This Saturday will mark two weeks since DMXdied from a reported drug overdose that occurred the week before and triggered a heart attack that left him on life support until he passed. His death sent ripples through all corners of the world as musicians, athletes, and more took a moment to send condolences and remember the hip-hop legend. They’ll receive another opportunity to honor DMX as his family announced the official memorial services to celebrate the late rapper’s life.
The announcement was made in a post to DMX’s Instagram. There will be two memorial services held for him with the first, a “Celebration Of Life Memorial,” coming on Saturday, April 24 at 4 p.m. EST and the second, a “Home-going Celebration,” on Sunday, April 25 at 2:30 p.m. EST. Both services will be livestreamed for his supporters to see with the former airing on YouTube and the latter on BET. In-person attendance for the Celebration Of Life Memorial and the Home-going Celebration will be “restricted to close friends and family solely due to health and safety guidelines.”
DMX’s manager Steve Rifkind previously confirmed that a memorial for the late rapper would be held at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. The report at the time said the April 24 service would be held at the arena while the April 25 service would take place at a church in the New York City area.
You can view the Instagram post will all the information above.
Meek Mill clearly has a big heart. The rapper took to Instagram to show him giving his grandmother a new house. A touching video shows the moment she walked through the doors of her new humble abode, smiling ear to ear as she went on a tour, checking out, among other things, the motorized stair lift system that will help her move up and down the two-story home.
“I appreciate you, grandma,” Meek said to his grandmother in the video, who responded, “And I appreciate you for looking out for your grandmother.” The rapper gave himself a solid pat on the back for the gift in the caption. “I did this for my dad and my Grandmom,” he wrote. “I’m Prada myself! Ya definition of real not the same as mines I get it!”
The gift comes after his grandmother’s prior residence in South Philly was vandalized back in December 2018, with racial remarks spray painted onto it. Meek spoke about the incident in a tweet, writing, “the crazy part is this was a all black neighborhood 20 years ago It was gentrified and now this.” He later pressed charges for it, according to his publicist.
Meek Mill is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
If someone had asked me what NFT stood for last year, I’d probably list off thousands of answers before correctly naming them “non-fungible tokens.” NFTs have become the new buzzword in recent months, and with reports of some artists making millions off them, it seems like everyone is trying to break into the cryptocurrency art market.
NFTs were originally designed as a way to allow artists profit off of their shareable digital content. Once an NFT is purchased, artists can continue to make a percentage from any further sale. If you’re looking for a in-depth description on what exactly an NFT is, revisit Uproxx’s explainer here, but Jack Harlow actually gave a fairly succinct definition of NFTs in a recent SNL sketch. In a rap with Pete Davidson, Harlow detailed how NFTs are unique, built on blockchain technology, and can be sold once they’re “minted.”
Since March, NFTs have been all over the news, with everyone from sports teams to toilet paper brands joining the craze. But the music industry in particular has been seeing an explosion of NFTs, and major artists like Grimes and Steve Aoki have made a head-turning sum of money off of them. All this begs the question: How did NFTs go from an obscure acronym to one of the biggest trends in the music industry in just the matter of a few months? Let’s take a look.
Grimes has always been a pioneer in music and culture, which is why it makes sense that she was one of the first big-name musicians to sell artwork as an NFT. The singer had teamed up with her brother, Mac Boucher, to release her first collection of digital artwork as NFTs. Titled WarNymph Collection Vol 1, Grimes’ art sold out in just one day and ended up raking in $6 million.
March 3, 2021 — Disclosure
UK electronic duo Disclosure were also early to the NFT party. After seeing the success fellow EDM artist 3Lau had with NFTs, Disclosure decided to produce a brand-new song live on Twitch and mint it as an NFT. Ever since, the duo have continued to sell various NFTs, including a token for the original “Disclosure face” seen in their press photos and album art.
Despite the public scrutiny Tory Lanez has faced in the past year after allegedly shooting Megan Thee Stallion her in the foot, the rapper has continued to debut new music. Days ahead of the release of his recent album Playboy, Lanez paired two of the LP’s songs with digital art and minted them as NFTs. He also gave fans access to an unreleased song off his upcoming ’80’s-themed album, which has yet to be announced.
Kings Of Leon had a similar approach to Lanez when it comes to NFTs. The veteran group minted their entire LP When You See Yourself, which they referred to as NFT Yourself, as an NFT and sold it alongside a collection of other art. Those who purchased the NFT were able to snag a digital download of the album, as well as limited edition physical vinyl.
Steve Aoki‘s addition to the NFT industry was a 11-piece collection of vibrant digital artwork titled Dream Catcher, and he was extremely successful. A part of the collection ended up being purchased by T-Mobil CEO John Legere, who bought just one piece for a whopping $888,888.88. In total, Aoki was able to earn $4.25 million in the 24 hours that the auction took place.
