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A Travis Scott Petition Has Nearly 70,000 Signatures In Favor Of Him Performing At Coachella In 2023

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Coachella’s 2022 festival is set to kick off in less than three months, with Kanye West, Billie Eilish, and Harry Styles serving as headliners. It’ll be the festival’s first iteration since 2019, after they were forced to cancel the ones set for 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic. When first announced in 2020, Travis Scott, Frank Ocean, and Rage Against The Machine were announced as the headliners. It was originally believed that the trio would headline his year’s show, but Frank’s set was postponed until 2023 while Scott and Rage Against The Machine were dropped from the lineup.

Many Travis Scott supporters are upset that he won’t be there, which most likely came as a result of the tragedy at his 2021 Astroworld Festival. So they’ve taken matters into their own hands. A petition calling for the rapper’s appearance at Coachella next year currently has nearly 70,000 signatures, with the goal of obtaining at least 75,000. It also calls for Kanye West to help deliver a Scott performance at Coachella.

“Book Travis for 2023 or have Ye bring him out!” a statement on the petition reads. “After Coachella unfairly removed Travis Scott for Harry Styles, they need to do the right thing and rebook him immediately.” It continues, “Coachella switched Travis and Frank for Harry Styles and Billie Eilish? What kind of message does that send? Fans are demanding refunds and selling their tickets. Coachella needs to fix this asap.” The statement concludes, “We all know Astroworld tragedy wasn’t Travis fault. Let him get back to performing on the biggest stages!”

It should be noted that Coachella did not intentionally switch either Frank Ocean for either Harry Styles or Billie Eilish. Back in August, months before either the two were announced as headliners, Coachella’s co-founder said Frank would miss the 2022 festival because he was unavailable for the rescheduled dates. Frank will instead perform in 2023.

You can view the Travis Scott petition here.

Earl Sweatshirt Laughs Off Joe Budden Dissing His Album: ‘What Happened Twin?’

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Earl Sweatshirt‘s new album Sick! has become a critical darling in the weeks since it dropped (if not a complete commercial success, debuting at No. 80 on the Billboard 200), but that didn’t stop rapper turned podcaster Joe Budden from utterly trashing it on his show.

Budden denied even listening to the album, using Earl’s relationship with Tyler The Creator to undercut Earl’s impact. “Yo, when your man stop inviting you to the studio, you’re not getting me to listen to what you’re doing,” he said. “Sorry, that’s like a rule of thumb for me.”

However, Earl doesn’t seem fazed by Budden’s assessment — although he did have a clever response. “Its weird that bro didn’t like my mood muzik,” he joked on Twitter, referring to Budden’s fan-favorite mixtape series Mood Muzik and drawing a not-so-subtle comparison between the similar emotional content of both rappers’ catalogs. “LOL what happened twin?”

Earl’s got a point; Budden’s Mood Muzik series could easily be seen as a precursor to many of Sweatshirt’s own beloved, super-introspective albums, as they deal with many similar themes and subjects such as addiction, anxiety, and depression, with both of their output grinding against the grain of the mainstream sounds. Knowing that, it’s unsurprising that Earl chose to take the high road in this case, making Joe Budden’s loud criticisms of his project sound a lot more like sour grapes — something that the elder rapper has been chewing on for a long time.

Earl Sweatshirt is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary.

Machine Gun Kelly Decided To Do A Pop-Punk Cover Of Frank Ocean’s ‘Swim Good’

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Machine Gun Kelly has been everywhere lately, whether it’s gracing magazine covers with his new romantic partner, Megan Fox, or getting engaged to her with some pretty weird rituals involved. Thorny engagement ring? Check. Anyway, after all the excitement around his personal life and relationship, MGK decided to get back to what he does best — helping his friend Pete Davidson talk about penis size.

Just kidding!

