It has been nearly two years since the release of Cordae’s debut album The Lost Boy, and the 23-year-old Maryland native’s fans are getting antsy for a follow-up. They’ve had a few singles to old them over recently, including the Roddy Ricch-featuring “Gifted,” which made Cordae’s name change official, and “The Parables,” which put his songwriting prowess on display, but Wednesday night/Thursday morning, Cordae’s giving the world a few more appetizers ahead of his nearly-completed sophomore album.
Today, he announced the upcoming release of Just Until…, a four-song EP releasing at midnight “tomorrow” featuring guest appearances from two disparate entities that highlight the young rapper’s cross-generational appeal. On “More Life,” he’ll team up with Q-Tip, who represents the ’90s Golden Era that clearly influences much of Cordae’s work, while on “Wassup,” he’s recruited Young Thug, one of the top representatives of the modern generation of genre-bending rappers to which Cordae himself belongs.
Album is almost done, but here’s something Just Until….
While that tension has helped to make Cordae a favorite of both older rap fans and younger ones, as seen in his ability to convincingly collaborate with the jazzy Dinner Party crew on “Freeze Tag” and Stevie Wonder and Busta Rhymes on “Can’t Put It In The Hands Of Fate,” it’s also generated some behind-the-scenes friction. Royce Da 5’9″ recently told a podcast that Atlantic actually blocked Cordae from appearing on his Grammy-nominated The Allegory because higher-ups at the label allegedly “want to keep him young.”
However, the tracklist for Just Until… seems to suggest that the wise-beyond-his-years Cordae doesn’t care about all that — he just wants to work with the best of the best. Look out for that release on 4/21 at midnight and his full album later this year.
Cordae is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Earth Day is right around the corner and as the climate change crisis persists, it’s more important than ever to raise awareness about environmentalism. That’s why iconic TV host Bill Nye The Science Guy has tapped several musicians including Justin Bieber and Jack Harlow to join him in an Earth Day-themed musical.
Earth Day! The Musical takes place on April 22 and follows Nye as he and a handful of celebrities and activists share information about how individuals can do their part to help curb the effects of climate change. Other celebrities slated to join Bieber, Harlow, and Nye include Maluma, Ben Platt, Charli and Dixie D’Amelio, Cody Simpson, Steve Aoki, Tori Kelly, Zac Efron, Desus Nice and The Kid Mero, and Nick Kroll.
The event will stream on Facebook and also showcase the important work of several entrepreneurs trying to make the world a better place. CEO Alexia Akbay will highlight their Hawaii-based company Symbrosia, which uses seaweed to reduce livestock methane, and 18-year-old Jerome Foster II will discuss how he became the youngest member of the Biden White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council.
Earth Day! The Musical premieres 4/22 at 12 p.m. ET. Watch it here.
Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
After Almighty Suspect, Blac Chyna, and Guapdad 4000 gave their impressions of Canadian dancehall star Snow’s “Informer” video in the last episode of React Like You Know, this week’s episode sticks to the dancehall lane with Jamaican icon of the genre, Sean Paul, and his 2003 video for “Like Glue.” Released as the third single to Sean Paul’s second album Dutty Rock which dropped just a year earlier, the single peaked at No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100, was successful worldwide, and was a fixture of music video countdown shows’ daily rotation for a good, long while.
Of course, for our panel of fresh-faced, up-and-coming artists, that may as well have been 100 years ago — NLE Choppa was only eight months old when the single was released, and most of the others wouldn’t have been in the target demo for shows like TRL and 106 & Park just yet, either. Most only remember the song from family get-togethers, although Shootergang Kony fondly remembers Sean Paul from the EA rapper wrestling game, Def Jam: Fight For NY (a true classic that deserves an HD remake and/or sequel — someone please get on that immediately, thanks).
Watch the latest episode React Like You Know above.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Fans have been waiting to her details about a new project from Jorja Smith ever since the UK singer captivated audiences with soothing vocals on her 2018 debut album Lost & Found. With the release of her recent single “Addicted,” it seemed as though Smith was gearing up for something exciting and on Monday, the singer officially returned with a big announcement.
Smith shared the snappy single “Gone” on Monday, which arrived alongside the announcement of her forthcoming eight-track project Be Right Back. About the song “Gone,” Smith says she hopes her listeners can derive their own meaning from her lyrics, adding that she wrote the track about tragedy:
“There’s something about being able to write about one thing and for it to mean so many different things to others. I love that this song, well any of my songs really, will be interpreted in different ways, depending on the experiences of the people listening. This one is just me asking why people have to be taken from us.”
About the album as a whole, Smith says, “It’s called Be Right Back because it’s just something I want my fans to have right now, this isn’t an album and these songs wouldn’t have made it. If I needed to make these songs, then someone needs to hear them too.”
Listen to Smith’s “Gone” above and see the Be Right Back album cover art and tracklist below.
