This past weekend, Post Malone teamed up with Meta for a VR concert of live performances of songs from his new album Twelve Carat Toothache, and to start the week, he shared a pair of the songs from the performance on his YouTube. Culling standouts “Love Hate Letter To Alcohol” and “Wasting Angels” featuring his tiny Australian doppelganger The Kid Laroi, Post gives fans who didn’t catch the original live stream the opportunity to see what they missed out on.
The performances take a lot of inspiration from 17th-century architecture, as he performs in a fog-filled space surrounded by arches and dressed in an ensemble resembling priests’ robes. The stripped-down setting allows Post’s passionate vocal delivery to take center stage as he growls and bleats with that distinctive voice of his.
Twelve Carat Toothache continued Post’s streak of No. 1 debuts on the Billboard 200 and was critically praised. Uproxx’s Alex Gonzalez wrote, “On Twelve Carat Toothache, Malone seeks to make more than quick hits. The album is his most cohesive body of work to date, and his first worth a listen from beginning to end.”
Watch Post Malone’s live performances of “Love Hate Letter To Alcohol” and “Wasting Angels” featuring The Kid Laroi from his Twelve Carat Toothache: A VR Experience concert above.
Nicki Minaj’s verse on Kanye West’s 2010 My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy hit “Monster” has become an iconic moment in hip-hop history, and a lot has been said about it in the years since. Amber Rose previously said in 2018 that Ye nearly cut Minaj’s contributions from the song, and Minaj also has her own version of how she almost didn’t make it onto the track. Now, Rose has spoken more about it, claiming that after Minaj recorded her verse, West said something along the lines of, “How the f*ck did you bring in a b*tch that killed me on my own song?”
Speaking about her upcoming album in a new interview on Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay’s Higher Learning podcast, Rose said, “Just know that this was not an overnight thing. I’ve been quiet, on purpose. I sat in the studio day and night. I have a good ear. I’ve A&R’d a bunch of amazing projects.”
That latter point piqued Lathan’s interest, so he asked for examples. Rose replied, “All my boyfriends, all of ’em.” Lathan asked, “You A&R’d for Ye?” Rose responded, “Absolutely! I put Nicki on ‘Monster.’ I put Nicki on ‘Monster.’ I put Nicki on ‘Monster,’ he didn’t know who Nicki was back then. I had Nicki pull up to the studio and I put her on ‘Monster.’
Rose continued, “She was still coming up, and I saw her in the studio and I said, ‘Oh my god, this b*tch is f*cking talented as hell.’ And then I went back to Kanye and I was like, ‘You need to get this girl Nicki on ‘Monster.’ And he was like, ‘Who? What? No. I’m not…” And I said, ‘Just let her pull up, what’s it going to hurt?’ […] She heard the song and then she came back the next day with the verse.”
Lathan then pointed out that West nearly didn’t include the verse on the song, which Rose said was “because it was too good.” She continued, “He told me that the same day. He’s like, ‘How the f*ck did you bring in a b*tch that killed me on my own song?’”
Check out the full interview above, with the West conversation starting at 54:12 into the video.
Weeks after joining the 2022 XXL Freshman Class, Florida rapper Nardo Wick has announced the release date for the follow-up to his breakthrough project, Who Is Nardo Wick? The sequel, Who Is Nardo Wick? 2, is due on Friday, July 22, according to Nardo’s Instagram.
The announcement came as something of a surprise, given Nardo has only released two new tracks since his debut. In April, he dropped the video for “Krazy Krazy,” following up in June with “Riot.” However, he didn’t exactly give any indication that either track was part of a new compilation, only hinting that Who Is Nardo Wick? 2 was in the works earlier this year. Despite their relative lack of promotion, both songs performed well enough — “Krazy Krazy” has crossed the 3 million views threshold on YouTube, while its successor is rapidly approaching that benchmark itself.