I meant music, and the pop-punk/rap star decided a cover was the way to get back into the game. He set himself up for a pretty big challenge, though, by deciding to cover Frank Ocean, who is such a beloved creative that he’s a very tough artist to do justice to. Tackling “Swim Good,” off Ocean’s Nostalgia, Ultra mixtape, which was the second single for the release, MGK gave the song a decidedly pop-punk twist. You know how every pop-punk album in the mid-2000s had to have at least one downtempo song with poignant lyrics and some barren acoustic strumming? That’s the direction Kelly went with this cover, departing from the lush production of the original.

Given the song’s fairly dark subject matter about failed love, it doesn’t totally make sense as a cover for a man who is madly in love with his new fiancé, but then again, little MGK does is logical in the first place. When he shared the cover today, Kelly called it “one of my favorite songs,” so clearly he has respect for Frank Ocean.

Check out the song above.

Charlamagne Tha God Thinks Kanye’s Pete Davidson Diss On ‘Eazy’ Was ‘Corny As Hell’

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While Kanye West’s latest single has understandably caused consternation among members of his ex’s household, with Pete Davidson reportedly increasing his security after Ye threatened to beat him up on “Eazy” and Kim Kardashian supposedly barring him from his daughter’s birthday party (he later posted a video from the party, suggesting it wasn’t that serious). However, there’s at least one other person who wasn’t feeling Ye’s “Eazy” bar: radio host Charlamagne Tha God, who called the line “corny as hell” in a new episode of his podcast.

In the song, Kanye references the 2003 collision that left his mouth wired shut (something he rapped about on “Through The Wire”), rhyming, “God saved me from that crash/Just so I can beat Pete Davidson’s ass.” Charlamagne, who hosts the Brilliant Idiots podcast with comedian Andrew Schulz, didn’t varnish his opinion of the line. “I thought Kanye’s bar to Pete [Davidson] was corny as hell,” he said. “I didn’t like it. What happened to Jesus? What happened to God? You weren’t even cursing on your records and now all of a sudden you wanna beat up Pete Davidson?”

Interestingly enough, Kanye went to Charlamagne for a two-hour interview when he was under fire for supporting Donald Trump in 2018 and needed a sympathetic outlet (consider that on the same day, TMZ’s Van Lathan practically cursed him out on live television for his recent shenanigans), but in recent months, it seems even Charlamagne’s patience has worn thin. In August last year, the radio host slated Kanye’s album Donda, calling it “lackluster,” and now, he’s unsubtly calling out the corniness of Kanye’s latest antics, which is especially unsettling for making me agree with Charlamagne for once.

You can watch the latest episode of the Brilliant Idiots podcast above.

Eminem Announces Limited-Edition Vinyl Of His Albums With Redesigned Covers By Damien Hirst

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In addition to getting heavily into the NFT game, making $2 million from a collection including action figures and comic books, Eminem has been finding new ways to leverage the popularity of his catalog. From partnering with Peloton to use his music in focused workouts to popping up on Dr. Dre’s upcoming Super Bowl Halftime Show, Em’s building a brighter future by trading on his ironclad legacy.

His next endeavor will more directly utilize his older music, as he announces a limited-edition vinyl release of his albums for Interscope’s 30th anniversary. Interscope has been Em’s label home for nearly the entirety of his career, so it’s fitting his dusting off all his Interscope-released albums for this release, and to make it extra special, he’s brought pioneering visual artist Damien Hirst on board to reimagine the covers with his psychedelic designs. Eminem will also be signing these redesigned covers to make each one a little more unique. Meanwhile, Hirst is fresh off designing Drake’s Certified Lover Boy cover, which drew polarized responses from fans, but that’s unlikely to affect demand for his work with Eminem.

The vinyl will be offered on NTWRK beginning January 27 through January 31 — although they’re unlikely to last all that long. The profits from the vinyl sale will be donated to building a school in South Los Angeles. You can check out Hirst’s covers below.

