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Rowdy Rebel Proclaims He And Bobby Shmurda Will Appear At This Year’s Summer Jam Festival

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It looks like Rowdy Rebel and Bobby Shmurda have big plans for 2021. Of the bigger things on their docket is appearing at this year’s upcoming Summer Jam Festival. Whether it be a virtual performance or an in-person event, that banks on the status of the pandemic, but the upcoming performance should be one of the duo’s first together since the start of their prison sentence on conspiracy to commit murder and weapons charges, back in 2014. Rowdy was freed in December and it’s been reported that Bobby will get out on February 23.

“I normally wouldn’t speak on my brother’s behalf, but I know my brother ain’t gonna miss Summer Jam,” Rowdy proclaimed during an interview on Hot 97. “Some things are just mandatory, and Summer Jam is mandatory.” The announcement comes after Rowdy said Bobby’s release would happen in less than a week. “SIX DAYS LEFT […] Then all the joy gone wash away the pain, I promise you brother,” he wrote in an Instagram post from February 17, which falls in line with Bobby’s rumored February 23 release.

Rowdy kicked off his comeback with “Jesse Owens” while Bobby is sure to have plenty of new songs when he gets released.

You can watch the Hot 97 interview above.

Playboi Carti Was Approached And Threatened By A Man Who Claimed He Put His Hands On His Sister

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Prior to December, much of the anger and frustration that was directed at Playboi Carti had to do with his extremely-delayed album, Whole Lotta Red. Finally, on Christmas Day, the rapper released the project to the delight of his fans and the lukewarm reception of critics. While the displeasures with the rapper have calmed down over the last couple of months, the rapper was recently approached and threatened by a man in a video that was shared on social media.

It’s unknown where or when the incident occurred but in the video, the man and someone else, who recorded the confrontation, approached Carti and angrily spoke to the rapper. The man then claims that he can beat Carti up if they got into a fight. For much of the video, the rapper can be seen with his hand behind his back, a stance that made the two individuals that approach him believe he was holding a gun.

Despite their thoughts, a weapon did not appear in the video. Eventually, the man claims that Carti put his hands on his sister. The rapper immediately denied the accusation and soon the camera moves away from the rapper, making it hard to tell what happened next.

After the incident, Carti took to Twitter and said, “i KnOck br0 oUT . hE WAS bEInG TOo cRAZY !”

You can watch the incident in the video above.

Bad Bunny Dazzled With Performances Of ‘La Noche De Anoche’ And ‘Te Deseo Lo Mejor’ On ‘SNL’

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As if there weren’t plenty of highlights on his resume already, Bad Bunny adds another one to the list with a dazzling performance on Saturday Night Live. Bringing his talents, to the late-night set, he kicked off the night by performing “La Noche De Anoche” with Rosalia. Thanks to the warm red, pink, and purple lighting that appeared around the stage, the rendition of the El Ultimo Tour Del Mundo song proved to be a passionate one and even ended with an intimate moment between the singers.

Next, Bad Bunny returned to the stage by himself to perform “Te Deseo Lo Mejor,” another song from his El Ultimo Tour Del Mundo album. This performance was a bit more upbeat than the previous and one of the best parts about it was it featured Bad Bunny singing the track with his WWE 24/7 championship belt draped over his leg.

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The SNL appearance comes after Bad Bunny shared a passionate video for “La Noche De Anoche” with Rosalía on Valentine’s Day. The two appeared as an inseparable couple for the visual for the El Ultimo Tour Del Mundo highlight. As for what’s next? Bad Bunny may have a Grammy award in his future thanks to Best Latin Pop Album and Best Pop/Duo Group Performance nominations for YHLQMDLG and “Un Día.”

You can watch both SNL performances above.

D Smoke Discusses His Grammy Nominations And Reveals Which One Is More Important To Him

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Next month, D Smoke will have the opportunity to take home a Grammy award in the Best Rap Album and Best New Artist categories. The former comes as a result of his Black Habits project, which he released at the top of 2020. With help from Snoop Dogg, Ari Lennox, SiR, and more, the album proved to be a stellar body of work as it was met with positive reviews across the board. A little over a year removed from the album’s release, and weeks after its deluxe reissue, D Smoke stopped by Ebro Darden’s Rap Life Review show on Apple Music to discuss the nominations.