March 12, 2021 — MF Doom
MF Doom was one of the early adopters of NFTs. In fact, he tragically passed last October just one day after his first NFT auction of augmented reality masks closed. With the help of his wife Jasmine and his estate, more of MF Doom’s augmented reality were once again sold as NFTs in March in partnership with the crypto marketplace Illust Space.
In a statement about the second auction, a representative from Illust Space said: “Due to blockchain’s immutable and decentralized ledger technology, all of MF DOOM’s AR NFT collection will be available for future generations of fans and collectors, creating a new model for royalties and posthumous creative control legacies.”
A few weeks after Grimes made a sizeable sum from selling her artwork as an NFT, Elon Musk decided to follow suit. When he’s not working on the future of space travel or tweeting out esoteric memes, the billionaire makes EDM music in his spare time. As the self-professed “technoking of Tesla,” Musk decided to make a song about NFTs, and sell it as an NFT.
March 17, 2021 — Halsey
“People Disappear Here” An Original NFT Collection available March 17th on @niftygateway. A portion of sales will be donated to @MFPLA, as well as @carbon_180, a NGO dedicated to the mission of creating a world that removes more carbon that it emits. pic.twitter.com/0lPlNc7513
While Halsey is known for her music, she’s also an incredibly talented interdisciplinary artist. That’s why she was relatively early to the NFT game. The singer auctioned off a handful of hand-painted characters she created in the collection People Disappear Here. “The characters are all inspired by figures that occurred in a series of sleep paralysis nightmares I had at home during the quarantine,” Halsey said in a statement. “After seven years of bed surfing hotel rooms around the world, adjusting to my own pitch black cave in California had a little bit of a learning curve. From toddler TV programming evil dentists, a child born with massive claws who scratched her way out of the womb, to a woman who stood at the foot of my bed and demanded I watch her masturbate. They were memorable to say the least.”
March 22, 2021 — Rico Nasty
It’s been nearly half a year since Rico Nasty released her anticipated debut studio album Nightmare Vacation, and she decided to commemorate the release with an NFT. The rapper teamed up with her “OHFR?” video creator Don Allen III to sell artwork from the video as an NFT. The highest bidder not only claims ownership of the NFT, but they also received the physical hammer Rico Nasty used the video, signed by the rapper herself. One of the reasons why she decided to join the NFT fad is that it “needs more women entering the space.”
March 23, 2021 — Diplo
When Diplo decided to break into the NFT industry, he did it a little differently. His series of NFT art, titled Cloud10, was made in collaboration with the artistic duo of Samuel Borkson and Arturo Sandoval III and features several cutesy animated characters. But rather than opening up the artwork to a bidding war, Diplo and his collaborators decided to offer their first NFT for only $1 in order for “for young collectors to grow their own wealth through the ownership of art.”
March 26, 2021 — Gorillaz
When Gorillaz announced they would be hopping onto the NFT game, it didn’t go quite as smoothly. While other musicians were welcomed into the world of NFTs, Gorillaz werechastised by their fanbase. The band announced that they would be celebrating the 20th anniversary of their debut album by teaming up with the toy company Superplastic for a series of toys, collectibles, and, of course, NFTs. Fans weren’t to happy with the news though, and were quick to point out the devastating environmental impact that the sale of a single NFT has. A petition was even created to get the Gorillaz to stop producing NFTs, and it already has over 3,000 signatures.
April 3, 2021 — The Weeknd
Excited to announce that my first NFT drop is taking place on Saturday at 2:00 pm EST on @niftygateway. The collection will feature new music and limited edition art. I developed the artwork with Strange Loop Studios pic.twitter.com/627BO4JekK
After The Weeknd was snubbed for a Grammy nomination in all categories this year despite the success of the album After Hours, the singer has begun to call for greater transparency in the music industry. He’s since decided to boycott the Grammys all together and made his displeasure about various aspects of the music industry abundantly clear. Seeing all the potential that NFTs have to offer, The Weeknd decided to hold a cryptocurrency auction where he would sell exclusive artwork, including an unreleased song, as an NFT.
About his decision to join the NFT market, The Weeknd laid out his vision for the future of the music industry: “Blockchain is democratizing an industry that has historically been kept shut by the gatekeepers. I’ve always been looking for ways to innovate for fans and shift this archaic music biz and seeing NFT’s allowing creators to be seen and heard more than ever before on their terms is profoundly exciting.”
M.I.A. is no stranger to taking her music to unconventional platforms. Last year, the musician launched a subscription-based Patreon page as a platform to share her new projects. Taking things one step further M.I.A announced a 24-hour NFT auction where she will be selling some of her original art for the first time in 25 years. “It’s only now that the appropriate gallery for my work finally exists,” she said in a statement.
