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Joyce Wrice Is Too ‘Overgrown’ For Immaturity And Indecisiveness On Her Debut Album

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Logan Williamson/Ralph Ordaz

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.

Well before you hear her delicate, soaring voice, an admirable aspect of Joyce Wrice’s career is her ability to be a highlight in a room full of undeniable talents. After landing collaborations with Dom Kennedy, Blu, Jay Prince, and others in the early to mid-2010s, Wrice’s light would soon brighten. In recent years, she’s landed tracks with Devin Morrison (“With You”), Free Nationals (“The Rivington”), and Westside Gunn (“French Toast”). Her contributions were always the sweet icing on an already tasty cake, a delicacy that slowly drew more interest towards the supporting act with each release.

Finally, Wrice has delivered her main course to the world with her debut album, Overgrown. Unlike most love-focused R&B debuts, which often present youth and naivety as accompanying attributes in relationships, the LA singer’s body of work seemingly arrives after this stage in life. Experience and the wisdom to learn from it all find Wrice more prepared to begin the trek towards a committed lover who’s just as mature as she is.

While the end goal on Overgrown is indeed a partner who meets her standards, that’s only half of it. On the album’s title track, which doubles as the project’s outro, Wrice shares what could be documented as her “above all else” mantra. “But don’t you lose all that makes you you,” she sings. “You will be scared, unprepared sometimes.” The heart will always want what it wants but altering its best and most foundational aspects to attain that will bring a result that’s not nearly as satisfying as one imagined.

This very thought process is why on “Losing” she makes her insufficient lover not only aware of their sub-par contributions to their growing relationship, but her irreversible decision to find something better. The song’s swift-moving drums and giddy guitar strings capture her nimble sidestep in dodging the bullet of an unsatisfying love. “Must Be Nice” also echoes the mantra she introduced on the album’s outro, and despite a counter for Masego to continue to flow, Wrice stands firm on placing a pause on their nighttime fun for the betterment of herself. “But it’s just something about the things you do to me / You keep me places I know I ain’t supposed to be,” she sings, adding, “I’ve got rules when I’m with you I don’t follow / I’m wishing you were a phase.’”

Wrice’s insistence for a companion that checks off all her desired boxes stems from being deprived from her close encounters of just that. This picture-perfect partner who absorbs her attention by simply breathing is her muse on “Addicted” and “Think About You.” The once too-good-for-you singer finds herself swept up on a love cloud that unfortunately fails to bring her to her desired location. The former accounts for her inability to turn her dream lover into a reality over an electric ballad while the latter is a dreamy affair that sees her putting the ball in their court with the hope that they make the easy layup.

Overgrown is the LA singer’s way of letting both new and old interests know that immaturity and indecisiveness are not welcomed in her world. It’s clear Wrice has had her fair share of that in the past and its return is the last thing she needs. While some might use their debut to document their growth, Wrice takes her opportunity to show that she is grown. Whether it’s falling in love, falling out of it, or just avoiding it altogether, Overgrown tells and shows listeners that through it all, she’ll present her best self and push forward with it as nobly as possible. If you’re going to wear your heart on your sleeve as she does, the least you can do is protect it from heinous outside forces. For Wrice, this protection not only comes in the form of self-preservation but also through strict warnings that promise undesirable consequences if ignored

Overgrown is out now via Joyce Wrice Music. Get it here.

Blxst Enjoys A Campus Romance In His ‘Chosen’ Video With Tyga And Ty Dolla Sign

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Blxst‘s new video for “Chosen” from the deluxe version of his No Love Lost EP takes inspiration from historically Black colleges and universities, with a heavy emphasis on fraternity life as displayed in movies like Spike Lee’s School Daze. Blxst plays the big man on campus, bumping into his romantic lead early in the video and spending time with her on the yard and at a house party.

The song’s featured artists, Tyga and Ty Dolla Sign, also appear as fellow members of Blxst’s frat, throwing a parking lot party and staging a performance backed by cheerleaders on the football field. Meanwhile, the cheerleaders put on a private twerk show of their own in the locker room.

The “Chosen” video follows “Got It All” with Dom Kennedy as the latest visual releases from No Love Lost, while the LA-based rapper and singer followed-up the project with a two-song double single release, Just For Clarity, earlier this month. That single included appearances from the recently released Drakeo The Ruler and indie rap evangelist Russ.

Watch Blxst, Tyga, and Ty Dolla Sign’s “Chosen” video above.

Ty Dolla Sign is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Kota The Friend’s Refreshing ‘To Kill A Sunrise’ With Statik Selektah Makes Rap Sound Fun Again

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Kota The Friend / Ralph Ordaz

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.

