Hip Hop News

Dexter Has A New Identity In Season 9 Reboot

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The hit Showtime TV series, Dexter, centers around a blood spatter analyst living a double life as a serial killer. Sounds amazing, and it was until the series culminated with what was deemed to be a rather disappointing finale in 2013. 

The show is back to redeem itself with a reboot in which Dexter gets a second chance at life. He takes up the alias of Jim Lindsay, a possible homage to the author of the novels on which the show is based, Jeff Lindsay.

As seen in the teaser released on Twitter back in April, Jim Lindsay gets back to “nature, his nature.” The character is reportedly set to leave Miami and head to rural New York where he works under his alias at a shop called Fred’s Fish and Game. 

A new town for Dexter means introducing new victims, as well. The Shawshank Redemption’s Clancy Brown is set to play this season’s antagonist, as the well-loved unofficial mayor of the town. Julia Jones of Westworld plays a pivotal role in the series as Angela Bishop, the town’s first Native American police chief who is sure to be on Dexter’s heels. 

Fans responded to the name change with excitement, and eagerly expressed their enthusiasm for an official Season 9 trailer.

As we reported, the ninth season of Dexter is expected to be released late this fall.

Will you be tuning in? 

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Jay-Z Confesses That He Used To Forget His Lyrics When Performing

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Today, Jay-Z is more than one of the greatest rappers of all time. He’s a businessman, a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, and so much more. But long before Hov was announcing the 10-year anniversary of his Made in America festival, Jay-Z was an artist who was still mastering his craft.  

The 4:44 artist is set to appear on the season premiere of LeBron James’ The Shop, and during a recently released teaser, the Los Angeles Laker’s star player asked Jay-Z, Bad Bunny, Nneka Ogwumike, and Paul Rivera if they’ve ever been so zoned out during a performance that they forgot about the audience.

In response to LeBron‘s question, Jay-Z admitting, “In the beginning, I used to get on the stage and just forget all my lyrics,” and the rest of The Shop‘s hosts and guests immediately erupt into laughter.

While it may shock some that Jay-Z used to forget his lyrics while performing, one has to keep in mind that Hov has maintained throughout his career that he doesn’t write down his lyrics, which is extremely helpful when it comes to remembering them. Even Lil Wayne has admitted to forgetting his lyrics due to the way in which he creates songs.

So in the end, who can really fault Jay-Z? He’s Hall of Fame Hov, and he did it all without a pen. To soak up all of the wisdom that Jay is sure to impart on viewers, tune in to The Shop‘s season premiere this Friday on HBO at 9:30 pm EST.

Dave Chappelle Closing Tribeca Film Festival With Documentary Debut

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This summer, New York City will officially be outside, once again. Vaccination numbers continue to climb while COVID-19 cases decline and just about everyone is about ready to resume life as normally as possible. That being said, there are already a few festivals underway this summer like Summer Jam and Made In America.


Erik Voake/Getty Images

For film buffs, Tribeca Film Festival will resume this summer in compliance with health regulations. Per Variety, the festival will be closing out with a brand new documentary from Dave Chappelle. The title is yet to be revealed but it does follow the early days of the pandemic in a rural village of Ohio and highlights the difficulties they faced. It gives a look into Chappelle’s live comedy shows that took place near his home in Ohio.

The film is set to debut at Radio City Music Hall — the same venue where Chappelle hosted a 16-date residency in 2017. This marks the first time since the pandemic began that the iconic venue will open its doors to the public. Of course, everyone that attends must be fully vaccinated with the exception of children under 16 who will just need to provide proof of a negative test.

“Premiering our film at Tribeca and closing out the festival at Radio City Music Hall is a big honor,” Chappelle said in a statement. “Our film is about courage and resilience, something New Yorkers can relate to.”

Chappelle’s documentary debuts at Radio City Music Hall on June 19th.

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Saweetie Once Removed Her Tongue Piercing After A Few Days Just So She Could Eat A Cheeseburger

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Along with her viral music, Saweetie is known for cooking up some head-scratching food combinations like oysters and instant ramen or spaghetti and ranch dressing. The rapper is not shy about her tastes and oftentimes posts her concoctions right to Instagram and Twitter. Now, she recalls the time she removed a fresh tongue piercing because she was craving a burger.

