Syd is back! The GRAMMY Award-winning singer, songwriter, producer, and engineer, has announced the release of her sophomore album, Broken Hearts Club, on April 8th, 2022. Broken Hearts Club, which features collaborations with Kehlani, Smino, and Lucky Daye, as well as additional production from Grammy-winning producers Troy Taylor, G Koop, and Darkchild, chronicles the ebbs and flows of a relationship from beginning to end and is performed, co-written, and co-produced by Syd herself.
Arriving with the album announcement is the new single “Could You Break A Heart.” The new song pairs Syd with Lucky Daye and tackles trust issues in a new relationship.
“The album is about a relationship I had that ended in my first real broken heart,” Syd said of the forthcoming album. “It almost felt like I joined a club because all of my friends went through similar experiences. It was like a rite of passage. I started writing the album on the relationship when I was in love. You’re really getting the whole journey from the beginning to the end. I want people to find it beautiful. It’s super vulnerable, sentimental, and it’s soft. There’s touching moments and a couple of dark moments.”
RapTV and Rolling Loud, two of the world’s most renowned hip-hop brands, are teaming together to host a two-day hip-hop music showcase at the famous Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater on Friday, March 18, and Saturday, March 19.
Rolling Loud, the hip-hop festival behemoth, hired RapTV, the largest hip-hop social media platform, to grow its presence in the Red River Cultural District as it returns to Austin for another round of outstanding performances. The two significant businesses collaborated to produce one of the most anticipated music events of SXSW’s 36th edition.
Rolling Loud has done it again, collecting some of today’s hottest hip-hop acts and most promising newbies to perform at this year’s pop-up in Austin, known for curating FOMO-inducing lineups each year. Don Toliver and Sheck Wes lead an all-star lineup that includes Texas’ own Trae Tha Truth, as well as Ken Car$on, Babyface Ray, Duke Deuce, Jasiah, and Tay Money, as well as risers like Mike Dimes, Dro Kenji, Monaleo, and others, which will help rock the party at SXSW like never before.
“Rolling Loud, RapTV, and SXSW teamed up to create the biggest event of the week,” says Rolling Loud co-founder Tariq Cherif. “We’ve put together a lineup full of artists we believe are next up. Fans attending our showcase are in for a treat, witnessing these artists perform in an intimate setting before they blow up to the stratosphere.”
RapTV will be on-site for the entire weekend event, bringing you behind-the-scenes material and exclusive news straight from the heart of the Live Music Capital of the World. For the most up-to-date information on the showcase, fans should follow RapTV and Rolling Loud on Instagram.
“With this SXSW showcase, RapTV is now entering a new chapter as a next-gen media organization, entertainment brand, and arbiter of hip-hop culture. What better way to celebrate this growth than by partnering with Rolling Loud, the biggest hip-hop festival producers in the world, to create the premier rap showcase during all of SXSW,” said RapTV’s Chief Operating Officer David Kantanka. “So often in music, especially in hip-hop, colleagues become competitors but this special event is a testament to the powers of collaboration, hard work and determination. With the combination of our Rolling Loud and RapTV teams, hip-hop fans better buckle up for two unforgettable nights in Austin.”
For fans looking to join in on the festivities, a select number of tickets will be available exclusively for those with SXSW music and platinum badge holders and SXSW Music Festival wristband holders. A limited number of $10 general admission tickets will be available at the door for fans without SXSW badges. To purchase and learn more about official passes being made available to the weeklong, citywide conference, fans can visit www.sxsw.com/attend.
Keyawna Nikole is a current rising music artist who’s originally from Pittsburgh, PA, but has since relocated to Los Angeles to pursue music full time. We covered Keyawna Nikole when she was featured on InkWhore333’s latest single, “Sick Psycho 6ircus,” which was also covered on Adam22’s podcast, No Jumper.
Keyawna Nikole is displaying to her fans that she plans to be consistent and is a hard act to follow that’s here to stay. After just one day after being released, the video has already passed 30,000 views on YouTube. “I worked so hard to bring my vision to life. There were months of planning, no sleep, and putting every penny into production, but it was all worth it,” says Keyawna.
Keyawna Nikole and InkWhore333 display their acting abilities throughout the clip, as they fight amongst one another until the other cannot keep going. This is an action-packed visual that all Rock, Heavy Metal, and Hip-Hop music fans will surely appreciate. Follow Keyawna on all social media platforms @k3yawnaa to stay up to date with all future releases by this current rising act.