When comedian Ron Funches tweeted that Outkast is better than The Beatles, he likely knew his opinion would be controversial and generate plenty of discussion as a result. But he probably wasn’t expecting Andre 3000 to reach out to him and offer to send him a gift for, as he puts it, “telling the truth.” Funches explained the reasoning behind his viral tweet, analyzed the reaction to it, and revealed his correspondence with the Outkast member during last night’s episode of The Late Late Show with James Corden.
“What prompted me to write it was just my love of OutKast,” he recalled. “It’s not hatred to the Beatles — I think the Beatles are amazing.” However, he said, “Some of the things that I grew up with and that I value aren’t necessarily given the same amount of worth… They moved the entire rap industry to Atlanta, how they changed it from rapping about drugs to rapping about art, rapping about life. Erykah Badu over Yoko Ono, all day!”
Funches also said that Andre did reach out, joking that the always unconventional rapper sent him an owl — as in Harry Potter — letting him know the gift was on the way. “I hope it’s a handmade flute doesn’t work,” he giggled.
You can watch Ron’s interview with James Corden above.
As of this week, Waka Flocka is not only a rapper, but he’s an officially-recognized upstanding citizen. He’s now a proud recipient of the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award, which he was given by former blue check Republican Donald Trump.
Flocka was officially awarded a certificate and medal as part of his Lifetime Achievement Award. Per a report from TMZ, the rapper received the honors thanks to his work with the Chicago-based charity Daughter of Destiny Outreach, which is a non-profit that aims to support “women who need help in facing challenges such as unemployment, lack of food, housing, community, and inner healing.” The certificate is dated 2020 but Flocka officially received the award on Friday, though TMZ states the Trump Administration had signed off on everything before he left office.
In a video after being issued the award, Flocka thanked his supporters and his mentor, Dr. Bridget C. Outlaw: “I just want to thank President Trump for recognizing me. Thank Bridget, just thank everybody that love me enough to love you back and do everything that I want to do that’s genuine.”
Flocka also showed off his framed certificate in a beaming Instagram photo. “I gotta thank my pastor/big sister Apostle Dr. Bridget C. Outlaw for teaching and guiding me on this journey God got us on I’m just honored,” he wrote.
While Flocka thanked Trump for giving him the award, the two were briefly rivals in 2016 when Flocka decided to run for president. A year later, the rapper made it clear he wasn’t a fan of the 2016 winner as he grabbed a fan’s Trump jersey at a show and wiped his butt with it on stage.
Netflix’s new samurai anime Yasuke premieres at the end of the month but today, the show’s executive producer Flying Lotus released two new songs from its soundtrack, including “Black Gold” featuring fellow anime fan Thundercat. FlyLo also shared “Between Memories” featuring Niki Randa today. You can listen to both via the Spotify embeds below.
YasukeThe Boondocks and another Netflix anime, Cannon Busters. Speaking with Apple Music about the new show, Flying Lotus credited the creation process with helping him get through the pandemic:
Honestly, it kept me sane. It was the best thing I could ask for because I had to be home. If I had touring and stuff, it would have been a little bit funky to really engage with the project like I was able to. I got to just really focus on it and just be a samurai for a while. It was really nice to just have that to run to, this universe, especially when all that Trumpy stuff was going on and things were getting all crazy. I was so glad just to shut that off and get to business. I knew when they were starting to deliver visuals and stuff that it was about to get intense. I was like, “Ah,” and I still had to try to figure out what I wanted it all to sound like. So it was a lot of meditating on the vibe, and I found a lot of parallels between the Yasuke story and being part of this thing. Trying to make music in the Japanese anime system, it’s a different experience than scoring something here in America. It’s just their way of doing things is so different to ours. It took a minute to grow and it took them to be willing to accept us, to work with our schedule, and take on our story as well. So it was a lot of love from both sides really on that.
Listen to “Black Gold” and “Between Memories” above.
The fallout from Kanye West’s failed Presidential campaign simply refuses to settle. Not only was it cited as a big potential reason behind his divorce from Kim Kardashian but now, it seems his marriage to her is the reason behind some of his paperwork being rejected by federal campaign overseers. According to Business Insider, the Office of Government Ethics has rejected Kanye’s financial disclosure forms, as Kanye did not include Kim’s income and assets on the forms, citing a rare exemption in state law that officials found suspicious.
The law, which allows candidates to forego disclosing a spouse’s income if they have no knowledge of the income stream and do not expect to derive financial benefit from it, could hardly apply to Kanye, according to an insider at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Jordan Libowitz, CREW’s communications director, explained, It’s not just that he did not report it, but that he used an exemption, and a fairly rare one, to reporting. It said among things, that he had no knowledge of what her assets were or where her income came from. And that seems a little tough to believe.”
Remember, Forbes regularly reports on the entire Kardashian family’s financial successes often, including when both Kanye and Kim officially surpassed the billionaire mark (separately). Although the two did have a prenuptial agreement, which is making their divorce easier, apparently, government officials deemed it too much of a stretch to think that Kim’s income wasn’t at least partially tied to Kanye’s (to the point that Kanye’s $53 million debt turnaround in 2016 was subject to speculation that he received a “bailout” of sorts from Kim).
