The #iVoted Festival, which in 2020 produced the world’s largest single-night digital concert, is returning for the 2022 midterm elections. On Election Day, November 8th, 2022, the #iVoted Festival will take place virtually. Fans can RSVP to watch the Mandolin-hosted stream by taking a picture outside their polling location or at home with their blank, unmarked ballot. Underage fans RSVP by informing the #iVoted Festival about the election for which they will be 18 and why they are enthusiastic to vote. Non-citizens and ineligible voters can RSVP by stating which artist they are most looking forward to seeing. Fans can sign up for the festival’s email list to be notified when the RSVP site opens later this year.
Over 250 performers have been announced for #iVoted Festival 2022’s election night broadcast by the 100 percent women-led non-partisan 501(c)3 non-profit voter participation organisation. The data of the top streaming and trending musicians is used to book talent in crucial states where electoral margins are often determined by the size of a musical venue.
Artists include Run the Jewels, Lake Street Dive, CNCO, Carl Craig, Rise Against, Umphrey’s McGee, Lil’ Scrappy, Halestorm, Jamby El Favo, Shakey Graves, An Exclusive Video Message from Piper Perabo, 3OH!3, DeVotchKa, Yonder Mountain String Band, Jaret Reddick of Bowling for Soup, The Suffers, Eliot Sloan of Blessid Union Of Souls, Doll Skin, Lotus, Twiztid, The Starting Line, Duane Betts, ACRAZE and more.
Run the Jewels’ Co-Manager Amaechi Uzoigwe, Live Nation’s Jay Byrd, Biz 3’s Kathryn Frazier and Dana Meyerson, SongHero CEO and former Blondie touring keyboardist Kevin Patrick, and LOUD Capital CMO and former Vans Warped Tour drummer Brian Penick are among the new board members announced by #iVoted Festival. Kevin Lyman, Roc Nation’s Evangeline Elder, Mandolin CEO Mary Kay Huse, Joyce Dollinger, Steve Ferguson, tenured M.I.T. Economist Jon Gruber, Kennita Hickman, WNYC’s Rebecca Kennedy, Lyte’s Lawrence Peryer, and Melanie Shark are among the previously announced board members.
Who could see the Black Ink brand becoming this large? Ceasar Emanuel could. Shops across the country, one of the most popular franchises on reality TV, and now, a tattoo battle pitting the Black elite from across the country in a competitive arena are just a few of the achievements that have come from the grind of his hard work.
The aforementioned tattoo competition is a part of the current seasons of Black Ink Crew and Black Ink Crew Compton. Both casts, and the Chicago crew, convened in Atlanta for the battle. Iron sharpening iron.
During his visit to Atlanta for the battle, Ceasar spoke with The Source on just how massive this battle is, reflecting on the success of Black Ink, and more.
What led to the creation of this battle?
Ceasar: Short version is as a Black man coming up in this industry. Y’all seen me on TV basically for 10 seasons. But a lot of people don’t know the backstory and what we have to deal with outside of just being on TV in this tattoo industry. A lot of people don’t understand as a Black tattoo artist, how difficult it is to be industry. A lot of times you see these competition shows and it doesn’t represent us. They’ll put us on there with crazy talent, but we won’t even be able to get out the second round. So this right here is to set a certain tone. People know us for what goes on in the shop. Our ratchetness, but nobody knows that we really artists. We really feed our family off what we do before we got on TV. We are artists. This competition is not just a competition to do it, but this is a competition to really show the world that we’re very skillful people.
You mentioned 10 seasons. A lot of people don’t get that, especially Black people. Being the focal point of this series, how do you manage to keep it a must-watch?
I can’t say necessarily humble, but me not getting a big head. And that’s because of people around me. Ted is around to keep me humble. When I start on too much, people are there to bring me down. But then when I start being on my low, there are people to tell me to pick up your chin. A lot of people need that. Ted’s been around 10 years on TV, been sitting on the couch where he’s been the most important person to me.
Even 10 seasons going, people can sit here and be like, “I could really relate with Caesar.” I was in a shop across the street from the projects and that’s where we made it from. So I think a lot of people mess with the show because they seen the struggle. They been day ones. They seen how we couldn’t even afford to have lights on. And then we got to hit. It’s almost like, one of those American dream stories.
Before this, I was barely able to afford Chinese food, so it is a whole different thing. It’s also a responsibility. I remember going to LA Fitness and a lady asked me, “does anyone ever tell you that you look like Ceasar from Black Ink?” and I respond all the time. She then just started talking about me and I really don’t really look at myself like how this lady who blending my juices does. She’s calling me an inspiration and stuff like that. So I really just try to stay humble and out of trouble to set an example in this situation.
