Gaming

Cordae And Hit-Boy Run The Board In Their Triumphant ‘Checkmate’ Video

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Earlier this month, Cordae once again linked up with California producer Hit-Boy to contribute the triumphant new single “Checkmate” to the soundtrack for Madden 2023. Today, they shared a simple but effective video for “Checkmate,” which focuses on Cordae and Hit-Boy in the studio with a football game on the TV in the background, black-and-white crew shots, and naturally, close-up shots of a chess board in the middle of an intense match. The video feels very much like a throwback to the 2000s in the way that the track does, evoking the exuberant, rebellious energy of the Dipset takeover at the turn of the millennium.

“Checkmate” followed up Cordae’s second studio album, From A Bird’s Eye View, which dropped in January and has spawned the singles “Sinister” — which was also produced by Hit-Boy and features Lil Wayne — “Parables,” and “Chronicles” featuring HER and Lil Durk. He also got into better shape, gave an insightful TED Talk, and shined in his Coachella debut. He kept momentum going in August with a double single release featuring “Unacceptable” and “So With That,” and he’s already begun teasing a new mixtape to add to his growing, impressive catalog.

Watch the video for “Checkmate” above.

Cordae is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Lil Nas X Announces His New Song’s Release Date And Is Elected President Of ‘League Of Legends’

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While on his Long Live Montero Tour for his Grammy-nominated debut album Montero, Lil Nas X previewed a new song for audiences called “Star Walkin’.” Little was known about the song or when it’d get an official release, but today, Nas announced its release date — along with a new partnership whose launch is timed to the release.

Nas is pretty well-known for his brand partnerships; in the three years since he became practically a household name, he’s teamed up with Wrangler, Grindr, Taco Bell, and M&Ms. Each time, he’s shown off his flair for the dramatic — for instance, Taco Bell made him Chief Impact Officer, a made-up but significant role expansion from when he first worked for the fast food chain.

His latest pairing will be with Riot Games, the creators of the popular video game League Of Legends. This time, he’ll take on another impressive-sounding role: President of League of Legends, which will involve “creating explosive musical moments, an ingenious League champion skin, and a spectacular live Worlds performance,” according to the press release. He’ll kick off the League Of Legends World Championship with a performance of “Star Walkin’” on September 29 in Mexico City, then debut a new skin he helped design for a new character in the game, K’Sante the Pride of Nazumah (say that five times fast).

This isn’t the first time Riot has collaborated with rappers. Like competitors/colleagues Epic Games (creators of Fortnite), they’ve incorporated hip-hop organically into their game’s world through creations like in-game band True Damage, made up of real performers, and recruiting JID to work with Imagine Dragons on the theme song for the League Netflix spin-off show Arcane. They even previously worked with Lil Nas X to create a hype video for one of the competing teams in last year’s Worlds.

J. Cole’s ‘NBA 2K’ Cover Was Partially Inspired By His Dunk Attempt At All-Star Weekends

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While J. Cole has always put his pro basketball ambitions at the forefront of his rap career, he’s come way further than perhaps even he could have foreseen. At the start of the month, he was announced as 2K Games’ first-ever non-athlete cover model for the latest iteration of NBA 2K. The rap star-turned-hooper features on the Gamestop-exclusive Dreamer Edition cover of NBA 2K23. He’ll also appear in the game as himself; the player will encounter him and Dreamville associates Bas and Elite in the MyCareer mode, helping the player character achieve their own hoop dreams.

As it happens, though, Cole planted the seeds for this idea even before he’d managed to make it onto a Basketball Africa League roster. In a new interview with Complex, 2K’s digital marketing director Ronnie “Ronnie2K” Singh explains how J. Cole actually approached Singh with the concept for his inclusion after giving the world one of his first public demonstrations of hoop talent at the NBA’s 2019 All-Star Weekend. There, J. Cole allowed himself to be used as a prop in fellow Fayetteville native Dennis Smith Jr.’s dunk attempt before attempting a dunk of his own. Although Cole got blocked by the rim — in his defense, he was wearing street clothes and hadn’t warmed up first — he was able to pitch Ronnie2K about being in a future version of NBA 2K.