“I appreciate that because, a lot of people think popularity is the determinant factor,” he said in regards to being nominated in the Best Rap Album alongside Royce Da 5’9″, Freddie Gibbs, Nas, and Jay Electronica. “A lot of people determine their success by the numbers. When you got artists on their own dime and their own time that make something happen, that’s worth recognizing.” He added, “It’s artists that stream more than me. It’s artists that have more radio play than me. But if we’re talking about what I put out and the company that I’m amongst, I’m proud to see that list.”

Next, the Inglewood native touched on which one of his Grammy nominations is more important to him. “People ask me, ‘What’s more important, the Best New Artist or the Best Rap Album?’ I’m like, the Best Rap Album, because for the culture, I think it says so much, even to just be considered amongst those names.”

You can watch his full interview with Ebro Darden here.

De La Soul Appeared On ‘Teen Titans Go!’ To Fight An Animated Octopus Trying To Steal Their Music

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A recent episode of Cartoon Network’s Teen Titans Go! featured a familiar hip-hop group: De La Soul. The trio composed of Posdnous, Trugoy, and Maseo appeared as their animated selves to fight a battle that most musicians could relate to: The group was tasked with taking down a giant octopus monster who was trying to steal their music. While they accomplished the mission, they didn’t do it without help from the Teen Titans who put their talents to use in order to defeat the monster, but not without freaking out over meeting the legendary rap group.

In some ways the episode is a cartoon representation of the group’s legal battle with their former label, Tommy Boy Records, over the ownership of their catalog prior to their 2004 album, The Grind Date, which includes their classic debut, 3 Feet High And Rising. To this day, the group’s back catalog has not been released on streaming stores of digital media stores. Prior to 2017, their back catalog was owned by Warner Records, but that year, Tommy Boy took over control.

Two years later, De La Soul said their catalog would soon appear on digital services but their dissatisfaction with receiving just 10% of the revenue sparked a renegotiation, one the group said ended in August 2019. However, last February Posdnuos said Tommy Boy “sort of came back to the table, we are looking to sort of get it going.”

You can watch a clip from the episode above.

Kanye West Reportedly Thinks His Failed Presidential Run ‘Cost Him His Marriage’ To Kim Kardashian

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On Friday, news arrived that Kim Kardashian reportedly filed for divorce from Kanye West. According to a “court source” that spoke to Variety, the paperwork for the divorce was filed the same day that news arrived. The official filing comes after months of rumors that their seven-year marriage was close to coming to an end and in the paperwork, the split was described “as amicable as a divorce can be.” Now, a source close to People reports that Kanye West is blaming his 2020 run for president as the breakpoint in his marriage with Kim Kardashian.

“He’s in that place of ‘if only,’” the source says. “‘If only I had done this, if only I hadn’t done that.’ He’s processing things.” They added, “He thinks that the Presidential run was the straw that broke the camel’s back… Before that, there was hope. After that, none. It cost him his marriage.” The publication reports that their marriage began to spiral last summer during the rapper’s social media outbursts. Things between West and Kardashian would only worsen after his controversial South Carolina rally. There, he revealed Kardashian considered an abortion in 2012 for their eldest daughter, North.

A source told People that Kardashian was “shocked that Kanye spoke about North at the rally” and “furious that he shared something so private.” Last July, Kanye said a divorce between himself and Kardashian would happen soon while suggesting something occurred between her and Meek Mill. He later apologized for the accusation.

Meek Mill is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

DaBaby Remixes SpotEmGottem’s Viral ‘Beat Box’ Track With A Boastful Video

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Aside from his “Masterpiece” single, DaBaby’s contributions to the music world in 2021 have come in the form of guest features. Looking to change that, the North Carolina rapper returned with a new freestyle over SpotEmGottem’s viral “Beat Box” track. The song has been a hit on TikTok thanks to a challenge that finds participants doing the accompanying dance in series of random locations. DaBaby takes part in the challenge in the comfort of his own home and outside of a gas station while he raps about his carefree approach to life, money, interactions with women, and more.

The freestyle arrives after DaBaby joined City Girls and BRS Kash for a steamy remix of “Throat Baby,” another track that found success thanks to social media. He also teamed with Megan Thee Stallion for their playful “Cry Baby” video which presents them as miniature dolls that come to life in a toy store after it closes for the night.

