Big Freedia’s 2014 track “Explode” is one of many songs sampled on Beyoncé’s new album Renaissance. She was excited from the beginning, making a post on Instagram once “Break My Soul” was out: “It feels surreal to be on the track with the Queen Beyoncé once again I’m so honored to be apart of this special moment I’m forever grateful lord. someone please catch me,” she wrote.
Today, she went on CBS Mornings to discuss the experience. When asked if she cared how “Explode” would be used, she said, “Not at all! It’s Beyoncé. You can use whatever you need, honey.” She was also asked if she would have wanted to re-record the “Explode” vocals for “Break My Soul.” She said, “Of course. If I’m there, I can do a whole lot more.”
She also touched on the what it was like writing that song initially. “At the time when I wrote ‘Explode,’ I was thinking about all of those things I wanted to release, and the things I do release when I get onstage,” she said. “All those things, I try to forget about those things and get into my zone. Sometimes you want to explode, all the things that you’re going through. So I wanted to release all those things.”
Beyonce’s new album, Renaissance, has arrived and while the Beyhive is celebrating the long-awaited return of their Queen, not everyone is as enthused to hear the house and techno-influenced project. In particular, Kelis, the singer best known for her early 2000s run including tracks like “Caught Out There,” “Milkshake” and “Bossy,” has a bone or two to pick with Beyonce over one song specifically: “Energy,” which features short interpolations of her songs “Get Along with You” and “Milkshake.”
Taking to Instagram, Kelis said she felt insulted by the samples, calling them “theft” and asserting “the level of disrespect and utter ignorance of all three parties involved is astounding.” Her frustration appears to stem from the fact that she wasn’t contacted prior to the release to approve the samples, writing, “I heard about this the same way everyone else did. Nothing is ever as it seems, some of the people in this business have no soul or integrity and they have everyone fooled.”
In a later video, she elaborated, “She can contact, right? Ashnikko, who’s what, 20? She’s a young white girl, she reached out… It’s common decency.” She clarified that “it’s not about me being mad about Beyoncé,” and reiterated her arguments stemming from a few years ago when she called out Pharrell and Chad Hugo, The Neptunes, for not crediting her as a songwriter for her first two albums with them. In her view, Pharrell and Chad tricked her out of her publishing rights and the associated royalties that come with them.
Now, whether or not you agree with Kelis, her comments make one thing crystal clear and practically undeniable: The recording industry as we know it is desperately in need of an overhaul. In fact, it could be argued that reform of the current business model is decades overdue; after all, the internet nearly killed the major label system over twenty years ago when downloading .mp3s on Napster was the preferred method of music consumption for a relatively small sector of the market. Now, with the advent of streaming, blockchain, and computerized algorithms driving music discovery — and keeping track of every transaction automatically, there’s no excuse not to implement some big changes when it comes to things like attributing credits and royalties to artists.
To be fair, Beyonce did give credits to the required parties, clearing the samples and getting permission from the rights holders. Publishing administration is handled by the business people; I’m not so sure how much of a hand Beyonce personally has in that end of the creation process (probably very little, considering the seeming 1 billion other details she personally oversees, from choreography to costuming). And Kelis did sign those contracts — or neglected to sign the split sheets — that abdicated her share of publishing to Star Trak.
But that might be the biggest part of the problem. How many artists have we seen come forward over the past few years about regrettable terms they didn’t understand in contracts they signed as teenagers? What does a 17-year-old know about the masters rights or publishing rights or how an advance works? And for what it’s worth, we’ve seen how supposed industry veterans like Kanye West, who was in his mid-20s when he signed with Def Jam after working with the label for years on multiple hits, clearly don’t get how these things work. Who’s to say, without looking at the contracts in question, that Pharrell himself even knows what he signed Kelis to?
If we’re going to point fingers, we’ve got to point them at the powers that be, the folks who set up the system and profit the most from it — and who refuse to change it to keep with the times. With so many new technologies available, wouldn’t it make sense to review some of these “industry standard” contracts and revise the industry standards to fit modern conditions? Thanks to technology, labels have new avenues to market and promote music and turn a profit on their investments, wouldn’t it behoove them to share those profits with the people generating the product? If the industry is a house, archaic practices are the termites destroying it from the inside while the changing times are the weather, slowly stripping away the paint and wearing down the roof.
I get why they wouldn’t want to perform a top-down overhaul. It’d be costly, it’d be time-consuming, and it’d take a lot more work than they’re already putting in to generate record revenues. But just like with a house, if you don’t do the maintenance, eventually all those little problems add up to bigger problems and you find yourself looking for a new place to live. The near collapse of the industry in the early 2000s should have been a warning; while the labels narrowly escaped their demise then, it was by innovating and challenging the status quo. Unfortunately, some seemed to have missed the lesson. The next epochal shift in music technology could be right around the corner, and next time, they might not be able to save themselves.