As for features and the like, Nardo is remaining pretty tight-lipped. Fans can probably look forward to high-profile names, though; his debut featured appearances from the likes of Future and Lil Baby on “Me Or Sum,” and the remix of his breakthrough single “Who Want Smoke??” featured 21 Savage, G Herbo, and Lil Durk, despite Nardo being relatively unknown when the songs dropped. All we have for now is the album cover, which Nardo shared on Instagram and features a remake of the first album’s cover photo with a different pose in front of the same building. You can check that out below and stay tuned for more info.
Following a series of rapper deaths in recent years, record labels have supposedly begun taking out life insurance policies on their artists. This is what rapper French Montana claimed during a recent episode of DJ Akademiks‘ Off The Record podcast.
Montana delved into beef in the rap game, and how things are handled now, compared to the past.
“We was beefing for real,” Montana said. “People was dying and this and that, and it was blocking a lot of money. People didn’t want to touch you. Your rap friends stop picking up, the labels stop picking up. It gets crazy. But now it’s even crazier, they gettin’ life insurance on artists. At least back then, we didn’t have that. You’re praying on his death. You’re praying on making millions on his death.”
Last month, Montana released an album called Montega, which was produced entirely by Harry Fraud. In an interview with Okayplayer, Montana said the purpose of his previous album, They Got Amnesia was to remind people of his musical ability. On Montega, he seeks to cement his and Fraud’s legacy.
“…I scratched off my bucket list everything that I wanted to accomplish,” Montana said. “From going platinum on albums to going diamond. Now it’s back to how I want to finish my legacy with Harry Fraud how we started. How we made music, from the point of view of when we had our backs to the wall. When we would fight with music to get out of the rabbit hole, that’s what we got with this. Now we’re making music to bring everybody back but take them where we’re going at the same time.”
DJ Premier is undoubtedly a legend in hip-hop who rose to fame as one-half of the rap duo Gang Starr in the early ’90s. Since then, Premier has worked with a plethora of artists that include The Game, J. Cole, Janet Jackson, Jay-Z, Joey Badass, Kanye West, The LOX, Ludacris, Mac Miller, Eminem, Nas, The Notorious B.I.G., and many many more. Another artist that Premier has worked with is 50 Cent, but that 2011 collaboration, “Shut Ur Bloodclot Mouth,” came years after 50’s peak in rap. During a recent interview on The Breakfast Club, Premier revealed that Dr. Dre is to blame for the collaboration with 50 taking so long to happen.
“This was when everybody wasn’t really messing with 50 to the fullest because he was having too much drama after doing ‘How To Rob,’ and me and Fif hit it off right away and clicked when I got on the phone with him,” Premier said after explaining plans to drop a solo album with 50 on its lead single. “He said he would do the record, and right when it’s about time to do the record, we get a call that Fif can’t do it.”
Premier continued, “I’m like, ‘Why not?’ and they like he’s about to sign to Eminem and Dr. Dre, and I’m like, ‘Noooo,’ because we already committed to us and I talked to Dre and Dre was like ‘Preem, I love you, but he’s not doing any more recording until he does his debut album.” While Premier and 50 eventually got together for 2011’s “Shut Ur Bloodclot Mouth,” Premier still hasn’t forgotten about that initial denial. “I always tell 50, you still owe me that track,” Premier added.
You can check out Premier’s full interview on The Breakfast Club in the video above.
In a recent episode of Math Hoffa’s My Expert Opinion, Method Man sat down in a barbershop, where he dropped tidbits of knowledge. When he got into label politics, he shared his thoughts on artists signing to labels owned by other artists.
“I always felt like you can’t sign to somebody who still trying to be an artist,” He said. “It’s hard. They can’t give you the time or attention that you probably need and deserve unless you are your own machine.”
By “machine,” he clarified that he was referring to artists like Drake, Lil Wayne, and Rick Ross.
Also in the episode, Method mentioned that he hated being seen as a sex symbol following the release of his 1995 hit single, “I’ll Be There For You / You’re All I Need,” which featured Mary J. Blige.