Mick Jagger and Dave Grohl teamed up for the surprise collaboration “Eazy Sleazy” in April, which was meant to bring “some much-needed optimism” about coming out of COVID-19 lockdown. But a few days following the track’s release, Jagger announced that Berlin-based 3D artist Extraweg had turned the track into a digital animation, which he sold as an NFT during a 24-hour auction. All proceeds from the sale were divided up and donated between music-related charities.
Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Lil Yachty had a big comeback in 2020 thanks to the release of Lil Boat 3. The 19-track album was a return to form, highlighted by moments like “Oprah’s Bank Account” and contributions from the likes of Future, Tierra Whack, Lil Keed, Young Thug, and more. Six months later, the rapper returned in November 2020 with a deluxe reissue that featured eight additional songs. Now he’s ready to make his first big mark in 2021 thanks to the upcoming mixtape Michigan Boy Boat, his third release in less than a year and which will spotlight rappers from Detroit and Flint.
The rapper made the announcement on his Instagram page, with the following caption: “It’s on – 4/23/21… dis 4 my second home… let’s rap.” While it’s unknown how many songs will appear on the mixtape, Lil Yachty tagged a number of artists on the image, including Swae Lee, Sada Baby, Tee Grizzley, YN Jay, Babyface Ray, Louie Ray, Icewear Vezzo, and more.
The rollout for the project began with the single “Royal Rumble,” which boasts appearances from Krispylife Kid, RMC Mike, Babyface Ray, Rio Da Yung OG, and Icewear Vezzo.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
The world of digital collectibles known as NFTs have been going strong since taking off a few weeks back, and the latest musical act to get in on it is Doja Cat. The singer announced the launch of her own curated NFT marketplace, called Juicy Drops, as well as the debut of her first NFT collection, which arrives this Friday, April 23.
The Juicy Drops marketplace is a collaboration with Intellctable Holdings, a new NFT-focused company founded by 20-year music executive Shannon Schlappi. The marketplace’s first official drop features a collection of NFTs made in collaboration with toy designer BOOMTRONIC. Doja’s NFTs, which are inspired by her performance at last month’s Grammy Awards, sports a collection of 3-D digital graphics that includes a spinning, metallic Doja image in a gilded frame, as well as an image of her cat Raymus. The collection comes in six different colors with varying tiers of available quantities and price points. For instance, there’s a very rare “Metallic” tier with three different rarities and a “Flavored” tier with three additional rarities. Buyers who collect all six will earn a chance to be rewarded with a very rare “Mystery” tier that will not be for sale.
Doja spoke about the new venture in a press release. “I’m helping to launch my NFT company so that I can actually own and control my art,” she wrote. “I want to be able to make all decisions related to my creative vision and help other artists do the same. My ownership also allows me to direct how we can give back to causes that I truly believe in.”
The idea of a laid-back rapper like Lil Baby participating in a TikTok challenge may seem unlikely, but since one of the latest challenges tests users on their knowledge of artists’ lyrics rather than memorizing complicated, air traffic control-esque choreography, it would seem like he’d have at least this one in the bag.
Spoiler alert: [In extremely “Morgan Freeman as narrator” voice] He did not have this one in the bag. Confronted with a line from his 2018 song “I’m Straight” from breakout tape Harder Than Ever, Lil Baby was unable to recall the follow-up to “I’m cool on the love and the high-fives / You n***as can’t keep up with my guys,” which should have been “You can’t get all this drip in a lifetime.”
Now, to be fair, rappers forget their lyrics all the time, especially ones with extensive catalogs like Baby’s (see: Eminem, Lil Wayne, Nas). Despite only being around for half a decade, he’s accumulated the sort of output rappers in the ’90s would envy, with six full-length solo projects and two joint albums to his name in that time (and another on the way). Those albums are also very long, and while the general trend in hip-hop has been to shorten verses and songs overall to accommodate shorter attention spans and the greater prominence of streaming, Baby’s rather endearingly stuck to full-length verses with as many as 24 bars at a time.
That said, it’s still pretty awkward and funny to watch a rapper known for his lyrical output experience a complete brain fart during a quiz of their own lyrics, and pretty bold of him to let the TikTokers put him on blast like this. Watch Lil Baby flunk his own test below.
Musical artists tend to go by their stage names. One exception is City Girls rapper Yung Miami, born Caresha Brownlee. Up until 2019, her fans called her by her alias. But that changed after a string of viral videos showed close friend and fellow rapper Saucy Santana screaming, “Caresha, please!” Soon after, people began using her birth name — and Yung Miami wants them to stop that.