During the time when Hip-Hop was being passed off as a fad that wouldn’t last beyond “Rapper’s Delight”, a vivid reenactment of the introduction of this artistic culture to the world was made. Wild Style is arguably the very first movie and definitely one of the very few that shows the true essence of what Hip Hop is about. On this date in 1983, film director and cultural artist Charlie Ahearn premiered the flick in Times Square, breaking records by selling out at all screenings for the three weeks it played.
Ahearn, a member of the artist collective group Collaborative Projects, was originally exposed to Hip Hop in the late 70s through graffiti when he went to film the youth in the projects in Manhattan’s Lower East Side that studied martial arts. He was soon approached by Fred “Fab 5 Freddy” Braithwaite about making a movie encompassing all elements of Hip-Hop (emceeing, DJing, breakdancing, and graffiti). Fab 5 Freddy brought legendary graff artist Lee Quinones to meet Ahearn to further discuss the approach of filming graffiti and introducing it as a legitimate art form. Ahearn found out that Lee was the same graf king whose work he admired while filming in LES. With Ahearn as producer and director, the three began embarking on a journey to gather the individuals who would be the faces of this landmark film.
Developing its name from an abstract letter design made popular in the graffiti world by graff king Tracy 168, Wild Style featured some of the most prolific pioneers from all aspects of Hip-Hop. The Cold Crush Brothers, Rock Steady Crew, and Grandmaster Flash were just a few of Hip-Hop’s trailblazers that made their debut on the silver screen in Wild Style. The Furious Five could not appear alongside Flash and had to be cut from the film because of prior obligations to another more mainstream motion picture depicting the development of Hip Hop that came out later called Beat Street. This is why Afrika Bambaataa, the New York City Breakers, The Treacherous Three, or female pioneer MC Sha Rock were not seen in the film. Other notable legends included Busy Bee Starski, graf legends Dondi, Zephyr, and Revolt, who all designed the Wild Style logo, and the Fantastic Freaks.
Lee Quinones played the main character “Zoro”, the anonymous graf phenom that is introduced to the art world by his pal and fellow graffiti writer “Faze” who is played by Fab 5 Freddy. Faze introduces Zoro to Virginia, a journalist portrayed by cultural icon Patti Astor, who later shows Zoro to art’s world stage of galleries and museums. The story is an accurate historical account of how Hip-Hop, in general, was introduced to mainstream America and later, the rest of the world. It also showed the poverty and despair that existed in the South Bronx out of which the culture of Hip Hop emerged.
Over 30 years later, Wild Style is still an icon of American pop culture. The players that participated and performed in the movie have made themselves legends in their own right, however, most will recognize their appearance in the film as the catapult of their career. The movie has been sampled on various classic Hip Hop albums including ATCQ’s Midnight Marauders, Common’s Ressurection, and the Five Mic classic, Nas’ Illmatic. Wild Style was voted as one of the top ten rock n’ roll movies of all time by the Rock N’ Roll Hall Of Fame and VH1’s Hip Hop Honors acknowledged the film’s influence in Hip Hop with a tribute in 2007.
If anybody could motivate you to make great music, it has to be DJ Khaled. This morning, Khaled apparently urgently need Gunna in the studio in Miami. So what did the GRAMMY Award-winning music mogul do? He kept it “p” and sent the “pushin’ p” rapper a PJ, private jet, as a ride to the studio session.
As soon as the private landed, Khaled and Gunna went straight to the studio.
All year, DJ Khaled has been hinting at new music. Earlier this year he said that he and Drake are working on “something special.” Images of him and Jeezy surfaced the net, and images of him and Rod Wave in the studio leaked as well.
If it’s one thing we know about Khaled, he’s going to put together a great project. He’s coming off yet another platinum-selling album with his Khaled album and if this project is like any other one, he’ll have yet another platinum album.
Jack Harlow is ready to deliver his sophomore album. Speaking with Rolling Stonefor a new cover star, the Generation Now rapper has announced Come Home the Kids Miss You. The first taste of the album for fans came in the recently released single “Nail Tech.”