According to Singh, “Three and a half years ago, when he dunked during one of the breaks of the All-Star Weekend Saturday Night, J. Cole said, ‘Ronnie, I’d love to be in MyCareer and help think about the ideation around that.’ I worked with our team on bringing this to life but it was very fitting to work with him. When we put out that tease, everybody thought it was going to be another basketball player…it allows us live in fashion, culture, music which 2K has a seat at the table now.”

The ‘Madden NFL 23’ Soundtrack Will Feature New Songs From Killer Mike, Cordae, And Others

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The latest installment of EA Sports’ mega-popular football video game franchise, Madden NFL 23, is just a couple days away from its August 19 release. The game has also turned into a music event in recent years, as the soundtrack has become a venue for premiering new music. Indeed, that’s the case again this year, as EA has announced this year’s soundtrack features a good handful of songs making their debut in the game.

The 39-song tracklist features 14 previously unreleased songs, including “Run It Up” by Bas, “Extra Credit” by Big K.R.I.T., “The Best (TUA Remix)” by Erica Banks, and “Get Some Money’ by Killer Mike. A couple of the new songs — Money Man, Babyface Ray, and Key Glock’s “No Limit” featuring Bleu, and Cordae and Hit-Boy’s “Checkmate” — will only be made available after the game’s launch.

On top of the soundtrack, Hit-Boy also created “33 exclusive beats for the game’s cinematics.” Beyond the new material, the Madden 23 soundtrack will also include familiar favorites from Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, Nas, Tyler The Creator, and plenty of others.

Check out the full list of songs on the Madden 23 soundtrack below.

Aha Gazelle — “Tear It Down”
Bas — “Run It Up” *
Benny The Butcher — “Remember Me”
Big K.R.I.T. — “Extra Credit” *
Blackway, Aeph, Koko — “Impossible”
Boslen — “Levels”
Cam Wallace — “Energy!”
Charmaine — “Logic (Lucky Charm Freestyle)”
Coast Contra — “505”
Cordae — “Sinister” Feat. Lil Wayne
Cypress Hill — “Hit Em’”
Doechii — “Crazy”
Dreamville with Bas — “Lifestyle” Feat. A$AP Ferg
Earthgang — “Ghetto “Gods
Erica Banks — “The Best (TUA Remix)” *
Gizzle — “One Shot” Feat. BRE-Z *
IMRSQD — “Run It Up”
Joey Badass — “The Rev3nge”
Kendrick Lamar — “N95”
Killer Mike — “Get Some Money” *
King Green — “Cold” *
Kwesi Arthur — “Winning” Feat. Vic Mensa
Lord Afrixana — “Touchdown” *
Malachiii — “Hold Me”
Malachiii — “How To Be A Star” *
Marqus Clae — “Are You Ready” *
Nas — “Meet Joe Black”
Nigo — “Come On, Let’s Go” Feat. Tyler The Creator
OnCue — “Any Given Sunday”
Pap Chanel — “No Biggie” *
Pusha T — “Scrape It Off” Feat. Lil Uzi Vert and Don Toliver
Risqkae — “The Intro” Feat. Rti$ *
Robert Glasper — “Black Superhero” Feat. Killer Mike, BJ The Chicago Kid, and Big K.R.I.T.
Simon Said. and Jazzfeezy — “You Gotta Choose” Feat. Steve Samson *
Snoop Dogg — “Conflicted” Feat. Nas
Symba — “Go Get It” *
Symba — “Put Me In The Game” *
Trev Rich and Wallis Lane — “Whole Team” *
Ty Dolla Sign — “Champions” Feat. Wiz Khalifa
Money Man, Babyface Ray, and Key Glock — “No Limit” Feat. Bleu *^
Cordae and Hit-Boy — “Checkmate” *^

* exclusives and debuts
^ additional tracks with the start of the NFL season

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Las Vegas’ Drai’s Beach Club Debuts Video Game Cabanas With XSET

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Popular Las Vegas hotspot, Drai’s Beach Club, is taking their party to the next level with the announcement of adding of video game cabanas to their beach club with the new gaming experience by XSET, the world’s most diverse, innovative, socially conscious gaming.