“I fought that ‘All I Need’ sh*t,” he recalled. “I didn’t wanna put it out ’cause it was at a point now where, when we were doing these shows [with] Wu-Tang, I would come out and it’d be girls screaming. Now, for me, it’s like, I’m grimy, same-clothes-for-three-days-in-a-row; who wants to go the sex symbol route at this point?”
Johnny Carson. David Letterman. Jay Leno. Jimmy Fallon. Jimmy Kimmel. Stephen Colbert. What do all those television personalities have in common? Sure, they’re all late-night television hosts… but what else do they have in common? You see it. Even if you don’t want to admit it just yet, you do. Let’s face it: Late night is a very white occupation. And sure, there have been some exceptions; Arsenio Hall, Joan Rivers, and Chris Rock spring to mind. But for the most part, the space has been dominated largely by older, white, straight, male, former stand-up comics. And before you scroll down to the comments to write “nuh-uh,” just hear me out.
Until very, very recently, there was one huge exception to this trend: Showtime’s Desus & Mero. However, last night, the show’s creators announced on Twitter that after four seasons, the show is coming to an end. Even worse, its two hosts, Daniel Baker aka Desus Nice and Joel Martinez aka The Kid Mero, were splitting up to pursue separate creative endeavors after nearly a decade of collaborations which included the Desus vs. Mero and Bodega Boys podcasts, the Desus & Mero talk show, and even an anime, Neo Yokio. The show’s cancellation isn’t just a loss of a beloved, underrated comedic pairing — it’s a loss for hip-hop as a whole.
Bodega Hive: The illustrious @desusnice and @THEKIDMERO will be pursuing separate creative endeavors moving forward. #DESUSandMERO will not be returning to SHOWTIME. It’s been a good run, fam.
— DESUS & MERO on SHOWTIME (@SHODesusAndMero) July 18, 2022
Before Desus & Mero, it’s hard to find too many examples of hip-hop culture in the late-night TV space. Sure there was Arsenio Hall, doing his best to bring the fashion, music, and voice of the streets to America’s living rooms in the early ’90s. But while The Arsenio Hall Show was a landmark in bringing hip-hop to mainstream audiences, it was also watered-down, polished, and presented in a way that the whole thing slicker and more palatable to those audiences. It also largely avoided political topics, although the show did come under fire for booking — or not booking — some guests that audiences found controversial.
And certainly, hip-hop music remains a draw on late-night, with The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon employing a house band that comes from the rap world in The Roots. Rappers with new projects to promote are often booked as musical guests, performing their viral hits on shows like The Late Show With Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel Live! But more broadly, the Desus & Mero show was a chance to see hip-hop as a culture on TV, in a space that not many of us get to touch. They were not buttoned up. They didn’t wear suits. Their set was modeled after a New York bodega, the type of place where you’d actually find rappers hanging out.
Decked out in fitted caps and Timberland boots, they spoke in the sometimes coded slang of the streets, with all the swagger born of growing up in The Bronx. They interviewed the rappers that the bigger shows wouldn’t; in the past year, they’ve had guests like Baby Keem, Bobby Shmurda, Cordae, and Nas — both the Queens legend who made Illmatic, and the Fox News frustrating Lil Nas X. They debuted underground crooner RMR’s “I’m Not Over You” video. And they got their non-rapper guests to open up about not just their favorite rappers (watch Yo-Yo Ma play DMX!), but all sorts of down-to-earth topics. They interviewed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in their shared borough, taking the format beyond the confines of the studio.
And, in perhaps the biggest coup for the show to date, the duo interviewed former President Barack Obama, who roasted them as naturally as if they were having the conversation on a neighborhood stoop, rather than an empty rented auditorium undoubtedly surrounded by Secret Service agents. Whatever your feelings on the man’s politics, you have to admit that the moment lent legitimacy to hip-hop (and vice versa) in a way that, whether we want to admit it or not, is nice to see after three decades of politicians and pundits blaming rap culture for everything from school shootings to the overall decline of polite society.