Ahead of his new album, ‘Come Home the Kids Miss You’ out May 6, Jack talked to us about wanting to be his generation’s GOAT, life as a superstar/Gen Z sex symbol, and more.
Speaking of the single, Harlow calls it his “least favorite song on the album.”
He added, “But I know the effect it’s gonna have on people. I’m spitting, and there’s energy behind the beat….I have different tastes.”
The new album will follow the stellar 2020 debut That’s What They All Say, which featured “What’s Poppin,” “Tyler Herro,” and “Already Best Friends.” Come Home the Kids Miss You is set for release on May 6.
After just under a week in Cook County Jail, Jussie Smollett has been released as he appeals his conviction of staging a hate crime and making a false report. According to WLS-Chicago, Smollett left the Jail Wednesday night after the appeals court agreed with his legal team that he should be released pending the appeal of his conviction.
Last week, Jussie Smollett was immediately taken into Cook County Jail following his sentence from a Cook County Judge. Smollett was released after signing a personal recognizance bond of $150,000. No money was paid at the bonding out.
Surrounded by security and his family, Smollett left jail at 8 p.m. There was no update on where Smollett will spend his time as he awaits his appeal. During his time behind bars, Smollett chose not to eat anything but drink water.
According to Smollett’s legal team, he broke down as the news arrived that he would be released.
“He pushed his hands on the glass, and he was, his eyes got teary, and I’ve never seen that, because he’s been very strong in there,” said attorney Nenye Uche. “And he said, ‘I nearly lost hope in our constitutional system.’”
Smollett was convicted in December on five felony counts of disorderly conduct. In his sentencing, with good behavior, Smollett would only have to do 75 of the 150 sentenced days.
Rumors circulated online that JAY-Z and Dame Dash were aiming for a settlement in their NFT lawsuit over Reasonable Doubt. Dame is clearing it up and saying those reports are false.
In the middle of last year, Dame Dash was sued by Roc-a-Fella Records to stop the sale of a Reasonable Doubt NFT. In June 2021, a New York federal judge sided with Roc-A-Fella Records label owner Jay-Z after convincing them that his first album, Reasonable Doubt, should not be sold as an NFT by Dame Dash. NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are valuable digital assets that cannot be replicated or traded. The complaint stated the date to auction off the album as an NFT had been set for June 23-25, but SuperFarm, Dash’s partnering company, called it off after the Roc-A-Fella label sent them a warning letter expressing their concerns about Dash’s pursuit of a sale. Even though Dash’s defense says he only attempted to sell his Roc-A-Fella stake, not the rights to Reasonable Doubt, the court still issued a temporary restraining order.
“He sued me for something he said that I did that I didn’t, and then I just had to sue him because he was redirecting funds for Reasonable Doubt,” Dame said to Shannon Sharpe in an interview earlier this month. “I didn’t realize it. I would never sue somebody I used to hustle with—I’m not into suing anybody. I was disappointed. I think it’s embarrassing.”
On Wednesday, Complex reported the two were in the midst of settlement talks that would play out until April 1. Dash hit Instagram, sharing a post by REVOLT, and shutting down the rumored settlement:
please don’t believe this hype we are no where near a settlement.. they accused me of doing something i did not do and now they have to prove it…and i can sell my share anytime I want #askthejudge and #jayz and @biggsburke if you wanna settle this holla at me…we use to hustle together…court is corny…let’s talk like men for the culture… I dare y’all to respond #doitfortheculture
Tank’s “I Deserve” has hit No. 1 on R&B Radio. The 9x GRAMMY Award-nominee sang, wrote and produced the single, which will be found on his 10th studio album R&B Money.
“I deserve” samples and is a call back to his 2001 hit “Maybe I Deserve.”
“I feel like Jordan in ’98 winning his sixth title with the Chicago Bulls! I’m so grateful to all the R&B music lovers because this couldn’t happen without you,” states Tank. “This is a blessing, and I’m here to share more with the fans as I gear up for the release of R&B Money.”
Yeat has announced the 2 Alive Tour. The tour, which is being produced by Live Nation, will begin on April 12th at El Club in Detroit and will stop in cities such as Philadelphia, New York, Atlanta, and others before concluding on May 9th at The Fonda in Los Angeles. The tour is in support of 2 Aliv, his most recent album, which debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and includes guest performances from hip-hop heavy hitters such as Young Thug, Gunna, and others.
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