MORE: T-Pain Reveals He Makes More Money Playing Video Games Than He Has From Music

First-ever gaming cabanas, gamers can now play their favorite video games in cabanas equipped with gaming consoles, enormous screens, and advanced sound-systems. Intersecting gaming with music, sports, fashion, art and culture, the innovative cabanas are available throughout the summer.

“Our goal is always to give our guests something unique that can’t be found at other clubs,” said Dustin Drai, Vice President of Marketing and Entertainment for Drai’s Beachclub • Nightclub. “These XSET cabanas are a perfect complement to the Drai’s Beachclub experience where guests can enjoy music, drinks, food and cutting edge gaming all in the comfort and privacy of these luxurious cabanas.”

“XSET is about culture and lifestyle, both which include gaming, music, and fashion,” says Clinton Sparks, XSET Co-Founder and Chief Business Development Officer.  “Partnering with Drai’s to bring a first-of-its-kind gaming experience to their venue, while continuing to intersect music and gaming was a no brainer for both of us. Now, you can be at the world’s greatest party playing your favorite game while listening to your favorite DJ’s or artists performing live.”

MORE: EA Sports Bringing Back College Football Video Games

XSET partnered with Drai’s Las Vegas to launch two new gaming cabanas wrapped with XSET walls, complete with 85” monitors and custom XSET consoles for VIPs to game while enjoying the experience of a club atmosphere. On the ongoing mission to merge and intersect cultures, XSET makes history again by being the first gaming organization to partner with a prominent club and being the first organization to have a gamer partnership at a club.

Drai’s Beachclub is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday – Sunday and transforms to Drai’s Resort Pool, open 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., from Monday – Thursday. Drai’s Nightclub is now open from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. Friday – Sunday.

The post Las Vegas’ Drai’s Beach Club Debuts Video Game Cabanas With XSET appeared first on The Source.

Ghostface Killah And Raekwon Share Their Song From The New ‘Ninja Turtles’ Video Game Soundtrack

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Cowabunga, motherf*ckers! Wu-Tang Clan and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles together at last?! You gotta figure the Turtles still owe us after having to weather the ’90s storm of the Vanilla Ice x TMNT “Go Ninja Go” collab. The dawn is now upon us as Ghostface Killah and Raekwon have officially penned a new track for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtled: Shredder’s Revenge video game and it’s awesome, dude.

Titled “We Ain’t Came To Lose,” the track is bona fide motivation for the sticks in the beat-em-up-style game. Ghostface comes in hot right off the bat, spitting, “Nice to meet ya, now I’m here to beat ya / With full force, mess up ya facial features. Hasta la vista, I’m sonnin’ all y’all, Little Caesar’s / All y’all stuff ya face with is pizza, pizza.”

It’s clear how natural this marriage of timeless city dwellers is before Ghost drops easily the best line in the track with, “My stomach cringes from all o’ ya fake ninjas,” to drive the point home. Raekwon The Chef is on the hook, repeating, “We ain’t came to lose,” like a mantra, leaving any shred of Vanilla Ice’s memory in the dust.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtled: Shredder’s Revenge is due out on June 16 via Tribute Games and Dotemu and will be available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, and Linux. Peep the audio of “We Ain’t Came To Lose” above.