It’s a formula we’ve all seen before; one rapper, one producer, 10 tracks. There’s a reason for this: It works.

The latest example proving this aphorism is To Kill A Sunrise, the concise collaborative project from burgeoning Brooklyn rapper Kota The Friend and veteran Boston producer Statik Selektah. Released just two months removed from Kota’s last project, the quick and dirty Lyrics To Go, Vol. 2, this latest effort makes an ironclad case for the aforementioned recipe with crisp, inventive rhymes over inviting instrumentals that show what traditionalist hip-hop can be at its absolute best.

Over the course of his surprisingly productive five-year career, Kota has proven to be one of the genre’s foremost advocates of the bars-first mentality endemic to his hometown’s musical philosophy throughout the mid-’90s. To put it bluntly, whenever someone shouts out “real hip-hop,” they usually mean rap in the vein of jazz-sampling, puffer jacket-wearing, Timberland boot-stomping, cerebral rappers from the lyrical bloodline of acts like Gang Starr, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, and A Tribe Called Quest.

Kota has this, yes, but he also adds his own unique, plainspoken perspective to the simile-ridden rhyme style of his forebears, leavening their rugged machismo with a vulnerable, confessional, emotionally intelligent bent to his raps. He displayed as much on his breakout 2019 album Foto and on its 2020 follow-up Everything, but whereas on those albums, he displayed that honest tendency over beats that toed the line between modernism and his natural, jazz-rap instincts, on To Kill A Sunrise, he fully indulges the latter, partnering with their perfect foil in Statik Selektah.

For instance on “Hate,” Statik laces Kota with a stripped-down, hand-clap-and-key-stab sample pack over which Kota can “have some fun,” as he says on the song’s introductory instrumental bars. On the song’s opposite, “The Love,” Statik scratches in over a tinkling piano sample, throws hella swing on the drum kit, and channels the spirit of 1991. Kota dives in headfirst, ruminating on intergenerational responsibilities and working at mediocre jobs before attaining his dream of supporting himself through his music.

The combination of Statik’s throwback beats and Kota’s straightfoward, lyrics-focused rhyme style certainly evokes nostalgia for a certain era and place in hip-hop history but they’re not stuck in the past, as so many rhyme-first rap conservatives can be. They don’t thumb their noses at modern trends so much as eschew them entirely; they aren’t here to scold rappers for humming or diss their gold-chain-flexing, trap-praising peers. The endeavor comes across more self-contained, as if to say, “This is us, in our element, doing what we like to do.” In short, it’s a rapper and producer having fun making music, which can sometimes feel rare these days.

Ever since Jay-Z first uttered that fateful phrase “I’m not a rapper,” it can seem as though many folks who do the job are only doing it to get their feet in the door at the places they really want to work, like waitstaff at the local diner who are really actors or web designers or CEOs in casual conversations. Within the past month, I’ve written about no less seven major rap stars securing their first acting roles, while a number of others have jumped into tech or become restauranteurs.

These are all good things! We’ve seen enough rappers go from rags to riches back to rags over the past four decades to understand that rap money doesn’t always last. “LLC Twitter” is quick to remind anyone unfortunate enough to stumble across their condescending messages that you should have multiple streams of income to ensure a comfortable lifestyle and we’ve both praised and criticized Jay-Z for his capitalistic ambitions. Entertainment’s a fickle mistress, so it’s best to make sure there’s a plan B, C, D, E, F, and G for the day the winds change and fans’ taste does too.

But it’s so refreshing to listen to someone make hip-hop because they enjoy making hip-hop. Kota raps about hustling his way out of poverty, yes, but not through socially destructive means. And now that he’s reached his level of comfort, there’s no castigation or roasting of his listeners or taunting of his enemies and haters. Kota raps like the money is assured on tracks like “Live & Direct,” but also secondary to things like fatherhood, community, health, and sharing his wisdom rather than lording it over the plebians who keep him in business.

Nor does he waste time berating anyone for making or enjoying that type of rap. He’s not a snob or an elitist. He’s not above employing a trappish beat himself, as he displayed on prior releases like Everything. But he’s a rapper’s rapper who truly enjoys the craft, working with an established producer who knows how to tap into his strongest impulses. The result is just like the sunrise: Enjoyable to experience, invigorating and easygoing at the same time, and full of promise for a new day.

To Kill A Sunrise Is Out Now via FLTBYS. Get it here.