While the discrepancy is unlikely to result in prosecution, Kanye’s campaign was already fraught with numerous ethics and regulatory issues that make it another red flag for investigators looking into his campaign. As of now, it looks like he did spend his own money funding it — around $3 million just collecting signatures and over $6 million overall — but it looks like his last-minute, haphazard practices have continued causing him headaches long after his embarassing loss.
The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.
Collaboration is nothing without chemistry. It’s why when a superstar athlete joins a new team, critics question if success will be attained or things will crumble into failure. When a group effort sees each member recognizing and making up for one another’s weaknesses, more times than not, art in its most beautiful form arrives, leaving its consumers to stand starry-eyed to take in the new experience. Elsewhere, doubters rush to eat their words in an attempt to hide them and avoid having to own up to their wrongs. It’s this excellent chemistry in collaboration that lives on Van Buren Records’ debut album, Bad For Press.
The thirteen-track effort compiles some of the best hip-hop talents Massachusetts has to offer. The heavy-muscled collective includes names like Luke Bars and Saint Lyor, who both caught attention in 2020 for their respective GoodEvil and If My Sins Could Talk. Jiles is the epitome of a flower blooming in a dark room, as his sinister verses both rattle and enthrall listeners. Meech, Andrew Regis, and Lord Felix punch jaws and dizzy minds with their bars while Ricky Felix and Kiron create the ideal landscape for the rappers to go berzerk in.
Bad For Press arrives with a “yeah, so what?” sneer from the Van Buren collective. Suits & ties with smiles never fit the group’s desired aesthetic like a mean mug and slight tilt of the head do. Just two songs into the project, “Braindead” captures the groups overwhelming audacity towards anything that steps before them. Lyor’s straight-faced hook delivers a message within the words that menacingly leave his mouth: this is not a group you want to spar with. Similar sentiments arrive on “Medic,” a song that sonically warns of impending danger all for the Van Buren rappers to be the individuals to make these fears a reality.
On the album, individual egos aren’t left outside the door, rather, they’re combined into some supernatural force that entwines itself with the words the group raps throughout the albums. So when songs like “It Is What It Is” or “No Interview” pierce through your headphones, it’s a huge disservice to ignore the talent, energy, and persona that are packaged into what is the Van Buren collective. Both tracks encapsulate the rambunctious energy the group would present onstage in a perfect pandemic-less world, but simply hearing them rapping their asses off makes this impending moment all that more desirable.
Despite the strong-armed reinforcement Van Buren delivers on the album, there are moments where the aggression is replaced with reflection and an effort to look into the past and see how far they’ve made it. “Looking For Trouble” opens the memories of their turbulent youth that Lyor describes best, rapping, “I be looking for trouble, I had nothing else to do.” Luckily for them, things have changed for the better. Van Buren also documents their struggle to thaw their cold hearts to receive the warmth of love on “Nevermind” while “Outro” is a smooth landing that ties an elegant bow around the wild ride Bad For Press is. In letting their guard down for a few moments, Van Buren effectively proves why it was up in the first place.
Bad For Press could be dissected in many ways. You could focus on individual talents and applaud Bars’ show-stealing verse to close “Gangbanger (Remix)” or Andrew Regis’ knife-wielding bars on “Medic.” There’s Meech’s slick-talk over Ricky Felix’s best-produced song with “No Interviews” and Jiles’ cutthroat contribution to “Braindead.” Not to mention Lyor’s honest tales on “Looking For Trouble” as well. However, this approach overlooks and diminishes the best thing about Van Buren: the fact that these individual qualities, which vary in presence and effectiveness on each song, contribute to the gleaming pot of gold that represents the Massachusetts rappers and all their glory. If Van Buren thinks they’re Bad For Press so be it, we could use more artists who embrace going against the grain.
Bad For Press is out now via Van Buren Records. Get it here.
Lil Yachty has been on a tear lately, as if he’s out to prove all his early-careers haters’ assumptions that he couldn’t rap wrong. Over the last few months, he’s released a string of lyrically focused freestyles such as the “Royal Rumble” cipher with seemingly all of the rising rappers in Michigan and the “No More Beatboxing Freestyle,” which saw him take on two of the hotter instrumentals of the moment. Now, he keeps the ball rolling with “Cortex,” a quick hitter accompanied by an in-studio video surrounded by his clique.
In addition to his freestyle videos, Yachty’s been rolling out a few singles that show that his songwriting remains as clever as ever, with videos that showcase his quirky sense of humor and visual creativity. In February, he released the dapper “Asshole” video with Oliver Tree, as well as the Vince Staples-featuring “In My Stussy’s” video. Meanwhile, he’s keeping his corporate profile pristine as well; at the end of 2020, he collaborated with Reese’s Puff cereal on a box and a new song, and earlier this year, it was reported that he’s developing a heist movie based on the card game Uno. He’s also set to appear in season two of Lil Dicky’s breakout FX comedy, Dave.
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