A Song From A 26-Year-Old ‘Kirby’ Game Is Now The First Nintendo Track To Ever Win A Grammy

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Every year, there are always at least a couple Grammy nominations that stick out. This year, one of those was in the Best Arrangement, Instrumental Or A Cappella category: Nominated was an arrangement of “Meta Knight’s Revenge,” a song from the 1996 Super Nintendo game Kirby Super Star, as arranged by Charlie Rosen and Jake Silverman and performed by The 8-Bit Big Band featuring Button Masher (Silverman’s performing name).

Video game songs aren’t nominated that often so what happened last night was big: “Meta Knight’s Revenge” (which appears on The 8-Bit Big Band’s 2021 album Backwards Compatible) actually won the award.

This is a huge moment in Nintendo history and in video game history more broadly; Eurogamer notes this is only the second time a song originally from a video game has taken home a Grammy, following Christopher Tin’s 2010 win for Best Instrumental Arrangement With Vocalist(s), for a song composed for Civilization 4. Previously, Journey composer Austin Wintory got a nomination in the Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media category in 2013 but didn’t win.

So, that means this Kirby win is the first time a song from a Nintendo game has ever won a Grammy. This news arrives with especially good timing, as it quickly follows the March 25 release of the latest Kirby game, Kirby And The Forgotten Land for Nintendo Switch.

Rosen shared an excited reaction on the social media pages for The 8-Bit Big Band, posting a photo of himself and Silverman with their trophies and writing, “HOLY SH*T WE WON THE GRAMMY!!LONG LIVE VIDEO GAME MUSIC!! Thank you to everybody who’s ever listened to [The 8-Bit Big Band], the 100s of artists who have contributed their time/talent/musicianship, and of course HUGE thanks to my co-arranger on Meta Knights Revenge the one and only [Jake Silverman] !! MUCH LOVE, [Charlie Rosen].”

Rosen also posted this pretty terrific Kirby graphic a few days ago:

Watch The 8-Bit Big Band and Button Masher perform “Meta Knight’s Revenge” above. Also check out where Kirby Super Star (and another SNES Kirby game) ranks on our list of the 100 best Super Nintendo games (according to over 200,000 players) here.

‘Roblox’ And The Recording Academy Are Hosting A Grammys Week With A Performance And Other Virtual Events

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Roblox has increased its standing in the music world lately, from hosting a Lil Nas X concert to draining Cardi B’s bank account. Now the video game is going to have a Grammys presence, too, as they and the Recording Academy are teaming up for a Grammy Week on the platform.

The Las Vegas-themed experience (since the Grammys will be in Vegas for the first time this year) goes down virtually from March 30 to April 3 and will feature “artist avatar meet & greets, chats, mini games, prizes,” and a performance from Camilo, making him the first Laton artist to perform on Roblox.

Camilo says of the performance, “When Roblox approached me, I immediately got very excited because this was the first time in my life that I would be doing something like this. I’m also grateful that I’ll be able to bring this unique experience to La Tribu, especially during Grammy Week. I was already incredibly honored to be one of this year’s nominees, and to perform in a completely new way in the Metaverse, brings it to a whole new level. I can’t wait!”

Camilo is among this year’s Grammy nominees, as Mis Manos is up for Best Latin Pop Album.

Panos A. Panay, Co-President of the Recording Academy, also noted, “We are thrilled to partner with Roblox for our first-ever official Grammy Week experience in the Metaverse. We are always looking to innovate and reach music lovers wherever they are, and there is no better partner for us to accomplish this than Roblox. Online gaming platforms are quickly becoming one of the most important music discovery channels for tens of millions of fans. As an Academy, it’s our priority to continue broadening where and how our members connect with audiences around the world. Plus, my 8-year-old twin daughters think this is amazing.”

Jon Vlassopulos — vice president, global head of music of Roblox — also said, “The Grammy Awards are iconic and we’re delighted to bring the hottest music show of the year to fans across the globe. We’re thrilled to be featuring Camilo, our first Latin virtual concert performer on Roblox, giving the community new music and genres to discover.”

Find the full list of 2022 Grammy nominations here.