Baby Keem Announces His Spring 2022 Tour Dates Including Coachella Festival

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Baby Keem just completed his tour for debut album The Melodic Blue to cap his breakout 2021, but he’s already preparing to hit the road again, just a few months later. This spring, he’s heading back out to perform 28 shows in nearly as many cities, starting out in Cincinnati, Ohio on March 7 and finishing up six weeks later with a pair of performances at Coachella Festival, with a quick stop in the Bay Area between.

Check out the dates below. Tickets go on sale here beginning January 28 at 10 am local time.

3/7 – Cincinnati, OH @ Bogart’s
3/8 – Detroit, MI @ Saint Andrew’s Hall
3/10 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE
3/11 – Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall
3/13 – New York, NY @ Terminal 5
3/14 – Providence, RI @ Fete Music Hall
3/15 – Baltimore, MD @ Baltimore Soundstage
3/17 – Norfolk, VA @ The NorVa
3/18 – Charlotte, NC @ The Underground
3/20 – Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle Atlanta
3/22 – Orlando, FL @ The Beacham
3/23 – St. Petersburg, FL @ Jannus Live
3/24 – Ft. Lauderdale, FL @ Revolution Live
3/26 – New Orleans, LA @ BUKU Music + Art Project
3/27 – Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl Nashville
3/29 – St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant
3/30 – Chicago, IL @ Concord Music Hall
4/1 – Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave
4/2 – Minneapolis, MN @ The Fillmore Minneapolis
4/5 – Denver, CO @ Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom
4/6 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot
4/8 – Tempe, AZ @ Marquee Theatre
4/9 – Las Vegas, NV @ Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas
4/12– Seattle, WA @ The Showbox
4/13 – Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater
4/15 – Indio, CA @ Coachella
4/18 – San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield
4/22 – Indio, CA @ Coachella

Post Malone Worried He’d ‘Run Out Of Ideas’ For Music Before Finishing His LP, ‘Twelve Carat Toothache’

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There comes a time in every artist’s life where they feel creatively burnt out. After his wildly successful 2019 album Hollywood’s Bleeding and a string of successful performances, Post Malone was feeling his creative juices depleting — especially when the pandemic hit. In fact, he thought he had completely lost his inspiration for making music until his upcoming LP Twelve Carat Toothache changed his mind.

Malone recently sat down with Billboard for a lengthy cover interview unveiling details about his upcoming album, which his manager recently noted had been delayed. During their conversation, the musician revealed he thought he lost his inspiration to write new music before launching into his new era.

Reflecting on his success, Malone said he had felt anxious about starting a new era of music. “You think about everything at the same time, and it’s f*cking overload,” he said. “There’s a lot riding on the music. There’s a lot riding on just being able to keep making songs. And that’s hard to do because you’re like, ‘F*ck — I already talked about everything.’ And you kind of run out of ideas, and that’s scary sh*t.”

He continued that he used to love playing guitar and creating beats, but he lost that inspirational spark before his collaborator Louis Bell visited his home studio: “I used to love playing the guitar — I hardly play the guitar anymore. I used to love making beats. There was a switch that flipped, and it felt like I was making Stoney. I lost that, and the hardest part is getting it back. It ebbs and flows. It’s figuring out: ‘Just because I’m not inspired to do it at the moment doesn’t mean I’m giving up.”

The Billboard feature mentions Twelve Carat Toothache is relatively brief compared to his previous releases, clocking in around 45 minutes. His aim is to avoid “filler” songs and give an honest portrayal of the “the ups and downs and the disarray and the bipolar aspect of being an artist in the mainstream.”

Check out Malone’s full interview with Billboard here.

