Coi Leray may have blown up this year with the TikTok favorite “No More Parties,” but the 23-year-old New Jersey rapper is no greenhorn. While her appearance on The Tonight Show to perform the breakout hit on Thursday constituted her television debut, the performance itself was more polished and professional than many, with an off-camera band performing a dazzling arrangement, engaging staging that played into the theme, and the sort of swaggering confidence that comes with putting in the work to be a star.
The charisma exuded by the second-generation rap star (her dad is Benzino, the Boston rapper who famously battled with Eminem in the early 2000s) is what prompted her inclusion in Uproxx’s “Rappers To Watch Out For In 2021,” bolstered by her slick performances on mixtapes Everythingcoz and EC2.
I first caught on the wave with her 2018 video for “Huddy,” a hard-hitting thumper that showcased Coi’s quirky personality and a real gift for penning blunt witticisms. While “No More Parties” is something of a departure from the more straightforward bars and rhymes on “Huddy,” the seeming disparity between the singles actually highlights her versatility as an artist. That’s why she’s suddenly in such high demand, with features on Yung Bleu’s “Thieves In Atlanta,” DDG’s “Impatient,” and TruCarr’s “Beat It Up,” as well as a cameo in Mooski’s “Track Star” video — her star power is shining through the TikTok trending, revealing an artist who is destined to be more than just a one-hit wonder.
Watch Coi Leray’s television debut with “No More Parties” on The Tonight Show above.
Cardi spends a lot of time on Twitter addressing her haters and she does more of that on this song’s hook, rapping, “I get big paper, so I deal with big haters.” She goes on to address how her detractors constantly discussing her is actually good for business: “Cardi this, Cardi that, make me more famous.”
Meanwhile, at the end of her first verse, Cardi gets braggadocios and lets people know that she’s prosperous even outside of music, rapping, “Platinum plaques hang on every wall in my palace / Clips still push, to anybody speakin’ malice / Fashion icon, couple million for my stylist / Five number ones, you got five number nones / Sleepin’ on Cardi, all that nappin’ sh*t done / Off with your hat, all that cappin’ sh*t done / And I got Hollywood waitin’ when this rappin’ sh*t done.”
Cardi became a trending topic on Twitter after the album dropped, so she offered up thanks for her fans, tweeting, “Thank you guys on the support for BIG PAPER .Make sure ya check out @djkhaled album.I just finish listening and I love all the good vibes on the album .Different type of songs with different type of moods.”
Thank you guys on the support for BIG PAPER .Make sure ya check out @djkhaled album.I just finish listening and I love all the good vibes on the album .Different type of songs with different type of moods.
Lil Baby has a whole lot on his plate at the moment. The Atlanta rap star is currently working on his The Voice And The Hero joint album with Lil Durk and his Lamborghini Boys tape which only features rappers that own the luxury vehicle, but when it comes to Lil Baby, the constant activity is something to expect from him.
In the midst of both projects, he teams up with Joyner Lucas for ‘Ramen & OJ.” The track is a tunnel vision effort that sees both rappers looking back on the difficult days of their lives, times that were financially dry and forced them to enjoy a meal of ramen noodles and orange juice more times than they would’ve liked.
Lucas and Baby also deliver a video for the collaboration which sees them going back and forth between their past actions and struggles and their current success and how the former can oftentimes catch up to the latter. The track is lil Baby’s third this week as he recently shared a remix of “On Me” with Megan Thee Stallion ,with a video that saw the southern rappers lead an icy kingdom. Shortly after that he teamed with YSL acts Young Thug, Gunna, and YTB Trench in the “Paid The Fine” video, an effort that captured the aftermath of the rappers’ good deed of freeing 30 inmates from Georgia’s Fulton County jail.
Press play on “Ramen & OJ” in the video above.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
After a lengthy list of delays that pushed the album back nearly 12 months, Miley Cyrus finally released her seventh album, Plastic Hearts to conclude 2020. Its release brought forth a number of performances from the singer, but any signs of new music that fans may have hoped for did not arrive until now. Cyrus joined The Kid Laroi for a remix of the 17-year-old’s track, “Without You.” The song lives on Laroi’s 2020 album Savage Love and details the aftermath of a broken love and how the pain of separation cuts so deeper than they might have expected. Miley’s addition also provides a back-and-forth conversation to help Laroi bring the songs’ theme to life.