Music festival season is in full swing, and if you’re looking for the perfect city to check out your favorite artists, Las Vegas might be the one for you. Just think about it: You could have a weekend filled with good food, great drinks, one-of-a-kind pool parties, exciting times at some of Vegas’ many nightclubs, and then a festival of your choice. The point is there’s so much to do in Vegas and that’s the beauty of the city. So, to ensure that your time in Vegas is as magical as it should be, let’s take a look at the many festivals, concerts, and events that you should be aware of for the rest of the summer.
Festivals
Life Is Beautiful
Exodus Festival
If you’re looking for a weekend of absolute summer fun, the Exodus Festival might be the place for you. The epic showcase boasts ten parties and 20 DJs that include The Chainsmokers, Diplo, Kaskade, Alesso, and more. Parties will go down by the pool and in nightclubs, so you’re guaranteed a fun time regardless of the setting that works best for you. With a weekend of fun locked in for later this summer on September 1-5, Exodus Festival is set to put on an absolute show for its 12th season.
While Las Vegas certainly provides plenty of opportunities for folks to do things by themselves or with another person, Desert Drip is here to cater to you and your group of eight or more people. Between September 1-5 later this summer, Desert promises a cost-effective and hassle-free way to have a blast on the Vegas strip. Whether it’s having a splash at pool parties or dancing the night away at one of Vegas’ nightclubs which include Drai’s, Jewel, Hakkasan, Ayu Nights, and others, Desert Drip will make sure you have the weekend of a lifetime.
Heavy metal and psychedelic music fans, this one is for you! Psycho Las Vegas is back for its sixth edition this year, and they’re bringing their talents to Resorts World Las Vegas on the strip for the first time ever. This year’s bill promises performances from metal favorites like Mercyful Fate, Suicidal Tendencies, and Emperor as well as other notable acts like Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Warpaint, Monster Magnet, Wu-Tang Clan rappers GZA, Raekwon, and Ghostface Killah, and more.
There’s no doubt that life can be beautiful when you’re out in the sun and there’s plenty of music around you. That’s exactly the scene that the 2022 Life Is Beautiful Festival will deliver to attendees. The showcase will take over Downtown Las Vegas for a show that’s headlined by a genre-spanning list of acts. Arctic Monkeys, Calvin Harris, Gorillaz, Lorde, Jack Harlow, Kygo, Migos, Sage The Gemini, and Beach House all lead this year’s lineup while others like Rico Nasty, Big Boi, Charli XCX, and Isaiah Rashad also appear on the bill for a lineup that is guaranteed to deliver an exciting moment to all kinds of music lovers.
In addition to all of the festivals mentioned above, there are also artists that will make stops in Vegas for exciting concerts. The Weeknd will deliver an experience that combines funk, R&B, pop, and more for a show at Allegiant Stadium on August 20 while The Killers will set the stage ablaze for a concert on August 26 at the T-Mobile Arena. The following month, Demi Lovato will bring her soaring vocals to the Venetian Theatre at The Venetian Resort Las Vegas on September 30. The aforementioned names are just a shortlist of what to expect on the music front, in addition to the long list of residencies, when you visit Las Vegas.
Purchase The Weeknd tickets here.
Purchase The Killers tickets here.
Purchase Demi Lovato tickets here.
DJ Sets
Las Vegas is also where your EDM cravings can be satisfied as a number of iconic DJs, up-and-comers, and modern stars throw a series of outright parties and exciting shows throughout the summer giving people multiple opportunities to get lost in the music. Alesso, DJ Snake, DJ Pauly D, Illenium, and Lil Jon are just some of the names on the list of DJs you can catch in Vegas this summer.
Purchase tickets for Alesso’s Vegas shows here.
Purchase tickets for DJ Snake’s Vegas shows here.
Purchase tickets for DJ Pauly D’s Vegas shows here.
Purchase tickets for Illenium’s Vegas shows here.
Purchase tickets for Lil Jon’s Vegas shows here.
Unforgettable festivals and concerts await in Las Vegas. What are you waiting for? Go plan your trip at visitlasvegas.com
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
In a post on Instagram, The Roots drummer gives the album a 4.5 out of 5 rating and writes, “I still maintain that a good 4 weeks has to go by before you give a rating. I definitely have walked back many a high rating album some 20 years after the fact. I listened 7 times. Which is 8 times more than the last time I listened to anyones record from start to finish. She definitely made her ‘Off The Wall’ with this one (dance album of the year———this being 2022 we can’t give her decade accolades but so far the mix, quality, etc are so dope. This will hold high in her cannon. Love the growth: made classics in her teens, her 20s her 30s & getting better.”