Justin Bieber Names Fellow Canadian Drake Among His New Top Five Rappers

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Justin Bieber recently released his sixth studio album Justice, and while promoting the new project, he stopped by his friend and frequent collaborator DJ Khaled’s Amazon Music podcast, The First One. Over the course of their conversation, the discussion turned to that favorite topic of hip-hop heads everywhere: The top five rappers in hip-hop — namely, Justin’s personal list.

A fun thing about this topic is that someone’s list can change a lot over the years (contrary to some folks’ opinions) as they grow and learn or as new rappers enter the scene. Justin has answered this question in the past, offering an unusual mix of names that included Eminem, Mase, Nas, The Notorious B.I.G., and Tupac, mixing in some conventional favorites with a rapper few would expect (but don’t act like you don’t hit your two-step the instant “Feel So Good” comes on).

This time around, though, he shook things up almost completely. Although he retained Biggie and Eminem from his prior list, he now counts fellow Canadian Drake, Mase disciple Kanye West, and the seemingly immortal Lil Wayne among the best to ever grace the mic. Drake is the most recent addition to the rap game overall, but Bieber justifies his inclusion by pointing out his music is “constantly pushing culture and the needle forward”.

Watch Justin Bieber’s conversation with DJ Khaled above.

Ja Rule Sold A Painting Of The Fyre Festival Logo As An NFT For Over $120K

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Crypto-art is currently beyond big business as the non-fungible token trading craze continues. The latest high-profile celebrity to get in on the bubble before it bursts is Ja Rule, who bragged of recently selling a painting of the Fyre Festival logo for over $120,000 on the Flipkick market. It was painted by Tripp Derrick Barnes for the company’s New York office but Ja kept it after the disastrous festival weekend.

Although Fyre Festival creator Billy McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison for fraud, investor Ja Rule was cleared of similar charges after a judge determined he didn’t know about the behind-the-scenes logistical failures that turned the luxury festival into a documentary-worthy fiasco. In an interview with Forbes about selling the painting, Ja explained that he really wanted to get rid of the painting because he felt it brought him “bad luck.” Initially commissioning the painting for just $2,000, he originally thought about selling it on eBay but a friend convinced him to get in on the NFT trend.

And while $120,000 seems like a tremendous profit on the $2,000 painting, it’s a big step down from his original asking price of $600,000. I guess people weren’t willing to go in that deeply on something Ja Rule’s selling.

Bono Enlisted An All-Star Cast For The Animated Series ‘Pandemica’ In An Effort To Stop Vaccine Hoarding

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The last time a bunch of celebrities got together to try and “help” with the pandemic, it resulted in the dreaded “Imagine” video, which even its participants have admitted was probably not the best idea. We can safely say the new animated series, Pandemica, is definitely not that.

Produced by the Bono-founded ONE organization, which will stream the series for free across its social media channels, Pandemica boasts a stellar cast and centers on a fictional world that’s a “never-ending pandemic purgatory, where COVID-19 never goes away and no one is sure how long they will be stuck there or if they can ever leave.” The series aims to raise awareness about the importance of everyone in the world getting vaccinated to end the pandemic, and the dangers of wealthy nations hoarding the much-needed shots. Via THR:

“Pandemica’s animated world animates a simple truth — that where you live shouldn’t determine whether you get these life-saving shots,” said U2 frontman Bono, co-founder of ONE and (RED). “Even while many of us still wait our turn, we need to commit to making sure that billions of people around the world aren’t left at the back of the line. It’s the right thing to do, obviously, but it’s also the only way out of this pandemic for all of us. If the vaccine isn’t everywhere, this pandemic isn’t going anywhere.”

Here’s the full cast list: Patrick Adams, Samuel Arnold, Bono, Connie Britton, Penélope Cruz, Meg Donnelly, Danai Gurira, Nick Kroll, Laura Marano, Kumail Nanjiani, David Oyelowo, Phoebe Robinson, Michael Sheen, Wanda Sykes and Calum Worthy.

Pandemica premieres March 25 on ONE.

(Via THR)

Rihanna Suggests She Might Release A New Song ‘Soon’ To Celebrate The Anniversary Of ‘Anti’

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Every so often over the past few years, Rihanna says something or writes something on social media that gets fans excited about the possibility of new music. Now she has made yet another comment that suggests new music could be on the way soon.

Rihanna’s most recent album, 2016’s Anti, recently celebrated its fifth anniversary, a milestone that Rihanna observed on social media. Rihanna shared a fan-made video that showed off some clips from the Anti era as well as a recent tweet from Chart Data, which notes, “@rihanna’s ‘ANTI’ has now spent 5 full years on the Billboard 200. First album by a black female artist to reach this milestone in the chart’s history.” In the comments, somebody suggested, “celebrate by releasing a song !!” Rihanna decided to get fans excited with her response: “I think I should [soon emoji].” She added, “just 1 tho lol.”