For listeners who enjoy the song, it also comes with a video that finds the duo consoling each other through their respective heartbreaks. In addition to that, they’ll be able to watch the duo perform it on an upcoming episode of Saturday Night Live. Cyrus was revealed as the musical guest for the show and shortly after she revealed her set would also feature the young Australian singer. “Live from New York with little bro,” she wrote in a post to Twitter that featured an image of the duo.
The song arrives after she covered Queen, Stevie Nicks, and Blondie during her NCAA Men’s Final Four set. She also celebrated the 15th anniversary of Hannah Montana with a lengthy letter to fans and flowers which she sent to Migos for their 2013 track of the same title.
For the last few months, Lil Uzi Vert has promised his next album is “coming soon.” If it arrived prior to today it would’ve been the rapper’s fourth full-length effort in about a year, joining projects like Eternal Atake and Pluto X Baby Pluto. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like that project will arrive in the near future, but in the meantime, fans can enjoy the Philly rapper’s latest guest verse which finds him rocking beside Bebe Rexha on “Die For A Man.” The track, which is set to appear on Rexha’s upcoming Better Mistakes album, sees her declaring that she’ll never die, change, or cry for a man. Uzi appears later on to echo similar sentiments in regards to the women who appear in his life.
Rexha’s Better Mistakes album will arrive on May 7 with additional help from Rick Ross, Ty Dolla Sign, Pink Sweats, Travis Barker, and more. Moving back to Lil Uzi, the rapper is also set to appear on Blink-182’s upcoming album. Until that arrives, the wait for his next body of work continues and it should be noted that Uzi and Grimes claimed to be in the studio “making hits” together, tracks that could very well appear on his new project.
Hit play on the video above to hear Uzi and Rexha’s new song.
Better Mistakes is out 5/7 via Warner. Pre-order it here.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
It’s safe to say that Baby Keem has crawled out of the quiet cave that was his 2020 year. Aside from being a part of the 2020 XXL Freshman list, which served as a huge moment for him and resulted in a new freestyle, Keem kept things low last year until its final moments when he returned with a pair of singles that sparked a string of releases bringing fans to his latest effort, “Durag Activity” with Travis Scott. The clouded banger sees Keem leading the way with near-mumble raps as he details the things that make up “durag activity.” After a couple of verses, he opens the door for Scott to arrive with his trademark autotune croons for a solid verse.
The new track is also paired with a video that depicts Keem as a mob boss of sorts who gets into trouble with Scott after laying hands on an enemy. The song will hopefully lead to the arrival of Keem’s third album, which remains untitled at the moment. It’ll be his first full-length effort since 2019’s Die For My B*tch, a project that helped boost the Las Vegas native into the spotlight thanks to “Orange Soda,” which grew to be the rapper’s most successful single to date. On a more recent note, the single arrives after his “No Sense” effort, one that dropped with a video that captures Keem going stir crazy. That song was the follow-up to his late 2020 releases, “Hooligan” and “Sons & Critics Freestyle.”
As for Travis, the Houston native was recently awarded for his philanthropic efforts towards HBCU students. He’s also set to headline Rolling Loud’s Miami festival with ASAP Rocky and Post Malone.
Yung Baby Tate is just as fun and high-spirited as she is talented. The latter was proven on her late 2020 EP After The Rain, which presented guest appearances from Flo Milli and 6lack. If that wasn’t enough proof of her extremely versatile skills, the videos that followed the EP brought out more of her colorful palette, and now, Tate continues her hot streak with her latest single, “Eeenie Meanie.” The new track presents the Decatur native fresh out of a relationship and in search of some new companions who fit her requirements for an ideal partner — whether it be exclusive or not.
The new song also comes with good news for fans of Tate. She plans on releasing a deluxe edition of After The Rain “very soon.” During an appearance on Fox Soul’s The Mix, Tate shared the news and promised “five or six” songs would be added to the project.
Tate’s new single comes after she dropped a color video for “I Am” with Flo Milli. She later sat down with Uproxx to share that Beyonce’s “Black Is King” was a big inspiration behind the visual.
You can give Tate’s “Eeenie Meanie” track a listen in the video above.
