
I’ve had a lot of time to reconnect with my family because before COVID and everything popped off, I was really planning to move to LA. My manager and I were about to move in together, he had found an apartment. We literally had gone to go see it the day before I came back to live in the Bay with my mom.
COVID kicked off right in March, so I ended up staying in the Bay. My manager ended up staying where he was located out in Pennsylvania. My workflow changed drastically. My plans changed drastically. Performances: Gone. And certain things that I had going in process for the album shifted up. So, I just kind of had to adjust my workflow and sort of catch my rhythm in the water. I just had to catch my rhythm.
That’s really what we’re here for is for the album, which has a very interesting title, Light Hit My Skin. Obviously, there’s probably a lot of layers to that. Why don’t you kind of give me a little bit of an overview of what inspired this title and the concept of the album?
It’s so many different types of light. We were listening to “The Madness” and we just keyed in on that line. We’re driving in the car and everybody keyed in on that line. It’s so multi-layered, it has so many different meanings. And I have a lot of different versions of the light that hit my skin, whether it’s on stage or out in the street or whether it’s cop lights cascading over our car or it’s phone flashlights taking pictures with people.
Or even the light in me if you want to get metaphorical. The light that I can shine is who I am and enlightening people. All the different forms of that word really hit me at that moment and it’s something that I referenced a few times in the album. So to me, it’s just all the different situations in which light hits my skin. I’m about to go into the grocery store right now and lights are about to hit my skin, they got fluorescent light in there, and that’s a setting for a story, a moment of life.
I love that you can find so many different ways of looking at such a simple phrase, that really speaks to your gift as a writer, which is one of the things that drew me to you as an artist. Speaking of lines that jump out, one that hit me was about how you used to wear hoop shorts under your jeans on “We Make.” It just sent me right back to my own high school experience.
Oh man, bro, man, that was a thing that we did back in middle school and high school, we stopped sophomore year of high school because we got real lockers. We would hoop before school, you would literally come to school dripped out, shorts on underneath your jeans, come to school a little bit early, take your jeans off.
You might put hoop shoes in your backpack or over your shoulder, the next thing, you’re hooping. And then we hoop for 15 minutes, put your jeans on. We had to buy our jeans a couple of sizes higher. You have to buy thinner shorts.
Those moments help teach you a little bit about who people are. And when you have a confrontation on the court and disagreements or you’re picking teams or you have to take initiative or share with teammates. It was just kind of these young man moments that I had reminisced on that I sometimes see the matured version of them in our culture.
So as an independent artist, you have a lot more control over what you put out and how you put it out. But because it’s coming out of your pocket, you don’t have the budget of a bigger artist. How do you go about executing without really having the same resources as major label artists?
Well, for me, it’s relationships. Keeping those relationships is invaluable because we’re the artists and whether you’re signed to a label or not, real artists can see each other. And so I’m blessed. There are other people that I meet that are blessed to do it that way, musically, whether it’s production or writing or singing or whatever, for the sake of music, I’m keeping them relationships.
I have a very strong core of artists that I’ve been working with and people that support me. And it’s definitely all based on music. Money is secondary, but money has come because of that. As far as reaching out to newer artists like Deante Hitchcock or working with Cantrell or working with Tone Sinatra or working with Duckwrth… I make sure that they’re compensated and make sure that their time is valued.
But first comes first, do they like to record? Do they want to be in this thing? Are they down for the ride of this record? And everybody featured on the project, man, they’re real artists. And so it’s just an honor to work with other people like that.
How have you adapted to not having a tour life over the last year? What’s something that you miss about touring and what something you don’t miss about touring?
Man, touring is this very bittersweet thing, absolutely love and miss traveling in general. The number one aspect of touring is being out with friends — three, four like-minded individuals — experiencing life together at a new point in time. And then when you compound making money and having a reason to be here, it’s amazing.
Traveling is great, but it’s also not great, it’s tiring. Also, “traveling while Black” is a thing, just like “traveling while a woman” is a thing — especially international travel. People look at you, look at what you’re wearing… That could be kind of draining, so that part of travel I don’t miss.
God took it away from all of these artists, all of us for a reason. So we’ll never forget it. That’s how I feel. But, yeah, I miss that and what I’ve been doing to keep things all together is just being like water and learning more to be like water.
The change in sort of workflow for the whole world really has sort of allowed for, I think, me and people like me maybe to focus on what’s in the now. “What can I actually do? What do I need to do? What’s something I need to be doing, what stuff I want to be doing? And how can I get what I need to get done in spite of what’s going on in the world?” And I’ve been learning a lot of stuff through just approaching stuff with that mentality.