Off The Wall, of course, is Michael Jackson’s 1979 album that is widely considered one of the best music releases of all time, so comparing Beyoncé’s latest to it is a tremendously high honor and not something it seems Questlove would do without good reason.
Drake is living his MTV millennial dreams lately. After joining the Backstreet Boys on stage to perform their hit song “I Want It That Way” alongside the late-90s/early-aughts icons, Drake brought another 2000s hitmaker to his All Canadian North Stars stage last night.
This time, it was fellow Canadian star Nelly Furtado (now there’s a name I haven’t heard in years *puffs on a cigarette*), whose Grammy-winning 2000 song “I’m Like A Bird” was as ubiquitous in that year as any of Drake’s songs are now. And yes, Drake put his whole soul into it, insisting that, at least for one night, he wasn’t a rapper but a fan. As one commenter put it, “this is Canadian history.”
drake and nelly furtado singing i’m like a bird together.. this is canadian history pic.twitter.com/KhIh5qan20
The All Canadian North Stars lineup was just night one of Drake’s October World Weekend, a three-day festival at his Toronto venue History. Coming up next is a reunion show with Chris Brown (meh) and a Young Money reunion show with Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj (yay!). The OWW (one letter short, Jimmy) is Drake’s way of making up for the lack of an OVO Fest proper since he’s turning that show into a world tour for 2023. While Nelly Furtado was a surprise guest, The Boy’s billed performers included Canadian rap pioneers like Choclair, Kardinal Offishall, and k-os, who all helped pave the way for Drake himself to have a flourishing career stateside.
In news that you very well may have heard about, back in March, Will Smith slapped Chris Rock on stage at the Oscars. A footnote from that moment, though, is that Rock was on stage to give Questlove the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, for Summer Of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised), a win that was of course overshadowed by what preceded it.
Well, today, Smith shared a video in which he apologizes to Rock and also to Questlove (who, like Smith, is a Philadelphia hip-hop icon). In the five-minute video posted on Smith’s YouTube channel, an upload titled “It’s been a minute…” that takes the form of a Q&A, Smith said of Questlove:
“To all my fellow nominees: You know, this is a community. It’s like, I won because you voted for me, and it really breaks my heart to have stolen and tarnished your moment. I can still see Questlove’s eyes. It happened on Questlove’s award, and… you know… it’s like, ‘I’m sorry’ really isn’t sufficient.”
Questlove hasn’t publicly said much about the incident. Shortly after it happened, he shared a tweet from somebody else that read, “I think the whole Will Smith assault rattled @questlove who had to give a speech like 90 seconds later. He couldn’t even remember the names of his co-winners. #Oscars.”
Meanwhile, Joseph Patel, one of Questlove’s Summer Of Soul co-producers, wrote in part around the same time, “Once we realized the Chris Rock/Will Smith interaction wasn’t a bit, everything got turned upside down. Everyone was still trying to make sense of it when Chris persevered & started to read the nominees. I think what Will did was selfish. It robbed the category of its moment. It robbed the other excellent and amazing films of their moment to be acknowledged in what was a STRONG year for docs. And it robbed Summer of Soul and our team of our moment. Of a loud, enthusiastic cheer for a celebrated film. I feel bad for Ahmir. I feel bad for my fellow producers. I feel bad for our whole team. I feel bad for all the people watching and rooting for us. “
Tyga found himself in some hot water a few weeks ago after the release of his “Ay Caramba” video. Specifically, members of the Mexican-American community took issue with the “racist caricatures,” as the “Rack City” artist is shown wearing a fat suit while eating chips and guacamole. While many artists might have opted to ignore the backlash and keep it moving, fortunately, the rapper took the time to sit down with the Power 106 Los Angeles and Gil from the American Cholo podcast to apologize.
Tyga first expressed his sympathy, saying “I had no intentions of offending anybody… I want to apologize to the Mexican community, and my fans that are Mexican.” He then went on to tell Gil and the LA Leakers team he was initially confused because his true vision for the video was a spoof of Nutty Professor starring Eddie Murphy.
“I was really just confused, I wasn’t making this video to be offensive, I was really making this video to be creative. The whole concept of the video was just different Latin things, it wasn’t like a Mexican-themed video. The character is just me in a fat suit, the character is not even Mexican. This character was literally a reference from … Nutty Professor. There’s a scene from Nutty Professor where he has the same kind of sweat suit on.”