Yung Baby Tate is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
It’s been no surprise that DJ Khaled’s eventful rollout for his 12th album, Khaled Khaled, has been a completely on-brand experience from him. From lengthy social media posts in all-caps to a massive billboard that revealed the album’s release date, Khaled is pulling out all the stops for his new project and the music on it seems to fit the theatrics as well.
One of the first songs to catch people’s attention was “Sorry Not Sorry,” as it sees formal rivals, Jay-Z and Nas, working together alongside James Fauntleroy and Harmonies By The Hive — which many guessed, and correctly so, to be Beyonce.
The track is one that Khaled looks to push fresh off the release of Khaled Khaled as it arrives alongside a lavish video. Jay, Nas, and Khaled himself bring their talents to a casino to lay off luxury verses broken up by a soothing hook from Fauntleroy. Nas and Jay-Z sit with Khaled at a casino table while smoking cigars and most likely placing bets that surpass any amount of money I’ve seen in my life.
Khaled Khaled as a whole is a 14-track effort that sees appearances from Drake, Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion, Roddy Ricch, Lil Baby, Lil Durk, HER, Big Sean, Rick Ross, Bryson Tiller, and many more. The project originally featured only 13 tracks but Cardi sent in last-minute vocals for her track, “Big Paper.” Khaled Khaled is also Khaled’s first full-length album since 2019’s Father Of Ashad.
Check out the “Sorry Not Sorry” video with Jay and Nas above.
Khaled Khaled is out now via Epic Records. Get it here.
We’ve already seen a glimpse of what Guy Ritchie’s Wrath Of Man will look like when it steals its way into theaters on May 7. But before that, we’ve got a new Red Band trailer to really see what Jason Statham is up to in a cash truck security guard heist film. Which apparently starts with Statham’s character getting shot and watching his own son die before his eyes of his own gunshot wounds.
The bloody trailer sets the scene for revenge for Statham, who wants to track down who killed his son and ends up doing a lot of shooting along the way as an armored truck driver. The most notable part of the trailer, though, is when he kills a man listed as “Robber #6” in the movie’s IMDB page. Despite the generic name for the role, it’s rapper Post Malone, who gets an expletive-filled line in before H, at least presumably, kills him for being unhelpful in his investigation.
“If he’s not a cop, then what is he?” asks one voice late in the trailer.
“He’s a dark f*cking spirit,” another voice answers.
Here’s the official synopsis:
A mysterious and wild-eyed new cash truck security guard (Jason Statham) surprises his coworkers during a heist in which he unexpectedly unleashes precision skills. The crew is left wondering who he is and where he came from. Soon, the marksman’s ultimate motive becomes clear as he takes dramatic and irrevocable steps to settle a score.
The movie is an Americanized version of another film, “Le Convoyeur,” which was directed by Nicolas Boukhrief. We’ll have to see if Statham can find the people responsible when the movie opens next month.
Lorde is back! Well, she’s back reviewing onion rings, at least, and we’re here for it. In her first onion ring review of 2021, the world’s most famous onion ring aficionado reviewed the Pickled Onion Rings at Auckland’s Hotel Ponsonby, which serves elevated English pub fare.
We’re talking PICKLED onion rings which is a first for this reviewer. I totally vibe the concept — used to eat pickled onions out of the jar as a youngster — however I think if you’re gonna go there, go there, and let acidity rather than sweetness dominate. Absolutely sensational batter, perhaps the best I’ve tried. 4/5 overall ringsperience.
This is a solid review and will surely lead to a ring boom at Hotel Ponsonby. It was also glowing enough to motivate us to break out the ol’ wok and try these rings for ourselves (since we’re probably not going to be in Auckland anytime soon).
To master this recipe, I looked into New Zealand pickled onion culture (yes, that’s a thing). There’s actually a fair number of recipes for pickled onions throughout New Zealand’s food media outlets. The thing is, I don’t really have a week to let something pickle in a dark cupboard. So I took my cues from New Zealander’s recipes and adapted them to make it doable in about an hour with a sous vide.
I’ve used my sous vide to make a lot of pickles (root veg, eggs, fish, etc.) in the past and it really only takes about an hour to have a fully-brined pickle. For this recipe, that sped-up process will do nicely.