As we wrap things up, I always like to ask artists this question because you have to get asked the same questions over and over again. What’s something that you want to talk about that you wish somebody had asked you?
That’s a really good question. I almost want the right person to ask. I want somebody to ask me, or even once someone to have a real, everything-on-the-table conversation about the history of hip-hop and rap music and its impact on the Black community, as far as things that are promoted in the music and how they correlate to health, violence as promoted in the music and how it correlates to crime rates, and trends that occur in the music industry as far as artists who perpetuate certain themes in their music.
Because I believe over time, hip-hop has gotten bloodier and bloodier and there’s been more money put into bloodier and bloodier music. And I don’t have anything against bloody music. It’s not my preferred genre. It’s not my preferred experience. But when something has been systematically controlled by capitalistic entities like major corporations that do billions of dollars in revenue every year and can invest hundreds of millions or 20 to 50 million into the specific genre of music… Maybe you can have conversations. I would just be interested in having that conversation.
Light Hit My Skin is out now on TBKTR. Get it here.
“Coconut Oil,” Lizzo’s 2016 self-love anthem, is the subject of a lawsuit recently filed by a church elder who claims his voice was sampled on the song without his permission, causing him “anguish, embarrassment, and outrage,” according to The Detroit News (Lizzo was born in the Motor City). Detroit resident Orlandus Dunning demands $750,000, saying that Lizzo sampled him singing a hymn at a mutual relative’s private funeral.
The lawsuit reads, “(Dunning) had a reasonable expectation of privacy and that his voice would not be heard publicly, as the funeral where he sang was held privately and open only to family and close friends… When Plaintiff sang the devotional, it was at a private funeral and done for the specific purpose of uplifting his family and friends during their time of bereavement.” Dunning says that he wouldn’t have consented to the use of his voice because of his beliefs; he’s an ordained elder in the Church of God In Christ and feels that the song’s messaging runs counter to his position — although he doesn’t say exactly how. The song’s mostly about Lizzo learning self-care, although she does say “sh*t” once on the record.
You can hear the song for yourself below.
Lizzo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
There were a few stars present for the Brooklyn Nets’ win against the Minnesota Timberwolves last night. Sitting courtside were Lil Baby and 42 Dugg, who are friends with superstar James Harden. The rappers chopped it up with the shooting guard before the game and prompted the latest meme to pop off, once again making fun of 42 Dugg’s short stature.
Not the tallest man on the planet, 42 Dugg has been clowned time and time again on social media for his height. Last night, people cracked their jokes after the rapper was spotted hanging out with James Harden, specifically after they shook hands and Harden bent down to speak with his homies.
“Harden did not have to disrespect 42 Dugg like this,” wrote one commenter, going viral with over 33,000 likes on the tweet. The picture shows James Harden bending over pretty low to address 42 Dugg, who reportedly stands 5’1″. “Talking to him like he a kid,” added another.
Prince Williams/Getty Images
Dugg hasn’t commented on the memes breaking out about him but he did tease Harden during the game, posting a video of the star attempting a three-point shot that was unsuccessful. “Gotta make that cuz,” he wrote on Instagram Stories.
Check out some of the best posts about 42 Dugg and James Harden below.
It’s no secret that many hip-hop stars are solid on the basketball courts, often showing off their skills whenever the opportunity presents itself. Sometimes, rappers are given free rein to shine in a publically broadcasted scrimmage, as we previously saw during BET’s 2017 Celebrity Basketball Game. Other times, rappers showcase their hooping acumen on social media, often inviting a bit of healthy competition from their peers in the process.
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Yesterday, practiced baller Snoop Dogg took a moment to speculate on a potential tournament lineup, presenting two separate squads of rap talent and opening the floor for discussion. “Who you got?” he inquires, pitting red against blue — it should be noted that Snoop did not arrange the lineups. On the red side, we’re looking at a few of the game’s veterans, with a roster Cam’ron, J Cole, Snoop Dogg, Jim Jones, and Fabolous. On the blue side, the young generation is represented, with Chris Brown, Quavo, Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Durk, and Romeo Miller.
Unfortunately for Snoop, many commenters were quick to pledge their allegiance to the Blue team, citing age as a deciding factor. “The Blue team I can’t lie Unk,” writes Mike Will Made-It. “Blue all day,” adds actor Jason Mitchell. “Y’all too old.” Others, like Gillie Da Kid, were not impressed with either lineup; “Come on unc who made these bullshit teams up,” he laughs. That’s not to say Red received no love. “Snoop Team All Day,” writes Chuck D, while Big Daddy Kane chimes in with a spirited “Red Team LET’S GO!!!”
Check out Snoop’s post below, and sound off with your own projected winners in the comments below.