New York, Chicago, AND Compton are all in the same building?! Ceaser’s GOTTA be up to something.
In this competition, it’s you, Ryan, iamCompton, and all of your shops. It’s a bond but you can tell everybody feels they are the best. When it comes to getting ready for this competition, how did you prep your team? What strategy did you have? What words did you give them? Because you Ceasar, you can’t come in here and host the joint and lose
Can’t lose. But at the end of the day, everybody gonna understand this is family, right? So I don’t want anybody to sit there and get into a fistfight over this. But like I told my people, “yo, y’all better turn up.” This is your time to shine. We got this big stage, this big platform we want to show out for, not just us, but for the culture. This ain’t about your individual glory. This is about glory as a community. We all understand the bigger picture in this. But a lot of us want to battle anyway.
How often would you want to replicate this? You got a handful of artists here but around the nation, it’s so many more.
That’s when, we just started something that basically can keep going, almost like a battle rap thing. I could go to every city and I could put people up against each other. And that’s what the showcase is to show other people’s skill. I feel like this next level is really a showcase in talent. Not just people who work in Black Ink, but minority tattoo artists everywhere.
You’re a busy man. You run shops everywhere. How do you keep your actual tattoo skills sharp?
I’ll be honest with you, bro. I’m completely honest with you. I tattoo on the low. When people would sit there and be posting they tattoos, you probably won’t see me posting a lot of my tattoos because I’m sitting there working on my craft. Plus tattooing is almost therapeutic to me. So most of the time I’ll be tattooing in the middle of the night and nobody knows it. I don’t take a lot of clients because I like doing big jobs. So I only take up like probably 15 clients for the year but those are like big pieces. Like bodysuits and whatnot. That’s how I hone my skills. I’m not really showing the picture until I finish the whole bodysuit.
The one thing I’ve learned from an OG, if you the biggest earner in your shop, you doing it wrong. The problem I always used to have, especially in my first three shops, is I was the main earner and I kept putting myself first instead of putting my employees first and I had to learn that. So a lot of times I pull myself back from tattooing and being booked out. Cause at the end of the day, bro, I’m 42 years old. I probably got like probably seven more years of tattoo left than me. Yeah. I got, I’m gonna have to leave it for these young bucks sooner or later you feel me? I’m gonna be in there, but you know, I’m gonna go from a player to a coach.
The different shops. You had to move to Brooklyn and it was kind of like a homecoming store, but people often talk about Brooklyn’s change. It’s gentrifying. Everything is switching up. So you have this Black tattoo shop in the middle of a gentrifying Brooklyn and you are about to be a staple. How does that feel?
It feels different. A lot of people don’t know. I started in Brooklyn. A lot of people don’t know I started in that same neighborhood. For me to basically leave Brooklyn and come back when basically Bedstuy is being stripped of everything that made it Bedstuy. It feels good to come back and show them like, yo, we ain’t gotta leave our hoods to other people. We ain’t gotta leave. We could take over our own neighborhood. We could own these stores. A lot of people just get so they get so uncomfortable on sitting and being an entrepreneur. They rather work a nine to five, knowing that they’re gonna give their money at the end of the week. They don’t really gotta hustle as much as an entrepreneur. Well, they don’t know, they hustle more than entrepreneurs.
When I came back, it was to yo, you don’t necessarily have to leave your hood to be comfortable. You could buy your hood back and stay there. I always felt our biggest problem was always yo, as soon as I get some money, I’m outta here. We never once sat there and say, once I get some money, I’m buying back my block. Most of the time people leave they hood cause they’re not comfortable. I’m more comfortable in my hood. So I always came with that idea one day, there’s going to be a franchise to be a symbol for those who have watched me for 10 years and grew with me and who can walk up on me like I’m their cousin. Cause a lot of these people went through the struggle with me and I didn’t even know it. Even with the kids, some been watching me since second grade. They in high school now and they’ll tell me scenes from like season two. Like wow. It is almost like a cult feeling. We really got into the culture and I’m just blessed because when we came on, it was just so many great reality shows on and we ain’t have the fancy cars. We didn’t have the big names. We got Harlem.
How much do you miss the old shop?
A lot. A lot. A lot. I ain’t gonna lie. When we lost 113, I cried because I always felt like it was my responsibility to keep that shop. We all grew up in it. Our memories is just embedded in that shop. Like we had the most fun, broke in that shop. And we went from broke, basically project kids to who we are now in that shop. But it was nothing I could do. It hurt me the worst cause it was a greedy landlord that wouldn’t let up. You go from rent being $5,000. So you wanna charge us $25,000 a month. Who is doing that for something that’s less than a thousand square feet? And that burnt my soul because even if I just left it just, not even as a working tattoo shot, but basically got a museum for Black Ink to see where we started. I wanted that and it was just taken away from me. If you go past it now it’s not even open. Nobody’s taking it because everybody know what it is. The community won’t let anybody take it. Somebody try to move in that right now. They gonna shut it down. The community misses me. And I did so much for that community. I miss it.