Lastly, I really focused on the batter. I knew it had to be something “sensational” for Lorde to give it full marks. So I made sure I was devising something that’d have a beautifully crunchy exterior while still providing a softer interior, leading to the briny and savory pickled onion inside. That’s enough preamble, let’s get into the recipe!
A quick note on the brine. This is where I’m drawing acidity from. There’s a low amount of salt and sugar that’ll give you that “briny” edge of a pickle. Then the addition of apple cider vinegar will bring that mild pH acidic vibe to the whole thing.
Otherwise, you do you on the pickle brine spices. If you want it spicier, add more chilis. Mix and match with seeds and barks. Overall, this is a mild pickle brine with a classic edge that leans towards the New Zealand-centric pickle recipes I found online.
Zach Johnston
Ring batter:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup corn starch
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 bottle or can of pilsner (more as needed)
2 egg yolks
Large pinch of salt
White pepper
Other:
Two yellow onions
Neutral oil
Aioli
Salt
Another quick note: As you can see in the image below, I’ve removed the inner skins between the layers of the onion. This is crucial for a bite-able onion ring. If you’ve ever had an onion ring that immediately slid out of the batter, it was because of that slippery film that’s between every layer. It takes a little extra time but is as easy as simply pulling the skin off after you’ve made your rings.
Zach Johnston
What You’ll Need:
Large Zip-lock bag
Sous vide circulator
Large pot
Small pot
Large bowl
Whisk
Wok or deep fryer
Slotted spoon
Metal grate and baking sheet
Paper towels
Tongs
Method:
For the pickled onions:
Set the sous vide circulator to 185F/85C in a large pot of water.
Add the water, vinegar, salt, and sugar to a small pot and bring to a boil to dissolve the salt and sugar. Remove from heat and let cool for ten minutes.
Peel and slice onions, making sure to remove the film between each layer of the onion as you push out the rings (it should slide right off).
Add the spices and onions to the Zip-lock bag. Pour the warm brine into the bag.
Immerse the bag into the bath and use the pressure of the water to remove any excess air and seal the bag. Use a clip to hold the bag to the side of the large pot.
Cook the onion rings for 30 minutes.
Prepare an ice bath. When the 30 minutes are up, place the Zip-lock bag into the ice bath to stop the cooking and cool the pickled onion rings.
Zach Johnston
For the onion rings:
Combine flour, corn starch, baking powder, salt, and white pepper in a large bowl.
Add the egg yolks and beer while whisking until you get a thin batter (sort of halfway between a crepe and pancake batter).
Lay the onion rings on a paper towel and pat dry.
Heat about one-half gallon of neutral oil in a wok or heavy-bottomed pot (I used sunflower) to 375F/190C.
Using tongs, dip the rings into the batter and then gently lay them into the hot oil, creating a single layer of onion rings.
After about one minute, flip the rings with the tongs to brown them evenly on both sides.
After another minute, remove the onion rings to a rack over a baking sheet. Immediately hit with a pinch of salt.
Repeat until all the rings are fried.
Serve with aioli dip.
Bottom Line:
Zach Johnston
I love fried pickle chips, so I knew I was going to love these. And, wow, thank you, Lorde, for turning me onto pickled onion rings. These are, hands down, some of the best onion rings I’ve ever tasted. And they were without a doubt the #1 best rings I’ve ever made. The onion was soft and hot with a deep pickle brine that had a touch of heat and acidity. The sweetness was there but tied more to the onion than sugar. Really though, the sweetness took a back seat to the overall brininess of the onion.
The batter was freaking sensational. The addition of corn starch allowed the batter to be super crunchy on the outside while still feeling supple on the inside. Moreover, as these rings cooled down (onion rings always get cold too fast), the batter stayed super crunchy.
Zach Johnston
Using aioli as a dipping sauce is a win as well (I used some good stuff from Spain). The lemon/garlic/mayo feel was the perfect counterpoint to the pickle brine and crunchy batter of the ring. This was comfort food in its purest form.
Finally, there was the side-by-side look of these rings compared to Lorde’s. You can judge for yourself below. I haven’t tasted my competition, but I do know that this is the only way I’ll be making onion rings from here on out. Lorde, if you’re ever near Uproxx’s offices — we got you.