Gil asked the 32-year-old if he would be willing to take the video down, which Tyga said he would be open to but would need to think further. The damage is already done, but perhaps there is some room for reconciliation in the near future.
Check out the full Power 106 Los Angeles interview and the “Ay Caramba” video above.
Beyonce’s music has always been full of playful lyrics about — or even penned by — her husband Jay-Z, but usually, they’re of a complimentary sort. Her new album Renaissance, though, has a shady line that fans are sure confirms a long-held suspicion about the power couple’s relationship, and they’re reacting accordingly on Twitter. Toward the end of the song “Church Girl,” Beyonce borrows a line from Nelly’s controversial 2000 hit “Tip Drill,” repurposing it to suit a gender-flipped dynamic. “Must be the cash ’cause it ain’t your face,” she crows on the outro.
Naturally, some fans have interpreted this line as a reference to Jay-Z, whose facial characteristics have long been a bit of a target within the world of hip-hop. On Nas’ vicious 2001 diss “Ether,” the Queens native wondered whether Jay was “abused as a child, scared to smile, they called you ugly,” while during a separate beef, Cam’ron joked that the Marcy Projects product resembled the cigarette mascot, Joe Camel. Jay himself even made a self-deprecating reference to this tendency on his own 4:44 track “Familly Feud,” rhyming “Ain’t no such thing as an ugly billionaire.”
All of which have combined to give fans the impression that Beyonce’s new song must be talking about her (very wealthy) husband. I’m sure he’ll be crying himself to sleep on their bed that is presumably made of cash, wiping his eyes with dollar bills, and resting his head on solid gold bricks. Listen to “Church Girl” up top and check out some of the hilarious responses below.
“it must be the cash bc it aint your face” CATCH IT JAY
Beyoncé calling Jay her muse in that love letter then singing “it must be the cash bc it aint your face” she’s so sick
— charmbracelet enthusiast (@0FFLINEHOURS) July 29, 2022
when Beyoncé said “it must be the cash cuz it ain’t your face” Jay Z must’ve been like, hey now. you don’t mean that. must be a lot of situations like that in their household
Nav returns with the first single from his upcoming album Demons Protected by Angels, tapping collaborators Lil Baby, Mike Dean, Tay Keith, and Travis Scott for “Never Sleep.” Tay Keith provides the beat, with additional production by Grayson and Mike Dean, and the three rappers let loose, calculating their income and detailing their spending through colorful metaphors hailing their wealth. The collaboration marks Nav’s second with Lil Baby after “Don’t Need Friends” from Emergency Tsunami and his fifth with Travis Scott.
Demons Protected by Angels will be the Canadian artist’s fourth studio album, following 2020’s Good Intentions. Since then, however, Nav did release Emergency Tsunami, a joint mixtape produced entirely by Atlanta producer Wheezy featuring appearances from Gunna, Lil Baby, the late Lil Keed, SahBabii, and Young Thug. The working chemistry between Nav and Wheezy started when they worked on a few tracks from Good Intentions together (three songs were placed on the final album).
In addition to featuring many of his frequent collaborators like Gunna, Future, and Travis Scott, Good Intentions also featured appearances from Don Toliver, Lil Uzi Vert, and the late Pop Smoke. It was followed by a deluxe reissue titled Brown Boy 2, adding Lil Duke and Quavo to its list of features.
Listen to Nav’s “Never Sleep” featuring Lil Baby and Travis Scott above.
Post Malone‘s love for geeky games like Pokemon and Magic: The Gathering is no secret. Last year, he announced his partnership with MTG creators Wizards Of The Coast to promote the return of Friday Night Magic, a promotional campaign for the popular fantasy card game, promising “some cool stuff” to come in the following year. More recently, we discovered just what that “cool stuff” would entail. During a live stream next Friday, August 5, Post will select one viewer to fly to Los Angeles to play a one-on-one MTG match with him for $100,000.
— twelve carat toothache (@PostMalone) July 28, 2022
Pardon me while I dig out and dust off my deck.
The actual match will take place on August 11 at 6 pm local time and stream via the Whatnot app. To enter, fans will need to download the app, create an account, and tune into the live stream on Friday. The winner will be randomly selected. According to the event website, no previous experience is required as MTG champion Reid Duke will coach the competitor ahead of the match (although, let’s face it; it’ll probably help to know what you’re doing ahead of time).
For the past month, Post has been hosting livestreams on Twitch, playing the battle royale-hero shooter Apex Legends and giving money to charity. Looks like mom was wrong about not being able to make a career out of playing video games — too bad I believed her, eh?
(@Loveyourztoo) 