There’s hope for new Rihanna beyond this. Back in December, she suggested that she wanted to devote some serious energy to her music in 2021, saying, “2021 is a little unknown for everybody and nobody is sure what restrictions there are going to be. My creativity is within my control, though, and I want to take my music and my brands to a different level.”

Brockhampton Wreaks Havoc With Danny Brown In Their Trippy Video For ‘Buzzcut’

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It’s been almost two years since Brockhampton released their fifth album, Ginger, and since then the band has kept things fairly quiet outside of a remix of “Sugar” with Dua Lipa and a string of singles they released last spring, including “Things Can’t Stay The Same,” “Twisted,” and “Downside.” Now it looks like the group is ready to begin the rollout of their sixth album. On Wednesday night they dropped their new single, “Buzzkill,” featuring Danny Brown. The track arrived with a trippy video that finds the Brockhampton collective wreaking absolute havoc in a technicolor universe while Danny Brown joins in for an attention-grabbing verse.

Following the release of Ginger in 2019, Brockhampton kept the pedal to the floor for the next few months. They stopped by The Ellen DeGeneres Show to perform “Ginger” and “Sugar” before bringing their talents to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to perform the latter once again. They also released a pair of videos for “Sugar,” which later became the band’s most successful single to date.

While their upcoming sixth album remains untitled, Brockhampton’s head producer Romil Hemnani revealed in an interview with i-D that the initials for the upcoming project are “RR.” Some fans believed that its full title is Roadrunner after they noticed band members, including Jabari Manwa, wearing “Roadrunner” apparel. As for the upcoming album, Hemnani said, “I’m excited about it, it’s my favourite one yet.”

You can watch the video above.

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

Miley Cyrus Sent Flowers To Migos To Celebrate The 15th Anniversary Of Her ‘Hannah Montana’ TV Series

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Miley Cyrus’ climb to worldwide recognition began 15 years ago with the Disney Channel premiere of her TV show Hannah Montana. The series, aimed at young viewers, arrived on March 24, 2006 and continued for almost five years before ending in 2011. The show undoubtedly played a huge role in her career and she even admitted that she “would love to” bring it back in some way. But until that happens, a celebration of the anniversary is in order and the singer made sure to take a moment and reflect, but not without showing love to the Migos for their 2013 single “Hannah Montana.”

The rap trio took to Instagram to reveal that Miley sent them flowers as a thank you for the song. While the lyrics weren’t about the TV show or even Miley Cyrus herself, the singer still appreciated their decision to name the song after her character, which she shared in a message attached to the flowers. “I [love] your song about me! Keep rockin’!” she wrote before signing off on the note as Hannah Montana.

Cyrus also shared a lengthy statement that about Hannah Montana that reflected on the highs and lows of the show. She also discussed important life events that occurred while filming what she took away from it when it came to an end.

SWV And Xscape Will Bring Their R&B Classics To The Table In An Upcoming ‘Verzuz’

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Verzuz

The past week has been a busy one for Verzuz, and it looks like the next couple of months will be just as active. Next month, SWV and Xscape will come together for a 20-song competition, bringing some of their best songs for another great showcase of R&B’s past. Surely we’ll be hearing SWV’s “Weak” and “Right Here” from their 1992 album, It’s About Time, and Xscape’s “Justin Kickin’ It” and “Understanding” from 1993’s Hummin’ Comin’ At ‘Cha, among others.

SWV and Xscape’s battle is the latest Verzuz duel announced within the past week. Earlier Timbaland and Swizz Beatz revealed the next battle will be between Earth, Wind & Free and The Isley Brothers on Easter Sunday. Less than three weeks later, Redman and Method Man will go head-to-head in a “How High” special on April 20. The platform also promoted three themed events: “Ladies Night,” “Mother’s Day Special,” and “Rematch,” as well as two additional untitled battles. The participants for these matchups have yet to be revealed.

But there’s one high-profile artist that Verzuz almost coaxed into a battle: Dr. Dre. During an episode of The Breakfast Club, Timbaland and Swizz Beatz revealed the rap legend backed out after Teddy Riley and Babyface’s heavy-flawed battle last April. “When Dr. Dre wasn’t feeling the sound from Teddy Riley and Babyface, that hurt our heart,” Swizz said. “I was like, ‘Oh my god.’”

You can read the announcement for SWV and Xscape’s Verzuz above.