When you first saw this battle arena set up, how did you feel?
I’m be truthful with you. I’m be a man with you. I had to hold back my tears because a lot of people don’t know the struggle to get here. It took us 10 years to get here. For us to go from where we was and how people looked at us like we was the black sheep from day one. People saying we don’t represent our culture, the struggles of trying to open up shops. And they sit here talking about, “oh they’re on TV. All they do is fighting.” And this, that and the third. Now we finally got something for us. Now it’s fair game.
I know it’s in your head. What’s the next step for the takeover?
The tour. Yeah, the tour. I’m going straight to conventions. After that, it’s going to be like a music festival. I’m going to make it almost like a Black Woodstock. It’s so much more to the Black Ink culture than just tattooing.
Her viral hit “The Assignment” transformed her from rising star to full-blown superstar and brought the Dallas native her first nationwide tour. On the tail end of the self-titled tour, Tay Money dropped the new 14-song project, properly-titled Girls Gone Duh on the Tay Money Army last Friday.
While known for her a-list collaborations with Latto, Saweetie and Da Baby, the new project includes guest features by Saucy Santana, Flo Milli and newcomer GMO Stax. And with “The Assignment” and “Hello,” the project features album highlights “BBB (Bad Bitch Behavior),” “Fake Love” and “Middle Fingers.” To date, “The Assignment” has garnered over four million YouTube views.
The new project delivers the familiar self-confident, braggadocious energy and female empowerment rhyming Tay Money that fans have grown to know and love since her original arrival several years ago.
Tay Money’s nationwide tour wraps in Austin, Texas on May 1 after selling out in major markets like New York, Atlanta, Chicago and Memphis. Between touring and album, Tay Money made a guest feature on the viral dance track “Bend It Ova” by fellow Dallas native Lil Eaarl.
Ahead of the album release, Tay Money’s music was featured on the popular television series, Insecure (HBO). Girls Gone Duh is the perfect origin point for newfound fans.
Girls Gone Duh is available everywhere via Rebel/Geffen Records.
Stream the full album below and follow Tay Money on social media for daily updates and more.
Dallas stars unite to takeover the dancefloor in new hit.
Consistenly viral new artist, Lil Eaarlmakes his formal introduction with the help of the city’s hottest star, Tay Money, in the highly-anticipated visual for the booty-bouncing lead single “Bend It Ova 2.0” from his star-studded debut album.
In the ZStarrock and Half Pint Filmz-co-directed visual, Lil Eaarl, Tay Money and entourage hit the dancefloor and showcase some of the latest dance moves next to the curvaceous twerkulators. Eaarl and Tay’s grand standish bars are perfect fits for their styles and create a hit that will be talked about all summer long. The song and visual comes at perfect timing with Tay Money hitting the road on her first nationwide tour and Eaarl’s album drop.
Before linking up with Tay Money and her unstoppable wave, Lil Eaarl has been making waves in the Gen X and Tik Tok crowd with impressive back-to-back-to-back viral hits on the platform. He boasts over 300k followers on Tik Tok due to the popularity of his tracks “From The Back,” “Work Yo Legs,” and, of course, “Bend It Ova.”
“Bend It Ova took very little time to record once my producer pulled up the beat and it was a go, we made the song and the tik tok challenge the same night. Working with Tay is always a vibe she brings it every time we are in the studio we got tons of new unreleased music on the way.”
The latest Tay Money feature comes on the heels of the release of the artist’s new mixtape, Girls Gone Duh. Along with her viral hit “The Assignment” taking over social media in 2022 with support from everyone in pop culture from Taylor Swift to Michelle Obama participating in the song’s viral challenge. A perfect pick for Lil Eaarl’s debut album.
All three singles appear on Lil Eaarl’s recently released debut album, Planet Eaarl. A revitalization of the classic Dallas boogie sound that made chart-topping history in the early 2000s, the 10-song album’s heavy bass-driven sound and rowdy party animal gimmick thrust the rising star into the Best New Artist of 2022 debate. And with the viral hits, the album features trendsetting acts Lil Ronny MothaF (“Throw Dat Ass In A Circle”), HunchoDaRockstar and, of course, Tay Money (“The Assignment”).