Blxst Spends A Night In With His Lady In The Cozy ‘About You’ Video

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It wouldn’t be a surprise if the first thing that pops into your head watching Blxst’s new video for “About You” is the Netflix romantic drama Malcolm & Marie. The two works share a similar aesthetic and theme — a couple’s night in (with Blxst and Power‘s Paige Hurd), shot in classic black-and-white — and feature their leads shifting through the various patterns of a well-worn relationship. They argue, they sulk, they make up, and they cuddle. However, on the whole, Blxst’s version of this tale seems a lot less fraught and toxic — as long as you don’t listen to the lyrics of the song.

“Girl, I know my selfish ways be OD,” the LA-bred singer croons. “But I just express in ways you don’t see.” Of course, he cleans it up by the song’s end — which might actually strengthen the connection between Blxst’s video and the Netflix critical darling.

And just like the streaming giant, Blxst’s career has been flourishing ever since the COVID-19 pandemic caused a lockdown that gave plenty of people way more time for music discovery. Since releasing his debut EP, No Love Lost, Blxst has featured on tracks with Nas, Rick Ross, Snoop Dogg, Wale, and more, becoming an R&B playlist mainstay — as he illustrates in his new video. With live entertainment slowly but surely returning, Blxst is quickly climbing the ranks to become one of the game’s most sought-after stars.

Watch the video for “About You” above.

Eminem Partners With Peloton To Host A Boxing Class Set To His Music

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Look, say what you want about Eminem‘s late-career output, but one thing the man does still do well is creating the perfect gym playlist music. So, he’s probably the perfect artist to join Peloton’s Artist Series, unleashing his catalog for artist-specific workouts such as “Eminem Core Strength,” “Eminem Thunder 45,” and “Eminem Bike Bootcamp.” In addition, though, the boxing enthusiast will be hosting a boxing class, as he announced on his Twitter feed.

Eminem’s classes will just be the start of Peloton’s planned boxing programming, which the company is offering free to new members for two months. According to Peloton’s press release, “The Peloton Eminem Artist Series Kicks off on January 28 with a special one-night Boxing event,” with three live boxing classes which will all be released for replay on-demand afterward. Then, throughout the weekend, a series of live cycling and other training classes with the platform’s roster of trainers will premiere featuring Em’s most motivational tunes.

Eminem’s interest in boxing has been evident throughout his career, with his song “Phenomenal” appearing on the soundtrack of the Antoine Fuqua boxing drama Southpaw — in which Em was at one point set to star. You can see a full class schedule on Peloton’s site.

Kim Kardashian Reportedly Refutes Kanye West’s Claim About A Second Ray J Sex Tape

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In a recent interview, Ye (aka Kanye West) claimed he recovered a laptop from Ray J that contained a second sex tape Kim Kardashian and Ray J had made together, saying, “I met this man at the airport, then got on the red-eye, came back… delivered it to her at 8 a.m. in the morning. I gave it to her, and she cried when she saw it. You know why she cried when she saw that laptop? It represents how much she’s been used… It represents how much people didn’t love her, they just saw her as a commodity.”

While Kardashian isn’t denying the story of Ye getting the laptop for her, it appears the computer may not have actually had another sex tape on it.

People reports they obtained a statement from a Kardashian representative that reads, “After review, there was nothing sexual unseen, only footage on the plane on the way to Mexico and footage at a club and restaurant on the same trip. Kim remains firm in her belief that there is no new second tape that exists. After 20 years, she truly wishes to move on from this chapter with focus instead on the positive things she continues to do as a mother, entrepreneur and advocate for justice reform.”

In a 2021 interview, Kardashian told The Los Angeles Times of the original tape, “I do think that, obviously, as producers, I’m sure they loved it. And loved [us] wanting to talk about the elephant in the room. And I probably wouldn’t have, unless it was for the show. Sometimes I feel like, ‘OK, I know I should probably deal and get this over with. Someone’s gonna ask me, so I might as well just go ahead and do it.’ In a way, filming has helped us deal with things, instead of sweeping them under the rug. At the end of the day, I was always open and honest and wanted to share whatever I was going through. I wasn’t gonna hold back.”