Saweetie sat down with Twitter for a #BehindTheTweets segment where she explained the story behind some of her most memorable tweets. One tweet in particular touched on a time she pierced her tongue junior year in college. “Unfortunately, my tongue was swollen and I couldn’t eat,” she said. “And you know your girl loves to eat. So I remember I thugged it out for like a week and was eating nothing but soup. But then one day I was just really craving a cheeseburger so I popped it out so I could eat my cheeseburger.”

Elsewhere in the video, Saweetie explains how odd it feels to log onto social media to see her name trending. “You know that photo from SpongeBob that’s just like, you walk in and then you walk out? I don’t know. Sometimes I’m just minding my business and then I log on and then I’m trending for some odd reason. Peole are talking sh*t. Sometimes I’m just like, ‘Y’all weird.’”

Watch Saweetie’s #BehindTheTweets segment above.

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

Jay-Z Admits He Used To Forget His Lyrics When He Performed On LeBron James’ ‘The Shop’

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LeBron James‘ HBO Show The Shop returns for its fourth season this Friday, bringing with it an impressive list of guests including Puerto Rican star Bad Bunny, WNBA champion Nneka Ogwumike, and Bron’s big homie Jay-Z. In a new clip previewing the season premiere airing this Friday, the latter makes an admission that might surprise a few fans of the 30-year rap veteran: He wasn’t always as cool, calm, and collected as his rap persona might have you believe.

When LeBron asks whether his guests ever got “so zoned out they couldn’t see anything,” Jay confesses, “In the beginning, I used to get on the stage and just forget all my lyrics.” Of course, Jay is far from the only rapper ever to forget his own lyrics — on stage or otherwise. Both Eminem and Lil Wayne have copped to having to Google their rhymes to ensure they don’t repeat themselves, while current hitmaker Lil Baby was stumped by a TikTokers lyrics quiz when he couldn’t complete his own bars. Among them, it’s probably easiest to forgive Jay and Wayne, who’ve both embraced a style of songwriting heavy on mental formulation without writing anything down.

The Shop airs 5/28 at 9 pm ET on HBO. Watch the promo above.

Sean Kingston Makes His Return With The Moody ‘Darkest Times’ For ‘UPROXX Sessions’

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Jamaican American superstar Sean Kingston is on the album comeback trail after a half-decade hiatus with his new album Deliverance and its lead single “Darkest Times” featuring G Herbo, and his latest stop is UPROXX Sessions. Kingston stops by the studio in LA to deliver a smooth performance of the moody new track, showcasing his vocals, undulled by the time away and ready to compete with a new generation of singing rappers and rapping singers.

Kingston, whose last album Back 2 Life was released in 2013 and featured the Hot 100 single “Beat It” with Wiz Khalifa, had been relatively inactive in the years since, although he maintained that he was working the entire time. Deliverance, which is set for release later this year via Empire, is called “a rebirth” in press materials, and if anyone can manage a successful comeback, it’s an artist whose calling card includes one of the biggest hits of the resurgent 2000s, “Beautiful Girls.”

Watch Sean Kingston’s UPROXX Sessions performance of “Darkest Times” above.

UPROXX Sessions is Uproxx’s performance show featuring the hottest up-and-coming acts you should keep an eye on. Featuring creative direction from LA promotion collective, Ham On Everything, and taking place on our “bathroom” set designed and painted by Julian Gross, UPROXX Sessions is a showcase of some of our favorite performers, who just might soon be yours, too.

Polo G Announces His Highly Anticipated ‘Hall Of Fame’ Album

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Chicago rapper Polo G is riding on a string of major successes. Now with a recent No. 1 single to his name, the 22-year-old rapper details his highly anticipated third album, Hall Of Fame.

The rapper took to social media to share a short teaser clip as an album announcement, revealing Hall Of Fame is slated for a release on June 11. “I got somethin special for you I hope you appreciate it,” he wrote.

In the video, Polo G lays out his hopes for the LP. “My goals for Hall Of Fame was just to make sure that I can show my diversity as an artist, really like elevate my sound, for the people to hear something that I ain’t ever did before,” he says.

Polo G has already previewed the album with a few singles. His track “Rapstar” hovered at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for two consecutive weeks and more recently, the rapper dropped his Lil Wayne-featuring number “Gang Gang.”