Tay Money appears on the new song and video via Rebel/Geffen Records. “Bend It Ova 2.0” is available everywhere via F.W.M.B.
Check out the new visual for “Bend It Ova” above and lil eaarl’s full debut below.
Action Bronson has released a new album, Cocodrillo Turbo, as well as an eleven-minute short film, Spirit Crocodile, through Loma Vista Recordings. The short film, directed by Jason Goldwatch, delves into the essence of the Cocodrillo Turbo and why the reptile is crucial to Bronsolino’s technique. As music from the album serves as a soundtrack, the images and film are viewed through the prism of psychedelia.
Cocodrillo Turbo includes features from Conway The Machine, Roc Marciano, Hologram, Meyhem Lauren with production from The Alchemist, Daringer, Roc Marciano, and Action Bronson.
Speaking with The SOURCE, Bronson stated the album is “everything taken to the next level.” He added, “I want 10 Grammys all coming from this album.”
You can hear it all and watch the short film below.
With a performance of “Trust No Bitch” premiering today on Vevo, the world’s top music video network, Latto is announced as the latest artist in their Ctrl series. Latto previously collaborated with Vevo on a Ctrl at Home performance of “Youngest N Richest,” which was released earlier this year. The Ctrl series on Vevo spotlights the work of hard-hitting, cutting-edge musicians – both emerging and established – making an impression in today’s music industry. These musicians are deserving of recognition, and Vevo’s Ctrl puts a bright light on them. Rick Ross, Common, Rapsody, Fat Joe, Jeezy, Jadakiss, Fabolous, A$AP Ferg, and others performed before Latto.
Armani Caesar is ready to usher in the sequel to her 2020 Griselda debut The Liz. Ahead of giving more details for The Liz 2, Caesar is ushering in #ARMANISZN with the new freestyle “Poker Night.”
Since the release of The Liz, Armani has appeared on Westside Gunn’s Flygod Is An Awesome God 2 (“Lil Cease”), Gunn’s Shady Records debut Who Made The Sunshine (“Liz Loves Luger” & “98 Sabers” Feat Conway The Machine & Benny The Butcher) and #HWH8 (“Forest Lawn” which also featured 2 Chainz), Conway The Machine’s From King To A GOD (“Anza”), Griselda’s Conflicted soundtrack and more.
After fans clamored for it, Megan Thee Stallion‘s “Plan B” is available to fans. After the release, Megan answered a couple of questions online, most notably about the song’s inspiration.
When a Twitter user asked what made Megan create the song, she responded: “I was just venting Abt experienece I’ve had in relationships I’ve been in the past.”
I was just venting Abt experiences I’ve had in relationships I’ve been in the past https://t.co/ERx8J7FN95
The new single samples Jodeci’s “Freek’n You (Remix)” with Wu-Tang Clan. The single is out before the superstar rapper returns to the stage for weekend two of the festival.
Megan has been on a roll lately, having teamed up with Dua Lipa to record their explosive collaboration “Sweetest Pie” in March, presently in the Top 10 on mainstream radio. She was honored with the Trailblazer Award and a spectacular performance of “Sweetest Pie” at the 2022 iHeartRadio Music Awards, where she also performed “Sweetest Pie.”
The Kid LAROI releases “Thousand Miles,” his much-awaited first single of the year. The new hit is complemented by Christian Breslauer’s blockbuster music video. Andrew Watt and Louis Bell, two of LAROI’s most powerful co-producers, are on board.
In the video, which also stars Katarina Deme, LAROI does something he’s never done before: he confronts himself. As LAROI encounters his one true opponent, “Thousand Miles” takes on new significance thanks to the accompanying video, which is daring, poetic, and dramatic.
“It was just [Andrew] Watt just had this guitar idea that he had made and he just pulled it up and I just started ripping it at his house on the mic,” LAROI said of the single to Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1. “And we just put it together and then we went and took it to Lou to go in on the production with Watt. And yeah, I mean, the rest is… I mean, yeah, we kind of made that song. I loved it. At the time, I was like, oh my gosh, I love this song so much.
“I just put it up and I guess the fans just really… They liked it. And I guess, I don’t know. Let’s just give it to them. it’s been like 10 months since I dropped music, and 10 months in internet time is like 10 years.”
Memphis superproducer Tay Keith releases “Lights Off,” featuring Lil Durk and Gunna. The new single is packed with melodic flows, effortless cool, and an evolved version of Keith’s signature sound. “Lights Off” is the lead of a new era for the Drumatized (DOA) label.
“I want to show that I can do a lot of different shit,” Tay Keith said of the single. “I feel like this is an elevation.”
Ceaser’s GOTTA be up to something. 
