All Eyes On Me

Phoenix Called On The Motley Crew Of Pusha T, Benee, And Chad Hugo To Add Onto The Magic Of ‘All Eyes On Me’

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Phoenix haven’t historically been known for their collaborations, but they’ve actually been busting them out as of late. Their latest album, 2022’s Alpha Zulu, includes the Ezra Koenig-featuring “Tonight,” Clairo joined the group for a remix of “After Midnight” earlier this year, and now Phoenix has unveiled another new Alpha Zulu remix, featuring Pusha T, Benee, and Chad Hugo.

That may seem like a random or unexpected mix of collaborators, but it all makes sense: The band said in a statement, “A huge thank you to le Roi Pusha-T – most played artist in our backstage; to Chad Hugo, who always showed up when we were playing in Virginia, it’s about time we worked together! And to Benee, who worked at light speed to make this happen and added some magic. MERCI!!!”

This isn’t Pusha’s first time linking up with the French group: he joined them on stage at a Paris festival this summer, performing Phoenix’s 2000 song “Funky Squaredance” before jumping into “All Eyes On Me.”

The band’s Thomas Mars previously told Uproxx of Alpha Zulu, “Every album we make is a reaction to previous one. As we were digging into this one, we realized that we were putting the songs that had the least in common together. We tried to open the spectrum as much as possible and make a little bit of a Frankenstein.”

Listen to the “All Eyes On Me” remix above.

2Pac Discusses Moving Away From Music In Resurfaced Interview

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2Pac spoke about wanting to distance himself from music and focus on his acting career prior to his death, according to a resurfaced interview with Entertainment Tonight. The outlet shared the rare discussion on Sunday, following the premiere of FX’s Dear Mama docuseries. The show explores the relationship between the legendary rapper and his mother, Afeni Shakur.

For the original interview, 2Pac sat down with the outlet to discuss his role in Gridlock’d. In the film, he stars alongside Tim Roth, Lucy Liu, and Thandie Newton. It was released four months after he was murdered. “To have change in my image, really, number one,” he said when asked what attracted him to the role. “This movie is really about friendship and what unconditional friendship means. I did it basically because it was funny and I’ve never really got to be funny.”

2Pac In “Gridlock’d”

Tupac Shakur in a scene from the film ‘Gridlock’d’, 1997. (Photo by Gramercy Pictures/Getty Images)

From there, he discussed wanting to star in a rom-com and launching a movie production company. “We got a lot of good things happening,” he said. “If I say it right now, the way my luck has been going, it’ll all fall through … Just give me a month so I can lock it down before I tell everybody. I just want to push the envelope and work, work, work. I want to move further away from the music and start wading myself into the acting more.”

The legendary rapper also discussed how fame and wealth made him feel like a “kid in a candy store” with all the opportunities he had. “[I] got cash, everything you dreamed of, and they’ve held me back in so many other circumstances that now it’s time to go and it’s kind of hard to keep [myself] from just pressing the gas down all the way,” he explained. “[It’s hard] just taking my time and thinking and analyzing situations and trying to think before I do things… But my whole mind state is that if we don’t ever go outside of the boundaries, we will never change anything… We’ll just keep talking about the people who did it once and told us not to go outside the thing… They’re telling me, ‘You can’t do this. You can only rap and if you rap, you can only rap about this. Then, you can’t act. And if you act, you can only do the Black films and you can’t be a rapper…’ I don’t like that. So I try to go outside the boundaries.”

As for music, 2Pac explained that his album, All Eyez On Me, was fueled by “emotions,” and that he wanted to start releasing music that he found to be more “thought-provoking.” He also spoke about being a Gemini and learning from his past mistakes. Check out the full interview below.

2Pac On The Future Of His Career

[Via]

Earthgang’s ‘All Eyes On Me’ Is An Ode Shining And Overcoming All Obstacles

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At long last, Earthgang will share their second album Ghetto Gods at the end of the month. It’s a project that the Atlanta duo has teased for more than a year now. They originally said it would drop last spring, on the same day as J. Cole’s The Off-Season, but that day came and went without the project. While that might’ve been a disappointment to fans, Earthgang did a great job sharing tracks along the way to numb the wait. Their latest release, “All Eyes On Me,” serves as their latest example of that.

The track finds the duo acknowledging the many eyes that might be on them as both successful musicians and Black men in America. Earthgang also takes a moment to celebrate those who pushed past their respective struggles and came out on top. Prior to releasing the new single, Earthgang shared a message about “All Eyes On Me” on social media. “In this world, black men are targets, political targets, physical targets, always criticized and judged by their appearance, the chains, the money, the skin,” they wrote. “All eyes are on us yet we still shine.”

Last month, Earthgang released “American Horror Story.” The track is carried by a woozy, somber sample as the duo detailed some of the most shocking aspects of American history from as far back as slavery to as recent as the “tiki torch” rallies of white nationalist groups. Together, “American Horror Story” and “All Eyes On Me” provide great previews of what’s to come on Ghetto Gods.

You can listen to “All Eyes On Me” in the video above.

Ghetto Gods is out 1/28 via Dreamville/Interscope.