It began with a tweet earlier this month where she asked, “Why y’all don’t call me yung Miami?” More than a week later, she returned to the topic. “I been feeling violated every time a b*tch see me in public, they keep yelling ‘Caresha,’” she tweeted. “STOP DOING THAT I DON’T LIKE THAT!” During an Instagram Livestream, Yung Miami explained that only “delusional” people would call her by her government name. “In the back of my head I got to realize that everybody knows my name, but there’s a time and a place for that,” she said.
But it didn’t work. Fans continue to call her Caresha. The rapper recently hopped in the comment section of an Instagram post from Neighborhood Talk post to reveal she had given up trying to stop them. “Lmaooooo,” she wrote. “Ion care no more fr call me whatever lol.”
Benny The Butcher and Harry Fraud continue the rollout of their collaborative project The Plugs I Met 2 with the video for “When Tony Met Sosa.” The video mostly sees Benny performing his dextrous verses on a rooftop overlooking the city and seated beside a bathtub as a woman soaks in the frothy bubbles. At the very end, there’s a glimpse of the movie Scarface, from which Benny derives the song’s title.
The video for “When Tony Met Sosa” arrives just over two weeks after the clip for the Rick Hyde-featuring “Survivor’s Remorse” and a little over a month since the release of the The Plugs I Met 2 project, which launched alongside the video for the 2 Chainz-featuring “Plug Talk.” The Plugs videos give a strong push for the Griselda Records rapper — who also appeared on Belly’s comeback single “Money On The Table” — as he capitalizes on the newfound notoriety he’s received since his 2020 breakout, Burden Of Proof and the past year’s string of show-stealing guest appearances. While it may have taken the Griselda gang over ten years to climb to their current position, it looks like they’re taking full advantage, both as a unit and individually.
Watch Benny The Butcher and Harry Fraud’s “When Tony Met Sosa” video.
Young Dolph & Key Glock’s Dum And Dummer 2 has been out for nearly a month, yet the two Memphis MCs show no signs of pulling back on their prolific rollout for the joint project. After releasing videos for nine of the songs from the twenty-song project, including “Move Around,” “Rain Rain,” “Dummest & The Dummest,” and “Penguins,” they followed up today with Key Glock’s solo song “I Can Show You.”
The video has a relatively simple concept: Key Glock gives a step-by-step manual for making money, posing with his MCM Worldwide luggage and a rather large gun as CGI $100 bills fly around. The solo outing gives Glock the opportunity to highlight his own star power — which may soon be needed, now that Dolph has announced his official retirement, although he previously reneged on a promise to get out of the game. Fortunately, Key Glock has more than enough back catalog to support a long, successful catalog of his own.
His rise to stardom first kicked into overdrive in 2020 with a pair of albums that showed his hitmaking prowess: Yellow Tape and Son Of A Gun. In 2021, he’ll certainly be one to watch and knowing the Paper Route Empire crew, they’ve already got something in the works to make sure there’s something to see.
Moneybagg Yo is currently gearing up for the release of his anticipated LP A Gangsta’s Pain, which he officially announced just a few weeks ago. The rapper has offered previews of the upcoming album with “Hard For The Next,” his joint track with Future, as well as his Big 30-featuring song “Go!.” Now, just a few days ahead from the album’s debut, Moneybagg Yo has returned to unveil the final tracklist to A Gangsta’s Pain.
Along with Future and Big 30, A Gangsta’s Pain features notable artists like Polo G, Lil Durk, Jhené Aiko, Pharrell, and more. The album follows a prolific 2020 for Moneybagg Yo, who impressively released two full-length LPs and a deluxe album all in less than a year.
Check out Moneybagg Yo’s A Gangsta’s Pain tracklist below.
1. “Memphganistan” Feat. Kaash Paige
2. “Just Say Det”
3. “GO!” Feat. BIG 30
4. “Wockesha”
5. “Shottas (Lala)”
6. “Hard For The Next” Feat. Future
7. “If Pain Was A Person”
8. “I Believe U” Feat. TripStar
9. “Time Today”
10. “Interlude”
11. “Free Promo” Feat. Polo G and Lil Durk
12. “Hate It Here”
13. “Love It Here”
14. “Clear Da Air”
15. “Projects”
16. “One Of Dem Nights” Feat. Jhené Aiko
17. “FR”
18. “Certified Neptunes” Feat. Pharrell
19. “Change Da Subject”
20. “Least Ian Lie”
21. “Bipolar Virgo”
22. “A Gangsta’s Pain”
A Gangsta’s Pain is out 4/23 via CMG/N-less Entertainment/Interscope Records. Pre-order it here.
or 
, We need a million likes for part 2 