So, pour one out for Desus And Mero. They showed that hip-hop could belong in yet another space that wasn’t made for it, that didn’t make provisions for it, and that mostly overlooked it. They brought us — our voices, our faces, our fashion, our outlook, our language, our interests, our culture — to millions of American homes. Late-night might have gotten a little less colorful without them, but those two guys from the Bronx undoubtedly opened a door — and the next Desus and Mero are likely right around the corner.
After two weeks, it’s probably safe to say that Saucy Santana’s Beyonce-sampling new single “Booty” is a hit. The girls love to throw it back, and alongside Latto (whose own anatomy-based single “P*ssy” is shaking up social media now as well), Santana gives them the perfect motivational anthem to do so. Today, the dynamic duo shared the twerk-tastic video for the single and yes, it is everything you should have expected, with teams of colorfully dressed men and women gyrating their derrieres to an interpolation of “Crazy In Love.” Santana even pays a visual homage to the “Crazy In Love” video, donning the same tank top and cutoff jean shorts Beyonce rocked in her “official” solo debut — and yes, that includes the cherry red high heels.
Saucy Santana timed the release of the song and the video perfectly, putting out the song just days before he was announced as one of XXL‘s 2022 Freshman Class. The video arrives on the tail of Saucy’s standout performance in the XXL Freshman Cypher, where he stole the show after running the anchor leg of the installment featuring Doechii, KayCyy, and SoFaygo. Santana is also proving to be pretty much bulletproof, shrugging off a fan backlash for sampling Beyonce after dissing her in old tweets when he was “miserable and broke.” He certainly isn’t either of those things anymore, and with “Booty” taking off, it might not be long until he has a chance to thank Beyonce for clearing the sample in person.
Watch Saucy Santana’s “Booty” video featuring Latto above.
Among the many rap albums we’ve received in 2022, Babyface Ray’s debut album Face is certainly one of the better releases. Since its arrival at the beginning of the year, Babyface has done a great job promoting the 20-track project thanks to the numerous music videos he shared. That trend continues with a brand new visual for “A1 Since Day 1.”
The video for the song, which serves as the opening track for the deluxe version of Face, is a compilation of concert videos as well as backstage and behind-the-scenes clips from Babyface and his crew. Altogether, Babyface uses the video to showcase a solid lifestyle and what it’s brought him.
Two months ago, Babyface Ray shared the deluxe version of Face which added eight songs to the project. The additional songs presented features from Veeze, Baroline, Lucki, DJ Esco, and Lil Yachty while the original project called on G Herbo, 42 Dugg, Wiz Khalifa, Yung Lean, Landstrip Chip, Pusha T, and Icewear Vezzo.
Hailie Jade Mathers has successfully made a name for herself outside of being Eminem’s daughter, building a following of nearly 3 million people on Instagram and almost a million more on TikTok. Now, she’s offering fans a more intimate look into her life via her new Just A Little Shady podcast, which she announced last week. The first episode is out now, and in it, Mathers reflects on what it was like growing up as Eminem’s daughter.
Chatting with childhood best friend and co-host Brittany Ednie, Mathers said (as NME notes) “It’s so fun to look back… thinking back as an adult, I’m like, ‘Wow, that’s so, so surreal,’ and those memories of me thinking those were normal things, now I look back like, ‘Holy crap, that was cool.’”
Ednie added, “‘I remember going on [the tour bus] and all our memories of being young were so cool and unique to look back at now. At the time, it felt so normal and not anything strange or different. We didn’t know any better.”
Mathers continued, “That was so fun. I always like, think about that time. We went to Florida, my dad was working on something, and he set up for us to do, like, the limo and take it to Disney and we did the princess tea party, and he had the dresses waiting for us. And even then, at the time, we were so happy and so excited, but we didn’t get to appreciate that moment as much as now when we talk about it and think back on it.”
Listen to the full debut episode of Just A Little Shady below.