Hall Of Fame will arrive just over a year after his 2020 sophomore effort The Goat. Featuring artists like NLE Choppa, Juice WRLD, and BJ The Chicago Kid, the LP debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart and was certified Platinum in December.

Watch Polo G’s album teaser above.

Hall Of Fame is out 6/11 via Columbia. Pre-order it here.

Lucky Daye Performs A Stripped Version Of “Floods” For Spotify Singles

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Lucky Daye has had an amazing run this year. After appearing on Kehlani, Queen Naija, and Kiana Ledé‘s albums in 2020, the four-time Grammy nominee came back strong in February with the release of the special Valentine’s Day EP Table For Two. The duet-filled project featured several of the leading female voices in R&B, including Ari Lennox, Yebba, and Mahalia, among others.

Months later, Lucky Daye has teamed up with Spotify for a new round of Spotify Singles, and both of his two latest offerings find the New Orleans-born artist looking to the past for inspiration. For one of his Spotify Singles, Lucky Daye covered Marvin Gaye’s “Mercy Mercy Me,” and for the other song, he treated his fans with a stripped-down version of “Flooded,” which appeared on his acclaimed debut album Painted.

When explaining the song’s lyrics on Genius, Lucky Daye said, “The inspiration behind this song was this girl who I loved, and I thought she loved me back. She made me feel like I made her run away from me, but I didn’t know what I did and she couldn’t tell what I did. So, I just wrote it. I was drunk. The floods represent not only tears, but it was drinking. I’m flooding my system with just drinks, drinks, drinks. I was gone that night.”

Listen to Lucky Daye’s “Floods – Live” for Spotify Singles below.

Quotable Lyrics

But you make seasons change with no fair warning
How you make seasons change without saying something? Oh
All these reasons I give lead you to running
Don’t leave me out in the cold without my warm thang

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Benzino Makes It Clear Coi Leray Isn’t His Only Successful Child

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According to Benzino, Coi Leray isn’t his only child making be moves in the music industry. While on Instagram Live, he announced that his son, known as Chavo, got a record deal with Interscope when he was just nine years old. He also shared Chavo is currently working with producer Playboy Carti’s Pierre Bourne and “just got about a $75,000 streaming check.”

With origins in the Soundcloud scene, Chavo found his home in the supergroup Sosshouse, along with Pierre, Jelly, Bermuda Yae, J Billz, Sharc, and Fraizer Trill. His upcoming project, Chavo’s World 2 was exclusively produced by good friend Pierre Bourne and elevated with features from little sis Coi Leray. The project and tracklist were announced in March, but fans are still waiting on an official release date.

To close, Benzino added the bold statement, “that’s two kids, who got major deals by these nuts.”

Interestingly, he then went into a rant about how well he knows Coi, when just a few months ago the father-daughter pair were publicly airing out family issues on social media. After so much talk about Benzino’s parenting skills, he seems to be recreating his image by promoting his children while he rides the wave from recent publicity, too.

Check out the full clip below and let us know what you think in the comments. 

For more insight on the Benzino family tree and the Coi Leray drama, read our piece on Coi Leray & Benzino’s Family History & Beef, Explained.

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Darnella Frazier, Woman Who Filmed George Floyd Murder, Speaks Out On 1-Year Anniversary

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Darnella Frazier was only seventeen years old when she filmed a video of Derek Chauvin fatally kneeling on George Floyd’s neck for over eight minutes. Had she not taken out her cell phone and started the video, there is a chance that Floyd’s murderer could still be walking the street as a police officer. 

Her video was used as a major piece of evidence against Derek Chauvin, who was found guilty of murder last month. On Tuesday, the world remembered George Floyd one year after he was killed in Minnesota. She reflected on the last year with a post on social media.

“Even though this was a traumatic life-changing experience for me, I’m proud of myself. If it weren’t for my video, the world wouldn’t have known the truth. I own that. My video didn’t save George Floyd, but it put his murderer away and off the streets,” said Frazier in her letter. 

She explained that her life has changed dramatically in the last year, relocating out of fear that her home was no longer safe and watching over her shoulder at all times. She says that her nine-year-old cousin, who was also a witness to the crime, lost a part of her childhood. 

“It made me realize how dangerous it is to be Black in America,” she wrote. “We shouldn’t have to walk on eggshells around police officers, the same people that are supposed to protect and serve. We are looked at as thugs, animals, and criminals, all because of the color of our skin.”

Read the full post below.