DaBaby recently shared that his rate for a guest verse jumped significantly from the start of his career. According to HotNewHipHop, the rapper posted on his Instagram Story that he went “from 5k a verse to 300k.” Up until recently, it seems like the rapper used the money to fund his own music videos, something he explained during a recent appearance on the Million Dollaz Worth Of Game podcast.

Listen to the freestyle in the video above.

Nav And Gunna Perform ‘Young Wheezy’ On A Boat For ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’

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Back in November, Nav dropped his second album of 2020 with Emergency Tsunami. The joint project with producer Wheezy followed Good Intentions, the second chart-topping project of his career. Now, Nav attempts to breathe new life into Emergency Tsunami with help from Gunna as they both stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live! to perform their “Young Wheezy” collaboration. The two rappers delivered the performance aboard a small boat with a backdrop and sound effects that were made to emulate a strong seastorm.

Last year was a very productive period for both Nav and Gunna. In addition to his Good Intentions album, Nav dropped videos for songs that included “Don’t Need Friends” with Lil Baby and “No Debate” with Young Thug. Both were acts that appeared beside Nav on Emergency Tsunami along with Lil Keed and SahBabii. Gunna, on the other hand, was celebrated for his sophomore album, Wunna, which was heralded as one of the best hip-hop releases of 2020. Together, Nav and Gunna found success on Internet Money’s “Lemonade” with Don Toliver, a song that cracked the top-ten of the Billboard singles chart.

On a more recent note, Nav joined Rowdy Rebel for his “Jesse Owens” video while Gunna teamed with Tyla Yaweh and Wiz Khalifa for “All The Smoke.”

You can watch the performance in the video above.

Metallica’s Twitch Concert Audio Was Apparently Replaced With 8-Bit Music To Avoid Copyright Issues

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Metallica played a concert to kick off BlizzCon on Twitch, but apparently not everyone got to actually hear the music they were playing at the online event. The first day of the annual Blizzard event streamed on Twitch on Friday night, and with it came a special performance by Metallica. But the actual audio that played on some channels got caught up in one of the music issues that often plagues streaming content.

On Friday, Twitter lit up with videos from the performance where, instead of Metallica classics, nondescript 8-bit music seemed to be playing instead.

And it wasn’t a dub; multiple people shared clips of varying length where Metallica is clearly on the Twitch channel but some other music is playing. Though that moment spread online like wildfire, it apparently wasn’t what happened on the main Blizzard Twitch page. Rather, it was the front page of Twitch Gaming which had to replace the music.

Still, it’s an interesting bit of irony at the complicated state of Twitch and the music copyright issues that often plague the platform. And as many people pointed out, DCMA takedowns are an issue in internet content creation that came directly from Metallica’s decades-old fight with Napster that set the tone for music copyrights.

No one seemed to have any sympathy for Metallica here, mostly because they’ve dealt with these sorts of issues in the past. Anyone who has streamed a video game that has original music in it has likely encountered takedown or muting issues, and game makers have had to introduce music elimination options to help streamers prevent their content from getting taken down.

It’s unlikely the moment will change much of anything, but it certainly felt like things came full circle on Friday night.

Brandy And Monica Teamed Up To Recreate Their Iconic ‘The Boy Is Mine’ Exchange 23 Years Later

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Back in August, legendary R&B singers Brandy and Monica put their differences aside to go head-to-head with their hits in an edition of Verzuz. The battle broke records by having over a million viewers tuning in live, and Kamala Harris even made a quick appearance ahead of the performance. Now, the two have reunited once again to fuel their listeners’ nostalgia by recreating a part of their hit song “The Boy Is Mine.”

More than 23 years after Brandy and Monica first released the song, the two joined on screen for a TikTok. Each singer lip synced their lyrics over the part of “The Boy Is Mine” where the two debate who “the boy” actually belongs to. “Excuse me, can I please talk to you for a minute?” Brandy asks.

@brandy

#duet with @mondeenise love you Mo♥ This was fun. #theboyismine @syraismith got me together.

♬ original sound – Monica🖤

The duo did not say what inspired them to recreate the song so many years later, but it could have been sparked by a recent Jeopardy! question that referenced “The Boy Is Mine.”

In other Brandy news, the singer announced earlier this month that 1997 live action Cinderella remake is officially available to stream on Disney+. The film was originally made for TV and starred Brandy as Cinderella and Whitney Houston as the Fairy Godmother. At the time of its release, the musical was viewed by more than 60 million and ended up earning seven Emmy nominations.

Watch their nostalgic TikTok above.